a couple of weeks ago,
the good news was that we had a nice drive out and about, we travelled up Soi Chaiyapruk,
the bad news is that we did not find it,
but if you want to try yourself here are the rough directions, go up Soi Chaiyapruk past the Tesco store,
and look for this yellow sign on the left,
it says Euro Badminton and turn right directly opposite it,
continue on the road around the big tree,
for a couple of miles,
it seems endless,
but eventually you will come to a 'T' junction,
you can also sort of go straight on, the road opposite is a bit staggered,
well we went straight on, but nothing looked familiar, well it was pitch black when we were there before,
so back to the T junction and we tried turning left,
still no luck,
so back to the junction for the last time as we tried turning right, another blank, we could of called Mike, but that seemed like cheating, but we had a nice drive out to a part of the countryside we had not been to before,
on the way back we called into Makro for some shopping,
4 boxes of wine, so back to 20 liters again,
4 trays of soda to go with the vodka and I think we bought some food,
Mark called round in the late afternoon, after he left and we had our evening meal we made our way into town, it was Pattaya's Music weekend, walking along Soi Marine Plaza we noticed the go-go bar New York New York was now open,
as was the snooker club at the beginning of Soi Blues Factory,
into the street looking at the neon signs,
Diana in the foreground, considering it was about 8.00 in the evening things seemed a bit empty,
I just love the neon signs,
so much work must have gone into making them,
a new bar, Halo, I wonder if it has anything to do with the game?
we then found out why Walking Street was so empty, Beach Road was packed,
this was the first stage with a band on, just past the entrance to Pattaya Beer Garden, on the sea side of Beach Road,
we decided to come back here later for a drink or two,
all of the side roads were blocked off, Beach Road was for pedestrians only,
this is possibly the smallest mobile bar we have seen, an old 90 cc bike and sidecar with a couple of chairs, music and lighting,
normally the mobile bars are like this one, a VW camper that has been converted,
another new mobile bar for us a three wheeler,
we had seen one of these at the bike show in February, I wonder if it is the same one that has been renovated?
we were a bit thirsty so we bought a fresh orange juice,
the balloon seller was here as well,
we had by now walked a fair way along Beach Road, so we turned back and took a table near the band,
so I ordered a beer,
'Cheers!',
I like this self service idea,
Diana tried a beer too, but I do not think she liked it,
on the plus side I suppose it means that there is more for me!
a self portrait of us by Diana,
one for the road and we were off,
this was what it was all about,
a quick picture of the moon,
I have to say the music did not sound Reggae, I even knew some of the songs,
in front of the band the street was packed,
there were even a couple of film/television crews there,
everybody seemed to be having a great time, we certainly did,
a fibre light, I have seen them many times before but not taken a picture of one,
Diana strikes the pose,
as we make our way back to Walking Street,
the huge screen above the street still working well,
sunglasses anyone?
we are on our way to the motorbike taxi rank,
I think Diana was almost tempted by some of these,
past the seafood restaurants,
an ice cream shop, a jail, seafood restaurant and a beer bar all within 50 feet of each other!
then we saw the sandman, using straws filled with coloured sand he forms pattens in glass jars and bottles,
absolutely amazing how it is done, with that we were on the bikes and back to 388,
then feet up to watch some more of Downton Abbey, but as it was late only one episode, then after a great night out we were off to bed.
