Pitiful Patong (Men Are Pigs)
Well, I thought Bangkok sucked, but I realize now that at least Bangkok, for all the stink and pollution, had interesting things to see.
It’s my own fault for thinking Patong would be ok. The guidebook says, Yes, it is a major, major tourist attraction with tons of development but the beach is still great.
So I thought, we’ll put up with the ultra-touristness and just enjoy the beach. it must be famous for a reason, right?
Ugh, ugh, ugh. This place is so boring that I would actually rather stay in the hotel room than walk around again. Usually when I don’t have a real plan, I just walk around and look at stuff. If you did that here, all you would see is restaurant, ATM, vendor, shop, bar, dive shop, store, restaurant, resort, shop, vendor, BLAH BLAH BLAH. There is ABSOLUTELY nothing interesting or cultural to see. And, it is very, very hot. So you basically walk around, sweating through your clothes, saying NO NO NO to all the touts “Hello, taxi?” “Hello, you want a suit?” “Hello, tuk-tuk?” “Hello, come eat.” Hello! Hello! So you never even have a real interaction with people since you are always saying NO since you KNOW they are trying to sell you somethng. But that’s a whole different story.
There is nothing to see! I went to the beach and held all my belongings on my shoulder in a big piece of cloth (you think I am leaving anything on the beach? Backpackers know how to NOT get things stolen. I don’t feel like chancing it.) So I am standing in chest high water, trying to keep my bundle above water and basically just standing there. I probably did look pretty dumb.
Then I spread out my blanket no the beach (I heard they charge you for sitting on a beach chair, and the beach is COVERED with them. I had a hard time finding an open spot for me.) Then I open my bag and see I did a poor job holding it above water. All the postcards were wet and I was so bummed, but I managed to save them and mail them today.
So I laid on the beach a while, sweat some more, read my guidebook, and tried to figure out how we are going to finish up here in Thailand before our 30 day visa is up. I don’t understand why people like just lying on the beach. It is so hot. So after a little while I flopped around in the water some more and walked back to the hotel.
(Patong beach *is* nice, but I thought even Ao Nang was nicer.)
I showered off and pigged out on the food I bought yesterday. Had a sandwich, yogurt, little bit of cereal, more sandwich meat, more cereal. I love having a fridge in the room! I’ve totally been eating like a cow the last few days. Not good.
So Jim has a major problem in that he is congested and if he continues to be, he cannot dive. Poor guy. I just hope if that happens, they give him some of the money back from his diving program. Probably not though. But because of his congestion he informed me that we couldn’t turn the A/C on yesterday because that could make it worse. I had to fight so hard not to turn it on when he wasn’t looking. Argh.
OK, no one has asked or said anything about PROSTITUTES. Here in Patong it is worse than I’ve seen. EVERYWHERE you see white guys walking hand-in-hand with Thai girls dressed up in heels. It is so obvious because regular Thai women do NOT walk around dressed up in heels. And these men, because they know NO one back home can see them, walk around as proud as can be with the girls. It is REVOLTING. Jim even thinks it is lame. But because of it, almost every bar here is just for Thai girls and farangs to meet and get together. We walked down a street lined with bars as early as 9:30PM and the girls are calling and yelling to everyone as they walk by. (They aren’t ALL hookers, some just work at bars to get men to stay and spend money on drinks…I think) We saw some young guys walk in and the women basically throw themselves all over the guys. I told Jim, “Look, those guys think they are hot stuff because they girls are all over them.” And Jim says, “No, they know what’s going on.” But I don’t know. The whole thing is lame. The lamest part is that there isn’t really a bar we can go to just hang out and talk to other people at. In Ao Nang one night we talked to a bunch of old Irish and English people in a pub for a while and it was lots of fun. None of that here…
I can’t stay here another day, I am so bored. We’ll have to see what we can do, since Jim has to stay for the Scuba.
Oh, and Jim said our hotel seems to be a hotel for farangs to bring their Thai girls. Once he said that, it did become obvious since there were tons of Thai girls dressed up hanging out in the lobby and playing pool with farang. Sheesh.
Anyway, I just spent another TON of time here on the net. Hope everyone is having a good week.
Tags: Thailand
Kelly
Hey, it’s the world’s oldest profession, and there’s a reason for that. People like it, sex that is, and it’s easy to get. Maybe, if you’re not getting it, for some reason or other, it’s OK to buy it. Will try to catch up with you while in Mexico. By the way, I’ve never seen a prostitute in PV…that I know of.
I don’t know… the girls are getting a lot of things they wouldn’t otherwise gt–money, trips, objects… but I can’t help but think it still must be miserable to hang out with someone you may not even like just to get things.