St. Patricks Day in Thailand

Had a good night out with some of our friends...

A couple of the guys are from Ireland so St. Patricks day was the obvious choice of date.

Had great fun at the local Irish pub, Kilkenny's.

I got interviewed by the Pattaya Mail & News guys. Should be on TV soon, got a copy of the footage shot. My one minute of fame in Thailand.

Eugene went hiding, refused to be caught on camera. No worries Travis and Ally couldn't wait to be on TV, so I wasn't alone....

Check the pics closely, the oldish lady quite fancied Eugene, I found it much more amusing that he did. So we got her to pose for a pic with the boys. Made her day.

The "HUGE" guy that I posed with is Terry, he comes from New York but his parents are from Jamaica. Hence the Jamaican outfit. The biggest (excuse the pun) gentlemen I have ever met. He was sitting on a chair talking to his lady friend when he saw a old man standing at the side of the bar chatting to his friends. He actually got up and offered the man his seat as he could see that the guy was getting tired.

I could not believe it. Great guy...

Weard Signs

You can't help but laugh when you see some of the signs along the road, nevermind wonder what they advertise or are all about.

The Birds and Bees, Cabbages and Condoms leave much to the imagenation.

Lucifers disco, well yes actually quite a interesting place all the waiters are dressed in little black dresses and have red horns on their heads. Nothing abnormal going on in there though, so parents please don't worry too much.

And then can you believe it - Eugene and I had to come all the way to Thailand to find a beer bar dedicated to our little bundle of love Wombles (Our gorgeous cat for those of you that don't know him, currently staying with his grandmother).

Can't wait to see him again...

Just for my Mom!

I just had to take a picture.

Look at this herb garden, literally on the beach.

I had no idea herbs can grow in sea sand.

Look mom I learned something about plants whilst in Thailand.

Scooters everywhere yet so remote!!!

Have you ever seen a parking area for scooters that have probably a thousand scooters parked back to back, so that you have absolutely no idea how the person in the middle manages to get out if he is by some chance the person who wants to leave first on that specific day.

We'll we do all the time.

Here is one such parking bay area along Jomtien Beach.

But then look at the next photo's - literally a minutes walk further you hit the corner of the bay. Nothing in site, you feel as if you have just walked off the edge of the earth.

So amazing how one minute you feel like you live in concrete paradise, too many people, too many scooters and too much pollution and then five minutes later paradise or remote jungle.

Architecture

We'll these are some of the typical Thai style buildings that you will find in Thailand.

Most of these pics were taken along the streets of Jomtien where we currently live.

What a pleasure waking along this scenery every day to work.

I would love to own one of these one day, as they are apparently just as beautiful inside, with furniture made out of teak wood.

Just unfortunately quite difficult to own property here. Farangs (which is Thai for foreigners) are only allowed to invest in condos - which is basically a large block of flats. No foreigners are allowed to own land. You can through some miracle still purchase a house if you impress the Thai consulate enough, but you will never own the land that it is built on.

This is even sad for the Thai people, as we heard a story from another diver about a situation here the other day were one of the restaurant owners told him that this would be the last night that they have their restaurant, because they decided to build a road through where his restaurant was.

He owned it for four years and they just come and tel him in two months you close, they don't give them any kind of money for their property nothing, just takes it.

The next day the restaurant was bulldozed.

Very sad...

Art Gallery Day

We found this little Art Gallery / Tea Garden / Restaurant on one of the small little side roads leading to the beach. Quite sad that so little people know about it and that it isn't more advertised as it is one of the most beautiful little gems in Thailand.

We had an absolute ball having authentic Thai food in a beautiful garden, surrounded by sculptures and works of art by a local Thai artist.

The food was good, the people very friendly and hospitable.

Definitely something we will do again before we move on to somewhere else.

Look at the very authentic style Thai garden table and gazebo... We couldn't resist sitting down for an ice cold drink here.

Pattaya Waterpark

With the Heat only getting worse and worse in Pattaya we decided to go to the closest "waterhole" that we could find.

Pattaya Themepark and waterworld seemed just the place to be. We were a bit disappointed in the park as it isn't looked after at all. It was once again very sad to see that people seem to start with great ideas and spend a lot of money to build all these tourist attractions, but them not look after it and let it deteriorate into something much less grand than the original idea.

Anyway, we had great fun "cooling down" on the supertube - not that you ever cool down because the water is as warm as bath water.

What I will never understand is that the Thai people don't seem to feel the heat.

Look at the Thai guy looking after the kids that go down the tube. He is wearing a full on track suit.

This is a tower in the middle of the park, you take a "cable car" up and absail down.