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Jomtien Again

Posted by Stuart at 08:53 PM on June 08, 2003

I just returned from my second trip to Pattaya in three weeks. This time was a little different, as I went with several friends from Bangkok, including Mark and Tri and 5 of the 6 guys I met at Ko Samet last month.

Ton and I arrived at the Ekkamai bus station on Saturday night just as the bus to Pattaya was pulling out. Once we got on, we found out the 2-hour ride only cost 80 baht (US$1.90) instead of the 90 baht it cost me a couple of weeks ago. What luck! Unfortunately, we also soon realized that we were on one of the infamous "local" busses, which meant we did not take the express tollway and we stopped every 15 minutes or so to pick up and let off people. The two-hour ride ended up being three. Ugh. I have GOT to figure out how to find the FAST buses!

The highlight of the quick weekend (go Saturday night, return Sunday) was dinner on Saturday night. We ate at the Moon River restaurant in North Pattaya while listening to live music and drinking beer out of 5 litre containers. The band was awesome: 2 singers (a guy from Taiwan and a girl from Malaysia), an African (-American?) drummer, a keyboardist and a (Thai?) guitarist with a redish-pink mohawk ponytail.

The sets were made up of the usual English-song playlist that I hear all the time in Thailand: Hotel California, I Will Survive, Dancing Queen, Celebration (Kool and the Gang), Thank You (Dido), Hero (Mariah). They also threw in two of my karioke favorites: Bohemian Rapsody and Madonna's La Isla Bonita.

Today we sat and slept on the beach under umbrellas watching the beach volleyball games before driving back to Bangkok tonight.