Yesterday night, we went to Pattaya’s walking street. It took about one hour and forty minutes by car from Jomtien beach to reach the place, which is at about 6 kms… You imagine the traffic. Worse than in Bangkok.
I haven’t been to Pattaya for several years and it has changed quite a bit. The first thing that seems obvious is that the city has been taken over by the Russians. There is not a single restaurant, bar, hotel or other shop that doesn’t have a sign written in Russians. Menus and hotel regulations are in Russian, you can even watch russian channels.
There, lots of tourists as you imagine, but also many foreigners working as policemen, turkish ice-cream sellers and prostitutes. I wonder how these people get their working permit… considering how difficult it is when you are in a legitimate business or only an English teacher.
Yesterday night, we went to Pattaya’s walking street. It took about one hour and forty minutes by car from Jomtien beach to reach the place, which is at about 6 kms… You imagine the traffic. Worse than in Bangkok.
I haven’t been to Pattaya for several years and it has changed quite a bit. The first thing that seems obvious is that the city has been taken over by the Russians. There is not a single restaurant, bar, hotel or other shop that doesn’t have a sign written in Russians. Menus and hotel regulations are in Russian, you can even watch russian channels.
There, lots of tourists as you imagine, but also many foreigners working as policemen, turkish ice-cream sellers and prostitutes. I wonder how these people get their working permit… considering how difficult it is when you are in a legitimate business or only an English teacher.
This morning we arrived at the Pattaya’s pier to go to Koh Larn. Very difficult to find a safe parking place for the two cars for 24 hours, and the price is now jacked up at 200 Thb… instead of the 100 Thb that is shown in other websites.
The ferry boat took about 45 minutes to arrive at the island (30 Thb per person), and a songteaw from the resort came to pick-up us after our lunch at the pier.
The resort is nice, it’s the Xanadu Beach Resort on Samen beach (1,600 Thb per night), very modern with colorful rooms, we have 3 of them.
We spent a couple of hours at the beach and we all enjoyed swimming in the sea. Christina really enjoyed running and jumping in the water experiencing the waves and salt water. As usual she had to be dragged out of the water, otherwise she still would be there.
After a well deserved nap we had an excellent and very copious dinner at the resort. That was the best meal we have had during this holiday.
Tomorrow we will spend some more time at the beach in the morning and then take the ferry back to Pattaya.
Michel Gerard
