Down south to the Gulf of Thailand

Day 2 My next spot was Pattaya 2 hours south east of Bangkok. Pattaya was a R&R stop off from the Vietnam War back in the 60’s. Pattaya has changed a lot since then but still has famous walking street filled with many beer bars and go go bars. So I got off the bus and headed to catch a baht bus which then took me to Jomtien Beach 5 minutes out of Pattaya. Jomtien Beach is where I studied to become a Scuba Diving Instructor. I went to the dive shop and met up with former students and friends. We had a couple drinks at the local beer bar across from the shop. A place that I would go quite often when I studied here. I met up with Simon, Slinky, Rabbit, Harvey, Crowley, Desi, Malai and Russell. It was different being back and not seeing Steve (SB1). SB1 the owner of Mermaids and the front man passed away 6 months ago after a heart attack. It was a big blow to the dive center that was so well run by Steve. He will be greatly missed upon students and employee’s at Mermaids and the dive community. But it was nice to visit after 1 ½ years of being away from Thailand. They also helped me out and got me a condo to stay in on the beach for a couple nights.

Well that first night we decided to sit at the beer bar and have some drinks. Staying away from the dreaded Samsung and Coke(strong cheap Thai whiskey). The one of the best things in Thailand is the food, I sat in the bar and food carts on wheels would come by. I was a hungry guy missing the food. So I got a bowl of pad thai for 30 baht, a bowl of beef soup 25 baht and bag of fresh pineapple 10 baht. Costing me only about $2.50. I love that part of Thailand. Well after a few more drink we headed down to walking street where we went to a bar called TQ2. TQ2 was owned by SB1 and was where we had our Instructor parties. So we went in to the bar and every bar in Pattaya. Its normal to have girls dancing on the stage. We stayed there for a bit before doing our pub hopping tour. We went to several bars that night. Pattaya is a different place it’s a place you other love or hate. But it is was a great night.

Day 4 The following day I didn’t do much other than met up with other divers. I also planned on my next leg of my trip around Thailand. I decided to leave the next day to leave back to Bangkok to met up with my past girl friend “Honey”. So I got back on the bus to Bangkok to visit Honey and hang out in Bangkok. When I arrived she picked me up in her car. Then we went out for lunch at a English Pub. Where I had a Chicken Pot pie and Honey had a Salmon steak.( just to let you know that there is all types of food here). After that we went to her friends place Daun. Daun offered me to stay at her condo because she wasn’t using it. She was staying with her husband. So I was grateful of that, just the respect and trust for her to offer her condo to me was awesome. The one thing about Thailand is how friendly everyone is. The land of smiles. That night we just chilled out at her friends salon having drinks and eating Thai food all night.

The following day I took a motorbike taxi to the downtown shopping center. The motorbike ride was the scariest thing I have ever done. We were going top speeds thru Bangkok’s crazy traffic. Zing zinging thru cars, in front of busses. After about 5 minutes of white knuckle driving we stopped at MBK. MBK is located in Siam Center MBK is a huge 8 floors of everything you could think of. From cell phones, clothes, sunglasses, and ripped movies. Its amazing how big this mall is and how much different things you can find then and other western shopping mall. Once I arrived at the mall I met up with this girl Haley that I met the previous day on the bus to Bangkok. She from Ireland and was visiting her day for the last 3 months in Thailand. So we walked around the shops for many hours looking at all the clothes and different cell phones they had in Thailand. After about a few hours we decided to have a ice cream at Baskin Robins, oooo chocolate ice cream. We sat and talked about what we might do in the next couple of days. We talked about the full moon party in Koh Pangang and Going up north to Chan Mai. The full moon party is a beach party that happens once a month and is a all night party with about 6,000 to 10,000 people having fun. With fire shows and famous bucket drinks with red bull and whiskey. Its always a great time. Chain Mai is at northern part of Thailand it’s a big city mixed with traditional ways. There is many things to do up there like trekking on elephants to seeing Thailand’s opium fields, and to seeing the long neck girls. The long neck girls are what you might see in national geographic with many hoops put around there neck from a early age.

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