Pattaya Hotels
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In the House of the Gods
Entry 28 of 29 | show all | print this entry |
By my last night in Koh Chang, things were getting a bit more interesting. First of all, it turned out that there was some sort of two day Buddhist holiday going on for the first two days I was there, hence, no hard liquor. It also cleared up a bit weather wise. At first, though, it seemed like every other night at the resort. So, this rather odd guy who buys gems in Chanthaburi and sells them on Ebay (one of these people that you would only hang out with on vacation, and only then with some trepidation) and I went up to a place called "The Treehouse" and which had a very interesting bar built right out over the water. Then, from there up the road to a bar I had been to my first night on the island. As it turned out, this is what they call a Bar Beer (why its not called a Beer Bar I have no idea) and you sit there and drink around your basic bar, except there are more women sitting around the bar then you would otherwise expect. And all very friendly, and getting progressively friendlier as I kept tossing back the Singhas wondering how I was going to get out of there. By the end, it was rather hard to extricate myself from the bar but I eventually did, after declining the bar matrons offer, "You take girl out, 300 baht bar fine."
Low and behold, on my return to my resort a full blown rager was going on--kind of a weird hippy jamfest on the beach with blacklights and glowing amphetemine laced drinks and people doing little hippy dances in the surf. Pretty good time, and I didn't even mind the eurotrash all that much.
Anyway. I somehow always manage to get the worst hangovers before I have a long day of very precarious travel in the back of pick-up trucks, and then on a very rocky ferry, and then another pick-up, and then another government bus to Pattaya. This was a pretty uncomfortable day of travel, and I ended up splashing out in a pretty nice hotel because I wanted a decent shower and maybe some air conditioning.
I'm not sure what I expected in Pattaya--some sort of cross between an old timey freakshow, Disneyland, and Atlantic City, I guess. And that's pretty f*cking accurate actually. My hotel was in the north of south Pattaya which is not in a very seedy area. As you walk down the Beach Rd, however, things get progressively weirder, then you pass some gates marking where the street becomes the "Walking St." and then things take a very strange turn. People come up to you and shove menus in your face. The first three menus were actually for restaurants. Pattaya is known for its seafood as well as its nightlife. "Wo. 900 baht for a whole Spiny Lobster (not, by the way, in any type of "green curry" sauce, as I predicted earlier). But that did seem a bit pricy. The fourth menu I was handed, however, was a bit different. "Hmm. 300 baht for a bananna?" That seems really expensive. Oh, I get it, and from there it keeps going. "900 baht for. . . 50 ping pong balls?" The higher priced stuff at the end of the "menu" just can't be humanly possible. For some reason, the standard fare on these menus seems to be vaginal ping pong, its like the pad thai of adult nightlife in Thailand. I don't know why that is. Not my thing, but to each his own. As you walk down the street, that's all you hear--touts saying, "ping pong, ping pong, ping pong." There must be a pretty big market.
Having said that, Pattaya is a relatively laid back place. The travel books all make it out to be awful, but if you're going to see this side of Thailand, I think its really the place to go. As long as you learn how to fend off the hookers, its otherwise pretty congenial, with a decent mix of people. Certainly the requisite pasty-ass Aussie/Brit pervs, but normal people too. That some westerners seem to bring the whole family is a little odd though--have trouble figuring that one out. The family vacation to Pattaya types tend to be Germans I think. What do they get out of it? "Hey kids, I bet your Mom can't do that with a bottle."
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