I spotted this large, long legged and rather scary looking spider (pictured below) while taking a walk in Pattaya Fitness Park on Phratumnak Road. It was sitting in the middle of it’s web which spanned a couple of meters between the tops of two trees high above the footpath of the Pattaya Fitness Park.
I have no idea what species this spider is but i suspect it’s a species of orb spider. Any arachnologists reading this are welcome to give a correct name and description of this spider in the comments section below this post.
I had to photograph the spider against the midday sun with the limited zoom capabilities of my camera which meant that capturing color and detail was quite hard. In turn, the loss of detail and color has made it hard to identify what species this spider is.
Bugs grow large in Thailand, and this spider was no exception, the photographs fail to give a true scale of the size of this spider but I can tell you this spider was easily as big as my hand.
I’m no lover of bugs, some of the oversized and sometimes dangerous bugs of Thailand scare me to death, but it’s nice to see nature thriving. Even in a high rise, sprawling tourist mecca like Pattaya, giant spiders, monster centipedes, snakes, giant hornets, scorpions and lizards of all kinds have adapted and overcome, much to the surprise and/or shock of unsuspecting tourists.
It’s always nice to know exactly what you’re looking at. First‑time travelers to Thailand often find themselves face‑to‑face with things they’ve never encountered before. Things like “the biggest spider they ever saw,” a snake crossing the road, a gecko sharing their bedroom, the distinct call of a tokay lizard, their first mosquito bites, or even a giant centipede.
On Pattaya Unlimited, I try to cover all aspects of life in Pattaya, from bugs to culture, and beyond.