Pattaya: May 14th -15th

An adult circus. That is what comes to our mind when we think of Pattaya, Thailand.

We arrived into the beach town of Pattaya from Bangkok yesterday afternoon. We immediately noticed how touristy it was, and in a bad way. There is hardly anything throughout the city of Pattaya that is authentic-Thai which we found to be disappointing. All we noticed were the many old Caucasian men fondling young Thai women all around us. We witnessed an older man at the beach negotiating prices with two Thai women out loud in public - it was something.

A lot of Thai people mistake Liya to be one of the locals, so throughout Thailand and especially in Pattaya, she has had to speak English out loud randomly to let others know that she is not an escort and that Ben is not a sleezy man. Otherwise, we receive a lot of looks. We're just tourists! :)

Today, we enjoyed a nice long sleep-in. We walked a few kilometers up to Buddha Hill to get a nice panoramic view of Pattaya City. At the vantage view point on Buddha Hill, there was a small Wat (Buddhist Temple). Cool thing we saw at the temple was a marble table with "Liu's Family" written on it - they must have donated money to the temple. Go Liu's! Afterwards, we walked down south to Jomtiem Beach where we thought the beach would be nicer than the one in central Pattaya. Unfortunately, it wasn't. It was a thin strip of gravel-like sand with hundreds of umbrellas lining up all along the water. It was a spectacle! We saw a lot of European men in their tight speedos (not the most pleasant sight) do their best to find themselves a Thai girl. The Thai girls would lay out under the umbrellas and make flirtatious comments while these men would walk up and down the beach figuring who they would want to spend the day(s) with. Let's just say we didn't stay long at Jomtiem Beach.

We took the taxi back to central Pattaya in the evening and enjoyed a delicious bowl of wonton noodle soup with BBQ pork and steamed chicken w/rice for dinner. And of course, we bought a nice big order of mango with sweet sticky rice for dessert! YUM!

Tomorrow, we will take a bus back to Bangkok's Southern Bus Terminal, then take a bus either to Hua Hin along the Gulf or N.W. to Nakhom Pathom.

Sawaidee!