Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Bangkok and Pattaya

We’re about to fly out of fitty humid Bangkok tonight and land in oh so cold Glasgow tomorrow morning. First night we stayed in Bangkok. Did what seems everyone does in Bangkok, we shopped. We some how bargained a taxi driver to take us around town for 20 baht (65c AUS) for a couple of hours. Al did the norm, had some business pants and two shirts made. We went to some markets and stumbled on what I can only describe as Al’s heaven. Three floors of electronics! There wasn’t enough time in the day to see it all.

Day two through to day five we spent in a town called Pattaya. We were just looking for a place to relax but we knew we were in for more when we saw a man wearing a t-shirt that said “Good Boys Go To Heaven, Bad Boys Go To Pattaya”. As we walked through the streets of Pattaya we noticed a lot of older white men either by them selves or with very young Thai women if you know what I mean.

the entrance to our hotel in Pattaya

It wasn’t all sleazy though. Our resort was amazing - lovely people, beautiful rooms, a welcome drink when we arrived, and happy hour between 5 and 7 every night in the open air lobby and a great restaurant. We have hade the best Thai food ever (rightly so I guess).

Lisa and me in our bathrobes relaxing

I think I have taken my tolerance of spice up a level but I am still an amateur compared to Al. Every morning he comes out of the bathroom saying he will not order anything spicy ever again but by lunch time he has forgotten about the morning’s events.

I had a Thai massage one of the days. As good as it was I kept thinking if only I actually had muscles because I bet I would have enjoyed this even more had I been my friend Dave or Chrisso. My masseuse said it would have been better if I’d been in my bikini instead of board shorts but the way she was separating and massaging I think I was wearing the right thing.

On our last day we went to “The Island”. We would walk along the beach and every ten metres there was guy with a laminated sheet showing us a picture of people parachuting, a tropical island, a boat and rifles. No one could tell us what the name of the island, they just kept saying the island, the island (in a newsletter we found in Bangkok today, it appears the islands name was Koh Larn). When I put it all like this it sounds like no sane man would get on a boat with any of these people but we did. It was just another beach but with nicer water (wouldn’t recommend swimming the water of Pattaya) and we managed to rip off the 16 year old boat driver because we spent our money on beer before we paid him. The best thing about the island, and the main beach is the banana chairs that you can relax in with an umbrella above you. People bring you beer (or food), and it all only costs a fraction of what it does in OZ. What a great day.

We’ve now been in Bangkok for 3 days and know why Bangkok is so good for shopping … because other than your hotel room, that is the only place you are going to be in air conditioning. It is bloody hot! Never seen so many shopping centers. After a few days, certainly is a fairly easy city to get around (esp if you have a map and your taxi driver can’t speak English, you just point and shoot).
Well, we did try and see some of the famous landmarks around Bangkok. Highlights were certainly a boat ride along the rivers/canals and getting to see quite a bit of the way the Thai’s live in that area. Unfortunately the one day we decided to see the Grand Palace, it was closed for a ‘one Sunday each month’ for Buddhist monks to pray.

Koi, who is the sister of one of our good friends lives in Bangkok and she was able to play tour guide for us on one day, which was awesome, as you feel all that more confident walking around and into shops with a local.

Koi (Gib's sister) with her two children

She also took us to a great restaurant by the water which again served cheap but awesome food… On to Galsgow. What a culture and temperature change that will be!