Lost Horizons

Holiday - day 6

Following our early night on Wednesday I woke up fairly early, and so did Peanut. It seemed that she was quite keen to laze about in the bathrobe supplied by the hotel, which is a very nice bathrobe, as you can see from this photo:

Anyway, later in the morning we head into Jomtien, and decide to eat at an Italian café on the Beach Road. There wasn’t much in the way of Thai food on the menu so we both decided to have an omelette, and it was very good indeed.
We walked along the seafront a bit, and we notice a film crew on the beach. Peanut was quite excited by this, but calmed down when she couldn’t recognise anyone.

We found some nice deckchairs a little further along. The deck chairs were standard, but the lady who ran that section appeared to have a better set up for cold drinks and food; so, that is where we set up our camp for the day and got into serious relax mode.

We were disturbed a lot more by peddlers at this section of the beach, than we were the other day, and it seems that there are a lot more peddlers here than there are at Patong Beach. Some of them were persistent to the extreme, for example one henna tattoo seller wouldn’t take no for an answer. I was politely telling him “me aow, krap”, but he kept on and on. At one point he had his henna quill type thing poised just above my skin, and gave him a very assertive “me aow”. At this Peanut looked up from her magazine, saw what was going on and laid into the guy with a torrent of Thai, which had the guy reeling. I found out later it was something like, “The Farang has told you politely that he doesn’t want one of your rip off tattoos. Now, I am telling you to piss off, leave us alone and shove your tattoo gear where the sun doesn’t shine”. Good on you girl. I just wish I remembered exactly what she said in Thai.
One hawker who didn’t get ignored by us, was someone selling Thai food, in fact a sort of small seafood salad, Peanut ordered a load that was made fresh next to where we sat. I didn’t fancy any of it, especially after I saw the salad moving; yes, it was still alive, small shrimps were trying to escape from the bowl. I am sorry but I like my food to be dead when it goes into my mouth.
A little later on we ordered a proper lunch of fresh prawns and som tam, sticky rice and a crispy pork dish that I have only ever had before at Thai Farmers in Wanchai, and really like.
Later on, Peanut goes foraging in the sand at the tide line to find some more food, and is really excited by her handful of small shellfish.

After a few hours on the beach it was time to head back to the hotel.
That evening we dined, quite early at the Marine Seafood Restaurant. We had pork omelette, crab curry and some sort of spicy shellfish dish – and three oysters. I was a bit concerned about the oysters from the Gulf of Thailand and how fresh they would be. It seems my concerns were unfounded, because they were farmed oysters and were very fresh indeed.
For a change, I suggested that we tried the Living Dolls Go-go. This place was busy, as it was happy hour (spirits were 45 baht, but no discount on bottled beer. The uniform for the dancers seemed to consist of boots and a pink and green bikini, but it was hard to tell because the dancers seemed to either wear the full outfit, part of it or none at all. I thought it was very kind of the management to install a shower in the bar area for the dancers to rinse of after their stint at doing the Nissan Shuffle. I just hope the water was hot, as the air conditioning in the bar was quite fierce. The waitresses were very friendly. I asked about if they had a show, and was told the shower was the show! Eventually three girls dressed in negligees got onto the dance stage and did a very halfhearted lesbian act.
Next stop was Sex Kittens a-go-go. Two things concerned me about the place; first, the sign outside saying “No Weapons”, and second, when we got in there the mirror top tables. We sat at a table where no one was dancing and where there was no mirror top. I needn’t have been concerned about the mirror tops because all the girls were wearing white knickers, along with white boots, see through white skirt and top. This establishment was very tame, no stage show, and we left after one drink.
After that, Peanut drags me kicking and screaming into Angel Witch (yeah, OK, more like, I eagerly followed her into). Peanut had bought some cheap roses to give to her friends and one dancer she really liked, which seemed to go down well. It seemed to me that a high percentage of the dancers were on the rag last night. I suppose that given the large number of show girls, that on any particular night, some would be on, but, it appears that around the same time a lot of them start together. Now, I have heard about this in say, members of the same family getting their cycles into synchronisation, but, never in a galaxy of go-go dancers. What is the collective noun for go-go dancers?
After a few drinks there, we headed to Club Europa, a.k.a. Tony’s. I nearly bought a packet of Benson & Hedges, until I noticed the 180 baht price tag – total rip off, as they are about 100 baht cheaper in the supermarkets. The place was very busy, and, as a result service was slow, so we only stayed for one drink and left. Peanut had had a great dance so she was happy.
On the way back, Peanut wanted some Namprik. We tried a different food stall, and she reckoned that it was much better than other place she had tried it a couple of nights earlier. Whilst she was eating, I went and had a beer at the BWFC bar. The bar was dead, and I don’t know how these beer bars survive in a market where there are go-gos all around and the only entertainment they offer is a TV and some decidedly mediocre (in the looks department) girls.

posted by Luke @ 10:57 AM