Not just for the kids

Besides its horse ranch and Mediterraneanstyle resort, Pattaya's Horseshoe Point  also offers edutainment and recreation with its Three Kingdoms Theme Park.

Building the 36rai park was a labour of love for ChineseThai businessmen Kiarti Srifuengfung, who was able to see his vision completed shortly before he died.

His inspiration for the park came from the classic Chinese saga "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", which he believed would make a great framework to expand public knowledge of Buddhism and Chinese culture. The park's treelined avenues, architecture and statuary reflect classical Thai and Chinese traditions.

The best starting point for visitors is probably the main pagoda, which crowns the hill at the park's centre. Inside, a triplelifesize statue of Kiarti is the towering centrepiece of a shrine that displays letters to his descendants and biographical details of his life.

Walking up the stairway that leads to this giant, statues depicting the principle characters of the Chinese epics seem to leap out at visitors. There are also 16 paintings on silk illustrating the life of Kiarti's favourite character, Kong Ming, which took a Chinese artist five years to complete.

The fourth floor, the highest of the main pagoda, is a shrine to the Lord Buddha and the Chinese Gods. It's also the place to go for heavenly views.

The other two pagodas in the park honour the Goddess of Mercy, Kuan Yin, and the God of Honesty, Guan Yu.

Before leaving the park, seek out the corridor of beautiful and delicate handpainted tiles portraying 56 episodes of the "Three Kingdoms". It stretches 250 metres - the longest corridor of handpainted tiles in the world.

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<The Three Kingdoms Theme Park, in Horseshoe Point, Bang Lamung, Chon Buri, is open daily from 10am to 5pm.

<Admission is Bt60 for Thais, and Bt30 for children. For foreigners, admission is Bt150, and Bt80 for children.

<Visit www.ThreeKingdomsPark.com for more information.