BANGKOK AND PATTAYA - THAILAND

After Taiwan the plan was to travel overland through mainland China, visiting Tibet and ending up at Kathmandu. However there were several factors why I scrapped this plan.

Firstly there was the Tibet issue.....in the words of Wikipedia "Tourism to Tibet is strictly controlled by the Chinese government, and restrictions were further ratcheted up after the riots before the 2008 Olympics. As of 2009, the previous "backpacker" tours, which included the permit and a couple of nights stay in Lhasa is no longer an option and all travelers must stay with an organized trip the entire time they are in Tibet"

Second there was money as the one hour flight to Hong Kong cost double the cost of the 3 hour flight to Bangkok. On arrival in costly Hong Kong it would be several days waiting for a visa on horrible Nathan road.

Finally it was heading towards winter, after being in the Philippines at the back end of rainy season I was not going to take that chance so it was back to Bangkok.



At this point I felt like I had done "Bangkok to death". I was almost a travel guide for every new arrival in the city. After coming from Taiwan it was a bit of a downer to back there instead of going through China.


I did visit the grand palace which took up a good chunk of a day. As it is the top tourist attraction in Bangkok I spent a while wondering why I had never been there before. It was several days before I made my mind up where to go next.

South East of Bangkok was one part of the country I had not been to before so I headed down to the infamous resort town of Pattaya. I got on the wrong bus that took all day stopping at every little town and village on the way.

I actually stayed a few miles south at a beach called Jomiten which I figured would be a bit less hassle and there was a cheap hostel.

The usual first days explore of the place confirmed what I expected. Endless high rise hotels, deckchairs, full English breakfast, fat sunburned Europeans and a lot of the "I have been to Thailand a dozen times but only ever seen Bangkok and Pattaya" type of people.

The one issue I would give the place credit for was the low hassle factor. The obnoxious taxi drivers and Indian suit sellers were only a fraction of the amount you get in Phuket and Ko Samui.

What put me off was the idiot factor, there seemed to be a lot of the football hooligan/get drunk and have a fight type of people who should have stayed in Benidorm.

Seen it, done it, time to move on to the islands..............