Sunday,

so out for lunch, but on the way out Diana noticed some of the sunflower seeds she had planted had actually started to grow, these were from a packet of bird food we had bought for just 25 baht for a bag about the size of a packet of sugar, not the 20 baht for 10 seeds we had bought before, this week back to the Robins Nest on Soi Diana, Diana settled for some Thai food,

and a beef madras for me, 'Cheers!'

later in the day we were going to come back to town for the Pattaya bed race, but we thought we would take a walk along Walking Street in daylight,

so few people about,

even the windmill was not going around,

and no neon signs, it all looked quiet strange in the daylight,

but certain shops still had an appeal for Diana!

this is the newly paved road that the traffic has to turn left into from Beach Road at night,

on the way back I noticed this new Honda Wave 125i, notice the little 'i', it is fuel injected, now one of the most stolen bikes locally I am led to believe, the injection gives a little more low down power, according to one reviewer, but both have the same quoted top speed, the performance is quoted as 9.3 PS @ 7,500 rpm (carburetor type), 9,18 PS @ 7.500 rpm (fuel injection type), 1.03 kgf.m @ 4,000 rpm (carburetor type), 0,99 kgf.m /5.000 rpm (125 cc fuel injection type),

we went home for the afternoon then out to Beach Road for the race, the finish line being the entrance to Walking Street from Beach Road, the race was to start at 7.00 in the evening so that the competitors would not get dehydrated in the sun,

refreshments were available for the spectators, with a few mobile bars set up on the pavements,

but before that the competitors had a pageant before the race, first a police escort,

then the 'gold' man, I do not know who he is, but he can be seen all over Pattaya riding his bike like this, one thing I will say he must be fit!

next a marching band,

then the first of the racing beds,

many sponsored by local businesses,

or companies,

then the charity that many of us support, the mercy center, I was looking for Pastor Fred on the bed, but he was not there today,

I am not quiet sure who this bed was from, but I am guessing Boys Town!

this bed supporting 'unity in diversity',

the logo on the front of the bed is I think that of the Thai police,

strange to think that this bit of fun being blacked up could get you into a real bit of trouble in the UK!

even some of the local shops fielded a team,

hotels too,

the Hard Rock Cafe was there,

so we settled down by the finish line to see who would be first to cross,

but just then another few late entries appeared,

some from well known go-go bars,

there was quiet a crowd gathering,

then this chap rode by, again like the gold man he can be seen all over Pattaya playing music from his bike with lots of lights,

next a collection of mobile stalls went past as the police cleared Beach Road, a high speed out of control bed is not what you want to have hit you!

then three cars appeared and parked up at the entrance to Pattaya Beer Garden,

two of them had a light show, with flashing neon and strobe lighting,

but all had the loudest sound system that you could imagine! worse they all decided to play different tunes at the same time each tyring to drown out the sound from the other two!

it was so loud at about 50 feet away it drowned out the sound system of the upstairs go-go, all of the girls gave up dancing, there was no beat, just noise!

then before the race the Goldman rode past again,

the race was on, and this bed was first past the post,

followed by the Mercy Center, well done to Pastor Fred and his team!

and this group coming in thrid, a nice way to spend the afternoon and early evening,

then to Friendship, I was running out of medicinal wine! home shower and then we were out again.