Pattaya Potpourri

Most of my friends who learned that I am in Pattaya claimed that I had advertently chosen a course that suits my trip, and it would be very difficult to convince them otherwise, but so it is. Inadvertent and unplanned though, the trip turned out to be quite an unexpected, and mostly pleasant, surprise. There aren’t many photos though, as I didn’t have a camera.

First impressions

The first impressions weren’t great. I was placed in a “Villa” in Chonburi, a province of which Pattaya is one city. I hadn’t expected that finding vegetarian food and English-speaking people would be so difficult. Next day, I just packed my bags and left the villa for the course, not knowing where I will end up. I found out later that most hotels in Chonburi/Pattaya are fully booked due to Chinese New Year (who would think of that?); fortunately I ended up in Sabai Wing on Soi 1 on Pattaya beach road. Boy, life here was different!

People

In the small street where Sabai Wing was located, and in other small streets in Pattaya, you would find more westerners than local people. Pattaya receives heavy dose of tourism owing to great weather, beaches, low cost living and that-which-should-not-be-named (aka prostitution). Westerners are mostly busy with hanging out at beach or water activities, sports, eating outlets, and of course, many with their temporary or long-term partners. Average westerner age could be easily above 50, for Pattaya receives a large number of Europeans retirees for permanent settlement. The local people are mostly into tourist services and very friendly and welcoming. Thailand is perhaps the only country other than India where Namaste is still the primary mode of greeting. It is called Sawasdee. People in TWI office (where I attended the course) were also friendly and helpful; one of them took me out on Friday to Buddhist temples.

Business/Economy

Every 2^nd shop in Pattaya is either an eating outlet, a tattoo shop, a go-go or equivalent bar or a massage shop. Finding vegetarian food was initially difficult, but once I was along Pattaya Beach Road, I found at least 5-6 Indian restaurants – I tried only one, which was opposite my hotel. Aangan Restaurant, which is operated by a Gujarati Brahmin family, is a very spacious and good quality restaurant for vegetarian food. Friendly owners and very high quality food. For 200 Baht (INR 280), you will get 8-dish home cooked menu. I had dinner once in The Pizza Company, but the vegetarian pizza was disastrous – good bread and crisp but horrible selection of toppings – corn, tomato, mushroom, pineapple.

Food and other things such as massage, clothes etc. are cheap in Pattaya and that is one reason I liked the place. Things aren’t overly priced. I think seafood is good and cheap as well; alas, not for my vegetarian palate.

Central Festival

Is a huge shopping mall; one the biggest I have ever been to (and the biggest beach mall in Asia). Malls of such size, which are also to be found in Bangkok and Singapore, bog me down like anything. It takes considerable time and effort to accept one’s smallness in such a big mall. Had a nice mixed fruits crêpe there for 90 Baht (130 rupees) and later found an amazing gift for a good friend who has recently dropped smoking and is hoping to make this effect permanent in my “good” company (of course, my good intention was that he learns to avoid smoking despite a lighter at hand, so that his transcendence becomes irreversible ;-) ). But God had his own will; this nice lighter with flashlight was confiscated in Mumbai airport on my way to KL. It wasn’t confiscated in Bangkok or KL, but Mumbai airport seemingly doesn’t permit any lighters.

Any way, Central Festival is BIG and has most of the well-known brands. Cameras, the reason for which I visited this mall, were extremely expensive here and same models are cheaper in India, Malaysia and Singapore. Apparently, LCD/LED TVs are very cheap here.

Massage and Prostitution

Definitely different subjects, but they are intertwined at certain locations in Thailand.

I am still not sure how to differentiate between one that provides genuine massage services and the one that also provides “add-on” services. I went for a foot massage one day – paid 200 Baht (about 300 INR) and got 1 hr massage. Not a great experience – this was my 1^st foot massage and I was perhaps over-expecting, but the lady, about my mother age, was very good-natured, and diligently carried out the rigmarole. Based on the ambience of that parlour, I can say that the genuine ones would be more open (glass windows) whereas the notorious ones would be veiled. Sabai Dee Massage parlour was one of those – very big massage shop but all closed. Only when I went close to the door to check out, I saw girls standing in a row, waiting to be picked by the interested party. It is one of those things that would disturb almost every nationality, but it happens here – unwarranted but unchallenged.

