Goodbye PATTAYA Page 28
I have to say it'll be good to see the back of Pattaya. 7 weeks is way too long in a place like it; 1 month is about the maximum. I'm certainly looking forward to the peace and tranquillity of Surin and the REAL Thailand, not the westernised cultureless tourist areas like Pattaya and Phuket and parts of Bangkok. But see the "Reflections on our stay in Pattaya" below.
Now that Aom will be returning to UK with me, we can bring plan-B into play. Plan-A was on the assumption that either her visa would not be processed in time for the return flight or it had been turned down.
Plan-B was to leave Pattaya as soon as possible (great!) and get back to Phanom Dong Rak in Surin for a week or so to enable Aom to say her farewells to the family. From there we're booked in at our apartment in Bangkok for a few days before getting to the airport to come home on 29th November to that horrid cold weather.
I now need to make some hasty plans about leaving Pattaya (no love lost there) and get up to Phanom Dong Rak as soon as possible.
There's little point in carting our two big suitcases all the way to Phanom Dong Rak, apart from the fact they're a pain on the buses. So, I've arranged with our apartment agents in Bangkok to hold on to our suitcases until the 27th when we're booked in for a few nights prior to getting to BKK airport.
So, the plan is:-
1. Leave Pattaya on 23rd/24th for Nana, Bangkok. I've already booked a car from a local agent I know well.
2. Dump the cases off at our apartment there.
3. Catch the bus to Pratas, Surin.
4. Catch a lift to Phanom Dong Rak village
5. Spend time with Aom's family and say her farewells.
6. Travel back to Bangkok on the 27th and book into our apartment.
7. Relax for a full day and 2 nights.
8. Taxi to BKK airport on the 29th to arrive around 18:00
9. Arrive Manchester at 07:30 on Saturday 30th after 14 hours travel including 2 hours or more stopover at Abu Dhabi.
10. Meet up with good friend Pete who will take us back home to the possibility of a cold and miserable homecoming.
Anyway, for the time being we're still here in Pattaya.
FRIDAY 22nd NOVEMBER:
A quiet day after last night's festivities. Definitely no alcohol today and an early-to-bed evening.
SATURDAY 23rd:
Penultimate day in Pattaya. Did a small amount of shopping but fell foul at not being able to use a credit card at a gold-shop.
I promised 12 months ago that if Khemjira got her Settlement, I'd buy her a gold bracelet. Thai-gold is particularly nice and, luckily, the price of it is at one of its lowest for a year. I wont go into too much detail, but suffice to say the gold shop having first said, yes it accepts credit cards then pissed about not being able to "authenticate" it. The shop assistant first looked at my card as if I'd given him a chocolate biscuit. He even phoned his manager who was equally useless. This is meaningless crap as I've been using credit cards regularly at the supermarkets and restaurants without a single hitch. I could go into the local' Big-C' and buy a 80,000 Baht TV and just sign the 'piece of paper' no problem (they don't have chip-&-pin here at time of writing), but these idiots messed me about so much I just snatched my card and passport (used for additional ID), said "I'll take my business elsewhere" and walked out.... their loss!!
Spent the latter part of the day chatting in the Poker Bar; a great place for people watching, over a few Singha beers. Later we dined locally.
Below is a set of assorted photos that escaped being shown on earlier Pattaya pages:-
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TOP LEFT: We bought fresh corn-on-the-cob, big prawns and smoked fish regularly from this character. He reminded me vaguely of film-actor Morgan Freeman.
TOP RIGHT: Khemjira overlooking the city.
BOTTOM LEFT: Khemjira relaxing at a local Aussie bar, just 100 metres from our apartment. This is also part of the "Shagwell" empire; hotel, bar, restaurant and club.
BOTTOM RIGHT: There's row upon row upon row of these spinning and rotating fans in every bar; even if the bar is outside.
SUNDAY 24th:
[LAST DAY IN PATTAYA]: Well it's chucking it down this morning. Very heavy rain. Hope it stops later as we have some shopping to do before we leave in the morning to a place where there are no shops. We've also to return our trusty motorbike which has been extremely useful and saved us a lot on taxis and buses as well as being a God-send in the crazy Thai traffic.
Started packing our suitcases ready for the off in the morning. We'll leave cleaning the apartment until this evening when all the crap is out of the way.
It stopped piddling down at 11:30 and the hot thing in the sky is out doing its stuff again so we're off out.
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TOP: Cute, eh? This racy little pooch semed to love his cool gear.
BOTTOM LEFT: One of many street vendors who sell.... well veirtually anything. This one's cosmetics.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Our last moments at the Poker Bar on Beach Road as the sun set.
REFLECTIONS OF OUR STAY IN PATTAYA: Well it's certainly not a place I would like to live in permanently. Pattaya is jam-packed with ex-pats who have seemingly chosen the city to spend their twilight years, but I fail to see the attraction.
It's a big seedy city with an appalling reputation; some of it justified, some not [see Page 15]. However, it is an exciting, vibrant city and tremendous fun for up to a month .... as long as you know the rules and how the night-life functions here you'll have a great time. Ignorance of how the city "works" can bring on problems and maybe sadness. I have been fortunate in that I've never really been to Pattaya as a tourist. I came here initially with a friend who'd already married into a Thai family and had business in and around Pattaya. He showed me the ropes as it were and how-to-do and what not to do and I learned very quickly.
Having said all this, I'll reiterate and say no way could I live here. The sheer utter chaos on the roads alone is enough to drive you nuts especially when you do the driving yourself; it's simply bloody lethal. The reason Aom did most of the driving is simply because she is way more patient than I. I'm an experienced biker back home and I would simply end up thumping the dick-heads that drive around on their 125's.
I've regularly seen school-children driving around with absolutely zero motorcycle skills. I've even witnessed 9-year old kids on them. One stupid woman was seen on her bike hands-off with a child all of 6 years old standing in front of her and "controlling" the bike. Farangs too are as bad. They've clearly come from their native land having never owned a motorcycle. They come here, walk into a shop and rent a motorbike and drive off - simple as that; no licence, no insurance, no crash-helmet and NO skills. Yes, it's all illegal but the police are so crap they cannot be bothered checking the 1000's of bikes on the roads. Even when you do get stopped (as I have twice) you just cough-up the 2-300 Baht fine, you're given a bit of paper and allowed to carry on; plain bloody daft. There are untold number of road accidents in Thailand involving motorcycles every day - it's totally out of control.
It's little better as a pedestrian. There are untold hazards and that's just on the walkways which also become motorbikeways as the idiots use them to bypass traffic jams and expect you as a pedestrian to give way. There are huge holes, missing paving-stones, tree roots, foundations of various road furniture in the walkways and you have to watch your every step. If you're wheel-chair bound... forget it; it's simply near impossible.
Basically, to summarise, Pattaya is a cesspit but it's great fun..... for a while.
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