Pattaya - first day

Pattaya Hill Resort has been aptly named, it is situated on top of a hill. It is in the southern part of Pattaya. In Pattaya there are no taxi or buses or trains. The only mode of public transport for people traveling from one part of the city to another is by the Baht Buses. They are actually pickup trucks with a cover over the open back. It can comfortably accommodate about 10 passengers, but often you can see overflow passengers hanging out or standing on a ledge at the back of the truck. To get on one, you just flag it down and get on. They go along a specific route and when you get to your destination you just ring the bell, get off and pay the fares. Tourist usually pay 10 baht while the locals pay 5 baht. However, to get back after a day in downtown Pattaya we usually have to pay 100 baht for the journey to the hotels. These baht bus drivers are pretty shrewd and know exactly how to fleece the tourists.

Today, our first day in Pattaya we went to a shopping mall called the Big C. It is quite an up market place with branded shops and expensive restaurants. After spending a few hours walking around the mall we decided to lunch at MK. This is a very famous chain of restaurants in Thailand. They specialize in steamboats. You have to pick the raw uncooked food you want, from vegetables, meat, dumplings, fish balls and fish cakes and stuffed baby squids. You then cook your food in a pot of boiling stock in the middle of the table. We had some dim sum with our lunch. It ws good and it cost about 7 GBP for the whole meal.

We then decided to do a little shopping to stock up our fridge in the hotel room. Our groceries included some pears, mangoes, orange juice and also some Pringles.

We got back to the resort just before it got dark. Had to pay 80 baht for the hire of a bart bus for the journey. It was an interesting day and we enjoyed ourselves. Tomorrow we plan to visit Carrefour, another shopping centre.