We wanted to spend a few days on the beach and a few days in the city, but Chiang Mai is so far away from the beach, and we wanted to minimize our travel time/costs. So we compromised a little and chose to spend a few days on the coast in Pattaya before heading up to Chiang Mai. And it did not disappoint! Matt was all about the guidebooks (he didn't want to do anything that wasn't mentioned in one of his trusty books), and I had read in one that you can take ferries out to islands off the coast. The island of Ko Lan is right off the coast of Pattaya, and there happened to be a dock right on the beach a block from where we were staying! So we decided to go try to catch a ferry ride to the island in the morning.
We got up and ordered breakfast in bed, which only solidified my love for this wondrous Eden of a hotel.
We explored our hotel grounds a little more
GORGEOUS. Then we strolled down to the dock to look at buying tickets. It turned out that there was a ferry leaving in about an hour, so we bought tickets and wandered around to wait for a little bit. Then we walked down the docks with the rest of the crowd to jump on a boat.
The ride wasn't bad, but it was HOT. We eventually made it to the island, where we had to take these hilarious little pontoon boats up to the floating docks on the island
Finally we were ON THE BEACH!!!!!
I think Matt was screaming, "We made it!" like we had been on some death defying trip that had taken much longer than an hour. I don't know why.
It was INCREDIBLE. The beach was pristine and not too crowded, we had umbrellas for shade, and the water was almost too warm. We swam and lounged around for several hours, taking breaks to gather seashells, drink pina coladas, and eat a delicious lunch of garlic fried shrimp and rice.
We stayed until we had had enough sun, then fought our way back onto the little pontoon boat to catch the ferry home. The best part of this whole thing? The cost: ferry rides, two chair/umbrella rentals, a pina colada, a soda, and lunch, all for 17 dollars. Total.
Asia is awesome.
That night Matt and I ventured out to explore Pattaya's night life.
Pattaya is a fairly touristy city... for slightly sketchy reasons. Pattaya is apparently famous for their "Lady Boys." Yep. I said "Lady Boys." We saw a few of them walking up and down the Walking Street, which is where all the night market stands are, and we pretty much just tried to ignore them. Pattaya has a large Arab district and a Russian district (random) and Matt had found a highly recommended Mediterranean food place in one of his trusty guidebooks, so we went off to try it. It was kind of hard to find and I was wondering why Matt wanted to eat Mediterranean, but it was actually really good.
Asia is awesome.
That night Matt and I ventured out to explore Pattaya's night life.
Pattaya is a fairly touristy city... for slightly sketchy reasons. Pattaya is apparently famous for their "Lady Boys." Yep. I said "Lady Boys." We saw a few of them walking up and down the Walking Street, which is where all the night market stands are, and we pretty much just tried to ignore them. Pattaya has a large Arab district and a Russian district (random) and Matt had found a highly recommended Mediterranean food place in one of his trusty guidebooks, so we went off to try it. It was kind of hard to find and I was wondering why Matt wanted to eat Mediterranean, but it was actually really good.
This is what Matt looks like when he's not trying to rub it in my face.
We love spending the day on tropical islands!!!!!
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