Pattaya, round 2.
Noon, Bua and I had been talking about doing a trip together sometime before I left to go back home to the states (or as it turned out, before I left to move to Nakorn Pathom.) We decided on Pattaya. The Vegas of Thailand and so close to where we lived, what could be a better plan?
Friday night Noon and I went to Bang Saen to wait for Bua to finish teaching class. It was getting late so we decided to have dinner with her parents and sister, Newie. They knew I loved seafood and since Bang Saen is right on the water, the decision was pretty easy. Her parents were so cute! We got fresh crab meat over salad, raw oysters, fried rice, whole fish, and som tam. Sooo much food but everything was soo good! Her parents couldn't speak much English and my Thai isn't the best for conversations but everything was really nice and I really enjoyed meeting them.
After dinner Newie, Noon, and I strolled the market looking for some going-out clothes for Newie to wear in Pattaya that night since we had convinced her to come. Drinking age in Thailand is 20 and she is only 19, however, she speaks English SO WELL and studied in California for a year so we decided that if she got carded going into the bars that we would just tell the bouncers that she was American and didn't have her idea. We are brilliantttt, it totally worked. Getting a little ahead of myself though as usual...
Bua picked us up in Bang Saen when she was done teaching and we headed down to Pattaya, got Lauren at Central, and checked in at the hotel. We stayed at a place that Bua's friend knows so it was really nice and we got a good deal on the rooms. We started off the night at the infamous Walking Street, of course, then after a little dancing and beers went to Noon's favorite German bar off the strip called Hopf, which I had actually been to the last time I had come to Pattaya with Danielle and Eric, random. We got their special deal of 5 liters of beer for like 1,000 baht. Yes, 5 liters of beer. And this was real beer, not Thai watered down nonsense. It is safe to say I was feeling pretty good when we left Hopf.
It was late but we were still looking to stay out so we ended up at a Johnnie Walker club and partied until 5am. I was having a GREAT time and making a lot of new Thai friends. In other words I was dancing up on their little groups and getting free drinks. All in a nights work.
The next day we slept in and then went to play paintball in the afternoon! My experience with paintball is limited and I was pretty bad at it. I was out first I think 90% of the time but the Newie, Lauren, Lizzie team eventually prevailed Woo Hooo!! Afterwards Lauren headed back to BKK and Noon and I went shopping while Bua got a massage. I got a dress at Zara (it was super expensive for my Thai income but I was in desperate need of new clothes and I really liked it... write it off at a US purchase and call it a day.)
That night we had a much more chilled-out experience which was good for a chance. We got pla pow, som tam, and fresh grilled shrimp at a market then went to a bar and smoked hookah and drank Heineken moderately and ate popcorn :)
We woke up on Sunday and moseyed about. We had breakfast on the beach that included grilled squid with the eggs still on, pad ka pow kai, and tom yum kung. The weather was pretty overcast so we got henna tattoos to occupy our time. Then we took the slow route back to Chonburi stopping often at outlet malls, Naraya (the Vera Bradley of Japan but SO CHEAP and SO CUTE), and of course more food. I will miss those girls sooo much but I am really happy that I got to spend some quality time before moving to NP!!
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