Pattaya and Super Bowl

It poured rain today in Bangkok. Big shock. It's barely even drizzled since I got here, and this just came out of nowhere. It didn't rain for very long, but in the cab back from Thammasat we were driving through about a foot of water on the roads. Thailand doesn't quite have the sewer system that the US does, even though it does rain a lot in the monsoon season. It's refreshing though. The little wildlife around Bangkok turns greener, and the smell of smog and pollution is washed away.

Last weekend I didn't go to Ko Samui or Chiang Mai. I went to Pattaya on a boat trip around the islands for a couple of days. A bunch of people are getting SCUBA certified, and this was their open-water dive weekend. A few of us just paid less and went along for snorkeling. The first day was pretty cool. We got to snorkel around the islands; saw coral, fish, etc. But it's such a touristy place that the water's dirty and the beaches are polluted, so it wasn't all that amazing. It was more fun just relaxing on the boat out in the sun, jumping off the top of the boat (maybe 15-20 feet high), and just being out on the water. When we got off the water, the woman who put the trip together, Oolie, had made reservations at a restaurant outside Pattaya, and the van drivers promptly got lost. We spent the next couple hours driving through shipping yards and oil refineries trying to find this place. When we got there, everyone was hungry, a little upset, and wondering why the hell we were at some random restaurant no one could find. The food was cold because they had set out a buffet for our group. It's probably the last time any of us go on a trip organized by Oolie. She and her mom manage the apartment building that some of the other people are staying at.

The next morning we were supposed to go to a turtle farm to SCUBA and snorkel, but the hotel we were staying at was an hour and a half from Pattaya, so me, my roommate, and a girl named Alex stayed behind so we could go out in Pattaya. It proved to be...an interesting night. A quick history lesson. Before the Vietnam war, Pattaya was barely even on the map. During the Vietnam War, US soldiers started go for a little R&R because it's the closest beach town to Bangkok. Prostitution during the war quickly became one of Thailand's largest industries. 50 years later, Pattaya is the sex capital of Thailand, and quite possibly the sex capital of the world. It's the most touristy place I have ever been. There are more McDonalds', KFCs, and Burger Kings than in any city in America, and the only Thais are the ones hustling you to go on a ridiculously overpriced boat tour and the prostitutes. Walking Street is the main, well, walking street at night, and there are old white men with young Thai girls everywhere. There are endless go-go bars and strip clubs, and I think the three of us were the youngest farang in the entire city. It's a disgusting, dirty, sinful place that I'm ecstatic I saw once, and probably will never see again.

We stayed in some random hotel for about 5 bucks each, and it was actually pretty nice. We got up in the morning, checked out, and tried to figure out what to do. We had heard of a bungee jump somewhere close, so we went to an internet cafe and found it online. They came and picked us up in Pattaya, and we drove about 15 minutes outside of town to a lake with a crane-like thing over it. It was a 50 meter jump, about 165 feet, for about 5o bucks. The jump was really cool, but I think the only thing it did for me was fuel my desire to do a real jump off a bridge. 165 feet looked pretty high when I was up there, and I can't imagine what 800 feet over a gorge would be like. Exhilarating is the first word that comes to mind. Maybe I'll make my way down to New Zealand or something before I come home.

We met back up with the group that afternoon and took the bus back with them. Everyone was exhausted, and the Super Bowl was at 6 AM the next morning, so everyone just kind of crashed when we got home. 11 of us got up early to watch the super bowl the next day. I found a place downtown and made reservations. The place was pretty crowded, and it was kind of a culture shock being back in a place with so many Americans at the same time. Americans really can be an obnoxious group of people sometimes. There was a group of older men sitting behind us that thought they were John Madden, but we just ignored them and watched the game. What an unbelievably amazing game. Even though I wanted to see the perfect season, the Giants played so much harder and with so much more passion, they completely deserved it. I hate the Pats anyways, so it's fine with me they lost.

Today is the Chinese New Year as well as my roommate Mat's birthday. We went out to Chinatown last night, but it's more of a Christmas-like celebration with family and gifts, so it was pretty dead. Today and the next few days will be more of a celebration, so we're going to head over there again once the rain stops. Apparently Bangkok has one of the biggest Chinese New Year celebrations in Southeast Asia because of the huge Chinese population here, with lion and dragon dances, firecrackers, and whatever else. I'm excited to see it.

I still have a lot of sightseeing stuff to do in Bangkok, so since I'm staying here this weekend, it might be about time to do it. The floating market, Grand Palace, Wat Arun, and the Emerald Buddha are all on the list. We might go to a Muay Thai boxing match tonight for Mat's birthday. We've been meaning to do it forever, and I've heard it's a lot of fun.