Jon's Thailand Blog

This weekend we decided to get out of Bangkok once again and headed down to Pattaya, about 3 hours southeast of Bangkok. Pattaya is by far one of the most mindblowingly weird and wild places I have ever been. Known world wide as an extremely stereotypical tourist destination, Pattaya’s other claim to fame is the ridiculous amount of prostitution and escort services. We got into the city after dark, and walked around for a while trying to find a place to stay, avoiding the numerous bar/guesthouses that one can rent by the hour. We finally found a hostel that had enough room for us and went out to see the town.

As we walked down “Walking Street”, the main drag of the city, there were several bars that had several girls, or probably more accurately several “lady boys”, calling out “welcome! welcome!”, panning for money. Several “girls” were already occupied with some lonely soul. The maze of street shops and vendors was also more extensive than anything we had seen before. Shop after shop selling pretty much the same array of knockoff goods and cheesy souvenirs were all placed conveniently between the restaurants, bars and clubs.

One of Dylan’s friends, Andrew, lives about 20 minutes outside of Pattaya, and he came down that night to meet us and show us around the city. After a decent meal at an Irish pub, where we all ordered the cheaper Thai food, we followed Andrew two a few of the more legitimate bars and clubs he knew of (ones not blatantly selling sex). It was a blast hanging out with everyone. At one of the clubs we actually saw a two-man rap cover band. Apparently anything goes in Pattaya.

The next day we went out on a large boat to one of the nearby islands. The beach was absolutely beautiful and the water was warm and crystal clear. It would have been truly amazing had there not been the obscene amount of tourists (I suppose we counted as well). I’m really looking forward to heading further south and finding even more stunning beaches that are a bit more secluded.

One of the really weird things that we continued to notice more and during our weekend there was the number of old white men with young Thai girls, essentially being paid to be their girlfriend during their stay. This was a far cry from the “normal” form of sex prostitution that is simply for physical services. It seemed that here these girls were performing emotional services as well, holding the man’s hand, rubbing his back, both looking both board and awkward. It was really a very bizarre social dynamic. What was even stranger was that many of these men had a friend or two with him, each with their own girl.

The second night, Abby's ex-boyfriend's parents, who live in Pattaya, took us all out for a delicious seafood dinner. The highlight of the second night was definitely the ice bar called “-5°”. The bar was completely made of ice: bar, tables, chairs, shotglasses, even the floor was a slippery layer of ice. It was 500baht for 30 minutes inside with unlimited drinks, although it soon became apparent that the vodka they were serving, as they could only serve hard alcohol because anything else would freeze, was mostly water. The really cool thing was that when you took a shot you slammed the ice shotglass on the ground, watching it shatter everywhere. By the time 30 minutes were up we were all really cold, despite our sweet parkas, and really do get back out to the Thailand heat.

We headed back on Sunday, and all headed out to Kao Sarn Road that night for my 21^st birthday. Although it didn’t really mean a whole lot legally turning 21 in Thailand, it was still a blast regardless. Brian even bought me a grasshopper and maggots for my birthday dinner. It was great to spend my birthday here with everyone, and I feel that I can really trust everyone here too look out for each other and me. Monday night we all went out for my official birthday dinner, and then I was surprised with a cake and candles that night when we all got back. It was a fitting end to a really fun weekend.