Asian backpacker

This will be my second time in Pattaya. The first time everything was still new and I was still eager to discover and go sightseeing. I even went diving during my first visit! This time it was all about chilling and relaxing. I didn’t plan anything and just went with the flow of things. One of the reasons I keep coming back is because Pattaya is so close to Bangkok and you have the water and beach right near the hotel. Everything is in walking distance and if you want to escape the heat you can just go hide in the different malls along beach road. This time I made sure to try different restaurants as last year we mostly stuck to Asian food places. This time we tried out some dessert places along with Bon Chon! It’s by far the best fried chicken I had! Those Koreans sure know how to marinate their chickenwings! Nightlife wise, we checked out the infamous Hollywood club. A very popular club mainly visited by locals and Asian tourists. The music is different from what you would expect in other bars and clubs. It’s got a live band all night long pretty much with cheesy Thai songs and some cover songs. Be sure to check it out even if it’s not your thing. The set-up is also kinda different as well. People get a table with the drinks on it and some seats, and just dance around the drinks pretty much. The main focus is drinking and dancing comes second while in other places it’s usually the other way around.   Each year I also try to find a hotel with good location and great value for money. I tried the same this year, but kinda failed. Greg took a look at the room and decided that this place was not at all what it looked like on the pictures and it was run down and smelly and no elevator to the 4th floor. It was pain. So we checked in, put down our luggage and looked for some alternative options over dinner. We found this place not too far and similar price and went to check out the availability. They only had 2 suites left for the night, but the next day some standard rooms would be available. Greg didn’t hesitate and dished out to get the rooms. I moved after the first night and Greg just stayed in the suite living like a king, eventhough it was still cheap by European standards. Small detail though. The hotel was located in the middle of Boyz Town, the gay area of Pattaya. On both sides of road there were massage places and cabaret shows by guys for guys mainly. It was odd to get cat calls from people and I truely understand what girls have to go through every day. 🙁 They had some guys playbacking Madonna, Adele and of course Celine Dion and Tina Turner. It was interesting to see them on the street when we made our way to the hotel.

Koh Larn

I lied, I wasn’t being completely lazy. I took a day trip to Koh Larn with my friend Palida. It was her first time to Koh Larn as well, but she’s been to Pattaya before. We actually left pretty late and it was already past noon by the time we got on the boat. We only managed to stay about 2-3 hours before we had to catch the last boat back to the mainland. After arrival we took the songthaew to Tawaen beach if I recall correctly. We bought some fruits and snacks and drinks before heading there and just dipped our feet in the water for a bit and chilled. The beaches looked much nicer than the ones in Pattaya and I wished we came a bit earlier for a nice swim. Afterwards we slowly walked back to the pier as we saw some nice view points on the way. We stopped by the big golden Buddha on the highest point of the island and the view was pretty neat! You could see all around the island from up here. The walk back wasn’t particularly exciting but it’s still nice to walk around and take in the sights and atmosphere at a slower pace. You tend to notice the little things a lot more. Once we got back, we got stampede by groups of Chinese tourists (again). Apparently some big shot CEO of a Chinese company gifted his employees with a trip to Pattaya. All 12700 of them! Again it was nice to come back to Pattaya again, visit the live bars we enjoyed last time, the good variety of local and international food and of course the good vibes! Oh, we also had the most badass bus driver to Pattaya. He’s had a pretty rough past judging from the picture next to his seat.