The Kings Birthday
A Saturday night is probably not the time when I should be updating my blog but today is a special day, the revered Kings birthday. So the Thais are all wearing pink to show allegiance to their monarchy and doing their blessings etc and just threw a few fireworks in the air. For us mere mortals in means a quiet day with no entertainment. Actually that is not as bad as in the past as from memory alcohol used to be banned as well so we couldn’t even offer the King our best wishes.
Christmas is coming as are the masses. The fairy lights are going up along with the Christmas trees and father christmas is showing his face so now beginning to look very colourful. But I won’t be betting on any snow, a clear blue sky a safe bet I reckon.
All told have to admit Pattaya is the best I have probably known it, at least from a general tourist perspective. The cheap and cheerful, rough and ready atmosphere is being replaced by far more quality bars, clubs and discos and good restaurants and shopping. More importantly the powers that be seem to be allowing a more tolerant attitude whch allows the place to buzz into the early hours. For too long especially under Thaksin ( the guy who installed Sven Ericcson as manager of Man City so entertainment obviously not his strong point) everyone expected to be in bed by midnight despite that being 5pm back home and numerous petty rules and never ending police raids in the bars often put a dampening on the place and made it pointless for the bars to invest for the future. Hopefully thiis more tolerant attitude will continue but in reality these things change by the day and the size of the bribes. And from a personal perspective, the good old days were when the Pound was worth something. Since Gordon Brown converted it into a peso currency the place is no longer cheap, just cheerful.
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