Friday 21st October - Hello all. Now in Pattaya, staying in a Hostel called 'Jomtien'. Located in the south of Pattaya. The hostel is family run, its basic but incredibly clean, i am in a 7 man dorm with en suite bathroom, there is no air conditioning however there are 2 fans fixed on the wall, they don't help too much, just more circulate the warm air. The room is clean and so is the bedding, however the beds uncomfortable and have had a couple of sleepless nights. Apart from one member of staff the rest speak little English, however they are friendly and always greet you with a smile, at a mere BHT250 a night (£5) its perfect. The area i am in is the quieter part of Pattaya but I like it, the beach is less than 5mins walk.
So after arriving late on Thursday and having a sleepless night I awoke feeling pretty groggy and not really feeling like doing alot. However i forced myself up and grabbed breakfast. I then read for a while and did some Internet research on my next destination, not that as yet i know where i am going but Koh Chang seems most likely. So after chilling, my stomach was rumbling to let me know it was lunch time. I walked out to the main street and found a small side street containing a number of local Thai places. I found a place, it was local not commercialised and cheap. I ate a good sized meal along with a sprite and a bottle of water, it came to less than £2 and the food was good. I was now truly back in to the backpacker rhythm. After lunch i headed to the beach, all of 2 seconds across the road. To be honest there isn't much of beach, well there is but it is lined for a good few miles with deck chairs and sun parasol's. Just like in Europe you have to pay for a chair, when i said deck chair it really was a deck chair, no sun loungers here, meaning no lying down, meaning not great for getting a tan. however some of the chairs and tables were dug into the sand right on the waters edge meaning you could dip your feet into the sea. I found a spot and paid BHT30, less than £1. I was soon lounging, top off and within minutes the sound of the small waves and sea breeze had, had its normal effect of instantly de-stressing me. I was hot and yearning for a swim, i hadn't swam since India in a hotel pool, so was straight in the not so cold see, however it was still very refreshing, I swam, splashed around and lay on the waters edge basking in the sun. After a few hours of tanning, swimming and reading I decided to go for a walk down the main street in Jomtien. The sea front running a good 2-3 miles from end to end, its lined with 7/11's on every corner, countless pharmacies, restaurants, ATM's and bars, though the latter not being that many, as i mentioned earlier this was the quieter part of Pattaya, and as i was to find out the following day, much quieter and i am glad I was staying at this end of Pattaya. It was walking around I noticed something quite strange, the whole of Russia was here!!! Looking back at my time on the beach everyone was Russian. The men, usually with beer belly's and short haircuts wearing the tightest budgie smuggling speedo's and the women, even though not always attractive all had great legs and toned torso's (and 9/10 times great rack's). I have nothing against Russian's and i am sorry if any are reading but they all come across as very rude, this maybe due to the fact that they speak no English, never mind any other language. This would explain that all the shops in Pattaya having additional signs in Russian, dedicated travel shops just for Russians, run by Russians and all menu's written in Thai, English and Russian, all the places i have been i have never seen this, usually the local language and English for the foreigners, but to have a dedicated Russian section?!?!? It really is 'liitle Russia' here or just as most cities have 'chinatown' Pattaya has a 'RussiaTown'. The second thing i noticed walking round was the amount of old men, mostly English but also lots of other nationalities, now in fairness there weren't as many here as there would be in central Pattaya, which I visited the following day but their was a lot. Of course they are here for one thing, a Thai girlfriend or bride. Again i am sorry to any readers that maybe older with Thai girlfriends but i find this revolting, OK that's a strong word, embarrassing maybe, its just wrong! However of course the Thai women bring it on themselves and encourage it, they want the wealthy white men who will give them what they want, dope over them and buy them gifts, even if they are well into their 50's, huge beer belly's and do nothing but visit gogo bars looking for a young 20yr old to have sex with, The men get sucked in, they go home back to England with their new Thai girlfriend waiting back in Thailand for them to return.. so they think, of course they are not waiting for them, they are waiting for money to be sent and gifts but not for them and as soon as another middle age rich white man shows them attention the poor besotted, loved up beer drinking Brit is forgotten. I heard one such story from an Irish guy in a bar, he had given over nearly 10K for various things over a 6month period, sending it while he was back in Ireland, just before his next visit to Thailand, she called and said she had met another foreigner, i thought this shaven headed, 22ST man in is late 40's was going to burst into tears telling me, I thought 'what a surprise and were you really that gullible?' the answer of course yes, he still comes 3 times a year looking for his Thai beauty. All this said, from what I can gather, some of them do work out but only usually when their ages are similar, that's fair enough, however when when there is a almost 40 year age gap, I really just think its a bit sick but each to their own and its not effecting my life, these of course are just MY opinions.
