WEDNESDAY 11th: (continued)
Caught a Baht-bus downtown and a some lunch; Thai green curry for me. Spent some time walking about, dropped into a coffee-shop for an excellent Americano the decided we'd go for a foot massage. Tried the massage place we've used before but I was surprised that there were several male masseurs working there. Not sure about this, Aom came to the rescue and after some amusement I had a lady masseur do my feet.
We decided then we may as well stay out and get an earlyish night, so off down to Beach Road and then onto a bar we know on Soi Buakhao. Problem was too many beers on an empty stomach so we got a little too merry.
Biggest problem we had a very noisy group of young Thais in the next room. A call to reception to complain did nothing to alleviate the problem.
THURSDAY 12th: A couple of minor problems with our room worsened by the racket a bunch of Thai students were making last night. They checked out this morning and I arranged to move to the room they vacated. A bigger, better room with a huge veranda/balcony. Not that you get to sit out on it as it's mostly too hot; nice early morning and evening though. Had a decent breakfast; no fry-ups in Thai hotels; actually pretty healthy with an abundance of vegetable dishes and fresh fruit. Coffee's excellent but the orange juice is disgustingly sweet.
After a spot of supermarket shopping for room basics (fruit, nuts, water, etc) we re-stowed our bits & bobs in the new room. That done, Aom beetled off to meet up with her cousin, Air (as in air). I stayed in the room but will pop down for a swim in the pool soon.
Lazy afternoon. Aom popped back to our room at around 5pm only to say she'd been asked to meet up with her cousin, Air for dinner. I wasn't that keen to join them as I knew that Air had an American boyfriend with her and, to be honest, I'm not too keen on him. Very load yank that knows everything and likes to talk about himself. Anyway, Aom & I had agreed to meet up later that night at a bar in Soi 8. I walked the first 2km into town that jumped a Baht-bus for the rest of the way, meeting Aom at 10pm. Visited a few music bars followed by a stroll down Walking Street. A couple more beers at a waterside bar. Now, as usual when she's had a few drinks, Aom has this passion for fresh squid. So it was off to find a street seller and after a 10-minute stroll we found one in Beach Road. Back on a bike-taxi to our room around 1:45am.
FRIDAY 13th: After a big breakfast of various vegetables done in various Thai ways (delicious) we decided on a trip up to north of Pattaya called Na-Kluea. Massive new skyscraper apartment (condo) blocks here. This is one of the posh parts of Pattaya (the other is Jontiem to the south) and the beaches are pretty good and clean. We used the hotel's mini-bus taxi and "bribed" the driver to take us all the way to Na Klua. A short walk down to the beach and then along to a small sandy cove embraced by rocky outcrops and tropical trees. Dossed in a couple of sun-beds under one of the shady trees and dozed the afternoon away. This is more like it! In spite of staying both under a parasol which was under a leafy tree, I still caught a dose of the sun and was quite red by evening. If I had sunbathed then I would certainly have been badly burnt in the tropical sun.
Dropped into a supermarket for some basics and then, both a bit weary, we decided on eating at the hotel beside the pool. Very tasty and no alcohol tonight; also a fairly early night.
I am making a conscious effort not to be tempted into either of the two go-go bars I used to frequent; especially Peppermint where my ex-girlfriend still works and a place I was nearly employed in. Not only is it an expensive place to go to, it's just not worth the hassle, although it'd be good to see some of my old lady-friends again.
Rather than repeat myself, there's a lot more info and photos about Pattaya on my original website starting on this page. from when we were here in 2013.
TOP LEFT: TT with Pattaya Bay stretching behind.
TOP RIGHT: One of the quieter bays at Na Klua, North Pattaya.
BOTTOM LEFT: A couple of late evening beers on the beach.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Back at Na Klua beach
SATURDAY 14th: Usual hearty breakfast; a variety of vegetables in differing sauces, all of which are very tasty. You also get a lovely omelette specially made for you; you just have to ask.
The exchange rate is falling day-by-day which is a real pain. A month or so ago it was around the 56-Baht to GBP; it's now hovering around the high 47's. So it's a case of changing small amounts and hoping for the rate to recover.
I did have to change some moneytoday. The trick is to avoid the banks and opt for the plethora of small cabin-like exchange units. Not only do they not ask for I/D, their rates are always much better than the greedy banks with their bureaucratic attitudes.
