Pattaya - nothing wrong with a bit of sleaze!

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Our minibus to Pattaya had a grand total of four passengers on board. The driver took us straight to our destination, the Peace Hotel. We were very impressed because it was cheap, the swimming pool was lovely and the room was quite spacious and quiet. If you go to Pattaya and want to avoid the hotels in the thick of the nightlife, we highly recommend this one.

Pattaya wasn't really our thing. We had seen it on a TV programme about tourists getting into trouble on Walking Street and how the special tourist police unit deal with them. That alone should have put us off. Still, we had to go and have a look. We only saw Walking Street during the day and it had a bit of a sleazy air to it even without neon signs illuminating the street. The areas along the beach front were bad enough at night with every other bar lit by gaudy red lights and Thai girls hanging around to meet Western men. Any bar that looked like one we might enjoy was hideously expensive so the supermarket's beer shelves did ok from us. The restaurants were nice though, and around our hotel they had a distinctly German flavour. Wunderbar!

As we walked along the beach front we saw an unbelievable number of people parasailing. How the speedboats manage to avoid getting their parachutes tangled up is a miracle! We continued out to the lighthouse passing the development project of a new marina along the way. It wasn't the nicest walk at times but eventually we found our way to the city park which climbs up behind the giant Pattaya sign on the hill. Judging by the number of people we came across, not many have found the park!

After what seemed like an eternity walking in the heat and the sunshine, we managed to find the Big Buddha we were looking for. Once you get there it's hard to believe that it is hidden from view. This, for us, was Pattaya's overwhelming good site, and a must see for any visitor. Several smaller Buddhas surround the big one. Nearby was a sculpture park with lots of Buddhist characters. If anyone is familiar with "Monkey Magic" from the 1980s which was dubbed into English and became a bit of a cult programme amongst teenagers, they will recognise everyone on one of the dioramas.

It was nice to relax by the pool at the hotel for a couple of days but Pattaya didn't really have a lot to keep us there. Maybe if we were 20 years younger!! Next up were the big city lights of Bangkok and the end of our South East Asian adventure.

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