Thailand (Part 7, Day 10 and 11)

Day 10 - Pattaya

My initial idea was to head up to Bangkok today with Dougie and set up my flight to Chiang Mai.  It was his last day, and the original plan was to spend one night in Pattaya, swing up to Bangkok, he would take off to Sweden, and I would be on my own for the remaining 7 days before heading back to Norway.  Just as with everything else we had done on this trip, the plans were altered and I decided that staying in Pattaya was going to be the right play for me.  I called Dougie, told him there had been a slight change in the itinerary and that I was going to battle through a few days here, then possibly go to another island for a few days before departing back home.  He had no problem with it, packed his stuff, jumped on a bus to Bangkok, and we were soon on our own. 

It was a bit strange though being on my own for the remaining portion of the trip.  Dougie was a great guy to travel with, very laid back, easy going, and generally we had the same sort of interests in the decision making processes that got us to this point.  So now, alone, it was easier to make a choice on what to do for the day but it was also a bit more difficult because there was not another option to choose from.  Sort of an interesting paradox but nonetheless, it was again a new experience for me to be in a foreign land... completely alone and on my own. 

The weather today was a bit less than ideal and the intermittent rain put a damper on any consistent outdoor activities to I found a local movie theater.  At this point in the trip, I was too tired to function properly so I basically spent 5 dollars for a comfortable reclining movie chair and a 2 hour nap.  Feeling much more refreshed after the movie, against my better judgement, I walked by the bar I was in the night before.  All of the same people were in there.  It was one of those situations where you just want to say, "Nah, I'm all set, just gonna shut er down for the night" but what you really say is, "Yeah, sure, I'll stop in for 1 or 2 which will end up being 15 and I will be drunk again for the 10th consecutive day."  The latter ended up being the case. 

After the 14th drink, a proposal with toilet paper seems like a good idea.

There is such a vast amount of diversity in the people here, hailing from all over the globe, each with their own explanation and story of how they ended up in this beautiful region.  Some are here for pleasure.  Some are here to get away.  Some are here out of curiosity.  As I people watch and attempt to determine which category people fall under, I again hear the blissful tune of western English.  As I turn to the sound, a man completely covered in tattoos, chains, and an aggressive V-neck has about 4 Thai women surrounding as he is proposing a toast, each with their shot of tequila in hand.  I asked the guy where he was from and he hands me a shot and says, "Vancouver, cheers."  Instantly, I knew where this night was going to take me. 

He was the guy that was trying to get away.

He gave me a quick rundown of the 10 million in assets that his wife was trying to take from him, the myriad of drugs he had forced into his body since he had been in SE Asia, and amongst all of that, actually some viable information on other destinations (Cambodia was his suggestion) around the area, given I had more time.  It was actually pretty entertaining and he was a good guy, a complete disaster, but a good guy.  I thanked him for one-too-many shots and was off to Walking Street for some late night discos and visual stimulation, haha.



Day 11 -  Pattaya


I stayed up way too late last night and I feel like poop.  Had a great time but it is like being in Vegas, party, laugh, drink, dance, drink and next think you know, it's 5am, the sun is peeking over the horizon, and you are asking yourself, "Why?" 

Unlike the first 9 days of this trip, the second portion was much more stagnant.  Not stagnant in the sense that it wasn't enjoyable, but in the sense that it was the same thing over and over again.  It seemed that every day I am in Pattaya, it goes as follows...  Wake up late, grab some noodles and soup, sit at a bar casually for 3 hours, grab something more to eat, walk around the beach, sit at another bar casually, grab yet some more street food, then put it into overdrive with the nightlife that is unmatched anywhere else in the world.  This is Pattaya.  Add the blistering sun, 100 degrees and humidity, and you have a recipe that can consume even Danny Bonaduce...

Or this guy...

For more of what I am talking about read this...
http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-6-most-aggressively-ridiculous-benders-in-modern-history/

Anyway, point being, it is easy to get lost in the mix and the chaos because it is right in front of you, screaming at you and scratching your retinas, all day. 

So, due to the episodes of last night, today was a personal reflection day, a day that I sit back, enjoy the scenery and ponder, "What is Bobby Goepfert doing right now?"  After a brief internet check, I find this...

http://twitpic.com/4yp5st

http://twitpic.com/4yknky

...and my mind is, once again, at ease.


