I felt so invigorated I decided that I'd go for an early morning dip.
The outside temperature was 35°C and the water didn't feel that much cooler, but it was wet.
A big cup of coffee from our "enough coffee for Africa" stockpile followed.
Given our lazy day yesterday we really wanted to go out for a walk so we went to the Big C on the outskirts of Cha Am.
It's only 1.6 km! We recalled the first day we were here and our walk to the Big C.
We were neither used to the midday sun nor did we know where we were going, both of which made the trip feel much longer than it did today, which we now consider a short stroll.
Beer here is an entirely different matter. It's good and it's cheap
Tiz and Lee at the beginning of the celebrations of the beach road which leads to Walking Street
Tiz enjoying a Mai Tai. I'm told it was very good. I think she meant "strong" ๐
We were neither used to the midday sun nor did we know where we were going, both of which made the trip feel much longer than it did today, which we now consider a short stroll.
I took the 3 pics above mainly for my mate Greg, as a bit of a laugh, as I know he doesn't think very much of trikes nor little slow bikes.
They do have their uses though, such as this cut little unit, which I liked.
Tiz and I like tuna, a lot, but the quality of the Thai stuff is pretty low, even if it is cheap
Our shop for today. Fruit for lunch, small containers of skim milk for Tiz and some soap.
~AUD 8
This was lunch. A fruit salad containing guava, banana, mangosteen and mango with Farmers Union yoghurt, from Australia, which had "a hint of honey", yes that's what it said on the container, and the durian flesh leftover from the other day.
Delicious and refreshing.
We left for the ferry at ~2pm.
This is the view down the almost deserted highway though the tinted front windscreen.
Thais tint their glass, including the front windscreens, so dark you can barely see through it.
Yes, it's a tunnel. You can't not take a picture of a tunnel even if you have no idea why it's there.
A utilitarian little scooter with stacked sidecar on the highway
Tiz and Lee enjoy a drink at the Sit Down and Drink Bar, yes, that it's name,
down by the ferry terminal in Hua Hin
This bar area is enormous, and clean
With a beach to match
They even have a resident cowboy
I was taking a pic of the ferry and the terminal and this photo bomber appeared!
The ferry is like a super wide super spacious plane,
complete with fold down tray and complimentary water
Tiz and Lee enjoying the comfort
They even have hostess' that will take a pic for you
Ferry terminal in Pattaya
Sunset as we walk off the jetty
The ferry as we look back
Our first view of Pattaya
This was our route to get here from Cha Am to Pattaya
What happened next was ... interesting, and needs context. Our friend Som had warned us not to take a cab from the rank at the terminal as they are notorious for ripping people off.
Tiz had already seen to this by downloading and using Grab, the SE Asian version of Uber.
We were aware that these ride apps were problematic in some countries, in the sense that local cab drivers dislike the app and its drivers. Disliked to the point that they were violent, in some cases, towards the drivers.
We had walked towards the end of the cab queue and about 50 metres beyond and called a Grab car.
After about 5 minute the car arrived and we jumped in.
All of a sudden there were three locals, obviously cabbies, flinging the door open and yelling at the driver.
The arguing went on for about five minutes and one of the aggrieved cabbies asked me "Taxi?!", probably trying to intimidate me to which I responded "NO TAXI! NO TAXI!". I then grabbed my door and firmly pulled it shut.
The young driver was outnumbered but gave as good as he got and eventually we left without any violence, which I had been sure was going to happen.
Thai on Thai street violence is one thing, and usually gets sorted out quite quickly. But, if you throw a falang into the mix it takes on a whole new level of "stink", which I really didn't want to be part of.
After we drove for a while I asked him if he was OK and he answered in broken English that he was. He explained we should have left the port area before using the Grab app.
If you use Grab or Uber or Lift be aware of "cabbies" zones but also that they are fiercely protective of their industry to the point of violence in some countries.
Personally, I have no love for the taxi industry in general and the only country I enjoy using them is Japan.
In my experience, in almost every other country, they are generally dishonest, unreliable, poor value with even poorer service.
We checked in to the Travelodge, a really nice place and then walked down to the Walking Street.
We had been told that Songkran was being celebrated in Pattaya
but we never expected what we found
A little further along and it gets rowdier AND wetter
The rowdiness and amount of water has stepped up quite a few notches
The beginning of Walking Street proper is here
Beyond that point it gets VERY LOUD & WET
We opted to do a right hand turn into the Pattaya Beer Garden for dinner.
You access the the place by walking through an open area full of small bars with a Muay Thai boxing ring, and fights being held, in the middle of it.
The bars have every conceivable type of human being sitting there from kids eating icecreams as their mothers ply for business, guys "on the make" with bar girls, lonely falangs slowly drinking themselves into a coma, big "jungled juiced" heavies in tight singlets and snapback caps on backwards showing off their unnatural physiques, way too gorgeous to be real 3rd genders, an enormous white guy getting "seven shades of shit" kicked and punched out of him by a skinny little Muay Thai boxer in the ring, lots of characters that just ooze a suspect vibe and everything else in between.
At this point I need to admit that although I really didn't want to come to Pattaya this simple yet fascinatingly complex scene with its mish mash of humanity really fascinated me.
All of this and we hadn't even made it to the Walking Street proper.
I am a convert BUT I also am aware that this place is like crack. Enough said.
Below are a series of pics taken from the beer garden as we were having dinner.
I will put a note with the ones that need it. The others should be obvious.
Spring rolls, dim sims, fish cakes and dipping sauce
Pork chop and vegies, a whole deep fried fish and chilli pork.
There is a little bowl with red and white stuff in it, near the centre of the pic.
The contents, although tasty, were strong enough to create an intense burn on eating it.
The bill was ~AUD 30 each, which was incredibly good value for incredibly good food
The three pics above are taken at the entrance to Walking Street.
The partying beyond this point is hard to describe.
I thought I had had my partying days and they had been hardcore,
but this crowd made me feel like I'd lived the life of a monk.
It was great to see and the joy is infectious.
We're on our way back to the Travelodge here and we're hoping to make it back without getting a complete drenching, which is all part of Songkran.
We got drenched and also got a lot of the white face paste, which is made of talcum powder and water, smeared on our faces.
It is a sign of protection and promises to ward off bad luck.
It is put on respectfully and with our permission.
A BIG BIG day and one full of wonderful surprises!
Ciao ciao
๐๐๐
Geez walking street sounded interesting. You are right about cabs. In Vietnam they tried to charge my brother $15USD for a trip that was 3 minutes walk.
ReplyDeleteWe're going back to Pattaya in a couple of weeks and that will allow us to see the "real" Walking Street.
ReplyDeleteAs a complete flip from my past views on the place, I'm quite looking forward to it.
The sad fact of what happened to your brother is that it's not uncommon, and, from all the travellers we speak to, it's becoming more common.
In HCMC we experienced the "nhรขn ฤรดi" (doubling) switch, reserved for westerners, on a VND 15k trip we had done a few times, which magically turned it into VND 30K!!
And when I called the guy out on it he got very vocal and agitated.
He got VND 15k for the trip, despite his yelling and screaming.
Georgia has decided to "pull up stumps" in Vietnam, as she says it has gotten to be just a bit much after four years of life there with these types of "quirks", which include many "western taxes", a euphemism for ripping off foreigners.