My first week here has been eye opening to say the least. I really like my little cabin in this complex and have had a few swims in the pool, however the pool is in the middle of a bar restaurant, an Indian one, I went one evening to have a good curry meal when I was confronted by bare chested Indian bachelors(I hope they were) being attended to by gorgeous Thai girls needless to say I wish they did take away, I did feel very uncomfortable not in a safety way but in a way where you feel you just shouldn’t be there, consequently I ate very quickly looking at my phone the whole time and scampered out of there as soon as I finished my very delicious meal. Sadly I won’t ever eat there again but know I am to swim in the morning. Every afternoon they seem to have thumping music gyrating customers but hey welcome to Pattaya.

My week was marred by hearing of the death of a work colleague , a guy who worked in our warehouse, a guy who I had clashed with many times , a guy who had only retired a few months ago, a guy who was my age . He was not ill, he passed in his sleep, he was lonely not in a relationship nor did he have kids, he lived alone with a cat. I sort of felt guilty for being such a bitch to him over the years but our personalities clashed as simple as that, I didn’t despise him he was a good guy hard working. I messaged my boss and friend who told me he had on his last visit to the store told her how proud of me he was that I was doing something with my life , travelling , writing, I was humbled that he had told her this , making me feel worse. than I already did . But I am very sad at his passing makes me think I am so doing the right thing. I met up yesterday with another friend of mine , a guy I used to sell firewood to in the mountains, he is 77 has always been a musician although now arthritis has got his fingers he still does sound for bands and plays the harmonica. He has lived just out of Pattaya for 10 years. He gave me some tips , took me to a fantastic new shopping mall that I will visit to tell you more about next week. We had a lovely lunch , so funny to meet after all this time and chat about things . Years ago at a party sitting around a cut off 44 gallon drum flaming with fire someone got their guitar and we all started singing I was on a bench sitting near my friend who when I began singing put his hands over his ears and said OH God and moved away, I reminded him of this night, he had forgotten but we laughed about it as I told him he scarred me for life about my singing voice!! We chatted of things of our past in that little village in the valley in the Victorian high country ,a place called Wandiligong. I had run out of my reading material and desperately needed a new book to read so we hopped on a baht bus , which is a covered ute, like I would catch in Krabi and Ao Nang and he took me to the Canterbury Tales bookshop a second hand bookshop . I had read about it and intended to go there so it worked out well. This bookshop is in the middle of all the happening places in Pattaya as in bars massage parlours. The streets are oozing with mainly single European men and beautiful scantily clad Thai bargirls and ladyboys. I was the only lone Caucasian woman for miles , there were a few couples the women holding tightly onto her partners hand, eyes popping. There is in the street a large gilded spirit house with golden arches and what looked like a Ganesh statue I noticed all the girls probably on their way to work lighting incense , giving an offering and saying a prayer, then they go off to the bars. It is all part of understanding the culture of places that I am enjoying by slow travelling. We all assume that bar girls , prostitutes have no grounding, no feelings. My friend was telling me that many of these girls hate doing what they do but it is work. I asked do they make a lot of money, the ones that dress well and look like models do in fact make a good living but your village girl with very little English just make ends meet but they work nearly every night . I have to give it to them they really look as though they are enjoying themselves and I can see where lonely divorced or single men are only too flattered by the attention these girls give them , for some its the first time they have felt desired. It is easy to see how some men fall for these women and even after they return to their homeland send her money and save for their next visit. I suppose in a way they are doing their bit for mental health but as my friend pointed out when it goes bad after the man actually moves here and the girl dumps him they tend to jump off things the latest favourite place is the new shopping mall!!!

I walked to the beach, it was pretty far but I made it . When I got there I was greeted by an ocean (pun) of boats, rows of deck chairs waiting for customers so they can overcharge them for sitting watching the water sports , paragliding , jet skis , speedboat rides. I had wondered while doing my googling why no one swims on this beach, one look and my question was answered it is too full of things , it would be dangerous , I saw 2 people swimming or jumping about, the water apparently is polluted from the towns overworked sewerage outlets. You could see why the developer in the late 1940’s decided this was a heavenly paradise to escape from Bangkok, you could see it was a beautiful beach before tourism took hold.

I walked back home calling in to get cool at the mall I had discovered the week before . I wandered around a bit got some supplies .After last week when I had gone there to stock up and had been ripped off by the taxi driver I walked home took me 10 minutes . I was hot by the time I got home and would have loved a swim but I couldn’t go there. it is such a shame as one of the reasons I booked this place was for the pool, but my newly cleaned citrus smelling room greeted me . I discovered that the cable TV here is great , many news channels, Bloomberg, CBS, Al Jazeera , even the ABC Australian channel, and a music video channel intermixed with Thai channels and Russian and a French channel. So we have to take the good with the bad this place probably couldn’t afford to be run as efficiently if it wasn’t for the restaurant leasing the area . I really do like this accommodation, the ladies that run it are so good and funny always laughing . I like to sit on my veranda as the breeze wafts by looking out at the palms and I did see a squirell that I thought was a monkey, I am so desperate to see a monkey in the wild . I am like a visitor to Australia wanting to see a kangaroo.

Food wise I really haven’t had any local dishes here, had a pizza yesterday with my friend . Had a bout of water poisoning the other day, I am so used to it now just look at it as a day of rest in the bathroom. I tend to buy pre prepared food at the 7/11 that they heat up for me , usually rice or dumplings when I run out of supplies . I have been having breakfast a few times here , just eggs , ham , juice , white toasted bread and coffee for $3.50 US. I am gluten intolerant so maybe it was the white toast bread that did the deed the other day, I have just been having yoghurt and a banana since then.

My writing is going so well , doing up to 1,000 words when I sit down to write, whether it is the veranda, my head space or does Pattaya have an underlying creative sphere, maybe .

Until next time