Holy City of Pattaya - Fall 2016

Please forgive my spelling and punctuation; I'm a plumber and not a English major. Just read and have fun.
You can click on any of the pictures and they become larger.
September 27th - We made it. First plane leg was way tooooo long, 12 hours and 59 minutes. We slept a little and watched a bunch of movies like X-Men: Apocalypse, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Money Monster, Tarzan and Demolition.

We just made the connection for the plane from Taipei to Bangkok as we only had about 50 minutes to do it.

That leg was only 3 hours and 5 minutes. We had a meal, China Airlines has okay food. We also watched the movie Angry Birds. It was a cool animated movie.

We breezed through Immigrations, picked up our bags and walked through the " Nothing to Declare" line at customs.

Daeng and I kissed, said: "See you tomorrow." She took a taxi to see her brother in the Bangkok Hilton.

Jon, our trusted driver, took me and all the bags to Pattaya, 2 hours south of Bangkok.

It's going to be a shower and bed for me. It was a good trip.

September 28^th - I slept from 2 PM yesterday until 8 AM this morning. 

I shower, rented a motorbike for the week, had a massage with Thai (That is her name, Thai, so it's a real Thai massage.), had breakfast and went shopping for distilled water for my CPAP machine and cookies.

Daeng called from Bangkok and said she saw her brother and may come to Pattaya later today.

I think I'm doing to take a nap and maybe visit some friends later today.

September 29^th - Daeng made it from Bangkok last night.

We got up this morning at 6:00 and had breakfast at our favorite neighborhood eating spot.

Maybe we can say goodbye to jet-lag.

After breakfast I went to a meeting with some English friends in Pattaya.

Then I drove over the hill to Jomtien Beach, meet with some more friends, checked out the beach and a hotel that Jon, our driver told us about.

It is nice for 900 THB (about $26 USD) a night.

On the way back to the room I had some comfort food at McDonald's.

It's time for a nap.

September 30^th - At 8:00 AM, I'm starting my day with a western breakfast.

I am going to meet with friends in 3 meetings today. With a massage and a nap, it will be a full day.

It's Friday, with big sales, so Daeng is going shopping. 

October 1st - Revelation, I forgot my phone in the charger at our room last night when I went to a meeting in Jomtien Beach and DID NOT MISS IT!

We bought the plane tickets home on Bangkok Airways this morning. 

We travel north on October 6th at 7:35 AM.

We land south of our home at 8:55 AM, so with the ride 60 km north, we should be home by 11:00 AM on Thursday. 

For lunch, we walked across the street into the largest, oceanfront shopping center in Asia, Central Festival.

I had chicken noodle soup and Daeng had Papaya salad. 

October 2^nd - Great Sunday morning, massage and met our friend BoonMa for an Expat Club Meeting.

We are just going to hang out, get some sun and have some fun. 

October 3rd - Not much happening today but tonight we are going to go to 'Walking Street".

They close down the end of Beach Road around 6:00 PM and reopen it to vehicles around 2:00 AM. 

It is what a lot of folks call the "Fun zone" but I feel all of Pattaya City is a fun zone. 

October 4th - We did have fun on Walking Street.  

Daeng told me: "No more pictures!" I love her. 

October 5th - Today we visited the Sanctuary of Truth.  

It is an amazing place and all carved out of wood.

It is a work in progress and Daeng even helped a little. 

That is why we had to wear hardhats. 

I was proud of myself, walked down the 67 steps, around the complete grounds and back up again.

We spent a good part of the day there. 

If you get to Pattaya, do yourself a favor and go see it. 

Also, it's nice to be treated like the King. 

You can see more pictures on our Facebook page by CLICKING HERE. 

October 6th -  We returned motorbike, packed and checked out of Dobler House at 4:30 AM.

We just stopped to fill up with propane for the 125 km to airport in Bangkok.

It is raining!

It was a smooth trip to the Bangkok Airport, an easy check in at Bangkok Airways.