Go-go and equivalent bars also have single ladies, and so is the case for singles’ groups hanging out on the beach road. However, I think the mantra there is that the guy should woo and haggle. That is as much as I learnt from distant observation.

Prostitution in Pattaya accelerated during Vietnam War (before which, it was merely a small fishing village). Prostitution as a business exists everywhere in the world. My previous assignment in Amsterdam has exposed me to such environments. However, there it is legal and accepted by the ‘open-minded’ Dutch society. In most of the other locations, where it is illegal, prostitution is either forced (by middle-men) on women or it is done out of need for basic necessities of life (food, education for children etc.). Here, the scene appeared a bit different.

There were girls who appeared obviously poor and others who were well dressed and (over) made up. Appearances can be deceiving and it may be so in view of investment for higher anticipated gains, but in a place like Pattaya, basic necessities can be earned from many different ways. So, when I saw a lot of these girls with older western men (very old; perhaps an age difference of 40+), it appeared that in many, if not all cases, the driver here is a better/rich life and not basic necessities. I checked it with one of my local course-mates and he also confirmed this idea.

It might sound weird, but I don’t abhor prostitution as done orthodoxly. I mean most of us subtly do sell our body, mind and soul in working or personal lives. However, this whole process, while profitable to the western old people from company or pleasure point of view, is very disadvantageous to the girls, for they need to be in a constant look out for customers or worse, end up marrying an old man for his money. The whole cache is that life is lived for smaller goals rather than bigger ideals. A poor girl, twice as hard working and earning half as much in a regular profession, would develop significantly in other dimensions, of which the most important are self development and family.

Beach and Walking Street

The beach road offers a good walk through a packed marketplace. On the left are shops and beach on the right with fairer singles discretely distributed. I never went to the beach except for a short minute on the last day at 9:30 AM – blue water, clean beach though small of which most is occupied by easy chairs. I saw at least 30 people parasailing that early in the morning. I heard that all adventure sports and corals watching trips are very reasonably priced in Pattaya.

Walking street is a continuation of beach road, though as the name suggests, it is for walkers only. It is basically an agglomerate of food shops, go-go or otherwise bars and some adult entertainment studios. Someone highly recommended it to me, but I didn’t find it very impressive.

Buddhism

Buddhism is the religion of more than 90% of Thai population, and like India, people are very religious. However, most of the Buddhists are non-vegetarians. This was initially surprising, but if I compare these with east and south Indian Brahmins who also savour seafood, it makes sense that food habits and everything else are adjusted to one’s own ease. Or as Osho puts it beautifully, “We put ourselves at the centre and god at the periphery.” I am not really arguing for or against vegetarianism or otherwise – it is as it is, but people do not follow things completely, though they will kill people for the cause (not referring to Thailand here).

My classmate Sathit was kind enough to offer a visit to Buddhist temples on Friday evening. Quite a trip! First we went to Khao Chee Chan, a place where image of Buddha is carved in gold using Laser (not sure how that was done; need to research). Not a great touristic spot, but beautiful for one visit.

Then we went to another Buddhist temple and that is the strangest temple I have visited to date. Have a look at the picture below; who can tell me that when we go inside, we will find nobody, darkness, lots of dust and shattered glasses all over the place. The place was totally desolate, except for stray dogs in remarkably poor health (under-fed). For sake of time and security, I dared not to go upstairs.

Hydrogen and Helium

This isn’t anything about Pattaya, but during the course, Mark, the instructor, was talking about Hydrogen and Helium in some context. While what he explained was high school stuff – hydrogen is active because it lacks an electron and helium is stable because it has sufficient electrons for its orbital – it suddenly dawned on me that this is true even for people. Activity arises from a feeling of incompleteness; peace arrives with the feeling of completeness. Which is better is left for individual to judge for oneself, but most of us do look out for activity that would lead to inactivity.

Final impressions

Have a look at the photo below – Pattaya coastal line (borrowed from internet; another very beautiful can be found on Wikipedia). It is a very beautiful place; things are reasonably priced; good people; many touristic locations and water activities options (I didn’t explore the bigger and famous Jomtien beach, Big Buddha Image etc.); slightly dangerous for desperate souls (or pleasurable depending on point of view). I shall come back here once again in my lifetime.