Sin City and Nice Places

---

On a first day of rain in a long time, we decided that it was time to use the weather as a travel day from Lonely Beach to Pattaya City. We arrived in Pattaya early evening and checked into a very posh hotel on the beach and close to the world famous "Walking Street". To know what Pattaya is world famous for one only needs to understand that Sex is to Pattaya as Gambling is to Vegas. It is an international sin city known for one thing only: Sex Tourism. It is not known for the beaches as we were very disapointed that the beaches were dirty and unkept and the water at times black with diesel oil from all the boats.

The whole sex theme is at most entertaining and often amusing but that wears thin and a few days is all you need there so you can say you have "been there". Our only little day trip in Pattaya was a visit to a wooden temple that was interesting.

After a few days the best thing about Pattaya is that it is only and hour and a half away from Bangkok our final and last destintion before coming home. This of course was our second visit this trip to Bangkok having spent four days there at the very begining of our trip in July and now we have been here for a week.

Bangkok has really grown on us as we see it through fresh eyes and much more relaxed. We found a nice guesthouse very close to Khao San Road the most famous road in all of South-East Asia. Imagine a Canada Day sized party in downtown Ottawa every night seven days a week: That is Khao San Road. It parties until about 3:00 in the morning and you learn to fall asleep to the mash of street music and party crowds.

The weather has been amazing in Banagkok and if this is the rainy season then I could live with that. The sky is so clear and blue for a city of eight million people and we enjoyed going out on the ferry transport system. The Chao Phraya River is very wide and long and runs through the city of Bangkok as it is a major public transportation ... the ferry boat pulls up to a pier for only a few seconds and people jump on and off the boat. There are over 40 stops or piers along the river and the ferry zigzags up and down and across the river making for an interesting way to see the city. It was kind of a Subway system on a river.

We took our last and final tour from Bangkok that included a day trip to Ayutthaya a few hours outside of Bangkok. We visited a famous "Reclinging Buddha" reflecting his time of death and later that afternoon we visited what can be best described as an ancient 13th century ghost town that reminds me of Roman ruins and there was a real peacefullness and one could easily imagine the bustle of the city many hundreds of years ago where people went along their daily business so important at that moment but today lost in the rubble of times way long past.

Next we will book into a hotel at the airport to make sure there is the least amount of distance between us and our flight home. We misss everyone.

---