Big Buddha day

I met up with my family and we all rented scooters to drive to the 'Big Buddha' statue. Riding scooters here isn't like riding on smaller islands like Koh Lanta; here it's busy polluted roads and lots of built-up areas. The statue was very impressive though and I think it's the biggest Buddha I've seen so far. By coincidence it happened to be Buddha Day (Wisakha Bucha) which is a buddhist holiday celebrating the birth, enlightenment and death of Gautama Buddha. As a result the sale of alcohol is illegal.

We stopped off at a nice outdoor restaurant with a great view of the ocean and had some food. We were served beer but maybe they get away with it as they're more remote. We tried finding a waterfall but it was getting late so we went to the beach for sunset instead.

In the evening we all had a nice Thai meal together and then some of us went to Patong to sample the nightlife. Due to the holiday, all bars were either closed or empty. It was a very strange sight seeing a normally crazy party town essentially shut down. There were still crowds of people out searching in vain for some fun. We found this street performer on the main walking street.