After being in Thailand for 5 weeks, it was time to hit up a beach for the weekend. Ellen, a teacher in the ES, organized a girls weekend to Pattaya, leaving Friday night after school. We packed in to a van with our driver, cracked open some beverages (which is legal here) and sat back for the two hour drive to the coast.
We arrived at Rabbit Resort on Jomtiem beach a little after 8pm. The seven of us shared a gorgeous villa with two floors, and a well stocked fridge. The whole "rabbit" theme was a bit much...think rabbit statues, salt and pepper shakers, goodbye cards...too funny.We decided on a quiet evening, eating dinner at the resort restaurant by the beach. The food was delicious and shared "thai style" as to try many, many new things. Mary and Ellen (the Thailand vetrans) hooked us up with some great choices. My tolerance for spicy food has increased so much in just a month here! After dinner, we took a nice walk on the beach, saw some soi dogs (street dogs) and had some great conversation.
The next morning we had "american style" breakfast at the resort and headed to the beach. It looked like a huge storm was coming, but thankfully, it passed. This is not on of the nicest beaches in Thailand, but still great compared to what is back home. Nothing is better than sitting with a good book, listening to the ocean and getting an hour foot massage (which includes legs and lots of interesting body positioning) for $5. We spent the entire day at the beach (which is a gay beach and had some interesting sights), saying "my ow ka" (don't want thank you) to the vendors that were trying to sell us clothes, food and henna tattoos, and soaking up the sun!
Saturday night we went into Pattaya and checked out the oultet mall (looks surprisingly like Florida) the night market and finally, walking street. Pattaya is known for it's sex industry but I was truly shocked by what I saw. Girls with numbers lined up outside the bar, the most beautiful male "girls" I have ever seen, old white men with these young Thai girls...it was insane. We literally just walked down the street trying to take it all in (while enjoying some ice cream and Heineken for dinner). It is really quite sad at how pronounced the sex industry is, especially seeing how young the girls and boys are that are selling off their bodies to survive off tourist dollars.
Sunday, was another day of relaxing on the beach (I know, this is a tough life I lead). We lucked out on not having any rain, but it was actually a bit too hot for the beach (and this is the cool season!), so we lounged by the hotel pool for the afternoon and enjoyed some tropical drinks! I had an amazing grilled cheese for lunch (needed a bit of Western food) at our hotel restaurant, and loaded back into the van for the ride back to reality.
It was a much needed getaway with great company! I am counting down the days until our first long weekend when a few of us are going to Phuket and Koh Phi Phi. I am trying to take advantage of every day off school to see as much of this beautiful country as I possibly can in a year!
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