Thanksgiving in Pattaya, TH

Thanksgiving 2008

We had great plans for our Thanksgiving week. John was going to take off a few days & we were going to Borneo, leaving Wed & returning on Tuesday. I had worked out with a friend who knows the Executive Manager of the Shangri-la Hotel in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, Borneo to get a good deal on a room. If you don't know Shangri-la hotels - they are 5 star & really really nice!!

As you already know, the PAD (People's Alliance for Democracy) or Yellow Shirt people, took over the airport on Tuesday night, so our vacation got canceled. Just a side note - the PAD are fighting to have only 30% of the government officials elected democratically & 70% to be appointed by the King, so they are actually against democracy.

We had really set our minds on getting out of the city for a few days, so we changed plans & decided to head for the beach that is closest to Bangkok, called Pattaya. Pattaya has a reputation as being the red light city of SE Asia, but with the airport closed our options were limited.

We were told there was a bus that went from Bangkok to Pattaya & where to get it. We tried taking the sky train, but were not allowed on with a suitcase. So we hailed a taxi & asked him to take us to the bus station. He said because of the bad traffic it might take 1 to 1.5 hours to get to the station (this happens a lot here, which is why we like to take the sky train or subway). We asked him how much to just take us all the way to Pattaya? We negotiated a price (about $50) & in 1.5 hours we were at the beach!!

We had not booked a hotel ahead of time so ended up at a rather seedy place our first night. It was close to the main strip so we enjoyed walking the street & seeing all the Go Go Clubs (they still call them that here) & girly bars. Most of the bars are open sided so you can see what is going on inside without having to go in. There was one that had Thai boxing, but it didn't look like they were very serious. Another had an Elvis impersonator. Most of them had poles for dancing & it looked like something out of Austin Powers - 1960's Groovy Baby!!


On Thanksgiving day we ate at a Russian restaurant. There are lots of Russians vacationing there. It wasn't very good. We moved the 2nd night to a resort type hotel that had nice grounds, a pool & a beach. We stayed there the rest of the time, it was very relaxing. We rented a motorscooter ($10/day) which was lots of fun. We got massages, manicure & pedicure on the beach ($3 each). It felt very decadent.

We did find an Irish Pub that had a carvery dinner on Sunday night, so we even got to have turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing & cranberry sauce. It definitely was not home cooking, but it satisfied the craving. We found some nightlife away from the Go Go bars & pole dancers - pubs showing English football. We saw a few tourist sights (Sanctuary of Truth) & went go karting (john was much faster than me, but I did OK).



It was a nice get-a-way, but we sure missed not being with family & friends. We have rescheduled the Borneo trip for Christmas, so hopefully nobody takes over the airport this time!!

Bangkok Gecko Wrestling

Gecko Wrestling !!

If you've ever lived in the tropics this will not be any surprise to you, but if you haven't, well this is how it is. You know what a gecko is (those cute little lizard type creatures they use to advertise for the insurance company - Geico??). Well when you live in a tropical climate they are all over the place. You don't always see them, but you can hear them. They make a loud repetivite clicking noise. They are not very talkative, so they generally aren't much of a problem. They usually stay up near the ceiling. They are small enough to be able to get in to your home no matter if you have screening or closed windows, they get in. There is one that I know lives up in the study who sort of keeps me company when I work up there. I rarely ever see him or her (how could you tell?), but the periodic "talking" let's me know he's there watching me.

BUT today when I was looking for my address book, I went in to the study & there were 2 little geckos locked together rolling over & over on the floor. They were obviously fighting or wrestling or something. It was really funny to see. They didn't even stop when I went over to get a closer look. I ran to get my camera, but when I got back up there & pulled the curtain aside to get a better shot, they let go & ran up the wall.

My Thai friend told me a story about geckos that makes me glad the only ones I've ever seen are the small ones. He said that if you get too close to the big ones, they will jump onto your face & suck on your skin & will not let go. So you can pull & pull, but they lock on. He never told me how you can finally get them off, but it makes me think they aren't so cute any more. The other night I heard something scurrying around our bedroom & all I could think of was "it's a big gecko & it's going to jump onto my face & I won't be able to get it off". So I searched to see what was making the noise, but didn't see anything. I lay there for a long time until something that felt fairly large ran across my legs (they were covered by a quilt). I left John in the room (he never heard or felt anything) & went to sleep upstairs. In the morning I checked out the room again & found droppings that I knew to be mouse droppings (of course I have no idea what gecko droppings look like). A day later there was a dead mouse curled up in the corner of the kitchen. I guess the maintanence guy had put out some poison. And I haven't heard anymore critters in the bedroom since then.

The joys of living in a tropical country!!