Throwing a Curve Ball

We seem to be doing a lot of touristy things. I don't think that is horrible. Touristy things are fun. But we're not seeing Thailand the way we normally try to see other countries. We're going to throw the tour company a curve ball in the afternoon.

This morning we were taken to an island where we could play on the beach. You might wonder why since there's a beach just across the street from the hotel. I wonder this too at times, but this is my vacation, and I really don't want to get a headache this early. From a beach on the mainland we waded out (just a few steps) and climbed onto a speed boat. The first stop was a floating platform.

I hadn't been parasailing in over 20 years, and decided to give it another go. Yup, this is the "Be The Kite" part of our Zen vacation. A boat drags you around attached to a parachute. You are flung around, so this would be bad if you have a bad back. Luckily, I've been training the whole trip for this by getting massages!

On to the beach which is large, flat, and filled with jet skis, tubes, and people who are there to make sure you've purchased everything you could possibly want. The water was warm without being too hot. I once body surfed in the Arabian Sea and wondered if the ocean could be too hot for a swimmer.

After lunch, we headed back to the mainland. Time for that curve ball. The tour company wants to take us back to a second jewelry store we had visited yesterday. My Lovely Wife had tortured the sales staff there for a couple hours, and then we walked out because, the prices were too high. Our guide fessed up, the tour company wants us to buy from certain companies. It was obvious to us that she had been in the sales cycle to the whole time. We announced that we did not want to go back to the store. We wanted to do something completely different. We told the tour company to take us to an orchard. Their hearts sank. Christmas had come, and no presents.

The orchard is not on the tour, and is about an hour's drive out of Pattaya. We had to pay for gas. But when we got there it was worth it. The orchards go on forever, you catch rides on small buses. The drivers announce what type of fruit you are seeing, and there are stops where you can get out and eat the fruit. You can stay at a station as long as you want. My Lovely Wife started a defoliation program at the first stop until I reminded her there were other stops, and she should pace herself. Talk about a kid in a candy store!

The best part was when we got to the durian. If you've never been close to a durian, the nicest thing I can say about it is that it stinks! You want to be up-wind from someone with a durian. How they get close enough to eat it, escapes me. My Lovely Wife loves durian, and often threatens to buy one back home. Now, she's glad she had paced herself.

There were many other fruit crops, orchids, and there's bee keeping, which included a demonstration of extracting honey from the hive.

Back to Pattaya and dinner, which My Lovely Wife skipped because she was full of fruit. I'm eating near the beach, and there are prostitutes everywhere. As the bars get ready to open, they bring in the supplies, Beer, Whisky, and Women. You can tell when a man is with a prostitute here. She's usually about old enough to be his granddaughter. If you wanted to start a fight, you could ask him what grade she's in. But I'm not here to cause trouble.