Friday 14th December 1984 – Pattaya
We had intended just loafing by the
pool this morning (so I could keep in the shade) but we bumped into Jennifer
and Patty at breakfast. As they had arranged to go into town to a jeweller
recommended by Sam, we joined forces and went in with them plus Piet and
Margaret. Sam’s friend had quite a good selection and Jennifer bought herself
yet another item – a sapphire and silver bracelet this time. We bought nothing,
despite being plied with nice cold beers. We all went our separate ways after
that. Rab and I just wandered through the town and along the beach as I wanted
to take a bit of film. (One incident I
did not record in my diary for some reason, gave us a deal of amusement. Rab
was looking through a shop that I had no interest in – probably a shop with
dress material – and I was lounging outside watching the passing parade, which
is always interesting I find. A beautiful young person came up to me and asked
if I wanted to have a good time. My response was thanks, but no thanks – but in
any event my wife is here – in that shop. No worries this person said – it
won’t take long!! I guess it was one of the ladyboys, but we’ll never know.)
There was not much of great
interest, but it was a pleasant way of spending the morning. We caught a
taxi/jitney back to the hotel (the fare is 30 baht minimum – Z$1.65) stopping
on the way to pick up some more beers because they are less than half the price
that way. A small beer from the min-bar In the hotel is Z$2.75 while a large
one in the supermarket is Z$1.75. we also picked up some snacks for lunch. It
was as hot as hell when we got back, so we changed into our swimming costumes
and nipped down to the pool where we spent the rest of the afternoon – me in
the shade and Rab in the sun – just relaxing. I read the newspapers thoroughly
for the first time in weeks and really enjoyed that. It was nice being on our
own too. We are with a nice crowd, by and large, and have had some good laughs,
but we also enjoy our own company at times.
We had no sooner got back to our
room than Chris phoned – they had spent the day at the beach and having just
got back, they invited us around for drinks. We took our snacks with us when we
went, but before doing so, we nipped along to the shops in the hotel to get
Matt a black satin windcheater with a dragon embroidered on the back as part
of his Christmas present. After a couple
of sundowners with David and Chris, we decided to go down for a light meal in
the Coffee Shop – very casual and pleasant. Rab and David had chicken curry
which was hot but very tasty, while I settled for prawns and noodles – Chris
had fish and chips – a bit mundane that!
We finished up with coffee and Rab had an ice cream. The food was Z$10, which
we felt was reasonable, but the two beers were Z$5.60 which we felt was not. Of
course everything has 10% service added to it plus 8.25% tax, so that does
escalate the basic prices.
None of us felt like going into town
to watch the Thai boxing, so we just called it a night at 21.30 and Rab was
asleep within 20 minutes.
Saturday 15th December 1984 – Pattaya
Lazy morning – Rab only woke up at
08.35 and then only because I asked her if she was going to sleep all day. I had
woken up in the early hours of the morning with a strange dream about a Siamese
cat (cross between Pedro and Shandi [these
were two of the cats we had owned, Pedro being the current one. Wonder why they
aren’t called Thai cats? This dream is only recorded because I rarely remember
my dreams.]) Hope the lad is OK. Mind you, the night before I had a dream
about Matt, so I think it is probably just my normal worrying, especially as I
have so little to do!! I got back to sleep after the dream, but woke as usual
at 06.30 so I sat out on the balcony and watched the sunrise and all the boats
set off for their day’s activities – there is almost as much traffic here as
there is on the river in Bangkok. I also read the paper while sipping a glass of local orange juice – a nice way to
start the day.
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| Enjoying their daily bath |
We headed for the pool after
breakfast in the light of Rab’s well known aversion to sandy beaches and salt
water and spent the morning there – me in the shade again and Rab in the sun.
in the afternoon I went on my own to the elephant show – everyone else was sick
of elephants, but I love them. It wasn’t the greatest show, especially beause
the commentator’s English was appalling, but I found it interesting and enjoyed
it.
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| An early tank - armed for war |
They showed us how elephants were caught and trained and gave a bit of an
insight into their daily working lives. They are lovely beasts. They also did a
few tricks, like passing up bananas to their mahout and then picking up baht to
buy back the fruit.
