I Survived Pattaya! - Part 1
Since a long time ago, I visited Thailand's many beach resorts and a few cities. Beautiful, interesting places with nice people and food but I have never once set foot on Pattaya, a beach resort where the US's seventh fleet once were. The reason was simple enough - I have to fly to Bangkok and travel by road to Pattaya. Back in the old days, the stretch of road here was treacherous. My motto has always been to "get there fast and then take it slow". So travelling an extra couple of hours was to me really unnecessary. This is not an irrational fear. It is not even a fear. More like a dread. It is the anticipation that kills. It came soon enough. The dread is worse in the head than actual. The roads today must be better I reasoned with myself. Yes and no. There were long bumpy stretches and it did not helped that it was a people carrier in the shape of a van. People were chatty at first but by an hour's time, most became silent. Time and space has taken its...