Thailand was one of the best port visits I have ever been on. It will never be better than Australia because Thailand is for vacationers and Australia is more of a place to make a living, in my opinion. None the less, it was an awesome port visit and I had a blast.
The area we pulled into was Laem Chabang and isn’t far from Pattaya Beach, which a lot of sailors are familiar with when coming to Thailand. There was a bus that took everyone to the main area of Pattaya and ships are usually anchored out and ride a boat into Pattaya, but we were lucky enough to moor up. The bus ride was about 30 minutes, but left at the top of the hour every hour. So if you missed the bus, you had to wait an hour for the next one to roll out, unless the bus filled up.
The first night was a bit rough because I didn’t get off the boat until sometime after six and didn’t arrive in Pattaya until 8:30. Also I dropped my ID card sometime after I pulled out cash because as we were walking away I noticed it wasn’t in my wallet. I told the guys I was with and freaked a bit cause I thought I’d ruined my time in Thailand. I was able to find it lying on the ground next to the bank teller and continued on with the night. We were able to find a club and dance and impersonate the waitresses by wearing there ID tags. It was a decent first night.
The second day I had duty, but that wasn’t so bad. It happened to fall on the Queen’s birthday, and that meant that no one was allowed to sell alcohol. Day two was a dry day for the crew, so I wasn’t so bummed about working.
Day three was a nice full day to have some fun, so we headed out into town. The transportation around Thailand is the “baht bus”, a truck fitted with seats in the back and you can have a driver take you anywhere all day for the right price. Our guy we paid 1000 Baht, which is roughly $30, to take us around all day.
The first thing we did was ride go-carts that included me spinning out into a tire wall and running a guy off the road. The guy was cool about it so I didn’t trip.
We went to find a hotel room after that and our driver took us to an agency that got us two rooms for two nights for $45 each person, there being four of us. We got up to our hotel and as we walk around I see a creepy old guy peek out from his room then slam the door. Our rooms were right next to each other, so that made it a lot easier to mess with each other. The room looked nice and the beds appeared to be comfortable, but I went into the bathroom and found the toilet seat on the ground. When we left to go out and explore again, one of the guys noticed a hole in the window; a bullet hole that appeared to have been shot from the inside of the building. We apparently had gotten what we paid for.
Once we were checked in, we went out shooting. I was hoping to fire an AK-47, but the place we went to had the normal armament. I split bullets with my buddy and shot a .38, which was fun. I was pretty accurate, with the exception of the earring I made on the target.
Everyone was in the mood for a massage, so our driver took us to a massage palace. Guess he misunderstood us because he took us to a hooker joint, and we wanted a legit massage. We all left and found a placed that was pretty decent. They had these pants that we were supposed to wear and no one was certain if we should get naked under them. They all decided against it and kept on their underwear but being the one from California, I am not used to wearing underwear underneath board shorts and everyone was like wtf? but I stayed in my shorts and I didn’t care. I still got a good legit Thai massage.
It got late and we wanted to get something Thai to eat, so we found a place that sold Pad Thai. I am not a fan of new foods, mainly because I am not sure of how clean it is, but after the okonomiyaki that I had in Hiroshima, I thought this would be pretty good as well, which it was. The restaurant had a nice beach view, but I was still skeptical of its cleanliness.
The last day consisted of riding elephants, which the guy taking me around let me sit on the elephant’s head and he got some pretty good pictures. After that, the driver took us to what we thought was a souvenir shop and turned out to be jewelry shop. We didn’t stay there for very long after seeing 1,000,000 Baht for a price, so we headed back to the hotel where we chilled by the pool for the rest of the day.
This ship has been consistent with its trips to Thailand. The time before this was 2 ½ years ago, and before that another 2 years. I don’t have enough time left go to back there, but at least I can say I was there.
well this is very useful… (at least for me)
very thanks