We arrived in Thailand late friday night (which would be early friday morning at home due to the 12 hour time difference). We're in Pattaya, which is about 45 minutes south of Bangkok on the coast. We got a taxi from the airport which drove at about 125 kph the entire way, while being passed by drivers going much much faster.

My Uncle lives in a gated community in Pattaya, all of the houses look pretty similar. It's quite an estate, complete with a garden containing banana, papya, and olive trees. Besides the dogs and birds outside it's very quiet and peaceful.

Outside of my Uncle's neighborhood, however, downtown Pattaya is the opposite. It is incredibly commercialized, and caters almost exclusively to the elder white men who visit for the prostitutes and the homosexual arab couples who come here to be together. Walking along the street we definitly looked out of place among the hordes of older men walking hand in hand with young beautiful Thai girls. The restaurants were filled with the men either sitting alone waiting or looking for a prostitute or already accompanied by one. It was pretty shocking to see an entire city filled with such a blatent sex industry.

The streets were also filled with stalls packed with knick knacks and guarded by a man showing off a tazer to warn potential shoplifters. Also there were outdoor mall areas full of girls selling t-shirts and bathing suits who would glue themselves to you the second you walked in and even walking by would try to persuade you to enter. We tried to escape the insanity by sitting on the beach but were accosted every two minutes or so by a someone selling either jet ski rides, ice cream, food, toys, knick knacks, sunglasses, jewelry, or tattoos.

One day was definitly enough of Pattaya, and next we're heading further down the coast to a town called Trat and from there to an island called Ko Chang, both locations known for their laid back and relaxing atmosphere.