From Pattaya to Trat



Golden street lamps... not big deal





The path to my room, heavily guarded





Path to my room in Trat





Pattaya




Pattaya




Pattaya Beach Road



After leaving Bangkok, and making a mad dash to the nearest beach scene, Pattaya, I came to some conclusions. 1: I was going to take my advanced diver course once in Pattaya, come hell or high water and, 2: I was just going to relax before hitting the supposed transportation nightmares of Cambodia. However, After hitting town, and viewing the "beach scene" first hand, I quickly realised that these plans had to go. The beach is a tiny one, and that makes for allot of crowding of people on shore and boats off. The water kind of smelled like sewage, and there was allot of trash everywhere. Then I find out that diving in the area is not cheap as reported, but just as much as Zanzibar. So instead, I decided to treat myself to a "nice" hotel ($30) and some good food for a change. Granted the food was Mcdonalds, but I'll tell you what, after months of nothing but the most healthy food, IE rice and fish mostly, A big mac turned out to be the greatest food invention ever. (KFC down the road; i got my eye on you). So after the guilty pleasure feast, I even went to a spa thing. What you do is sit there drinking your beer, and you put your feet in a little pool filled with cleaner fish. thousands of them. They all flock to your feet and nibble away at them, eating away any dead skin or whatever else. It tickles, but it's fun. After 30 minutes, you have some mighty smooth feet. (I don't know why that's important, but ok). The next day I took a bus to Chantaburi, a few hours down the road, where I switched buses and rode a couple more hours to Trat, the whole time with a guy from sierra Leon trying to sell me gems and diamonds. I'm finally in small town Thailand, at the edge of a thick jungle. Its very cozy, and the wifi is free, so I think I'll stay a couple days before hitting the border.