Snapshots of Pattaya… Part 2.

“Come on, Gypsy…!! We gotta get into town before the best seats are taken…!!”

“Seats…?” I asked, “I thought we were going to Walking Street…!! Have you changed your mind again…?? We going to Sitting Street now…??”

Willi then patiently explained that we needed to get into town by 7.30 pm, so that we could find a restaurant or bar that had seating on the sidewalk of Walking Street. That way, we could get comfortable while watching the “show”…!!

We also needed to find a safe place to park the bikes, which was no easy task, as there are tens of thousands of scooters buzzing about at all times of the day…

All sufferers report to Pattaya....!!

Top T-shirt says it all....!!

Having Willi leading the way was a huge advantage, as had he not been with me, I would probably have taken a taxi or a tuk-tuk into town…

Instead, I buzzed around behind him, grinning at the sight of him on his scooter, while remembering our rides through the Balkans…

After seeing him on his GS, it was hard to accept that this was the same guy…

While we puttered along at 50 km/h, I wanted to ride up next him and give him a quick slap alongside the earhole, and say,

“That’s for selling your GS, which now forces me to ride in 3rd and 4th gear to stay close to you…!!”

Willi unerringly guided me down a dark and narrow alleyway, to a place where the bikes would be looked after…

A young Thai guy saw us coming and indicated a spot where I should park…

“You kidding me…?” I shouted over the noise of other scooters that were all looking for a parking spot…

“This is a real bike, not a toy…!! It’ll never fit there…!!”

In the end, Willi took the spot, grinned at me and told me I should have got a scooter instead…

The “show” Willi had referred to earlier, was the constant parade of both local people and tourists who were either plying their “trade” or just out to see the sights and experience the sounds of downtown Pattaya by night…

“You better get your bearings now, in case we become separated later on…

You need to remember where we parked the bikes, otherwise you’ll wander around here for hours looking for them…!!”, was Willi’s first bit of advice for the night…

This was followed up by many other bits of advice about the “do’s and don’ts” that I will leave to your imagination…

Suffice to say there was lengthy section on identifying the difference between “Girls” and “Lady-Boys”, which he thought might come in handy as the evening wore on…

We walked out of the darkened alleyway, and into the artificial daylight of Walking Street…

Restaurants galore...!! Walking Street, Pattaya...

King Lobsters are on offer everywhere....

A fine quacking mess we're in Daffy....!!

I barely recognized my surrounding, despite having ridden down this same road on more than one occasion earlier that morning…

Walking Street was abuzz, lit by the hundreds of huge neon signs advertising restaurants, bars, go-go clubs, massage parlours, tattoos and piercing, and in between, the odd run-of-the-mill touristy shops, selling anything form t-shirts to wooden carvings and handmade jewelry…

And inching their way through it all, were hordes of tourists, camera flashes popping and video cameras filming it all…

Cries of "Shark...!! Shark...!!" had nothing to do with an imminent attack...!!

Not the only crabs you need to concern yourself with on Walking Street...!!

Seems like everybody's invited...!!

We began by walking to the entrance of the street, and then out onto the beach road, where long lines of girls and wannabe girls sat and stood under palm trees that lined the shore…

The night was still a puppy, so many of them were still applying their makeup under the streetlights, putting the finishing touches to their outfits, all the while smiling sweetly at anybody whom they made eye contact with…

There is no denying the beauty of Thailand’s girls, with their almond eyes, high cheekbones, lustrous dark hair, smooth skin and ready smiles… All I could keep thinking was that most of them seemed younger than my daughters…!!

They are disconcertingly frank about what they are offering, and if you hesitate for a micro-second when passing them, expect to have an arm suddenly entwined with yours, and a sweet (and sometimes husky…!!) voice would begin muttering things in your ear that would make most grown men blush…!!

Now this is an airline worth supporting....!!

They dance AND fly brooms.... This I gotta see...!!

Every day is Valentines Day in Pattaya...!!

This photo is blurred to protect the identities of the subjects... The photographer did NOT have the shakes....!!

Adverts like this have thus far kept me from getting some inking done...!!

We walked back to the entrance of Walking Street and entered the chaos…

Willi stopped to chat to somebody he had met the day before and in seconds was swallowed up in the crowd…

I walked on, trying to find a place to sit down and have a drink…

I settled on a bar where a live band was playing Dire Straits songs, and doing a great job of it…!! The lead guitarist even sported a sweatband just like Mark Knopfler did in the good old days…

Poor George is still taking a beating...

While I sipped on a Heineken, they belted out “Sultans of Swing” and “Tunnel of Love”… Brought back so many good memories…!!

I sat watching the seemingly endless parade of people that strolled past, the tourists with mouths agape, and the working girls with their knowing smiles…

It was after midnight, and Willi had still not put in an appearance… He might well have walked past without me seeing him, and as I had left my cellphone back at the hotel, could not call him to let him know where I was…

This was taken at about 8.00pm, while things were still relatively quiet...!! An hour later would have seen a sea of bobbing heads...!!

Roman had ridden his bike from Moscow to Vladivostok last year, covering the 10 000 km in just three weeks...!!

I found my way back to the Big Fella, noticing that Willi’s scooter was well and truly boxed in, and was in the back row of three long lines of other scooters…I knew that it would be some time before he got his ride out of that mess…!!

I rode out of the alleyway and down the main street leading to the edge of town… Traffic was only slightly less busy that it had been earlier in the day…!!

Back at the hotel, I met Roman, a Russian biker who was waiting for a taxi to take him back to Bangkok airport for his early morning flight back to Moscow…

“I saw your bike and wondered where you were…!!” he said… “It is my dream to do what you are doing…!!”

And in typical Russian fashion, he got two beers out of the hotel’s fridge, plonked them down on the patio table, and said, “Come, we must drink together…!!”

We sat chatting about bikes and past rides, about life in Russia and how popular Pattaya had become for Russian travelers… He told me that during the month of February, there had been a Russian Bikers Meeting at this very hotel, and bikers had come from all over Russia to spend a few weeks in the sun…!!

“It was crazy, man…!! You should have been here…!!”

“Hell, this is crazy enough for me already…!!” I replied…

At 2.00am his taxi arrived, and we bid each other goodbye, promising to remain in touch….

Roman, if you’re reading this, “Thanks for the beer, my friend…!! Maybe I’ll take your advice and give the “Trans Russia” ride a crack one day…!!”

©GBWT 2011