Besides being 800 THB (about $24.00 USD) lower in plane fare and not charging extra for the 8 km over in luggage weight, they feed us, also

They have a wonderful passenger lounge with great food and coffee.

Plane took off on time.

When we arrived in Chiang Rai, they even had some music to welcome us.

Our driver, guy, picked us up and took us to Mae Sai.

We are unpacked, luggage is put away, pickup truck and both motorbikes started, tire pressures checked on motorbikes and bicycles.

Our bed is calling: "Nap time, nap time." 

It was a good trip with our stay in Pattaya but it is nice to be home in Mae Sai. 

Our 21 day trip back to Pattaya and California

It was a great spring but we are on our way back to California for the summer.  To get ready, Daeng bought stuff, like spices, she says she can not buy in California. 

We said bye-bye to our friends and family, packed everything up to travel and covered the bed and furniture in our master bedroom with sheets.  We will be back in about ten weeks.

The only thing I forgot was my eye drops in the refrigerator.  Daeng's niece, Nue, mailed them to us at our hotel in Pattaya.  Thanks Nue!

Car rental return was normal except Thai Rental Car charged me 351 THB (about $11.70  USD) more than we agreed as they told us that two of the extra days were weekend days. 

I kidded with Daeng that this "Sterile Area", at the airport, was for me because I'm old and sterile. Daeng said, with a smile on her face: "That's good!"

Jon, our pre-arranged driver, picked us up at the old Bangkok airport and we made the two and a half hour drive to the Honey Lodge Hotel.  We have been using Jon for car service to and from the airport for a few years.  He is a nice guy and always is on time. 

We had to laugh as I told the folks at the Honey Lodge that I was going to jump into the swimming pool like the man in this video: CLICK HERE.  The lady at the desk told me to do it the day we were checking out.  The Honey Lodge Hotel is an old hotel about a minute walk from "Walking Street" here in the "Fun Zone".  They remodeled it two years ago and it is now a very nice boutique hotel. Rates when  up from about $18 USD to a little over $30 USD a night.  Here are some pictures of the place: CLICK HERE.

We like Pattaya for the diversity.  You can find just about anything you want here.  You can read more of our stories of Pattaya by CLICKING HERE. 

Daeng likes the shopping, as well.  The largest beach front shopping center mall in Asia is here.

CentralFestival Pattaya Beach : Asia's Largest Beachfront Shopping

It is also nice to meet other folks from all over the world at meetings here in Pattaya City and Jomtien Beach.  We also get to spend some time with our friend Boonma.  He is from New York City but lives here most of the time.

There was a festival at Jomtien Beach last weekend.  They had all kinds of displays of art works and things.  Here is one of decorations made with soda and water bottles.

There was even the monster truck on display, including monster sound system with huge speakers so you can get lots of "Boom-Boom". 

One of the many things that amazes me here in Pattaya is the ocean tides.  Here is a picture of the tide out. If you click on the picture you can see the boats sitting on the sandy bottom.
  Then here is a picture of the tide coming up about half way.  The boats are now floating.

Normal tide is from about six feet to ten feet high.  Here is a picture at high tide.

This morning Jomtien Beach was nice except a little windy. 

We went shopping for some "Singing Bowls". These bowls are used in the Buddhist Faith.  You run a little wooded paddle around the outside of the bowl and the bowls resonates, sings.

You would think in a county that is over 98% Buddhists they would be easy to find.  We could only find one shop in Pattaya that carries them.  It is a shop that specializes in gifts from India.  It does take a little practice to make them work.
 
We are just about ready to return to California tomorrow.  The 14 1/2 hours plane rides really messes with our minds on this return.  We leave Bangkok at 5:05 PM and arrive in Los Angles at 8:35 PM. That's 3 1/2 hours after take off and the total trip is about 30 hours from pillow here
to pillow in the USA.

It was a nice spring in Thailand but we look forward to getting back to California and fixing air conditioning system.

If you need your air conditioning or anything else in your home fixed just visit our website www.DIALONEtoday.com and give us a call.

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.