I pulled this photograph from PattayaSecrets.com.  This is one photo from a dance contest held in Pattaya.  My thanks to Hammer for posting it along with about 10 others.

My First Time in Bangkok Part 2

This is a second installment of an account of my first trip to Bangkok and Pattaya.  If you haven't read the first piece, you should do that first, My First Time in Bangkok.

A few of you have asked me, "Why am I telling you about something that happened 5 years ago".  This is a reasonable question.

My answer is: I want you to see my perspective and understand how I came to know Thailand, but I also want to be able to compare 5 years ago to today.  Have things changed?  I also want to dispel myths about "Fun" tours by giving you an typical example of one.  This article is a fast read and you'll buzz right through it.   This is more of a pictorial type article as was the last one.

Third Day; The Transition to Pattaya

On the morning of the third day the entire tour packed up and checked out of our hotel.  We board a privately chartered bus and make our way to the Royal Palace in Bangkok.   Once the trip to the Palace is over, we'll head directly to Pattaya.

The Royal Palace takes about an hour and a half.   You may have to fight off peddlers just outside the Royal Palace grounds.  They are selling trinkets out there and they are the must pushy bunch that I've ever seen in the Kingdom.  Once you get past that - you'll be fine.   The other thing I would suggest is bringing a small bottled drink along with you.  In side the Palace, their choice of refreshments are limited to native Thai juices and you may not care for those unfamiliar Thai beverages.   They had Fanta soda for sale but no popular beverages like Coke for some reason.   So, you may want to slip a small plastic bottle of ice tea in you bag before you enter.

The Royal Palace can not be entered unless you have a specially trained Thai tour guide to lead you.   These guides are for hire and they typically work for other local tour companies.   

Now, one of the disadvantages of hiring one of these tour guides on your own -- or joining a local tour, is that you will likely be dragged through the gem shops and high pressure tourist type traps.  They will take you through these places on the way to or the way back from the Royal Palace.

The "Fun" tour operators who come to Thailand on a frequent basis know how to get around the requirement of going to these "gem" type shops and save you from that hassle and delay.  

Here you see the tour guide explaining the architecture.   They are typically very well versed in the history of the buildings and the royal family.

You will also see some models there of other historic buildings from neighboring countries.  It is said that the model of Angkor Wat was created for a past king who did not have the time to travel outside of Thailand and see it for himself.

There was quite a bit to see on this tour.   One important thing to remember is that you can not enter the Royal Palace unless you are wearing closed toe shoes.  Men can not be wearing shorts and girls must be wearing conservative clothes as well.

Our Arrival, Jontiem Beach

On this particular "Fun" tour we were booked at a hotel over on Jontiem Beach.  The beach looks quite different today.   What you seeing here is back in the old days when it was just a few chairs and umbrellas.   I took these pictures on the same day of the tour of the Royal Palace.  We were at the Royal Palace at 10 am in the morning and in Pattaya and checked into our Hotel in around 3 or 4 pm I believe. 

Today this beach is hardly ever empty like what you see here. They have expanded the sidewalk and the beach chairs in many places are 4 or 5 rows deep.  I was back at this same spot just a few weeks ago in the middle of the week and this area was full of sun bathers, people and jet skis in the surf, and a few para-sailers (flying parachutes pulled behind boats) out in the open water.   This area now looks busier than the main beach in Pattaya.  

Pattaya, The First/Second Day

We didn't waste any time getting out and making the rounds.  One of the places that the group saw and liked very much was called the Siren's Bar.  This is just at the entrance of Walking Street.  This area is very popular and it is full of beer bars.

I can remember very distinctly walking in there on the first day in the late afternoon.   This was the time that most girls were just coming to work.  I walked in on the right hand side isle, viewing the tables as I walked slowly.  I was looking at all the faces one by one.  I came up to the third table (bar 7 I believe) and saw one particularly beautiful girl.  I immediately made an abrupt left hand turn and walked right up to her.  She had my attention.   I sat, ordered a drink of some sort, we talked and got acquainted.  I know I didn't wait that long.  I remember asking her if she would like to go with me.   And smiling very nicely, she said "Yes".   Wow, I was excited.  I had just bar fined my first girl and she was a beauty.  Just what I was looking for.