Spent the remainder of the afternoon
packing and tidying the suitcases – we are still doing pretty well on space (by
our standards) but I am a bit worried about weight. (This is the theme of all our travels. I ALWAYS worry about weight, yet we’ve never been charged for
excess baggage. Mind it has been a close run thing at times, especially when we
were living in Zimbabwe
and imported goods were rarely available. Wallpaper is very heavy!) still,
they have weighed group baggage so far
and there are some very light suitcases in the group. We all went into town for
dinner, with the exception of Richard. He has succeeded in placing himself
beyond the pale and is no longer treated as one of the party. I gave up talking
to him days ago. He is an egocentric bore with hangups too numerous to mention
about which he rabbits on interminably. One feels bad about being so rude to
him, but he is so persistent, it is simply the only way to avoid his disturbing
your day. Poor Widow Pat, a gentle soul, cannot bring herself to do that – yet
– and is plagued by the fellow. She manages to avoid him during much of the
day, but he usually catches her at breakfast. It is appalling that she has to
worry during her holiday about dodging a fellow traveller. She only agreed to
come down town with us once it was made clear that he had not been invited and
would not be coming. Otherwise she would have spent her day in her room. (I
recorded the circumstances of his final
gaffe. His subsequent treatment was an interesting example of group dynamics.
He had annoyed or upset everyone but they had grudgingly borne this, but
this tolerance completely disappeared as did he to all intents and purposes. No
one spoke to him, no one acknowledged his presence. It was rather awful, but
not so upsetting that we chose to intervene.)
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| The waterfront at Pattaya |
We all crammed into a taxi – thirteen
of us and once we got to the village we walked along the “strip” to the
restaurant which Sam had recommended. We had missed this area yesterday, which
was a pity as there were some very interesting shops. Full of bars etc too and
weird people everywhere. We finally got to the restaurant, having bought three
more cassette tapes on the way for 100 baht – about Z$1.80 each. One of them included
‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ by Stevie Wonder which had become our theme
song for Thailand
as it was being played everywhere.
It was great fun at the eatery
because we each were able to select the raw materials for our dinner, have them
weighed and priced, and then instruct the chefs how they were to be prepared.
It was a seafood place right on the beach and there was a marvellous selection.
We finally settled for ten prawns, a rock lobster each (these are not what we
call rock lobsters, but more like fresh water crayfish) and Rab also had some
crab legs, while I went for a bit of squid. It was fine for us and we
thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Lynne, Jennifer and Patty were a little rash
in their selection and landed up with huge mounds of food, although I must say
in all fairness they ate virtually everything. Our food was, once again, very
reasonable at Z$16.00 in all, but three beers cost Z$9.00. it was still very
good value at Z$25 because the ten prawns alone would have cost double that in Zimbabwe
– if you could find them.
Having repleted ourselves, we worked
our way back to the main road with Chris and David, while all the others headed
home to the hotel. The place had livened up considerably while we were eating
and we caught glimpses of Thai boxing bouts, transvestite shows, strippers etc
as we went along. We were actually making for a shop which Rab had spotted
which carried a stock of embroidered cotton dresses. While she was trying on
the clothes, David and I found ourselves watching the Miss Universe competition
being broadcast, live from Miami, in Thai. This
really tickled his sense of humour. He is a very nice bloke, reminding me of a
big cart horse. He was most amusing earlier in the evening describing how his
landing went awry when he was parasailing. He misinterpreted the ‘ground
controller’s’ of ‘ret go’ and kept pulling the ‘chute’s cords, scattering
sunbathers left and right as he
descended from the heavens. Hardly surprising as he weighs about 100 kilos (220 lbs).
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| The hotel seen from the sea |
Got back to the hotel about
midnight, having had a great evening. It has been a lovely break here and we’ve
thoroughly enjoyed it. The hotel itself is not in the same class as the others
we have stayed in but is perfectly adequate and for a beach hotel is very good.
It is quite a way from the village, but the taxis are only 10 baht a head – 55
cents – so that really isn’t a problem. It is set on a headland overlooking the
Gulf of Siam and there are some really
spectacular views. The grounds are full of trees and shrubs and are very
pretty. There are four swimming pools and a lift down to the beach where all
manner of water sports are available (for a price). All in all highly
satisfactory.
We are off tomorrow to Hong Kong. Clive Fox phoned last night (at 19.15!) to
invite us for a drink and to say that Jim McDonough had called him to tell him
to pass on the message that we would be met at the airport. I nearly wrote ‘Crive’ then as we
have got into the bad habit of swapping the L sound for an R as the locals do –
sometimes with most amusing results.
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| Last sunset from our room |
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