I don’t know why, but for some reason I cannot upload any more photos via my hotel wi-fi, either to here or my pbase gallery. I’ve got a stack of photos from Songkran and more that might have to wait until I get back to Australia next week. I thought perhaps they had put a bandwidth size limit in place, but no matter how small I resize them, I cannot upload any photos. The girls at reception just gave me blank stares when I asked if there was a problem with the wifi, no help there …
Perhaps I should take my laptop down to one of the bars offering free wifi and try uploading from there ?
I spent a few days down in “Russia-by-the-sea”, otherwise known as Pattaya. The town has always been known for it’s girlie bars but nowadays it gets an awful lot of package tourists from Russia, Korea and China that do not go there for the bars, well, not mainly anyhow ! They spend their days shopping or lazing on the beach, as I guess it is not quite beach weather in Russia yet ?

Many of the restaurants have menus in Russian, there are Russian signs everywhere, pamphlets for the multitude of condo projects are printed in Russian, they must really be spending some big money in the town. I even noticed a couple of russian “cabarets” with “only European girls”, although why any Russian guy would want to fly all the way to Thailand just to see some Russian/euro girls twirling around a chrome pole eludes me. I’m sure that even in Siberia they could see that for less than the price of an airfare to Thailand ? And I don’t imagine any extra services from the girls in those places would come cheaply either ? Tall blondes with big boobs have never been my type so I was n’t tempted to enquire …..
The main reason for my stay in pattaya was to check out some of the condos for rent, and the language schools. If and when I do move to Thailand I would sign up for Thai language lessons, and probably get the ED education visa. That pretty much limits my options to living in Bangkok, Pattaya, Chiang Mai or Phuket, as that is where you would find nearly all the approved schools for the visa. Chiang Mai is too cold in winter, too crowded in the tourist season, too polluted during the crop burning season and has too much traffic with no real public transport, so Chiang Mai is off the list. Phuket would be nice, except it is probably the most expensive place to live in Thailand, and has a limited number of schools to choose from. Which leaves Bangkok and Pattaya …..
Pattaya would be cheapest to live in as far as rent goes, it has a number of language schools, but if you are not a golfer (and I’m not) what would you do there ? It would be very easy to spend the money you save on rent on night time temptations, or spend your days drinking. Not for me, thank you. So I guess that leaves Bangkok …
Anyhow, I still have a few months to go before worrying about that. I’ve still got a few things on my to-do list before that, starting with the Whale sharks at Exmouth. I’ve booked my snorkelling trip for early June, so that leaves me a month to get from Sydney right across to Exmouth on the opposite side of the country. At $385 it will not be a cheap day out, but it is a once in a lifetime experience, so I hope it will be worth it ! Anyway, that’s all for now ….