Here name was Ket.  That is short for LeuKet.   That is Thai/Laos for "raison".  There is good chance that this nickname was given to her just after she was born due to how she looked at delivery.   Frequently girls (and guys) are given nicknames at birth or during their infancy based on something about how they look.  I have hear names like, Bird (Nok), Watermelon (DangMoor), Small (Lek, Noi), Large (Yei).

(The picture you see here is the exact spot where I met Ket.  This was taken a few days later)   When I met her that day, I paid the bar fine of 300 baht and we were off.   I was very happy because in my mind, she was one of the most beautiful girls I had seen.  I'm fussy.  I'd wanted to hook up with a something special.  I got my wish.  I could have not asked for a better girl.  She was sweet and nice and nearly completely at my service.

I quickly realized that Ket was more than I expected from Pattaya.  She was a keeper.  She didn't speak great English but it was enough to communicate adequately.   I bar fined Ket repeatedly and kept her for the duration of my trip.  I think she spent about 8 days and nights with me, including my return to Bangkok and to the airport for my flight home.  (For these girls, going to the airport to see off their farang boyfriend is a familiar experience.   Many girls have seen quite a wind-fall of cash at the end of a trip when a farang just hands over the remainder of his baht moneys in lue of exchanging it out for his home country's currency.)

Ket and I did everything together.   Here in these photos I took her shopping.  I believe this was on the second day.  BUT first we had to stop off and rent a motorcycle.   I first checked out a CBR 400.  Hated it.  It didn't drive right.  I was accustomed to the bigger bikes.  I then tried out a Honda CBR 900RR.  The bike wasn't in prime shape but it was decent.  That cost me 800 a day.   I only drove it between Jontiem and Pattaya.  That's not very far, so hind sight, I'm not sure it was worth it but I there was there to have some fun and blowing a few dollars didn't bother me.

In the second photo (when we were renting the bike) she was giving me some attitude about "Why are you talking all these pictures", the expression on her is very well know to me.  In the last photo, she was kind of shy about the shopping and tried to duck behind the wall to avoid the shot.   It wasn't long after this point that I toned down the picture taking.   I was there to have some fun and I decide to only take shots of the most important events. (of course at that time I had no idea I would be presenting them here on this site)

Ket was real prankster.   I liked that about her.   She enjoyed jumping out from behind walls to surprise me.  One afternoon during this trip we dressed out in our swim wear and headed to the hotel pool.  I watched her ease over to the ladder in the deep end and turn around to step down into the water.  She moved very slowly and when she was about half in the water she stopped just stood on the latter.  I had come over to sit on the edge.   Just then she said "I don't know how to swim" and then she kind of fell back into the water.   I was concerned and came to attention and watched for a moment as her head bobbed up out of the water, eyes closed, she gave it a shake, took her hand and wiped the water from her face, and she smiled, looked at me and laughed, "I lied".   I didn't recognize how prophetic that statement was at the time.  I found out later that Ket lived a large part of her life on the Mekong River.  All of the kids learned to swim at an early age.   Ket was no phony.   She may have been a "Lady Bar" as she called it, but I liked her.  She had no interest in digging for money (at least on the surface) and that suited me just fine.   Ket rocked my world - all 107 pounds of her.

Evening Activities

I know for a fact the group when out to nice dinners together every night.  Ket and I attended.  At night time, most of us went out in groups to the go-go bars and beer bars.  Ket had seen all this before.  It came as no surprise to her.  She had been working in Pattaya a couple of months before I arrived there.

However, I did not take any pictures of the go-go bars on this trip.  I'm sorry that I didn't.  (However I also brought a movie camera with me and I might have some of that on tape somewhere and if I do, I'll dig out out for a future article might support multimedia)   Some of the newer go-gos were not built at that point.   Club Boesche, Living Dolls 1 and Living Dolls Showcase, Roxy, and many other were not built yet.    The original Electric Blue was open and of course the long standing places like Doll House, FLB, Happy a go-go and most of the places on Soi Diamond, and many others were there.

The tour leader from the US was personal friends (and still is) with a number of bar owners all along Walking Street.   We would get some special treatment by some of the bars.  In a few cases the bar owner would lock the doors and give us a "special" show.   This was new to me and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.  5 years ago, shows were more common than they are today but they are still available to "those in the know".