A meandering day; went to Illy Coffee Bar (very, very good coffee) then tried out a different massage place and had an excellent foot-massage each.
Aom wanted her hair 'tidied' so while she was in a salon in Soi Buakhao, I waited in a bar over the road. After 10 minutes nursing a Singha beer, I felt a bit peckish so ordered what was described as a Clubhouse Sandwich (Club Sandwich). What arrived was a colossal club-sandwich which was so thick and huge there was no way it could be picked up let alone eaten without dismantling it into manageable chunks; very good value and, naturally, I saved a huge chunk for Aom when she joined me after the salon stint.
Took a Baht-bus back, but being a Saturday, the traffic on Pattaya Tai road was horrendous. It would have been quicker to walk but in the 36º heat we stayed put. There a brief movie of this Baht-bus trip below.
We decided on going downtown for dinner. Booked a slot with the hotel mini-bus for 8pm but by 8:05 it still hadn't returned from its previous trip due to traffic. Sod it, we managed to jump a Baht-bus at the end of the road which took forever through the traffic.
Ended up choosing the Pattaya Beer Garden as a place to eat. This has always been a good place with good reasonably priced food. It's perched out over the sea so it can be quite a romantic place to eat and drink. We made the mistake of ordering starters which were full-meal sized dishes. When the main courses arrived we were both stuffed. Excellent food though. Decided against a late night but Aom just had to stop off and by a bag full of disgusting insect-things, beetles, grubs & caterpillar things which she chomped away on when we got back to the hotel. Ugh!!
Below is a panoramic snap from our hotel room at The Citin Garden.
TOP & BOTTOM LEFT: Aom posing by the Citin Garden pool and garden.
BOTTOM RIGHT: The Beer Garden. Situated over the sea. Good food, good music, good service.
Below is a sequence on board one of the crowded Baht-buses when we were on our way back. Pattaya traffic is absolutely manic.
SUNDAY 15th: One of the places I'd selected in our itinerary is Ko Kood island off the Cambodia coast. For several days I'd been wondering why I opted for a 10 day stay in Pattaya and only 6 days in Ko Kood. Pattaya is a city I know well and we'd both spent a lot of time here. We were tiring of the manic traffic and the busy noisy night life so I contacted the reservations people at the Shantaa Resort where we're staying and asked if our villa-suite was available a couple of days earlier. Email confirmation said it was so I made the booking to leave Pattaya on the 18th and travel down to Trat in south Thailand. Only thing I have to do now is arrange transport and I'm hoping Charly, an agent I've used many times before can do me a deal.
An evening alone. Aom arranged to meet up with yet another of her cousins, Yee, who works in Pattaya. So while madam readied herself to go out, I got stuck into a book with BBC World News on the TV.
I'm beginning to assume that my daily eating regime is back-to-front. The breakfasts here are so big I use them as a dinner, have no lunch to speak of, and eat less in the evening. The problem here is although I eat less and of that I eat less high-calorie food, my weight stays the same. This is down to doing less exercise, and the reason for this is simply because it's too hot to do much exercise. One tends to do things more slowly, for instance I tend to stroll rather than my usual quick strides back in UK.
MONDAY 16th: Very hot today, upper 30's. This is inspite of the breeze from the sea. The day consisted of doing a fair bit of wandering around Pattaya's Sois. Need to change a fir bit of cash today to pay Charly who is arranging our transport and travel connections for tomorrow when we leave for Trat. I could easily do all this arranging myself but I've known Charly for a number of years now and I've used him to organise travel to far-away places such as Hua Hin, Surin and Phuket; often he's taken us himself in his car.
The heat drove us off-road and into a bar on Soi Bukhao for some cokes and sodas (yes, that's right... no beer). Seeing as we were on Soi Bukhao (one of the busiest cosmopolitan areas in Pattaya) we darted in for a good foot massage apiece. Good strong lady this time; some are too gentle. Usual banter with the ladies cross-examining Aom about me and her and everything else (my Thai is still crap).
Aom still desperately trying to buy some shoes. Her problem is that she's a size 7 and the vast majority of Thai women have much smaller feet resulting in Aom rarely getting a pair of shoes she likes in her size. She has no such problem back in England.
