Baisden Visits Pattaya (September) –
‘Good
boys go to Heaven; Bad ones go to Pattaya’
Welcome to the first post of my travel blog guys. It’s a long read bear with me we’ll get to the saucy parts of my Journey later.
When people ask me my favourite country, which is at least three times a week, my standard answer is usually “Thailand”. Love Thailand, love it! Having many friends from the country it was always my mission to visit the country and see as much of it as I could for myself.
I’d had lots of people recommend the Asian experience to me when they found out how much I enjoyed Thai food and culture, so I took it upon myself to book a flight with two mates and head off to Bangkok.
We literally had no idea what we were to expect, but how bad could it be? The only warnings we’d had was ‘Beware of the lady boys’.
I was certain I wouldn’t get abducted by any lady boys so I was more excited about the sun, fun and cultural experience.
After a 6,000-mile flight from London Gatwick and 11 hour nap I woke to find myself in Bangkok. Nothing special, just another city to be honest filled with people and smog from vehicles on the major motorways. I was happy to finally be in the sun after coming from a luke warm London in September.
We made our way straight for the City of Pattaya, renowned for its clubs, bars, excursions and beautiful women… well I hoped they were women.
The first thing I noticed was how welcoming everyone was, from the taxi driver, hotel concierge to the restaurant and bar owners. Literally everyone has a smile and bows there head when they greet you. Not wanting to be rude I was curious what it meant and how I should respond as I didn’t want to offend. The people In Thailand are genuinely very calm, humble and kind. They appreciate all cultures and anyone who brings business to their country is more than welcome. As long as you abide by their rules and traditions everything would be fine, you almost feel a heavenly sensation of inner peace everywhere you go.
After visiting a number of popular local restaurants, I decided my favourite food dish was roasted duck, sticky rice and a side of Pad Thai noodles. Mmm… I felt like I’d died and gone to heaven, you can probably already tell I’m a bit of a foodie.
The Thai people are not huge on Breakfast so don’t expect eggs, bacon and sausage in the morning, it’s noodles! The clubs are nothing to scream about, apart from the dancing girls and hyper Dj’s the music is very modern, they don’t tend to mix up the flow. Being an R&B man myself I was disappointed with the constant Pop, Rap and Movie theme type songs (my sister would have loved the latter!)
The Hotels were beautiful inside and you really got a good night’s sleep knowing there was a 24-hour security guard downstairs. We had an indoor pool, balcony and queen sized beds which all worked out to roughly £10 a night to stay… wow!
The nightlife was amazing, you could literally leave your room at 1am and the clubs wouldn’t have even started yet. If you managed to escape the party the streets are littered with Europeans, Americans and locals.
Although partying is all fun and great, my journey would have to take me somewhere else, so I decided to plan ahead while my mates raved and got drunk for the first two nights. I booked us flights from Bangkok to the Island of Ko Samui, paid around £150 each return. I’d been tipped off that the Moon party was taking place in 3 days and we “can’t miss it”
Prior to the big Moon Party, we took in all that Thailand had to offer with excursions such as visiting the tigers, riding elephants a visit to the local Buddha Shrine and Temple and had the most fun testing out our stamina at Pattaya’s version of the Total Wipeout Course. All I can say is it’s not as easy as it looks when your sat at home on the sofa!
The Elephant ride around ‘The Sanctuary of Truth’ was probably my favourite emotional experience of the vacation. These magnificent creatures were terrifying and also so gentle at the same time, id never touched or been around any animal so huge.
The ride was smelly, rough, knee scraping and fly swatting, and I loved every second of it!
The elephants walked a distance around the Sanctuary temple, an incredible shrine to the Hindu and Buddha religious beliefs in Thailand. After going inside I spent over 2 hours alone taking images and reading up on the history of the religions, what they have in common and what exactly they mean to the people.
After landing on the remote Island of Ko Samui, we got a tuk tuk bus to the beach around midnight not knowing what to expect. The streets were literally bulging with people of all ages from all over the world. The girls were half naked with glow in the dark paint all over their bodies. Silly me, I wore my best white shirt and shoes to this place! The party spread down about a 2 mile stretch of the beach filled with food, fun and flames. There were a handful of fire jugglers, fire rope jumpers and hoola hoop fire dancers casually strolling around trying not to burn the drunk Europeans falling over themselves. It was great fun, I managed to get myself a slice of Pizza and lose my friends 3 times in an hour.
We got back to the hotel the next day and prepared to head back to Pattaya where we would chill out before the long flight back to London.
I know there’s going to be a few disappointed readers who would have loved to hear the saucy bits, there are obviously a few details I couldn’t disclose in this blog about our journey, but the good thing is we saw some the country, the culture and landmarks and showed our respects. Thailand is definitely somewhere I would like to return to very soon.
I will be interested to see how other Asian countries compare to Thailand. This was truly one place I truly felt blessed to be alive to have tried the most delicious dishes and seen the most amazing sights.
Baisden