The girls that i had met from the night before invited me to go eat as a group, and since I am alone, I jumped at the idea of a social endeavor.  We took a few motorbikes over to their friend's salon, bought 5 or 6 Styrofoam containers worth of street food and had ourselves a little indoor picnic.  I found later that this is not a occasional occurrence, but rather something that is embraced.  This excerpt should probably be better off saved until a later blog but it is something I had written down the day before I left and relates to the Thai traditions, as I saw them...

To be honest, I am very sad to be leaving this place.  It is not one of those situations where the sadness is caused by sorrow, but rather because I feel this is a place unlike any other; and despite doing so much here, it seems like I have only seen the tip of the iceberg.  I am extremely satisfied  with how I handled the scheduling aspect of this trip, only a flight here and a flight home, with no other reservations, no agenda.  The reason this worked for me is that if I enjoyed a certain part, I continued, if I didn't enjoy it, I moved on.  A downside to that is the time restrictions.  There are so many other things to experience in Thailand, but this being my first extended trip, I figured 17 days would suffice.  To do it again, I will give myself a 1 month minimum, no matter where I go.  I also came to a realization that, once again, the American mentality of materialism and status should never take the place of family and friends, yet it still does, and it may always be that way.  It seems that though people here only strive for a few things in order to be happy; a little bit of money, enough for clothes, shelter, and food on their plate, and family and friends who love and respect them.  The US may be similar to this in some ways but the love and respect factor seems to be initiated by the wrong reasons. 

So, after a community lunch, some deep thoughts, and a rehydration session, a quick nap ensued, and it was back to Walking Street where any rational thought process and soft emotional response was soon a thing of the past.

Thailand (Part 6, Day 9)

Day 9  Koh Chang / Pattaya


Our last day in Koh Chang started just as we had suspected with a vicious downpour that seemed like it would never cease.  Our morning was dedicated to nursing a hangover with some fried rice and a few 1.5 liter bottles of water as we knew our trip back up to Pattaya was going to be another couple hour van ride with at least 2 or 3 people over capacity.  Our ride was to pick us up around 3pm so the only thing that Dougie and I needed to take care of was returning the motorbikes, packing up, and checking out of the hotel.  Luckily around 2, the sun peered out from the clouds and we had just enough time to get organized before our departure time.  We took one of the many "baht buses" back to the pier to make our 1 hour boat ride to land.  In Thailand, these baht buses are everywhere and are essentially just a pickup truck that has been modified in the back with some rudimentary seating attempt and some steel bars to latch on to.  They follow the same course throughout the day, much like a standard bus line, and every time you get one, its 10 baht per person.  If you want them to take you off track, they usually stick it to you pretty good.  Nonetheless, it is probably the most convenient way to get around for cheap.  Around 4pm, it was time to say goodbye to my own personal paradise, Koh Chang, Thailand.

Once arriving back on the mainland, we did a quick hunt for our van that was to take us back to Pattaya and climbed on board.  Luckily, for the time being, we loaded up the bags and as many people as possible, which was a perfect number and everyone had their own seat, with comfort.  About 20 minutes in, however, our driver decided to make a little pit stop on the outskirts of Trat and force a few more passengers and a few more bags so instantly this pleasant and relaxing trip up north turned in to a nightmare.  In typical fashion, being from Minnesota, I opted to give up my wonderful arrangement of leg room and a reclining seat for the misery of being slammed in the rear of the van with my buddy on one side and an unnecessary sheet of particle board on the other; all of this in an area of about 2.5 feet across.  All that I wanted to do on this ride was to shut down for a few hours, to prepare for the night ahead of us, but such was impossible.  Another thing to note is that I have some sort of heating disorder which spikes the temperature in my body anytime that I am in a) an uncomfortable situation or b) touching someone in a confined space...  both of which were currently taking place.  After an hour of drowning in my own sweat and heavy breathing, the driver made our first refueling stop and I was finally removed from hell as I knew it.

I relaxed a bit with a bathroom break and a bottle of water but soon we were back on the road.  Once we were moving again, I overheard a guy in the van speaking English, not broken sputtered English, but real American, possibly midwest, English.  After his conversation with someone else, I felt obligated to ask where he was from, his dialect was way too familiar.  He declared he was from Colorado and that he has been working back and forth between the States and SE Asia for the last 15 or some odd years, 6 months here, 6 months there.  For the remainder of the trip to Pattaya, this man was going to be our source of humor and knowledge of an area of the world that he clearly knew way too much about.

For some reason, the van we were in made about five stops on the way up north which did not really make sense to me because the 3.5 hour drive all of a sudden took us 6 hours.  Sometimes, our stops were completely unwarranted, no refueling, no food, no water, just random stops at flea market type areas so our driver could feed his nicotine habit every 75 minutes or so.  We had planned to take some time to relax, nap, and rejuvenate before the long night ahead of us but we were soon realizing that there was going to be little chance for some R and R.

