Pattaya

While I had heard that Pattaya had a decent prostitution scene, I was not prepared for how insanely widespread and busy it actually was. Street after street was filled with bars filled with beautiful, and some not so beautiful, thai women working to sell themselves for the evening or a couple hrs. The busiest street of all was Walking Street, an crazy street filled with gogo bars, strip clubs, entertainers, and thousands of prostitutes. Some of the interesting street performers including a little girl around 8 showing off insane contortionist skills, a young Thai boy continuously juggling a soccer ball for hrs, some magicians, some animals showing off tricks, etc.

Another interesting aspect to the prostitution scene was the inclusion of many beautiful blond haired Russian and European girls out selling themselves for apparently lots more than the typical Thai girl. Apparently Pattaya is marketed very big back in Russia and many Russians are seen and heard walking the streets. I remember having heard Anna Kournikova the tennis player was paid several yrs ago to sponsor Pattaya. I only saw one club where the Russian women were to be found entertaining. Located on Walking street, there was a large glass showcase on a 2nd floor showcasing single Russian ladies dancing very provacatively on a pole. Outside of this spot, I didn't see any other locations in around town featuring Russians or European women. I had also read that there is a contigent of Jamaican men hustling themselves out to Asian, primarily Japanese women. It must be quite low key as I didn't notice any of this scene in my hours of walking through the city.

Perhaps the most bizaare aspect of the whole scene was the masses of older white men, primarily European, strolling around with their young Thai girlfriend or prostitute. Many of the men appeared to be in their 60 or 70's, although all ages were present, and i'm sure were having the time of their lives, paying pretty much next to nothing with the value of the British pound and Euro. Also plenty of pharmacies around town advertising testosterone supplements for over 40 men to enhance sexual drive and increase lean muscle. Viagra and other sexual aids were also widely advertised around town. I try not myself to be judgmental of these men as it seems so weird watching these older men walking around with the young women half their age. I didn't talk to too many of the men but the one's I spoke with all seemed very friendly. I would imagine that would be the effect of spending a wk or two out of country carousing with the sweet thai women. For a divorced, single, or widowed older gentleman Pattaya is definitely the place to be. Back home there is no way they are going to be able to acquire a women with the youthfulness, beauty, and charm the Thai women possess, even if they got to pay for it. The backpacker scene was relatively non-existent in Pattaya. One evening around 1am I was sitting in the lobby of my hotel reading and observing the scene and saw two twenty something guys bringing back two ladyboy transvestites back to their rooms, hopefully they were aware this was the case with them.

While I was quite tempted on many occassions to break down and buy one of the women for the evening, I was able to hold off my urges. The combination of paying for a woman in addition to diseases and the number of men that these women have been with is a bit of a turnoff and deterent for me. I had fun flirting with the women and talking with them. I did get an awesome 4 handed oil massage from 2 beautiful thai girls for about $15 dollar. They didn't get me off or anything but pretty much covered everywhere on my body. They made it clear that I could have paid extra for more. Found another thai massage place offering 1 hr for 100 baht, or a little over $3, quite an amazing price and the cheapest I had found so far.

While I had considered doing a muay thai kickboxing camp while in Pattaya, I decided against it the day after I arrived. My back was feeling sore and achy and I didn't feel up for it. I did however find a very nice health club called 'California Wow', a weird name, offering yoga classes about 5 times a day. This I decided to do instead and signed up for several days. The instructors were Indian and quite good, doing yoga in styles and sequences that I had never done before.

I actually had a television in my room for the first time in a while. Typically I am fine without one as it costs more and I just read or doing something else instead. It was interesting having it and flipping through the channels. One of the most interesting shows I watched was professional wrestling from Japan. Definitely a big constrast to American pro wrestling. The audience was very quiet and polite and would clap when the wrestlers pulled off a tricky move. The crowds in American pro wrestling are mostly a bunch of adolescent and young men acting crazy booing and cheering very loud. One could see older women in the front rows of the Japanese variety. It's like they were at the theater or something. One wrestler I noticed from 15-20 twenties yrs back in the WWF was Kamala, the Ugandan giant. Hard to believe he has been around that long if it is the same wrestler.