Pattaya

Pattaya is a seaside town about 2hrs from Bangkok. I'm quite impressed by the fact that we get a private car to take us there.



Arrived at Hard Rock hotel which is about 3 years old now. The lobby is quite well done with music memorabilia. But... when we got to our room... YUCK!!

The room has orange walls and big posters of Michael Jackson and some other chick above... Ewwwww. It's also a very small room!!



We are right in the centre of everything, just across the road from the beach and the hotel has a huge pool/recreation area. It was good to lounge by the pool in the arvo.



It poured on our first night in Pattaya so we ate buffet in the hotel. Met a really cool waitress called Ann... who introduced us to her 'girlfriend' who was actually a guy... but she calls him that cos he's gay. Was really funny cos we had live entertainment that night - 4 guys who come around to your table and serenade you wtih any song you request (as long as it's old!). Ann's friend, Joke (pronounced 'jock') decided to go around dancing everywhere - guess you had to be there. The musicians came around to our table but we didnt know any songs to request so eventually they were able to play us a Michael Learns to Rock song! YAY!



8th September - Our second last day in Thailand was spent looking for last minute things. Daph was finally able to find something for her dad. Lazing by the pool in the arvo was really good!!

Was supposed to go out on the town tonight but we were too tired and decided to do something quieter instead. Pity cos daph really wanted to go see the lady-boys at 'hollywood' which is one of the most popular clubs in pattaya.



9th September - we go home today... a 2 1/2 hr trip to the airport then a 9 hr plane ride back to sydney. We werent so lucky with the seating this time cos the plane was totally full on the way back. And daph wasnt so lucky with sleeping this time either..... hahaah. but at least the person we were sitting next to was quite nice and not stinky!!

It's kinda nice to be back... own bed... home!!!

Shopping again...

Visited the Bangkok gems factory today. Daph wanted to buy everything.

I'm very picky so didnt see much i liked. Square cut isnt that popular (I wonder why cos I reckon it looks stylish but that might just be me)



Got back to our hotel room and Daph's first comments were - "can we go buy more shoes now?" lol

We did go shopping again... I think i'm all shoed out now...



Daph still hasnt found her digital camera... or one with a price she's willing to pay. We did go an visit a mall that was all electronics this arvo.



Just had dinner. The food is cheap but the portions arent that big. You'd get at least double in sydney. We just ordered won ton soup at a little coffee shop... what we got... two ton! hahahah...

It was quite small... Daph's comment is that Les would have to order 4 or 5 dishes to be full.

Shopping in Bangkok

We shopped in 6 malls today!!! (7 including the one that joins our hotel)

Daph is still trying to find a digital camera.

She also bought her first pair of shoes. YAY!!! Now she's really starting to get obsessed with shoes....



NOTE TO SELF: NEVER shop for shoes in Asian countries with Daph!!

I'll explain - see everything fits me here so when Daph sees something she likes, she makes me try it on first. If she likes the way it looks on then she'll ask for her size.



Mainly bought CD's today. After shopping around I finally found a shop that has the new Michael Learns to Rock CD. I was getting desperate cos i cant buy it in Aust. Also got The Calling's latest CD that hadnt come out in Aust when I left. YAY!! They're my fav band!

Bangkok - day 6

We went on a tour of Ayuthya which is the ancient capital of thailand.

waking up at 6am to go on tour was extremely painful (even tho it's only 9am in aust).

First stop by bus was the summer palace. the king of thailand and his family go there in the summer to get away from the palace in bangkok. the grounds are quite beautiful but i really liked the architecture - there are many buildings with different influences - the british and chinese buildings were the nicest.



The second stop was a ruin in the ancient capital. When thailand was invaded by the burmese, it was plundered and burnt - hence the ancient city because it was too damaged to rebuild.

There's a lot of culture here. 93% of thai ppl are buddhist with only 1.4% christians. We visited 3 ruins/temples in all.



The final part of the tour was a river cruise with buffet lunch. The river is very polluted and brown... eeeekkk..

The funniest thing was watching these little tug boats tow huge cargos down the river... i thought they were gonna sink!!

daph basically slept most of the cruise back. lol.. typical!





went to the nightmarkets last night.... didnt buy that much... mostly gifts (russ it's christmas for u i think)

Bangkok - day 5

We're quite impressed with our room!!



There's a mall attached to our hotel - 8 levels and it spans the size of a large football field.

Daph's strategy for avoiding harrassment in Phuket

- walk behind people who are obviously foreign. they will get hassled first!

- walk behind other asian foreigners and try to blend into their group. the front people are hassled and you keep walking!

Fanta sea

Went to visit an elephant theme park called 'Fanta-sea' tonight.

Buffet dinner was included. When we got to the dining hall we were surprised cos it was absolutely enormous. There were probably around 500 tables of 10 - that's 5000 people!



There was a main show about thailand and a story about an elephant who rescued the people during a war. The people then began to worship elephants.



There's not much else to see in the park - just heaps of stalls selling elephant figurines and toys at terribly inflated prices.

Phuket - Day 4

Central Festival



daph got all excited about the opening of a new shopping mall. the grand opening was today so we went to take a look. I must say, it was pretty impressive - reminds me of a really really new chatswood chase. All brand name shops - cheaper (than Aust) but no fakes