From my experiences, there are two types of people that reside in Colorado; the "redneck, field dress a 10 point buck with their eyes closed" type, and the "let's go to Red Rocks, smoke a blunt or two, listen to some O.A.R., and talk about world conspiracies" type.  This guy was certainly the latter.  Extremely opinionated, he gave us some insight on the "rules of the road" in SE Asia.  It was actually quite entertaining for the most part but he was so far fetched that we had to take his advice in stride, sifting through the bullshit and usable information.

Dougie and I knew that we were going to have to find a place to stay once we got to Pattaya but we also assumed that we would arrive in decent time, not 3 hours past our deadline.  Our new Colorado buddy had asked if we had a spot to stay for the night, we obviously did not, and said that he knows a spot where we can get single rooms for about 800 baht per night.  It did not take much convincing because we were terribly fatigued and did not want to deal with any of that hassle so we obliged.  Around 9:30 or 10pm, we finally got dropped off at our hotel.  The guy told us to be down in the lobby in 20 minutes and he would show us a good time in the area around our hotel.  It was no problem for us and soon we were again being attacked by the massage girls on Soi 7 and Soi 8.

Things kind of got weird though.

So there we were, walking up and down the main, busy area of Pattaya trying to find a money exchange place.  Once again, due to the time of the night, basically every one of these places was closed.  Dougie and I said we would stop in a bar for a drink and that our buddy could go wherever he needed to, whether it be an ATM or an actual bank, and we would wait up for him.  We grabbed some street meat and sat down at the first place we could find.  At the end of all of these little meat on a stick things, the vendors always put a pineapple and a pepper for the final tastes.  Stupidly, earlier in the trip, I said I would eat anything that was in front of me.  The problem is that I unknowingly ate what was probably the hottest pepper on the face of the planet and spent the next 30 minutes deciding whether I should cry, vomit, or soil myself because this was the most undesirable situation I think I have ever been in.  Then, out of nowhere, a beautiful Thai waitress asked us for our drink order and I instinctively composed myself to risk any further embarrassment for not being able to handle a street meat pepper the size of a baby Tootsie Roll.

45 minutes later our Colorado guy showed up at the bar, we walked about two hundred feet to yet another beer bar, and saddled up.  This is where the weird part began.

So we were casually sitting there, sipping on a cold Chang, when I felt it was necessary to buy the bartenders a 'lady drink.'  They were pumped and brought over the standard games of choice, Jenga and Jackpot.  Everything was going fine when all of a sudden, the girls we were with had to get up on the bar and start dancing.  We had walked by so many places and seen this so many times that it seemed to be par for the course and I didn't think anything of it.  Next thing you know, the guy we were with starts snapping.  Snapping on me, snapping on the bartenders, and calling for the manager.  I was dumbfounded.  I had no idea what could have caused this but this guy was a treat to begin with so I figured I'd wait to see what kinds of shenanigans he had up his sleeve this time.  The reason he was so angry was because the girls left our game to start dancing.  That was it.  He said it was an insult to me, and since I had bought them a drink, I essentially bought their time as well.  He went on about how everything in the Thai culture with men is about face.  How men react if they screw up, are insulted, or something of the sort.  I told him it really wasn't a big deal and he retorted saying that they will never respect me if I don't stand up for myself.  This was nowhere near the time or the place for a confrontation but he was adamant and felt if I wasn't going to say something, it was now his turn.  Next thing you know, he is swearing at the manager, demanding I am refunded, and is telling me to dump my drink out on the bar.  Dougie and I were secretly laughing inside because this was ridiculous.  Next thing you know, the manager gives me my money back and our buddy says we are leaving.  The last thing the girls saw from me that night was a shoulder shrug and a look telling them, "What the hell just happened.  I have no idea who this guy is."

On the way to the next street full of bars, the next sermon on our Colorado buddy's list was what it takes to be a Thai man and that we will never attain such a thing in our lives.  Then he started basically telling us how to pick up women and by that point, both Dougie and I knew that our time with this guy was coming to an abrupt halt, we just needed a scapegoat.  Sure enough, my prayers were answered as we rounded the corner for Soi 8 and my Thai angel lay in the shadows of The Good Time bar.  We told our buddy that were were going to grab a beer at this spot and if he needs us, to swing on back, otherwise we were just going to set up shop here for the night.  He agreed and went on his way, never to be seen again.