Back to our room for a freshen-up and it was downtown again. This time we stopped off at a small coffee kiosk for a superb Americano (mine straight, Aom's iced). I've used this kiosk in previous visits and the same lady is running it and make really excellent freshly ground and brewed coffee. That done we popped into a small noodle bar for a snack. Caught a couple of motor-bike taxis up to the Big-C supermarket (Big-C's are a large supermarket chain throughout Thailand, similar to, say, Asda in UK) for some items of clothing for Aom to take to Ko Kood island. That took an hour! Back to our room yet again (in and out like a bloody cuckoo clock today) but this time we chilled-out for a few hours and readied for going out for food and drink later.
8:00pm and we talked one of the hotel staff to run us down to Pattayasaisong Road (known as Second Road). Slipped him a nice tip and then we were off on the town. First stop was Soi 7 to a bar we know from old. After a few drinks (Chang only 45 Baht here) I recognised a guy selling fake big-name watches from previous when I bought about 5 Rolexes to take home. After a load of banter and haggling I ended up with a nice new gold Rolex and a blue-faced Omega for Aom for 900 Baht. Why I thought I needed a new watch God only knows, but it looked well good. Madam bought a pair of shoes from a street seller for the princely sum of 120 Baht.
Wandered back up to Pattaysaisong Road and dined in an al fresco restaurant. This was followed by visits to a host of different bars. We even had a drink in a bar in the notorious Soi-6 (known to some as "Soi Sex"). I made the mistake of walking down Soi-6 on my own on my first stay in Pattaya; suffice to say it was an experience and I'd never do it again solo. But with Aom with me it was highly amusing watching the wall-to-wall girls enticing prospective customers; good entertainment. Anyway, we only had one drink and then off again ending up eventually at the Carousel Bar off Walking Street. The Carousel is actually two circular bars which both rotate albeit slowly so you're getting a constantly changing vista. It was getting a bit late now (or a bit early maybe) so it was off to locate Aom's usual late night tipple of freshly cooked squid. This done, it was onto the back of a motorbike taxi I (yes both of us on 1 bike) back to the room at around 3am.
TUESDAY 17th: Late awakening following last night's frivolities. We considered last night as our last night in Pattaya as it'll be an early start tomorrow morning for the 4-5 hour journey to Trat.
Paid off my agent, Charlie, who completed our travel arrangements.
Tuesday is one of the market days in Soi Bukhao. The market sits under a series of khaki-coloured awnings. Inside the temperature is anything up to 10º hotter than outside which makes shopping very uncomfortable. Today the noon temperature was 38ºC so God knows how hot it was within the market area. Aom was looking for shoes and some beach-wear but after 30 minutes I found the heat unbearable so we escaped to a nearby bar for Cokes and Sodas.
I was looking for the best exchange rate kiosk so we were up and down the Sois chasing the best rate. Best I could find was 48.60 Baht to GBP... not very good as 3 months ago it was around 56 Baht/GBP.
Stopped off at a shopping mall to buy my eldest son, Dan, a T-shirt and it was a couple of taxi-bikes back to our room for a shower.
Started packing and decided against going downtown to eat; instead opting for a pool-side table at the hotel restaurant; not bad food at all.
Majority of the packing done it was an early night ready for a 7am pick-up in the morning.
TOP LEFT: Enjoying a few beers at a bar in Soi-7
TOP RIGHT: Al-fresco dining on Pattaysaisong Road.
BOTTOM LEFT: The Rolling Live Bar in Soi-8. Good live bands; good music.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Hammering along on a taxi-bike at 3am; 3-up.
WEDNESDAY 18th: Awake at 5am and slowly getting organised. Thought we'd got everything sussed and ready for our 7am pick-up and we were looking forward to a good breakfast at 6:30. Alas, best-laid-plans-of-mice-and-men came adrift when the house phone rattled to be told that the mini-bus was waiting. Goodbye breakfast. It was a hurried exit from The Citin Garden and once the bills had all been paid we weee off on the road to Trat. As I write we're about an hour out of Pattaya on a slightly cooler morning.
The next page, the final Pattaya one, is full of photos of some of the crazy sights one can see around the Sois.
But a lot more interesting stuff about Pattaya can be seen on our previous stay in the city. A lot more photos and information about the city. Take a look HERE.
