HEYA PATTAYA

Pattaya/Bangkok – Day 2

Woke up to terrible body ache and slight sore throat. Must be the horrific massage and too much talking, complaining about the fake Tiger Show.

Nong Nooch Village

Nong Nooch Village was postponed to the second day due to flight delay on the first day. Ah Lek said, Nong Nooch belongs to a rich Teo Chew businessman, who made the garden for his second mistress, Nong Nooch.

There, we were enchanted by beautifully landscaped garden, figurines of elephants made of stone and flower pots. Some of my colleagues were photographed (more like molested) with the leopard, orang utan, kangaroos, parrots, etc. We were entertained by cultural show which includes muay thai (Thai kickboxing) and told stories of the glorious wars of the ancient Siam, under the rule of King Rama.

The highlight of the trip was the elephant show. Elephants demonstrating their skills in archery, painting, playing football, balancing, massaging human, etc.

Ah Lek said that, these mild mannered elephants were taken from northern Cambodia and each was assigned to their individual trainers. Most of the trainers are Cambodian. They treat the elephants like their own children. Both trainer and elephant stayed in the same house together. Some elephants, if treated well, will outlive their trainers.

Everyday, after the show, the elephants walk home with their trainers. On their way home, they would stop by the grocery shop to buy a bottle of Chinese white wine and drink to celebrate. No wonder the elephants do not die from heart attack. They have some wine everyday.

Gem Galary, in between Pattaya & Bangkok

When we were greeted by the reception with a welcome drink, I jokingly warned my fellow ex colleagues not to drink it as we will be spiked to buy something. We drank anyway since it was free.

True enough. I ended up buying two silver rings:- star sapphire and red garnet. Being a person who doesn’t fancy wearing accessories, except for a watch and a rose quartz and amethyst crystal bracelet which was perpetually stuck to my left wrist, I was amazed with the potency of the welcome drink.

Ms Tambi ended buying a pair of ear rings and a ring, and she blamed me for instigating her to make the purchases. Hey, we cannot force a cow to drink from the river if it didn’t want to, right? I almost bought a blue sapphire ring for my mother. I should have! They have wide ranges of prices and stones to cater to different individuals’ needs and affordability. You would be amazed at the fact that the accessories are individually crafted and their workmanship is simply beautiful. We were taken to the workshop to have a look on how they crafted the pretty accessories.

After the Gem Galary, we headed to Bangkok. The journey was long and, true enough, Bangkok is the biggest car park in the world. As if the massive jam was not torturous enough, each and every one of us were forced to karaoke in the bus for 3 hours.

After a horrifying journey (not the jam – it’s the karaoke), we reached the Emerald, a 4-star hotel. We were pleased to find that the hotel is simply fabulous, compared to the 3-star Caesar Palace in Pattaya, and the towel and water didn’t stink. One extra star really makes a huge difference.

No Hand Restaurant

After freshening up, we had dinner at Galaxy Restaurant situated right in front of the No Hand Restaurant, where customers are treated like retards or handicapped. They do not have to feed themselves – all would be done by the hostesses and even, going to the loo, the hostesses would unzip the customers and help them to wash up. It is kinda disturbing and sad that people would do anything to earn a living.

After the luxurious Chinese food, we decided to comb the streets of Bangkok in search of Thai food, pretending to be super adventurous. Shy to say, we chickened out to even try what we found: fried worms, cockroaches, bugs.. etc. Euww....

We decided to stick to safe food like mango with glutinous rice, pork knuckles in vinegar, tom yum noodles and beef noodles.

The night market in Pattaya opens till 2 a.m. There are basically lotsa food, stalls selling things: clothes, bags, jewelleries, make up sets, pets, cell phone covers, CDs, DVDs, etc.

Suan Lum Night Bazaar, Bangkok

We were taken to Suan Lum Night Bazaar. Ah Lek favored this shopping haven, compared to the famous Pat Phong, Bangkok’s own Chinatown. He claimed that no doubt Pat Phong is more estalished than Suan Lum, the traders in Suan Lum are more civilised as compared to the traders in Pat Phong. At least, the traders in Suan Lum would not shoo you away with a broom if you ended up not buying after haggling for price.

I ended up buying some of my favorite t-shirts at fraction of a price and got one for Ed too.

This is for Ed.