Well, its been fun at the beach, but due to an inner ear infection I had to ditch the SCUBA, there are supposed to be some nice island dives here, but C'est la vie!
I've done a few other touristy things, hired a jet ski and tore around the beach for a bit - the jet ski guy tried to claim I damaged the jetski by hitting something and cracking the body of it ... thankfully I was already clued into this scam and took a dozen photos before I left and showed him the crack was already there. My mate Ed told me about this scam - they will claim you damaged the ski and it will cost $10,000 B to repair (funny, I can get fibreglass fixed in Oz for a fraction of that) and if you get the tourist police involved the cost can go higher as the cop needs to get his cut too lol!
ASEAN is meeting in next-door Pattaya over the next week, and the red shirts have come out en mass...The red shirts are the UDD or United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship ... they are calling for the members of the Privvy council and the Thai PM to resign over corruption and events from the 2006 coup. From where I was lunching I could see the Thai PM's car arriving and then a bit of hell broke lose - A red-shirt on a motorcycle pulled in from to the car and crashed (looked remarkably staged) and the crowd surged at the car ... a few things were thrown and the PM's car took off with a smashed window (of all the dammned times not to have my camera!)
Very exciting.... I read today that the guy on the bike was arrested bit was released on bail after 2000 red shirts stormed the police station and occupied the second floor demanding his release.
I also read that the BKK red shirts had a huge rally yesterday, 100,000 people marched from Government house to General Prem's house and have basically set up camp there ... the deposed former PM, now in exile has requested the protesters to stay and more to join them ... this could become very interesting coming into Songkram which begins in a couple of days. Everything is peaceful now, but you never know .... I might have to go check it out when I get back to BKK tomorrow.
Ed had invited me to job the weekly FLB barcrawl on Wednesday night through Pattaya ... how could I resist??
I had come into Pattaya on my first night and thought it was mad ... wih an army of resident expats and a few hardcore tourists I was shown the very much more hard-core side of the city.... as for the ping pong balls reference, I'll leave it up to your imagination!!
I finished up with a walk along beach road to clear my mind as I was extreeeeemly drunk. I love that despite prostitution being illegal in Thailand, a full 1/3 of the length of the beach is nothing but whores plying their trade, I especially like the dichotomy that despite it's illegality, the greatest grouping appeared to be outside the police station! No shortage of tourists soliciting for them either, they'd better be using industrial strength rubbers ... it must be a lucky dip of STD's.
Back to FLB to cool off (it was roasting hot and humid, and I had stupidly worn jeans) and had a great political discussion with an yank who gave me the entire last 200 year history of Thailand, it was interesting (what I can remember... I was still pretty drunk) I'll have to do some reading when I get time, the story behind the king is very interesting, but not worth writing about here, being that insulting the monarchy is a serious crime here and carries mandatory prison time, and I am unsure as to how my commentary would be taken.
Onle last walk to clear my head before I head back to the hotel - I decide to grab some chocolate milk at a 7-11 (good hangover buster, I have found) ... You cant walk 10 feet here without running into a 7-11!!! I go to cross the road and am accosted by an ladyboy ... I politely refuse his/her/it's offer of "go home with you baby, suck your cock" and head inside.
Make my purchase and head out ... the katoey is outside again and now, with my hands full, makes a play to grab my junk ... and in the process I feel a brush against my pocket ... as I have a bag in my hand I do not have my hand covering my pocket as I usually do, I realise instantly what is happening and spin around to see the freak with my new mobile phone in its hand ... now I have had quite enough. I grab back my phone and the thing turns to run, but not before my right foot bakes one hell of a good connection with what must be a still-intact set of testicles ... because he drops to the ground instantly.
The moto drivers at the taxi rank thing this is great and cheer and move in, thinking they are going to see a beating (apparently a very common thing here) but I have my phone and my dignity, and I really don't feel like carrying it any further, so I flag down a baht bus and head back to the hotel.
Pickpockets 1 - Me 1
No comments:
Post a Comment