tales from thailand: Pattaya

December 10th is Constitution Day in Thailand, so we had a long weekend to enjoy after a short week. This teaching thing is pretty easy when you never have school! Before I talk about our long weekend (which was interesting to say the least..) I have to mention that I have officially been here 2 months as of December 10th. It definitely evoked some mixed feelings for me, I cannot believe how fast my time here is flying by but at the same time it seems strange to think I still have 4 months away from home. I have had twangs of homesickness from time to time because the Holidays are my favorite time of year and I am sad to be missing out on my favorite traditions; decorating the tree, solstice!!, and of course, CAROLING! So I just want to say that even though I am across the world, I am thinking of all of my friends and family everyday! I miss everyone so much, so promise me that Christmas 2013 will be filled with doubled amounts of holly and jolly! I still have so much to look forward to here in Thailand (like our trip to Phuket!!!) and I am so thankful for this experience.

That being said, our trip to Pattaya was certainly not my favorite. We decided relatively last minute where we wanted to travel to for the long weekend, so we booked the hostel on a whim and decided to spend the night in Bangkok on Friday for a friend's birthday. Bangkok was really fun, but the 8:45 AM alarm to rise and roast at the beach was not quite as enjoyable. Between hangovers, traffic, and the fact that it was a long weekend, we didn't end up arriving at Pattaya until after 5 pm (what should have been a 3 hour journey took all day)! After a long, long day of traveling I was excited to shower and relax at the hostel. Boy was I mistaken. When we arrived, the room was filled with previous guests' toiletries and half drunken water bottles. The woman who showed us to our room realized the sheets were still dirty so she took them off in front of us and left the dirty ones on a chair. The bathroom was really bad, filled with buckets of old water and mud covering the floor. We went downstairs to see how everyone else was feeling about the place, and when we returned to our room, there were ants everywhere. I am not a high maintenance person- but this was not okay with me. Alexis, Faith, and I decided we couldn't sleep there and we booked a nice hotel located on another beach.

After a process to find the hotel, we arrived to our clean haven of a hotel. Our room had a balcony overlooking the pool, and our shower had its own area in the bathroom!! After showering, it was the cleanest I have felt in Thailand since my arrival. The next day, we woke up early to hit the beach. When I read online that Pattaya was a popular Russian destination I didn't register just how many Russians there would be at the beach. The signs on restaurants were in Thai and Russian- and all of the tourist places tried speaking to me in Russian.

The beach itself was very narrow and very crowded. There was garbage floating in the water from the restaurants along the beach and the Thai vendors on the beach were very aggressive with their bed sheets and sweet corn, none of which I wanted to purchase while trying to sunbathe... After a few hours of an awkward attempt to enjoy the beach, it started to get cloudy so returned to the hotel to enjoy the pool. Ah clean water!! It was so refreshing and relaxing.

Sunday night we decided to visit the famous Walking Street in Pattaya. In most cities/towns in Thailand, a walking street is a tourist destination to buy souvenirs, enjoy local Thai food, and visit outdoor bars. In Pattaya, the "sin city" of Thailand, walking street means strippers, sex shows, and hookers. There was similar memorabilia for sale at all of the markets along the street, and everyone was just trying to make a buck- ripping tourists off like I have never seen. Taxis refused to use meters... I took a photo of a monkey on the street and a man chased me down demanding 100 baht!! The whole place had a very strange vibe and while at first the whole thing was very fascinating, after a few hours I became very disturbed and depressed by the whole place and we decided to head back to the comfort of our hotel. Our last day in Pattaya was enjoyed pool-side at our hotel.

Overall, Pattaya was my least favorite destination so far. After looking at pictures of trips to Koh Chang and Dolphin's Bay, I realized that we chose the wrong place for a relaxing beach weekend. Oh well, you live and learn and now we have some very interesting stories to share from Pattaya. Next stop: Phuket!!!! Alexis, Faith and I are traveling to Kata and Patong beaches in Phuket to celebrate Christmas and New Years on the beach! Very excited for our 10 day vacation.

Happy Holidays from Thailand!!