After a wonder round i headed back to the hostel, feeling hot and sticky and having walked a good mile or so i decided to jump into one of the local 'Baht buses'. These are really cool, there 'cattle' like trucks with the driver sat in a cab, an open back with a roof which has cushioned benches either side. To get off there a number of buzzers, which are just in effect door bells which indicates to the driver you want to get off, you can press any time and the driver will stop there an then (as long as safe of course). There are 2 standard charges 10 and 20 baht and for 20 baht that will get you well into central Pattaya which is around 20mins away, less than 50p, on getting off you just poke your money through the window. I really love the way this works and they are in plenty, running from around 7am to 1am, though during the week times may vary. Back at the hostel, i just relaxed and read my book which i am whizzing through, i decided I'd find a book store the following day. At around 7ish myself and 'Bram' who I am currently sharing with decided to head for some food. Bram, from the Netherlands's is 20 and has only been in Thailand a week, he actually got deported from Japan. He had been working their for 9months and left to visit South Korea, he returned to Japan this time no problem, he then left again and visited Singapore, on his return to Japan he unfortunately got caught by Immigration as, as a foreigner your not allowed to leave and return within a year. On being deported he decided to come to Thailand. We found a restaurant on the main street, this was a more commercial place and not one of the local back street places, meaning that food was more expensive. This was Bram's first try of local cuisine and from what he said, really enjoyed it. We had a few beers and chatted all the while on a huge TV screen played, quite loudly a Westlife concert, how very random!!! The only thing i could think is that the Russian contingency loved a bit of Westlife, as apart from a Thai couple we were surrounded by our Russian friends. We didn't stay too late and headed back on the way picking up some chicken on stick from a street vendor. I feel now that this will be the way forward, eating from street vendors, and as i had done for lunch local backstreet Thai places, as much as the restaurant myself and Bram went to was nice food, it wasn't a large portion and 3 times the price of my earlier lunch.
Saturday 22nd - I didn't sleep well again that night, i think it was the mattress and my back was in agony. Unable to sleep i was up at 5.30am, not wanting to wake Bram and Mick up i grabbed my laptop and book and headed down the communal area. At 7am breakfast could be ordered, i ordered a full breakfast, which consisted of double egg on 2 toast, a raison of bacon (if you could call it that) orange juice and tea, followed by a rather large portion of red watermelon, for £2 you couldn't complain. I read some more and then headed for the beach, i felt a little rough due to my allergies and i knew a swim in the cool morning sea would help no end, it of course did. Not wanting to stay too long in Russia's version of Benidorm I needed to move on, I decided i was going to visit Koh Chang, Thailand's 3rd biggest island, located on the Thai east, 310KM from Bangkok. The cheapest way to get there would be by minibus, a 4hour journey to a place called Trat, which is on the coast and then an hour ferry from there to Koh Chang. Many travel places offered taxi services but there didn't seem to be many travel places in Jomtien, even with the 2mile stretch and 100's of shops, the one's that i did find were all Russian. This meant i needed to head to Pattaya central, the hub of Pattaya with hundreds if not thousands of bars. Of course this brought the 'white' man, and of all ages. The bars are a mixture of Go, Go bars, massage parlours (of course with the option of extras I'm sure), strip clubs, ping pong shows and somewhere I am sure just your normal bar. So after the beach i headed back to the hotel to change, Mick was in and also said he'd come along for a wonder round and said he would show Pattaya's most popular road 'walking Street'. We jumped on a Bhat bus and arrived in central after 30mins. Early afternoon only and this place was already busy, i couldn't imagine it later in the evening. We wondered round and i enquired about getting to koh Chang, prices all about the same, BHT600-700, i needed to check on accommodation before i booked transport but now i had an idea. We wondered round, at this time go , go bars and the like were not yet getting going, however massage parlours were lively, with 5-6 eager Thai women outside each shouting, 'hello' or 'massage' and my favourite 'you wanna feel good' over and over, you dare not even look in their direction, one glance and that meant you were interested, you were like a fish on the end of a hook who has just taken the bait, they would try and reel you in, i must admit alot of them are stunning but even if i was inclined to pay for a massage with a happy ending from one of these whore houses, how can I guarantee I'm not going to get a 5'oclock shadow, shovel hands and an Adams apple as big as a golf ball!!?!??!!?
