Thailand II - A Second Look at the Land of Smiles

 As Ramadan ended, I was glad to get out of Qatar for a week's holiday and away from the restrictions of Ramadan and the intense heat. Now, if you've been reading this blog all along, you might remember me saying that one of the greatest perks in living and working in Qatar was the generous holidays we are given. My plan is to visit much of Asia while I'm here. I actually have made up a list of places I want to visit ... my bucket list, if you like. So why consecutive trips to Thailand?

Well, my thinking went like this ... every place I have on the list is intriguing, and they are places I definitely want to travel to, but would I enjoy myself as much as I did on my first trip to Thailand? I actually couldn't imagine how any place could compete ... there are over 3,000 bars in Pattaya. How can one week be enough? I still plan on making those other journeys ... just not this time.

My destination once again was Pattaya, only this time I booked a much nicer place. Last time I stayed in a three-star hotel, which was conveniently located, clean, had good service and was very inexpensive ... OK, it was cheap ($30 /night). This time I splurged and spent $70/night ... still very cheap by western standards, but a giant step up from my previous accommodation.

 It is called the Rabbit Resort, and don't read anything into the name. First off, it is located in Jomtien Beach, not in downtown Pattaya where the night action is. It is like paradise on the beach, with two beautiful pools, a great restaurant, a large room complete with kitchen and flat screen TV, and it had orchids on the pillows every day when I returned to it. The surroundings make one think that you are in a rain forest with narrow brick pathways winding throughout the resort (rabbit runs?). And still, the nightlife is only a ten minute baht bus ride away.

Probably the main reason I returned to Thailand was not because of the tropical paradise that it is, but because of the wonderful Thai people. They constantly smile and will strike up a conversation with you if you only make eye contact. On one baht bus trip into Pattaya, this very beautiful girl was telling me how she wanted to buy a pair of cowboy boots that were in the window of a shop we passed ... not your usual start-up conversation. This led to some drinks in a couple of bars in Pattaya and a fun time with lots of chatting and laughing as we got to know each other more. Things didn't turn out as I thought they would though, because this very pretty and entertaining girl turned out not to be a girl at all ... OK, you tell the difference.

Pattaya's Walking Street is world famous, and although I mentioned it in my previous blog about my first visit to Thailand, it bears (bares?) another look.

It is worth the walk to just go and see it at night when it is packed with people from many countries taking it all in, and there is a lot to take in. It is filled with exotic go-go bars, beer bars, show bars, German bars, Irish bars, yada, yada ... with the odd restaurant thrown in, in case you work up an appetite ... for food.

It is difficult not to be drawn into the bars because every one of them have girls beckoning you to enter and enjoy yourself.  You will have no problem finding friendly company to go with your Singha beer.

After a night out on the town, what better way to relax than by the Rabbit Resort pool sipping a cool drink. It's either that or on the beach, but that's at least another 20 metres to have to walk.

This is a Buddhist shrine, and you'll literally find them everywhere in Thailand. There are large ornate public shrines, small yard shrines like this one, and small interior house shrines. Every morning when I walked by this shrine in the resort, it had fresh food and water lined up in bowls with flowers and burning incense beside them.

I found a new food that I enjoyed very much ... it's called a pomelo ... the Thais call it 'some oh', and I call it 'awe some'. It tastes like a sweet, mild grapefruit - it has very little or none of the common grapefruit's bitterness, and it's huge ... about 20 cm in diameter. They sell them on the beach prepared like you see in the picture, so all you have to do is pick up a section and munch away ... it's probably even good for you.

The week went by too fast, as is often the case with holidays, but I feel that I made the right decision to return to Thailand for my second holiday. The thing is ... what the heck am I going to do for my next holiday?