Trip to Pattaya

We got back yesterday from our trip to Pattaya and it was an overwhelming success. Everything started well, when I arrived at work on Friday morning the bus we'd hired was already there - and it had been pimped...I give you..."Big Bird":


It was great to see the boys faces on the (2 hour) journey - it's so good for them to see all of the different sights out of the windows...we had an earlier proposal trip cancelled by the powers that be because allegedly it was too far to travel but I honestly believe that if we had turned around and headed home after getting there the boys would still have been happy.

The resort was excellent - we had a really nice pool which was literally a couple of steps from the beach.

The eagle-eyed among you might have noticed the clouds looking a little threatening in the previous picture...well, about an hour after arriving, the heavens opened and there was a little bit of a thunder storm.

We didn't let that dampen our spirits though - the guys watched a DVD (did I tell you that we also bought a DVD player with the painting money?) and when the rain had stopped we got them changed and went for a dip!

The accommodation was very good - certainly the guys won't have seen anything like it before. We had two wooden beach huts like the one you can see here.

It made a rather nice change from the tiled floors and metal bars in the wards...Another thing that was alien for the boys was the air-con - we tucked a few of them into bed like this:

And when we went back 20 minutes later they had all squeezed together in the middle of the bed to stay warm - it was very cute!

On Friday night we did a seafood barbecue. In Thailand, when you're near the sea, every meal is seafood - breakfast, lunch and dinner...At least it was fresh...in fact some of it was so fresh that it was actually still alive!

On Saturday we had excellent weather and spent most of the morning in the pool. After lunch, we checked out and went to Underwater World which is an aquarium in Pattaya (and after speaking to the manager we were able to get a bit of a discount too!)...Nung, the guy I was looking after, just kept saying "bplaa" (the Thai word for "fish) at every exhibit...maybe it was sarcasm and he was just trying to make the point that he was bored...

Of course he wasn't bored at all...he loved the whole trip and so did all of the boys we took. I must admit that their joy gave me enormous satisfaction as I hope it will to you too...

By the way Kenneth, unfortunately the Fanny Bar seems to have been discontinued - I've looked everywhere for them (to be fair I haven't asked any assistants where I can find them but in asking such questions in Bangkok might get you more than you bargained for)...that picture was taken a while ago...still, if you want a box of chocolate flavour Collon then get your orders in!