Pattaya

Pattaya - AKA Sin City - I thought it would just be an endless stream of gogo bars, and beer bars - and it certainly is all that - but there is a lot to see here as well.

This is a major tourist destination which has reached a critical mass of tourists, despite having a pretty marginal beach.  Some of the food served in street restaurants was absolutely amazing - and made my ears ring...

I stayed away from the commercial restaurants, as I figured they would tone down the spices too much.

Pattaya also has a pretty cool complex of temples at the top of the mountain, including a huge gold Buddha, and a large group of Confucious statues and shrines.

More markets too - lots of streets full of interesting things.  Also, check out the 7-11!

Bangkok city

I returned from Huy Hin to the big city and stayed in the Baiyoke Sky Hotel - Thailand's tallest building.  My room was on the 57th floor, and had a pretty good view.

Down below was a street market.  Note the woman with a live charcoal bbq selling grilled chicken inside a narrow hallway with tons of flammable material around.  No boring, over-sanitized, nanny state health and safety regs here!

Lunch was Pad Thai and Oysters, supper was fish soup from an old street vendor, who whipped together the concoction from about 10 or 20 ingredients, stored all over his cart, and quickly flung into the broth.  It tasted amazing.

Huy Hin

Huy Hin is a sleepy little coastal town on the east coast of the west 'trunk' of Thailand.  As it was the slow season, there weren't many tourists there and the beaches and restaurants were empty.

I stayed in a quiet family run guest house with a great staff that cooked breakfast to order.  They also had a small pool in the back which was refreshing.  Unfortunately the beach was huge at low tide, but non-existent at high tide.

Some pics:

Bangkok Temples

One thing that I thought I would have on this trip is time and internet connection.  Both have been lacking.  WiFi in hotels has been sporadic, and the internet tethering on my phone has been at best painfully slow.

Also, there has not been much free time in the day, between touring, travelling, and interacting with other tourists and locals.  As a result, this post, and all others have been done after my return.

I travelled from Chiang Mai to Bangkok by train.  Accomodation (although first class) was pretty sparten:

On the way down, I shot some pics through the window at random Thai scenes including jungle, rice fields, train stations in the middle of nowhere, and a couple playing model and photog...

My time in Bangkok was spent visiting temples and touring up the river.  Here are a few river shots:

I got off the boat at Tien pier, and fought my way through a tiny market, to get to the Reclining Buddha:

I also visited the Happy Buddha temple and joined a celebration procession before peaking inside: