Hotel & Tours Group

"Welcome to hell", announces the sign introducing the visitor to Wang Saen Suk Hell Garden (map), one of Thailand's most extraordinary draws. The question is why hardly anybody has heard of the unique sculpture trail theme park, with overtones of a horror flick such as Saw. The answer might be that it is remote a 90-minute drive south of Bangkok, not far from Pattaya!?

Another reason for the neglect might be that its nightmare vibe is so at odds with Thailand's benign Buddha-brochure image. Either way, Wang Saen Suk is fascinating. Similar to a Christian hell, the garden depicts what happens in the afterlife to those who behave like the most wayward Khao San Road chancer and some Pattaya-Sex-Tourists. Some fallen fools on display just look wretched.

Others are being forced to become intimately acquainted with their own entrails. Move over Torquemada. The garden graphically reminds the visitor to be good and avoid getting hooked on anything harder than red curry. To better your prospects of dodging hell when you die, you are free to feed coins into the collection box carved in the shape of a big-bellied Buddha.