Day Trip: Tiger/Croc Zoo and Elephant Trek

No tour to Pattaya is completely without a trip out see the Tigers and Crocodiles at the Sriacha Tiger Zoo.  This is a pretty interesting place.   You'll learn a lot about how Tiger are raised.  You'll see a Tiger performance and you'll also have a chance to hand feed a Tiger cub if you like.   You may also see how the Tigers are nursed from a mother pig.   My pictures are not that great - there are better shots at this site.

One thing you want to be careful about when you see the Tiger show.   There is about a 8 foot area just outside the wire cage that is open and clear.   People normally walk in that isle as they are moving to their seats.  You don't want to be in that area when the big cats come out.   When they first come out into the ring the seem to have an instinct to approach the wire fence, turn around, lift their tail, and spray their scent.  This looks a lot like the stream from a spray bottle and it will travel through the fence out towards the crowd.   You might even get hit by it in the first row, so be careful.  Once the show starts, you'll be fine but if you don't want to be "marked" as on their territory, then give them some distance at the start of the show.

(Note: Two of these Tiger pictures are from a more recent tour)

The Crocodiles are also very interesting.  For a small fee you can feed them chicken parts and they will jump up out of the water to grab the bait (see picture on the main page of my web site).   An old story circulates about how a woman jumped to her death and committing suicide in the croc pit.  Seems she jumped in to the pit and the crocs all took off for the edges of the pond.   Before the worker could retrieve her -- she began to aggravate the crocs and one went for her.   After that point, all the crocks joined in and tore her to shreds.  What a dreadful way to die.  I am told this made world wide news a few years back.

In the crocodile show, a guy and girl put their head into the open mouth of the croc.  I'm sure the crocs have been conditioned not to bite down, but I think this stunt is extremely dangerous.    If you watch that show very closely, you'll see the wooden sticks laying on the stage.  They use those sticks to push down the eyes of the crocks so their eyes are kept closed while on stage.  If a crock opens it's eyes, the guy and gal stop what they are doing and push them shut.  That must be part of their technique on how they keep the crocs docile.

(Note: Most of these pictures are from a more recent tour)

The Elephant Trek is a must see for anyone new to Thailand.   This is one of the best places in the world for elephants.   One thing you notice about these animals is that they are very intelligent.   And the handlers will let you feed them.   And if you're real lucky, you might even get to drive one as seen in the last one picture below (that picture is from a more recent tour).

Day Trip:  Scuba Diving

I think this was my doing.  I was keen on putting dive time in.   I asked about it, a few of the other guys on the trip were certified and interested, so one of the tour leaders arranged a dive trip for us.  This was a diversion from the normal tour.   Unique additions to the tour are encourage and the tour leaders will call on their contacts to make things happen for you.   For this event, we had to taxi out of town to a smaller town about 30 minutes away.   A master diver from Germany went with us.  He was working his way around the globe taking people on dive trips.   He had a few interesting stores to tell.

The boat was little bit primitive.  There was no bathroom on board.  The bathroom was the back end of the boat.  The boat captain had been taking guys out for diving all his life, he said "about 50 years".   He knew exactly where to go.  How often you meet anyone working the same job for 50 years and enjoying his life?  It makes you think harder about running in the "rat race" that we endure in the west.   We also got a taste of the what it was like to see the real Thailand.  Here you see a couple of pictures of girls who were following us behind a small taxi.  These girls were probably wondering what we were doing in their town.  These girls could very well be a future Pattaya "crop".  This is the kind of attention you get in the real non-tourist parts of Thailand everyday.

We were treated to a little bonus.  The little town we went to was a fishing town.  They had boats coming with a catch.   Look at the plastic baskets in the pictures.  The fish caught on these boats were very small and bought from the boat in baskets.   So, seeing one of the native industries at work was interesting for us.

Which is More Important Day Trips or Night Activities.....?

Gosh I'm here waving my hand in the air up and down with palms up.   Hard to evaluate that (eye wink).    We'll, night time activities are certainly extremely important.  I don't think Pattaya would survive without them.  But, if you come here and only indulge in the naughty night life, I think you miss a big slice of the action.   I took Ket around with me on all these events (except for the diving trip).   So, I got to share them with a local and that just added more value to the activities.     I can't really say enough nice things about the local girls.  Most of them are very interested in traveling with you.  If they get along with you and you like each other, they are very happy to got everywhere with you.  Some guys fly these girls to Phuket for a few days.  Some guys travel up into the country and visit the girl's family. 

