Went for a vacation to Bangkok and Pattaya. This vacation has been in the offing for around 3 months. And yes, the important fact to keep in mind is that this was an all-girls' vacation, the fellow vacationers being GS, SM and another ex-colleague of ours. I know what you are thinking and I have already heard all that before from everyone who was informed of the vacation: "All girls!", "There is nothing for girls to do in Thailand!", "Really?Okkkkayy!", etc. etc. At that time I thought that people are just jealous that I am going on an all girls' vacation to Thailand...I mean how cool am I!!
So the day we reached Bangkok, we boarded a bus and headed straight to Pattaya from the airport. All sleepy headed and bleary eyed, my first impression on entering Pattaya was - "This is Goa! Only cleaner and with wider roads". On reaching our resort (which was this quaint, tree-filled place which we absolutely fell in love with) we were met with our guide , Jim something. He told us what all we could do in Pattaya etc. etc. And then in very hushed tones he asked us if we were interested in a "live show". We were all like "uh?" "huh?" and then asked him what exactly was presented "live" in this "live show". So dear Jim after blushing adequately and looking appropriately uncomfortable told us that it was a live "sex" show! All four of us went "haw", "he bhagwan", "nahi nahi". But then curiosity got the better of us and we asked him what really happened in the show and then Jim, in his limited English vocabulary, explained to us how, in the show, a man did things with his manside (??). Fascinated as were, we decided against it and headed to our rooms where we slept for a couple of hours and headed out to the Gem's Gallery which, were told, is the biggest jewellery store in Asia. After ambling through the showroom without buying anything (obviously!) we decided that we were hungry and landed at the Walking Street which is the hub of all that is Pattaya. After doing a li'l shopping we turned into this lane in the Walking Street which had all red-bulb lit bars on either side. There were all sorts of women lolling outside these bars wearing clother ranging from almost there to almost nothing. and making lascivious gestures at all the pot-bellied firang old hags that were roaming the streets. I felt that the women out there were sneering at me, looking at me and probably thinking "what a fool, romaing around here all wide eyed with an idiotic smile pasted on the face! get out of here and go sight seeing!". I was totally smitten by the atmosphere, it was a different world all together, something which I was brought up to judge and look down upon at. But standing there looking at those women I realised that these ones were brought up with the idea that putting yourself up for sale was one of the many professions that people take up and it was perfectly alright to do so. And in the night not only those side lanes, but the entire city comes to life, with these women/transvestites (its difficult to differentiate) thronging the beach, the road, the shops. The only couples that you can see there are those comprising of a fat old firang and a petite young chinky.
Then suddenly we started seeing them- hairy, lecherous and brown skinned- The Indian Uncles! They were everywhere, ogling you, undressing you with their eyes (not in a romantic way!) . The place was swarming with the bloody fuckers! The next day when we went undersea walking a group of around 50 Indian Uncles (of the variety explained above) had the whole beach under seige. The way they were eyeballing women- us, chinkies, firangs, and the way they were behaving, we were ashamed to be associated with them through the unavoidable link of nationality.
On our way back to Bangkok from Pattaya we had a very funny experience. In our car, there were two drunk as crazy Indian Uncles (the worst variety imaginable) who started misbehaving. GS and SM yelled the daylights out of them, stopped the van and got those two dogs removed. All the way to Bangkok we kept sharing stories of how each girl has to have ugly experiences and how even in a foreign country we were in danger from our very own fellow country MEN! However when we reached our hotel in Bangkok, guess who we see checking in there- the two dogs! We were shocked and a little scared. Then we went to an Indian place for dinner and guess who walks in there- the two dogs! We almost choked on our food. The two dogs kept staring at us and GS and SM again gave them the yelling of their lives, after which the two dogs backed off. But that was some experience.
In Bangkok the only thing that we did was shop- MBK, Platinum Plaza, Sua Lumn night bazaaar and all that. Honestly the "shopping in Bangkok" is totally overhyped. The clothes are just about ok and could be picked off the Hill Road, export import shops as well.
We also ended up watch ing the "live show" afterall, in Bangkok, which was utterly disgusting and sooper boring and after having paid 600 baht per head, we walked out in 15 minutes flat! All in all, honestly there is nothing for women to do in Thailand and the place I assume would be sex haven for men!
The best parts of the trip however were, travelling in the tuk tuk, getting a thai foot massage, lapping in the Bangkok hotel's terrace swimming pool, having bread and butter from 7-eleven in the hotel for dinner (so we could save money to shop more), almost missing our flight back home (beacsue we we were busy shopping at the duty free and the numerous girlie chats we had throughout the trip.
That place was definitely some experience, even though not all good, but definitely memorable!
Ciao.