pattaya

i spent our 3-day weekend in pattaya, which is a beach town about 2 hours drive (if no traffic) southeast of bangkok. its a big tourist place for thais and foreigners because its the closest beach to bangkok, and its renowned for its "nightlife". the theme of older western male with younger thai woman (or sometimes man) was common. i learned that more people need to consult mirrors when choosing swimwear. i swear some of those men were wearing women's bikini bottoms! inappropriate!

we went to a cabaret show on saturday night. i was pretty disappointed. there were a few transvestite performers, but i think most were real ladies. and almost all of them were lip-syncing, badly. but it was interesting to see thais dressed up in traditional costumes from other cultures (the belly dancers and geishas, especially). there was no ban on picture-taking or filming during the show, but i wish there had been. all the flashes constantly going off annoyed me, as did the man who stood in front of everyone and filmed the whole show, ignoring the ushers telling him to sit the hell down.

after that we went to the "walking street". it was essentially bourbon st. or key west. a street with no car traffic, lined with bars and go-go clubs and street performers. we stopped at one bar for a drink and there was some amateur muay thai going on. one white guy fought a thai guy about 8 or 10 inches shorter than him. it was a tie in the end. but the white guy was way slow. i don't really think its a sport for westerners, but i'm still going to try to keep up with my lessons.

the next day i went snorkeling around on of the offshore islands in the gulf of thailand. i think ko lan, but i don't actually remember what josef told me. josef was my slovakian group leader person. i was the only person snorkeling, so i got to do whatever i wanted while they all went diving. the first stop was about a 30 min boat ride from the pier. the water was choppy. i felt nauseous when we stopped but i figured i'd feel better once i got swimming in the water, after all i've never been seasick from snorkeling before. well i did feel a little better for awhile, then i must have hit a rough patch of sea and started feeling really sick. i was wearing a life jacket (i like to just float around when i snorkel, so what? and i was all by myself, seemed safer.) and i wasn't exactly sure what would happen if i tried throwing up while bobbing around in the life jacket. i'm used to bending over to barf. so i swam back to the boat and barfed in the bathroom. i don't recommend pineapple before a boat trip, just fyi. shortly after that the divers all came back and we headed for the second spot. and it was lunch time. the smell of food made me want to barf again. i just laid on a bench while everyone else ate. then we stopped and i felt a bit better so i tried a few plain spaghetti strands. it was iffy. then i snorkeled at this second place for about 2 hours. i felt pretty fine most of the time, it was a more sheltered site. then back on the boat to go home. i was feeling good so i had a cup of tea to warm up and get some blood sugar. well, that was apparently a bad idea. this time i just barfed over the side of the boat. i don't know what the deal was, i have never been that seasick before. and i felt fine once i got off the boat.

anyway, there were lots of different kinds of corals, in all shapes and sizes! brain corals, ones that looked like fans or shelves. and lots of different colors, red, purple, green, etc. and of course lots of fishes! in lots of colors and sizes! i can't tell you what most of them were because i don't know. i did see one puffer fish. and a million sea urchins and sea cucumbers, and some crabs. no octopus or shark. :(

the other highlight of the trip was a random guy i met on the street. oh, this sounds like a good story, doesn't it. you are thinking, "liz, don't talk to random men on the street!" well, i usually don't. they try to talk to me and i give them my "go away" look and they go away. it works. but this guy pulls up next to me on a motorcycle and asks me for a restaurant recommendation, so i say i have no idea and give him my look. and he's strangely persistent, keeps asking me things, especially since its clear we are both american (not a lot of americans here). finally he says, "do you really not recognize me?" and i'm like, "um, no, should i?" and he starts making fun of me, "don't you ever watch tv? maybe some music channels? mtv, vh1?" and i say, "well, not that much" and i'm thinking why would this 60-year-old man be on vh1?? so finally he tells me he's from the eagles, as in the old band. now reunited. i was thinking, "that's a little old for me" but i didn't say it! be nice to rich people, it can't hurt! and i know he could just be faking it, but he seems pretty genuine so i agree to go have a beer with him at the bar across the street (we rode on his motorcycle for about 50 m, a little honda kind not like the big harley he has at home). so we have a beer and chat for awhile. he hits on my, i turn him down, we chat some more. he was quite interesting to talk to. then he left me for some russian ladies. i wished him luck and went on my merry way. oh, i forgot to say his name. joe walsh. you know him? i didn't. i couldn't even tell you any of the eagles until i googled it (i know the name don henley, but i didn't know he was in that band). i looked at joe's recent pictures and i'm sure it was him, he wasn't pulling my leg. just too bad i didn't have my camera for proof!! i guess joe is used to people recognizing him, but he struck out with me. haha! it was all pretty amusing for me! and a nice story to tell, i met a famous person on the street, etc.