Thailand Laid Bare, part II

We'd been told the beach was the best,

So blue, so clear, better than the rest

But when I arrived, all my hopes were dashed

Because we were ankle deep in plastic trash

Dear Readers,

On the second day of our trip to Thailand (Saturday), we treked the 93 steps straight up to the top level of the hotel where our free breakfast awaited. On the way I passed turned off water fountains that now had frogs in them. Interesting. Then there was a spa and yeah-they wanted to give us a massage. That is the national occupation in Thailand. We hoofed it upstairs. The restaurant is open with fans. It's hot in Thailand but not as hot as Singapore. You can definitely tell the difference in the humidity. The clouds up here were breath-taking, big and fluffy. I swore I saw Honey the elephant float by!

Breakfast was a buffet. The egg cook didn't speak English so a waiter translated-scrambled, omelet, cooked egg, or boiled. There was pineapple and passion fruit. I had plenty to eat. It was fun to see who was there-Australians, Muslim couples, Chinese people, Japanese tourists, and us. We westerns are huge compared to the rest of the world. I have to admit the menu was a bit on the Asia bias-rice, different rice, and other rice. There were potatoes, ham, a toast machine, and juices.

After breakfast, we hoofed it back to our room-the maid had already changed the bed and mopped the floor. This happened everyday and I became suspicious that there was a camera in my room. The minute we left, they came everyday. Then we hoofed another 92 steps back to the lobby where we got on the free shuttle. The road to the beach is one way so we got to drive through town and see the other hotels (some good, some bad) and look for eating places. No luck. We were dropped off at the middle of Patong Beach Road and then the real assaults took place-my umbrellas are the best, give a taxi ride (but we just got here), massage, fruit, you name it. We walked down toward the hotel and a guy approached with a deal on umbrellas and chairs. We took him up on it, got two plastic chairs, two umbrellas that he set up to block the sun, two hangers to hang our shirts on, bottled water, and a small table to put our stuff on. We were all fixed.

Then we saw the beach. Not exactly like the postcard. There was a line of plastic trash on beach as far as the eye could see. It was up to my ankles in plastic bottles, bags, nylon ropes, cups, buckets, etc. When you went into the water, it wrapped around your legs. Gross! Someone is dumping trash into the ocean. Is it the Thais or is it ships in the ocean or both? The poor guy with the umbrellas tried to rake it up in front of his stretch of beach to attract more people to his piece of sand.

We played in the surf anyway. After all, we were there. Then came lunch time and we walked down the beach to a place that said "Pizza" in big red letters. This was evidently a family affair as a woman with two kids acted as a waitress. The little boy delivered the drinks to his Mom from somewhere else (all the little restaurants were run by the family). They would just go to the pizza cubicle and turn on the oven. The drinks were somewhere else and the chicken sandwich I ordered must have come from around the corner. I was never sure. The little boy with a tiger drawn on his chest danced around with the mop and followed his Mom around trying to help like his older brother. A cat joined us and later a dog came in and looked around. Did you know rabies is the number one problem in Thailand? Too many loose animals. I noticed that.

We walked back to our hotel in order to get cleaned up and ready for the shuttle bus to a dinner and show called the Fanstasea. Our tour guide said it was a lady man show. I wasn't sure what that meant at first but then I guessed he was talking about transvestites. When we arrived with the other tourist, I thought we were in Disney Land Hell. There were large statues of Thai Gods in gaudy colors everywhere, games, tourist traps, and elephant rides. We were put in a large and beautiful hall where a Thai and Japanese buffet was set up. The food was good and different. I stuck with the fried chicken.

The show was held in a beautiful 'Elephant Palace' made to look like a temple ruin. The show was a story of Thai myth (boy wants girl, boy loses girl, boy fights demons, boy captures the fancy of the gods, boy gets girl, people cheer). The stage was great, fireworks and mist, even a rainstorm took place. There was a magic show inside the story and animal tricks (goats, chickens, and elephants). Overhead there were acrobats. I was very impressed-didn't really notice who was a lady man or not.

We got home tired and found out our TV was busted. The next day it was fixed. They take soccer seriously. Donna