New pictures

Slideshow for June 08 is available on the site now.

There are a number of shots that were taken without flash. I love the random colours that are allowed to appear.

Getting it right is hard though .... I've even had to go out and blow 250 quid on a new lens! Hope it's worth it!

I'm also trying a new set - specifically for Mobiles. I've got a Palm Treo 650 and it works very well. On my screen I could easily increase the size of the photo width - but I need some feedback from other users with different phones. Before you ask - no music! Comments please + phone + Operating System.

Street Walk: Pattaya 1.1

I walk a lot around Pattaya, there is always loads to see - but often I feel embarrased about lingering too long in any one place. I get left with loads of mental snapshots. Maybe not just mental.



This really is a style that is alien to me - and I don't know who else is doing it - but in the end .... it intrigues me. What do you think?

Peter

A Day out and a slice of history

About 2 hours from Pattaya, the Ancient City (Muang Boran)is somewhere I had heard about but never visited. Thai descriptions of Tourist Attractions tend to be grossly generous - but this is under played. I've lived here 7 years now and this has to be the best place I've visited.

It's in a large park, broadly shaped to the map of Thailand. Scattered (or actually stuffed) into these 320 acres are over 116 significant historical Thai monuments - roughly positioned correctly in the map.

I spent 3 hours there - and was feeling pretty bad with a cold/flu that has been chasing me around for a few days now - but I only saw about a third of the place and was rushing to see that.

So, I thought I'd just pick one section today. The Dvaravati Period.

This refers both to a culture and a grouping of city-states in the lower plain of the Chao Phraya river. We are in the 6-10 century AD, so Bangkok didn't exist (not even Soi Cowboy). The area we are talking about starts 200 km West of Bangkok and extends as far to the East. The Tai people didn't even live here, they were busy running away from the Chinese up in what is now Southern China.


This civilisation was based around a people known as the 'Mons' and was heavily influenced by India - Bhuddism was here and one of the culture's symbols was the Hindu Circle of Life. Also notice how the Bhudda is sitting - this is typical of this period.

Yesterday I wandered round a Dvaravati style house - and I have to say that they and tha Lanna in the North had, what I would consider the perfect housing style for this climate. A number of small houses, all raised on stilts and clustered around a central courtyard.


The interiors were in beautiful wood - probably Teak, with windows opening into both the courtyard and outside - enabling a air flow. This is somewhere I could spend my time!


There are Estate Agents selling what they call Dvaravati houses (on estates), but they don't quite get there! What would this be worth in Surrey?


What happened to Dvaravati? Those greedy Khmers from Cambodia is what happened!

If you get the time - The Ancient City, Bangpoo, Samut Prakan.

Meet Lou

In the last Slideshow we used a song "Pattaya, Pattaya" which is great fun. I couldn't tell you anymore about it.

Well it was by Lou (a Frenchman) and the Banana Club.

Lou came into the bar a few nights ago. I apologised for useing his copyright and he said no problem, it was out of distribution anyway! He did however give me one of the last CDs.

Low Season: the Girls are getting frisky!

Was supposed to go on a crawl a couple of days ago - but the guys let me down - so around 1am went out alone anyway.

Suprise, surprise, I popped into Shark. It was positively scary. 3 punters and around 35 girls, all pissed, flashing and trying to get into my knickers. Believe it or not, I drank my BOGOF drinks and ran away!

Next into Diamond aGoGo. I had been in there a few days before and had been impressed with the way my co-drinker was looked after by 4 girls in there. This time they turned on me: I honestly didn't know which girl was attached to which part of my anatomy - but as they had knickers on at least I didn't have to run away!

On to Casino. Again, managed to get 3 girls and 2 service girls looking after me - but more tastefully!

Anna joined me about 3am.

Just for the NightOwls:
Walking Street GoGo's open until 3am
Casino closes 5am
Marine 1: around 3am
Marine 2: around 05.30 - 6
Insomnia: who knows? Incidentially, they were queueing to get into Insomnia at 03.30! Crazy. Why bother?

So, as you can see, the crackdown continues - but it moved to what is known as the "Darkside" - the other side of Sukumvit - where the Plod have been issueing 1 month closures on bars that open after midnight. That will teach all the foreigners who have complained about noise in their lovely villages!
No doubt money will talk and everything will be normal again soon!

For those of you who don't know - the Law in Thailand allows Bars to open 18.00 - 24.00 (or 01.00 in Entertainment zones)!