Pattaya

The next leg of our journey was in Thailand; Pattaya and Bangkok to be specific.

We caught the cheap airport bus to Pattaya, walked in the hot weather for far too long with our luggage (a recurring occurrence on our trip) and finally made it to our nice hotel. Our accommodation up until that point had been on the budget side and it was definitely nice to have a great shower and a comfortable bed.





Pad thai 

Milk tea
There were plans originally to go to a nearby island for some snorkelling. Instead, we caught up on R & R - aka we lounged by the pool with a book.




Green curry


We were obsessed with the Dairy Queen soft serves. So cheap (20BHT) and I was so amused with how perfectly rounded they were.
Pattaya doesn't have the best reputation; known as being seedy due to the rampant sex-tourism. I just found it a little strange. Go-go bars blasting 80's music, full of old men in singlets drinking beer. We also experienced tropical storms (I wore a poncho for the first time!) and saw rats swimming down the flooded streets.




Gap between the tropical storms.






Mango + sticky rice. We were on the hunt for the cheapest mango + sticky rice in the surrounding area. I believe this one was 30BHT but there were places charging 80-100 BHT. Ridiculous!

There was a brief adjustment period as Pattaya was more urbanised and tourist-friendly compared to our Vietnam leg. It was also, generally, a lot more expensive. We ate at the local joints which were cheap, however some of the other eateries had effectively Australian prices!

There were also a few temples I was interested in, but when I discovered that entrance fee was 500 BHT (AUD $20) each, I decided to forgo those plans.

We didn't do much, but it was exactly what we needed.