THAILAND TRAVELS: A Journal
PATTAYA (cont'd) Page 14
Now that the monsoon type rains have abated, the temperature has risen to more expected levels. Not too bad at around the low to mid 30's but unfortunately, the humidity remains very high. Nights are particularly uncomfortable at times, and the temperature has yet to fall below 30º even at 3am. This encourages the occasional overnight electric storm.
We do have air-con in the apartment but we tend to leave it off and rely on the large electric fan at night.
Surprisingly there's not much evidence of mosquitoes here.
All the windows have mozzie screens which can be pulled across the window opening (as well as glass windows). This means that fresh air is available night & day; when I say 'fresh' it's 30º fresh.
To be honest the apartment is high-up but on a busy minor road with a number of bars close by. They can be noisy up 'til 2am but usually it's not too much of a problem. Amazingly, we have not been in any of the local bars at all; we tend to bag a passing baht-bus and go downtown for relaxation. Return trip usually on a motorbike taxi which are absolutely everywhere; both Aom & I piling onto the back of the bike as it hurtles manically around the crazy roads. Good fun though.
Here's some night time photos of Pattaya:
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TOP ROW LEFT: In one of the dozens of bar complexes off Walking Street. This is The Frog bar.
TOP ROW RIGHT: This is the famous (or infamous) Peppermint Club. I was due to take on the job as General Manager here in early 2013.
SECOND ROW LEFT: One of dozens of street vendors in Walking Street.
SECOND ROW RIGHT: Relaxing at the Pattaya Beer Garden. This venue is built on a pier over the sea.
THIRD ROW LEFT: In the Beach Club. Here we met up with some of Aom's friends and shared some drinks. All VERY beautiful ladies. Who's a lucky guy then?
THIRD ROW RIGHT: I guess I couldn't be in Pattaya without a visit to my old stomping ground, the Peppermint Club. Yes, all these gorgeous ladies are my old friends... Aom's there too amongst them.
FOURTH ROW: I make no apology for including these photos taken in the Peppermint Club. They really are lovely ladies and are still friends.
BOTTOM ROW LEFT: I cannot remember the name of this bar, but it's off Walking Street.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Three-up on a motorbike taxi back from a night out. And yes, we were going at around 65kph when I took this; camera at arms length. Great stuff.
Wednesday 16th:
I should have kept my mouth shut re the statement at the top of this page where I said: "Now that the monsoon type rains have abated"
The sultry high humidity and heat of yesterday ended, predictably, in another overnight electric storm. We had intended going out last night but by 20:30 the sparks over Chon Buri to the north warned us off. Good move as the storm indeed came our way and the guy with the buckets up there did His stuff turning the road outside into a literal river again. A very noisy sparky night at times followed. One of the big sparky thingys coming very uncomfortably close; I think it struck a tall antenna-mast across the road accompanied immediately by a bloody great BANG.
07:30: Still raining a little and very heavy sky but pleasantly cool at 27ºC.
Without wishing to be insulting to Thais, but some do seem to lack the gift of lateral thinking. They seem to do the oddest things at the oddest times. I’ll give you an example.
Directly across the road from our apartment is a school playing field; the school itself being beyond the field.
With the torrential overnight rain the playing field is now soaking wet with massive pools of standing water.
Strolling out onto the balcony, I was bemused by what I saw. I summoned Aom to help me witness the school’s groundsman traipsing out with a big industrial sprinkler-system and setting it up with a trailing hosepipe and then duly going about his business of watering the grass and adding to the already mega-soaked field. Unbelievable!
At one point he had to go scurrying off when a bout of heavy rain swept in leaving the sprinkler doing its stuff. Anyway, after 20 minutes the penny seemed to drop and the sprinkler was turned off.
Wednesday evening:
We decided to pop out for an hour or so to relax over a couple of drinks.
Well it started OK, went to "We Are The World" bar on Beach Road who have good live music and spent an hour or so there. Later we walked up one of the Sois and passed a bar we'd been to before which also had an excellent rock band doing their stuff. A couple of beers here and then I made a drink-enhanced decision. We were supposed to pop out for an hour or two but I thought "hell, we're out now, we may as well...".
So instead of doing the sensible thing of jumping the bus home I persuaded Aom we should pop down to Walking Street.
Well several bars and clubs later (at least 4 Aom tells me) and meeting up with some old acquaintances [see photos above] we decided maybe it was time to stop and go home. So, we leapt on a motorbike taxi (yes the two of us on 1 bike [photo]) and were transported back to the apartment to arrive at 04:15. Well how was I to know how late (or early) it was as I’d forgotten my watch.
Anyway is was a fun great night out and so typical of the great times you can have in Pattaya once you know the place. These impromptu sessions always seem to come up trumps.
Reckoning up on the following day: we had a 8-hour long night out visiting 4 or 5 diiferent bars and clubs, most with live bands playing and with transport to and from cost a princely 1850 Baht [£36.27 in 2013] for the two of us... not bad , not bad at all.
Below is a short movie of my dearest snacking at 3am after a night out. For some reason she loves this stuff.
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Thursday 17th:
Predictably a late awakening. Nothing much was done and achieved this day. I wonder why?
THE FOLLOWING PAGE 15 DETAILS PATTAYA'S MORE SEEDY SIDE, SO FEEL FREE TO SKIP IT