Not every girl is the same.  You must evaluate each one individually.  Some do have local boyfriends and work short time only (got with you only for a couple hours at a time for night activities).  Others like Ket, are looking for foreigners for longer term relationships and stability.  Most girls are honest, and a few of the girls are not.   You have to keep them inside your guidelines.

(Ket and I are having breakfast at my hotel on this morning)

To put a wrap on our tour, we finished out our 6 days in Pattaya and we took the same charted bus back to Bangkok for one more night of night life up there.    Most of us flew home the following day.   A handful of us when on to see Cambodia. 

Looking at the Numbers

I found out about Houston, Texas.  Remember, I spoke of seeing a larger number of page views from that area.  It turns out that a Houston firm has a number of worker in Afghanistan and Iraq, and those users link back to a Houston server before getting out to the web.  A number of those boys take their R&R in Thailand and use the web for light research before arriving.   Nice to have you with us boys.   Keep your head down over there -- you can then pop-up again over here in Pattaya.  Ok, moving on.....

The numbers tend is down a bit this week.    US visitors are 26.8%, Thailand 22.5% and in third the UK with 14.4% followed by Australia with 8.9%.

The Wrap Up

Let's talk about "Fun" tours for a moment.  There seems to be a lot of people out there bad mouthing them.  I contend that most organized groups bringing tourist to Bangkok and Pattaya are serving up a little "Fun" in the evenings.   "Fun" sells.   Let's not kid each other.

Just for the sake of argument and amusement, lets take a look for a company that sells tours.   I instinctively went to one of the larger web sites on the Internet for Thailand.  I went right to www.StickmanBangkok.com.  Now Stickman is a now staunch rejecter of the naughty night life.   He claims to have no ties to it however, it seems that some of the night life activities are tied to him.... How can this be?

Stickman sometimes has links on his main page to google ads categorized at "Gay Bangkok".  That link takes you to businesses that sponsor "Gay" activities.   One of those companies is called www.PurpleDrag.com.   I took a look at their main page.  See the picture with the red circle on it (click on that).  It says "The Purple Dragon does not promote 'Fun' tourism".     Wow, I didn't know that?  Hum.... Does that mean that another group that sponsors Lesbian Tours also does not have anything to do with "Fun" either?  Or how about Bi-tourism?  Hell, why don't I open up a new company and sponsor "Straight" tours, because I can claim that my business had nothing to do with "Fun", right?  He ha ha.  Personally, I have no problem with "Fun" tours.  That's why I'm telling you about my experience here.  I highly recommend them.   I think a good operator is valuable for Thailand because they they protect the customer from scams and troubles, and they do take these customers around to the real tourist attractions.

I spoke of my trip to Cabo San Lucas Mexico in my last article (part 1).   I was there for about a week.  I went on 3 dive trips and rented a boat one day to catch Marlin.   That trip was only a short flight from San Diego, CA.  I spent about $3600 on that trip.  And it was a decent interesting trip.

But, I came to Thailand for 10 days.  I flew completely around the world.   I met and joined up with a really beautiful girl.  Saw more pussy in one week that I did in almost my entire life.  I did more things in Thailand and came with an interesting group of people from diverse areas of America, and I'm sure I didn't spend more than $2700.  And this trip was about one year after my Cabo trip.

In fact, I felt so strongly positive about this trip, that shortly after returning home I decided to relocate here.   (I did chronicle my relocation process and I'll bring that story to you in article later in the future.)

This picture is from a more recent tour.  One of the guys is spinning heads with one the boys who are selling packs of gum.  The kid got a real kick out of that.   (I didn't get the pictures of them laughing.  I was just a bit late on the shutter) These kids are mostly pretty good.  Many times family (mother and father) put them up to selling on the streets for money.

Now People -- What do I always say?!   Don't believe me just because I say it true (although those pictures are sure damn convincing aren't they?)

Come here yourself and check things out.  Seek out a tour company who has been here many times and knows the ropes.   Ask about their activities and compare what you hear to my articles.  And don't just party at night without going places during the day.  Absorb some of the culture.   Meet the real people of Thailand.  I think you'll be very enriched by it.   I've been here 5 years and hardly a day goes by that I don't feel grateful to the Thai people for welcoming me into their community.  You'll not really understand the advantages and blessings you have in the west, until you travel to the far side of the world and see things from another person's perspective.

John Galt