So we found a bar and had a couple of drinks. It was here i realised it looked like i was with my dad. Mick, 52 from Preston, has also taken a 6month sabbatical and travelling the world. So with his age and me looking 10 years younger myself, it looked like a father and son outing. Anyway, Mick is a good bloke, well travelled and up for a laugh. we weren't going to stay out long anyway, that as always with me and most people i am sure did not turn out to be the case, a few hours later its 5pm and we have already had a few. we left the bar we were in and headed for food. By now the area was getting busy, here there were alot more foreigners other than Russians and mainly English, over 50 and over weight, of course this didn't stop the Thai girls who swarmed them like flies. We had food and played pool in a local bar, luckily not getting hassled, I was at first a little put out to why they were not flocking round me, it then dawned on me that I was too good looking, too intelligent and I would know their game!!! of course I was too young and hadn't collected my pension yet either. Mick took me down walking street, this really was something 'special', during the evening closed to cars the 20ft wide street is rammed with tourists, go go girls, prostitutes, ping pong touts, massage touts and of course Russians. It was Koh San road times a 1000. There were some decent bars and we found one playing live music, they were actually pretty good, soon enough i was on whiskeys, Oh dear was this going to be another 'koh san road' night??? Thankfully it wasn't, no disrespect to Mick but we are different ages and conversation was being had but it certainly wasn't free flowing. By the time we left we were both quite drunk, Mick actually more than me. We passed a street vendor so i stopped to look. I shortly was about to be eating locust and frogs legs! I had never seen them in Thailand before never mind tasted them, as they say 'when in Rome' and I am up for trying anything. They actually tasted of nothing apart from some flavourings the vendor put in, they were deep fried and crunchy when ate. I was a little hesitant but only by the look of them, i sucked it up and chomped down, pretty good. I was soon joking around walking with one hanging half out my mouth, I got some funny looks. We jumped on the Baht bus and headed back to the hostel. We got off a little early and decided on one last drink, we found an outside hotel bar and had a couple more before heading back to the 'bed of death', surprisingly i slept well, the 10 or so whiskeys maybe??? It hadn't been a really cheap night, prices on Walking Street are bumped up, even the bars in the surrounding streets charged more, however in the grand scheme of things I think back to my Aussie night out with Kate, for what i paid in 1 night there i could have had the same 3 I had in Pattaya.
Sunday 23rd (today) Woke early as always and felt pretty good. I headed straight out and had breakfast at a local restaurant.I had searched out some hostels on Koh Chang before leaving and was happy i had one in mind. I now needed to book the minivan for tomorrow morning. I headed back to central Pattaya and found a place for BHT600, 500 for minivan and BHT100 for ferry from Trat to Koh Chang, bargain and booked myself on. I would even get picked up from the hostel at 7.30am, result!!! I headed back to Jotien, happy that all was sorted apart from hostel, i promptly rang the hostel i had seen when i got back to my current hostel and they confirmed me in for 3 nights from Monday 24th. All now definitely sorted i headed to the beach and sea to chill. I am now back at the Hostel writing this, i will head for some street vendor food soon before relaxing and starting my new book, 'The backpacker' yes very cliche but is a true story and about Thailand, again when in Rome. My previous book 'Into the Amazon' now donated to Bram to save space in my bag, was good and for those who like a good travel read, i would recommend it.
One last thing, i decided i was carrying too much luggage and with Island hopping on the agenda for the next few weeks, thought it was a good idea to loose some of the load, I am now minus some Tshirts, a shirt, a 2 pairs of shorts and some socks! Should be a little lighter, however i did buy 'Chang Beer' Tshirt today!!!
That's all for now folks, thanks for reading and hope you are all keeping well.
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