Blackpool of Thailand

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Good day all.Hope you all are well.
Well , Tuesday afternoon was spent at the Tiger Temple near Kanchanaburi.
In one way an amazing experience, in another, concerning.
They are so quick to emphasise that the tigers are not drugged to keep them sedate, but, i have my reservations.
When you see a 200 lb Tiger being sat on and manhandled by a 4 ft nothing, 3 1/2 stone thai guy you have to wonder!!
Well worth the trip ,even if the girl at the ticket counter did rip me off 500 baht.-fellow backpackers be warned!!! She is very quick with those 1000 baht notes!
Tuesday night was spent socialising( ha ha) with various expats/travellers and some very pleasent young thai ladies-not that sort Mop!!!!!!!!!!!
Woke up early on Wednesday and on a whim packed my gear ,hopped on a motorbike taxi to the bus station and headed back to Bangkok.
Once back at Bangkok South Terminal i looked around the ticket desks to see where i should go next, decided upon Hua Hin.
149 baht(2 quid) and 3 hrs later i arrived.They even give you free bottles of water on these buses and they are so easy to use.You just turn up and you can guarantee one will be leaving in less than half an hour.
Thanks to Lonely Planet(once again) i found a really nice little guesthouse called Pattana.
Its only a hundred yards rom the beach and is an old Thai Teak-wood house and full of character-and caharacters!!
It was only when i walked to the beach last night i realised how bad this place is.
Its full of tatty, overpriced shops.Selling all the stuff i saw in Kanchanaburi for 7-8 times the price, bit like Swanage.
There is also the sleaze factor.On every road, in every bar, there is some fat, balding, sunburnt, old, european slimeball with a lithe young thai girl on his arm.
Hopefully the girls are taking full advantage of these guys and robbing them blind of every baht they can lay their hands on.
God knows what the poor thai lads here do for girls cos they all seem to be taken!!!!!!
The plan was to stay here for 3/4 days then head to the islands but this place is like Blackpool in the sun-good for a day but thats enough!!!
Will probably head out of here tomorrow morning and find somewhere a bit more Thai.
Off to the beach now to be hassled by one of the hundreds of beach vendors for the day, will take the time to read guide book and decide where to go next.
Sorry bout the Chelsea game Ed, sure you lot made up for it in the beer stakes!!!!!!!!!
Speak from a nice Thai island soon, Mark.

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