The Post Was A Little Late Yesterday,

as I had to go for my 90 day check in at immigration,

 the road works in Soi 5 are still a work in progress,

 but hopefully when completed the Soi will not flood as it usually does in the rainy season, the check in was so quick, it took longer to fill in the form than wait in the queue and my passport processed,

 then for breakfast, the Surf Kitchen,

 the view of the beach from the restaurant,

 one of the nice things about this restaurant is that they always have a water feature,

 or for this visit a large vase of flowers,

 these look similar to the bird of paradise flower but I do not think they are,

 our meal arrives,

 some Thia food for Diana and a prawn cocktail for myself,

 then home, a change of clothes, next stop the bank, we then decided to have a drink in the Pattaya Beer Bar,

 we had not been there for some time and thought it would be nice to sit beside the sea,

 boats moored in the bay overlooked by the Pattaya Hilton,

 'Cheers' from me,

 and from Diana, (she hates beer, it was mine!),

 in case you do not know when you drink or eat here the beer mats are double sided, red side up if you want to enjoy the food, beer or view and want to be left alone, green side up if you are looking for some company,

 as always speed boats,

 and jet skies racing across the bay,

then back home,

 this is the card for the Beer Garden if you want to visit,

just go along Pattaya Beach Road with the flow of traffic, just before the traffic turns left in the evenings at the Samsung television there are some bars on the right, just before them is a walk way past the bars to the rear of them where the Beer Garden is,

 rather than go straight home we decided to drive along the beach road that continues on at the far end of Walking Street, past the Bali Hai pier and in to the road that runs past the boat yard, for want of a better description, all of the street lights have been overhauled,

 each one with a happy dolphin on top,

 and nice they looked too,

 work was continuing on the new jetty,

 next stop the top of the hill,

 to the helicopter pad,

 over looked by the Royal Beach apartments, we have been to that one!

 we then made our way down, it really was a lovely small road, with almost jungle on both sides,

 except for my motorbike breathing a sigh of relief that we were going down hill, there was not a sound, also there were a number of benches if you got a bit out of breath if you were walking,

as we were on one side of the hill we drove over to the other side,

 there is a large Buddha there along with a small temple complex,

 but first the steps,

 on each side there are two large Nāga with their tails going all of the way up the steps,

if you ever visit Pattay this is a great place to visit, it is just a shame that cables go across almost every view,

 although there are many steps each one is only a few inches high so that it is not exhausting to climb them even in the midday sun,

 I noticed some more of the local scaffolding on the way to the top,

 there was some work in progress going on,

 at the top the Buddha itself,

 surrounded by a separate image for each day of the week, I made a contribution for my birthday, for me Thursday,

 for Diana Tuesday,

there are nice views from the top of the hill,

 in the distance the water park, with the tower you can ride from almost the top,

 I nearly missed this intrepid volunteer! a bit small to see but just on the right of the picture,

 lots of building work going on,

 the view across Pattaya,

 Diana thought this one was nice as it was a bit slim, like I hope to be!

 in front of the large Buddha there is a table with many offerings on it,

 one of the small temples at the top of the hill, then home for our evening meal and to watch some television, first a few from Pickers and Dealers,

then a 3D BluRay we had been wanting to watch when our sound system was up and running, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, totally mad and utterly unbelievable, it was great! giant lizards and mini elephants, or was it the other way around? the special effects were out of this world if you see what I mean, also there were a few moments when you just had to duck or risk being stabbed in the eye, the pop out 3D effects were so good, we are both looking forward to the third in the series, but no news yet of a sequel,

to round the evening off on a more serious note, Waking the Dead, Duty and Honour, a cover up involving the murder of troopers in a cavalry unit is exposed when details of a shady deal involving mercenaries is uncovered, the troopers have unwittingly been used in a guns for hire deal, now they have to toe the line or be silenced,


as an aside the BBC is being sued by a former Army officer after this episode of Waking The Dead featured a fictional character with an almost identical name and background, Jonathan Garratt, who was in the Grenadier Guards and now runs a private security firm operating in Iraq, claims his reputation was ruined by the storyline about a man involved in murder and corruption, he is seeking ‘substantial’ damages over the episode Duty And Honour and has instructed his lawyers to sue the BBC over Waking The Dead episode Duty And Honour, in it, a former Guards officer called John Garret, who runs a private security firm with Iraqi connections, kills one of his friends and embarks on a shady business deal with an Iraqi villain to secure a lucrative contract,

Mr Garratt, 46, says that the similarities between his name and profession and the character’s are ‘too near the knuckle’ to be a coincidence, He says he is known to the BBC, having given a Radio 4 interview about his work in Iraq, and he has also met the military adviser to Waking The Dead, Crispin Swayne, Mr Garratt said: 'I can understand that they might have used the same name but everything else about my regiment, my background and my current job means this is a coincidence too far, it’s all too close to the bone, I gave an interview to the BBC in 2004 about the work I was doing in Iraq so I know my name is on the BBC database,' Mr Garratt said, 'and on that database my name is misspelt, the same way as the fictional John Garret',

the BBC has made two on-air apologies to emphasise that the criminal activities of the fictional John Garret bear no relation to the character and business activities of the real Jonathan Garratt, also there is a disclaimer on both parts of the show before it begins, the Corporation said it was sorry but insists it is a coincidence, it has also agreed to pay legal costs, life it seems is stranger than fiction, or is it the other way around? with that we were off to bed.