Entry No.12 by Clare

Day 125- We took a taxi to Siam square and walked around a few malls. We visited China Town later,  full of Jewellers and took a taxi to Khao San for a look around the market area. Later we found some nice food at a place called Ethos, they sold Hummus and Falafals it was really good. We left for Pattaya the following morning only to find it was impossible to find reasonable priced accomodation (as this point we didn't really have any knowledge of Pattaya's rep) we had to settle for a room for about 11 pounds (cheapest by far in town) in a motel which sold room in 3 hour slots and the room was covered in mirrors and had a price list on the wall for different condoms, beer and lubricant, lovely. In the evening we found a bar which had a really good live band playing western covers called 'Tattoo Bar' with a nice atmosphere which made up for it. We went to check out the beach about 12pm the next day (full of fat white tourists) and we read and swam for a few hours. Food was equally as expensive so we had to hunt around for a bit of food afterwards and we went to 'Tattoo Bar' again for the evening. We went to another part of the beach the next day where they charge tourists an extortionate amount for jet skiis and relaxed there for the day, later we watched lots of football at the 'Heineken Bar' with Brighton winning against Portsmouth in the FA Cup Josh was vey happy. We left Pattaya in the morning for Rayong, we hadn't researched to much as our Lonely Planet didn't even have it listed but we had heard it is very peaceful. Once arriving we had to get a map and then find out to get to our guest house on the beach about 10km out of the town. When we arrived to the 'Reggae Guesthouse' there was a note that the gone out and to watch a DVD until they get back, so we did. Once you get out of Rayong centre its a quiet sea front with a handful of small shops and about 20 tourists there at any time, it was also very beautiful. Our room once checked in for 350Baht had a massive balcony over looking the ocean and was hand painted with lots of Reggae designs, the first night we stayed in. After a lie in we caught a bus into the main town to get some food supplies for the next few days from the big Tesco. We bought bread, peanut butter, plastic cheese, few snacks and drink. After returning we went for a really nice swim in the sea, warm clear water and the beach is so quiet you get your own section. We relaxed on our balcony with a few beers in the evening. The next day we spent relaxing on the beach reading, swimming, reading, swimming, it was nice. Our guest house had a BBQ in the evening, we didn't eat at but we joined after for a few drinks with the other guests and Jono the Manager from Exeter. In the morning we wanted to visit the fruit and veg market, we walked about 4km but couldn't find it so we walked back. We realised we hadn't walked quite far enough (most people get the bus there) so we went for another swim and after we caught the bus there and brought some juicy pineapple. We also stopped in on a schools sports day opposite and watched the kids playing a football match (with the school's permission). The evening we watched a DVD with Jono and the German guy. We got up early to leave the guesthouse to catch a bus back to Bangkok. We arrived at 3pm and had to first collect our Indian Visas. We couldn't find a cheap enough room in the area so we headed back to Khao San Road area back to the guesthouse we stayed last time. We had some dinner and had to book our flights to India, we then brought some new books and postcards to send home and read in the guesthouse lobby. The next morning we sent out our postcards and found out pricing to send our package home. We found out the flight was cancelled (stressful) so had to try and find another, we did and sadly 50 pounds more each. We went to our guesthouse and collected everything to send home and went back to the Post Office. On our way back we got some Rupees and got some food. We went for a little look around the markets before dark and went back to watch 'Inglourious Basterds' in our guesthouse. Today we have just been out around Siam square, MBK, Central World and Paragon. We both brought some really cool headphones for about 4 pounds each and are going to watch some football in a little while.