Christmas in a Tainted Paradise

Family Pic – Garden Cliff Hotel, Pattaya, Thailand

Merry Christmas everyone! Just in time to squeeze in one Christmas post before the day itself!

All this sad news lately, and work, and clearing some accumulated annual leaves before the end of the year, leaves me pretty little time to write or to sort thru the huge amount of photos we’ve taken thru the years, and boy, we take photos like there’s no tomorrow…

So here’s a picture post from the past, of photos I’ve sorted out before. It’s sort of a continuation from my Bangkok post a couple of posts back. It’s on our family trip to Pattaya. Here goes…




Let’s start with Christmas Trees. How can you have Christmas without Christmas trees? – Central Festival Pattaya


Christmas Tree at the lobby of the Garden Cliff Resort, the hotel we finally ended up with after the room we booked sold us out. We booked an apartment on Booking.com in advance, kept calling before we arrived but no one responded, went to the place but couldn’t get in. Ended up having to book another room… Pah, piece of shit!




More views of the Garden Cliff Hotel – Nice pool but didn’t get a chance to swim




You can see the Sanctuary of Truth from the hotel, but there’s no direct access. You gotta go by car – Views from Garden Cliff Resort, Pattaya




Seafood! Our hotel is in the north part of Pattaya (Na Kluea), a fishing area – here’s the fishing dock where we had seafood in a restaurant just in front of the docks (which Google Maps labelled as Shell Tangkay)




Finally, Pattaya’s famous Walking Street filled with pubs, night clubs, massage parlours, what have you, etc. That’s what attracts party-goers and youngsters here… The last we visited Pattaya were with Alan and friends in ummm… the early 2000’s. I can remember quite clearly because we were stopped and fined by the police for riding our motorbikes without helmets, “but our Thai friends said no need…” We had to visit the police station at midnight, and pay the fine to retrieve our rented bikes. It’s not really hefty, but I was surprised to see a long queue of foreigners, white, yellow, black, whatever, at midnight, all waiting for their turns to pay fines… Nice, compared to Malaysia, where you’d have probably bribed the police to let you go as it’s such a hassle to pay your fine (then, in the early 2000s). I sure hope they’ve changed now. The idea I got from this is that if you wanna stem out bribery, you should make it somewhat affordable, and dead easy for offenders to pay

I also remember the jet skis and banana boats we went on in the early 2000’s in the beach. I think it was Jomtien Beach. It was incredible fun, but that was when yours truly was much younger, ahem. Now, you kinda prefer a li’l peace and quiet, don’t ya, haha? Didn’t visit the beach this time round. Went down only to the hotel beach, to snap some photos, nothing much. But Pattaya feels really congested, filled chock-a-block with high-rises and buildings. Still nice, but I think more suited to the younger hip crowd.

That’s all for now folks. If I don’t see you before the year end, Happy 2021 ! ! !