party in Pattaya, relax in Ko Samet

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So...what to say about Pattaya?
Dave and i made the journey from Bangkok to Pattaya via "luxury bus" it was a decent bus, it had air con that worked great, the only odd thing was we were the only "falang" aka foreigner on the bus. it was loaded with Thai people and us 2 white folks. the trip was 3 1/2 hrs and somehow we couldnt get the seats to recline like everyone else, so we half slept sitting straight up.
We got onto what is called a baht bus, basically a pick up truck with seats in the back and got dropped off to soi 5, (lane) where a friend of Daves has been living for the last few months on business.
He set us up to sleep on top of one of the bars there called Club Blu. it was a very very nice room for cheap and even had women dancing in the window at night.
The place really comes alive at night with all of the neon lights and women working in the bars begging for the "handsome man" to come get a drink at their bar. the place is full of bar, go go bars, pool tables, and western men walking hand and hand with thai women.
that same night daves other 2 friends, Cathal and Dave O'Dwyer flew in and we met the for what was suppoed to be one drink. It turned out to be many many drinks and rounds of pool. i think we left the bar around 4am and i even learned a few word in Thai from the women working at the bar. but when i woke up the next day i had already forgotten them.
Pattaya is rght on the water and there is a beach and lounge chairs...but in the guidebooks swimming in there was not reccommended and we stayed out of the water. most days were spent walking around the street bazzars and shopping malls, having lunch on the street and meeting up with the other 3 irish guys for dinner.
Our favorite night was the ice bar, its negative 5 degrees and you out on a huge jacket and gloves and go into an ice room and have shots of vodka watered down with juice for 20 min straight...and then get kicked out when the music stopped. We got fantastic photos of that and had a blast doing it.
Then davex2 meaning my dave and dave o'dwyer got a mini bus to an island, Ko Samet and Cathal flew back to singapore.
The bus was only 1 1/2 hrs but there was a strange...very strange Thai girl that was there with her older man who would turn around and stare at us with her scary huge brown eyes. that was odd.
Ko Samet was a great relaxing break for us from being in bangkok and pattaya. we got small room with fans. we decided we should rough it at some point and not have air con all of the time. all day was spent on the beach walking around and swimming and the nights were spent eating, drinking and smoking. one night we were sitting on mats on the beach and got a hookah/shisha apple favor. it was cool for about 3 seconds for me and the guys enjoyed the rest.
the strange thing about this island is that you have to pay 200 baht a person to enter the island as a conservation/protection fee. however, there is garbage everywhere washed up all along the beach and streets are full of trash. the guidebook says you will have no idea what they are conseving and it sure was true. we tried our hardest not to add to that pollution and all in all had a good relaxing time there.
having the fan only was tolerable...but when you wake up at like 8 am sweating you had no other choice but to throw a bathing suit on and jump into the refreshing water.

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Photos

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Welcome to Pttaya

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the irish lads (Cathal, Dave ODwyer, Pattaya Pat and Dave) on what is called a baht bus.

4
our first ever thai massage...tiny women were walking on our backs and tugging us all sorts of ways!!

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on the balcony in Pattaya...right above a club with women half dressed dancing in the window...very strange

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Walking Street...so when western men would walk past one of the many bars here...the bar full of women would scream out like seagulls for you to come in. it got annoying very quickly.

7
our on a pier getting away from the city

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self timer on the pier

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Dave mapping out where to go next with the handy travel guide

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dave thought this sliding door was the way to get out to the balcony and climbed over the tv.....but

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but the other door slid way open...they guys thought it was funny

13
Fang and Dave at dinner. Daves first coconut.

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the ice bar...you will see in a few pics what thats all about

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in the bar for a beer

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the happy couple

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the other happy couple....they shared a room haha

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friends since college

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suiting up to go into the ice bar. it was negative 5 degrees and you went in for 20 min and could drink as much vodka as you could for 500 baht...but we thought these taste a lot like fruit juice....and most were mainly juice and some vodka

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it was just us 4, dave, dave, cathal and me