Patong Beach

It probably wasn't the sort of anniversary we were planning on.  After an hour in the dentist's chair, Jim wasn't a very happy chappy. One side of his face was completely numb and took quite a few hours to come back to life.  The best thing seemed to be to go back to the room for a while for him to recuperate, and we headed out for just a light dinner later in the evening.  The street food is really so good and very cheap.  After walking around for a while we ended up at the one we ate at our first night.  One of the young chaps working there recognised us, which I thought was pretty good considering the numbers of tourists that must go through.

Monday morning it was more walking, walking.  We started at our end of the beach and walked right down to the far end.  Since the morning after we arrived, we have been driven crazy with people on motorbikes stopping us and asking if we speak English and were we Aussies.  I woke up within a few seconds the first time that they are trying to get you into an information session on timeshare apartments.  No thanks.  Jim tried saying Nien when asked if he spoke English, but the AussieWide Caravan hat he is wearing was a bit of a giveaway.  We have bought a new hat this afternoon.  They aren't locals doing this, but expats from varying countries.  After one pair had stopped us three times in the morning, one of them an Australian, we asked them what was in it for them.  It seems that it is hard to get working visas even when they have local partners and if they can get you in the door for the presentation they get $100 which they split.  We spent quite a long time talking to them and they even resorted to almost begging us just to go along and feign interest so they could get paid.  We got caught at one of these things years ago on the Gold Coast, never again.

With all our walking we came across another large market, but alas it was still same same.  We stopped and talked to one of the traders who had excellent English, and he said that everyone gets their goods from the same supplier, so they will all have the same thing or not have the same thing.  We did buy some Tshirts at one of the stalls. a Billabong (no wonder they are going broke, they are the majority of knock offs) Callaway and  a Dolce and Gabbana.

We have come up with some strategies for crossing the busy roads.  We wait until there are a group of people wanting to cross and then go with them, making sure they are between us and the traffic.  We also crossed with a traffic cop as the traffic seemed a little more inclined to stop for him.  Eventually we found ourselves back at the pedestrian crossing.  Jim started talking to a young chap at a stall next to the lights.  He told Jim you have to just walk out and they will stop.  To my horror Jim did exactly this, and they did stop as I raced after him.

After lunch we walked down to the beach for a swim.  There are two cruise ships in today and this morning we could see all the tenders going backwards and forwards.  The beach as usual was quite full, and the lovely flat calm water the day before now had a few waves in it today.  But it is a delightful temperature.

Jim was pretty impressed with the two hour massage he had yesterday and lined up again today.  I opted for an easy time getting some washing done and looking up some things for later in the week.  There is certainly no shortage of massage places of varying types.  Jim reckons they sounds like sea gulls as they call out to you as you walk past.  Where he has been going is just up from our accommodation, she has her credentials on the window as well as a No Sex sign.  We do wonder just how qualified many of them here are.

We did an evening walk before dinner, up along the only part of the beach we hadn't been to.  The cruise ships were all lit up and one was on its way out.  According to my map there was supposed to be street food in that area, but we couldn't find it.  So we went back to the courtyard area with the free entertainment and had lovely bbq'd spare ribs and chicken plus a number of things on sticks that they fry.  We shared this between us with some steamed rice and it was very yummy.

We had been in Bangla Road a number of times at varying times of the day, but never late evening.  So this was quite an eye opener.  You could barely take a step without someone shoving a card in your face advertising a ping pong show.  There were lots of girls (or maybe lady boys) disinterestedly hanging on to poles above the tables.  There were just so many bars and shows you wonder how they can all make a living.  We walked the length of the street laughing at all that was happening around us.  I'm not sure who was holding whose hand the tightest.  The majority of people around however looked to be mostly sticky beak tourists like us.