If Bangkok is the beating heart of Thailand, then Pattaya is its pulse after dark. Just a two-hour ride from the capital, this coastal city has long worn the title of “Thailand’s party town.” But don’t let the neon signs fool you — there’s more to Pattaya than cabaret shows and cocktail buckets. It’s a place where high-energy nights and slow, sandy mornings coexist in chaotic harmony.

Imagine walking through an ancient forest so untouched by time that even the soil seems to rise and fall beneath your feet—as if the Earth itself were breathing. Welcome to Shirakami-Sanchi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northern Japan, home to one of the last remaining virgin beech forests in East Asia... and possibly the most subtly mystical landscape in the entire country.