Elephant Show Over,

we had to have some more refreshments,
 

and of course some ice cream for Diana,

and a beer for me,

as a few of us were hungry what better than a corn on the cob?

we decided to take the bus rather than walk round the gardens,

Diana takes a self portrait of us both,

as the tour starts we go past the elephant enclosure,

where some of them are being washed down,

getting ready for the next show,

we make our way past some of the planted gardens,

and plants and cacti made out of terracotta,

there is a huge area of just flower pots used to make designs,

all made from 4-6" pots,

plants beautifully manicured,

with so many examples of topiary,

there were also a few nice cars and trucks here, but the bus was not scheduled to stop here,

we passed Stonehenge,

and the Seychelles exhibit,

and many of the large growing areas,

as well as the public gardens there is a huge area where plants are grown for local and International customers,

when I say huge I mean as far as you can see,

we were approaching the dessert or cactus part of the garden,

with some terracotta cactus's in the garden, it is here that we stoped to take a few pictures,

and I saw these, Echinocactus grusonii, some times known as Mother-in-laws pillow,

this is the one I have seen and grown in the UK,

but I have never see this red spined variety before,

then I found a whole forest of them,

barrel cactus in all sizes,

I am not sure what this one is called,

a Euphorbia perhaps?

one of the many gangs keeping the garden spic and span,

we stopped again for a few pictures to be taken, the view across the lake,

and across to some temples on the far hillside,

some of them that I zoomed in on,

the road way going of into the distance, nurseries as far as the eye can see,

one of the stopping off points,

our bus for the tour,

lots of ants on the ground,

some climbing trees,

with some even larger ones on the ground,

next back on the bus,

to our next stop,

a small temple on the sky line,

and another at the top of the hill,

so it is a group picture looking along the valley,

and across to the small temple,

shadows are getting long as the sun goes down,

a hand held temple,

looking towards the mountain more nursery's,

we continue going back to the main part of the garden,

past a lovely display of bonsai,

we passed some models of Frilled Neck Lizards, an Australian icon, then our bus tour ended,

our trip to the garden over, we were making our way back to the mini bus when,

some thing caught every ones attention,

some of the ladies from one of the shows were outside,

maybe a little too much make up perhaps?

but a picture had to be taken,

smile for the camera,

a quick pose for the camera as the others were chatting to the ladies, it was a shame to go, the laddies seemed so nice,

back to Sam, the mini bus driver,

group picture,

a great day was had by all, the good news was that the rain held off, but a storm was gathering in the distance, as we neared Pattata the skies opened but Pattaya was dry, so we said our farewells then on to the bike to,

the Gossip Cafe, at the back of the TukCom Center for our evening meal,

some Thai food for Diana with plain rice and an egg,

some onion soup, followed by a huge farmer schnitzel for me with onions, mushrooms and bacon topping, 'Cheers!',

followed by an ice cream, all of mine for 219 baht, then home feet up for,

The Mummy, the first in the series, an English librarian called Evelyn Carnahan becomes interested in starting an archaeological dig at the ancient city of Hamunaptra, She gains the help of Rick O'Connell, after saving him from his death, then the story begins, great stuff, we then started watching a Midsomer Murder, but we both came over a bit tired so for us we were off to bed.