When it Rains, It Pours - Pattaya, Thailand

This day started with the sun coming out clear and bright. The day was very relaxed here in this adult orientated beach city of Pattaya, Thailand.

Daeng and I ate in the morning market and rested until about 2;00 PM. We then hopped on a baht bus to our friend Rick and June's condo in Jomtien Beach.

June fixed a wonderful meal of "Pathai". "Pathai" is a fried rice noodle dish.

June made it without much spice but it can be made with spice that will burn your face off. She had a lot of peanuts in the dish which I liked because it was crunchy.

We rested a while and than the four of us hopped back on a baht bus to Pattaya to meet some other English speaking folks for a little meeting at 6:30 PM. When we arrived at the meeting it started to rain.

The meeting was very interesting as there were six of us, all from Southern California. Three of us were from Orange County, one from Los Angeles, one from Hollywood and one from Riverside. We talked about our lives and how Thailand had changed all of us, for the better.

Now, while we were in the meeting it had rained hard. As you can see in the picture, we had to walk through water, over ankle deep, to get to the main road. The main road named "Second Road" was also flooded. I had on black leather shoes and socks so I took them off and walked.

We had fun in the water although it was a little smelly from the sewers. We took a good shower with lots of soap when we got back to our room at the hotel.

When it rains here in Thailand, it pours!

Tomorrow we need to start getting ready to fly back to California on Wednesday. That is a long trip. We will miss Thailand, as well.

Saturday in Pattaya, Thailand

Daeng and I got up, showered and had breakfast at an eating stand in the market about 300 meter up the street from our hotel. Although the place is small and typical Thai, the food is great. That is probably why the place is always busy.

I had fish and young bamboo in a gravy on rice. Daeng has chicken with vegetables on rice. Can't beat the price, 50 TB ($1.47 USD) for both of us .

The lady that cooks here always smiles at us. We think it is her place and the kids do all the serving and other work.

Note: here the US Dollar has decreased in valve about six percent over the last three months. That changes the price of the meal above from $1.39 to $1.47.

The reason I am telling you the prices of things is to let you know another reason why Thailand is such a great destination for vacation and retirement.

After we ate we went into the market. Daeng bought four CD's with Thai songs to bring back to America. That way she would have some Thai music to listen to at home in California

We also bought two pineapples cut up for 30 TB. That is less than a dollar.

Then we are on to manicure, pedicure and haircuts. I must admit both the manicure and haircut was short.

I'm not talking about the time it took, I'm talking about the length of the hair and nails.

After the gals got done with us we did look pretty good.

As we were walking we also saw a hair weaving operation going on, right on the sidewalk. Girls, if you want long hair, a hair weave was 300 TB. Even with the dollar worth less, that is about $9.00.

It is now almost 2:00 PM. We walked back to our room, showered and watched television until it was time to dress to meet our friend, Rick from California and his girlfriend June.

Rick and I went to a meeting with some English speaking folks at the Skaw Soi off Second Road. The girls went shopping for a while, returning to meet us about an hour later.

We had a Special Thai meal. The girls had stopped by the restaurant while we were in the meeting and picked out the huge crab they were going to share. It was live in a water tank.

The girls really got into eating the crab in a coconut sauce. I liked the sauce on the rice. Rick and I has some spring rolls, cashew nuts, vegetables and chicken with rice.

It was a great meal together.

We walked down to the road to Jomtien Beach together and said good-bye for now. They took a Baht Bus home and we walked to our hotel. We will see them again on Monday.

Our Trip to Bangkok

We got up at around 5:00 AM, finished packing, put the luggage in the car and headed to the Chiang Rai Airport about 56 km south of the Myanmar (Burma) border.

Yes, those are elephants on the truck.

The trip was calm and the check points just waived us through. I guess they know us by now. When we arrived at the airport we dropped off the luggage at the curb. Daeng stayed with the luggage while I parked the rental car in the same spot we got it from a month ago.

We checked in with Air Asia and everything ran smooth there. Our two bags both were under the 15 kilo that I had paid for when I bought the tickets on the internet. Yes, you now have to pay for baggage and weight on this and many other airlines, especially the discount airlines.

We had to wait at Avis about 10 minutes because we were early and they opened at 7;30 AM. The lady remembered us and was very courteous. We gave her the portable GPS that we had rented. The GPS devise was a great help to us in getting around Thailand.

She checked the car and said no damage even thought I had hit a curb with the left bumper and left a little mark from parking in Pattaya. This was my first experience of driving on the left side of the road sitting in the right side of the car. I tended to get to far to the left overcompensating, I think.

Plane ride of an hour and ten minutes was quite smooth. I purchased a cup of coffee on the flight. No more free stuff from the airlines like the old days. I'm not judging, just saying.

We got our two checked bags and walked up to the fourth level, the departing level. That is a win-win when getting a taxi out of the airport. First, we don't have to wait in line for the airport assisted taxi service and second, pay the extra 50 Thai Baht.

For the taxi driver he gets a paying fair back to town right away, too. This trip we got a good driver that by-passed the highway tolls as it was still early in the morning and not much traffic in Bangkok. He got us to our guest house in downtown area for 210 TB, usually it is around 300 TB plus highway tolls of 65 TB.

After dark we would not do this as we just don't fell safe with unknown taxi drivers. The airport assisted taxi's are all licenced and handled watched over by the airport.

We were met at the guest house but this sweet little girl and her baby. One of the best rooms in the guest house was not empty yet but would be check-out of by noon. We left out luggage and went for a breakfast of barbecued fish, sticky rice and cow entrails soup.

When we got back our bags were in room 201. We got settled, had a shower and a little nap. I wanted to go to a meeting with some other English speaking folks I know here in Bangkok so I left Daeng in the room and headed to the meeting.

It was poring rain! None of the taxi's wanted to take me the three big blocks to the meeting area as the short cut through the Tobacco Monopoly was closed at night and the traffic pattern at 6:30 PM was going the opposite way.

I was standing under the big umbrella of the barbecue chicken lady's stand and she said to take a motorbike taxi as the rain was starting to let up a little. After talking to the three motorbike taxi drivers one said he would take me the three big blocks for 50 TB.

Well, talk about am "E" ticket ride. (If you don't know what an "E" ticket ride is just ask a old person that has been to Disneyland in the early days.)

I jumped on the back of the motorbike and that was the last time we were on the street. The driver took me on the wet sidewalk, with him weaving in, out and around people and telephone poles at a very high speed. It also started to rain extremity hard again so it was almost imposing to see.

We traveled on the sidewalk for the three city blocks and he did get to to the meeting area. This was a ride I wish I had a video of that crazy motorbike ride.

It was a fun day!