Thailand Intimacy & Healthy (Adult) Sexuality Research Report
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Searching for Baht in Pattaya Need more Internet Time Shopping Central Pattaya Mall
Got to bed at 6am as the sun was coming up. Slept 5 hours but up and out just in time to catch the good (and free) breakfast (Pattaya Pete's deal) at Eastiny. Answered lots of E-mail etc until my Loxinfo connection died after using up my 2nd 20 hours of time in about 10 days. Also needed to find more Baht, which I thought would be much easier than it was. I could have survived on what I had but would have had to not do many entertainment options. To keep those options open wanted some more. Baht bused to Soi Post Office and Royal Garden Plaza. I spot two ATM's about a block apart. The first I stick my card into it eats it but I'm lost since it says nothing in English even after hitting the nice convenient "English" button a few times. Gee, it better give me my card back when I hit cancel (the only button in English, which was good). So glad to see my card pop back out. Next machine has a big sign "NO VISA" and of course I have two VISA cards with me. Sine this is Saturday a nearby bank of course is closed. I then spotted an exchange booth that had VISA card logo on it. Maybe I can just buy baht here with VISA. Well not quite. Seems I have to show them my passport first, which of course was back at hotel. Walked along the beach for awhile but was quite hot and humid. So went back into the huge nicely air conditioned Royal Garden Plaza and strolled all 3 floors wondering if I might run into another ATM to try. Didn't find an ATM, but I enjoyed watching the huge dancing fountain on the Second Road side from all three levels. I thought it was kind of neat. Also all the kids things on 3rd floor, bumper cars, and almost a whole floor of fun stuff. The view over the bay from the third floor windows by lots of eating places was nice - wish I had my camera with.
Baht bussed back to Eastiny. Did a few things and was getting tired so took a nap. Zzzzzz'd very well (spell checker doesn't like that word!). Baht bussed to Soi Post Office to Computer store and got my 3rd Webnet 20-hour package for 600B. This time I had my passport. There was an Exchange Booth next door. But they tell me "no baht". I had to think a moment…this is Thailand not the Philippines where I should be asking for Pesos. Yes this is Thailand and you need baht in Thailand I was quite sure! Found the exchange booth from this morning that needed my passport. They didn't say they didn't have baht just needed passport earlier. This one did give me baht, which I charged on VISA. They only charged the exact baht amount on my card so the fee must be in the exchange rate. When I was in the Philippines I never needed more Pesos. When in Vancouver, Canada (doing more sex research and report for sexwork.com) when using an ATM machine there was no direct fee charged. When I got my statement the exchange rate was very close to the official rate. So buying with VISA may not be too costly. Eventually I will see when statement comes. I also stopped and walked through the big "City Department Store." Gee these sellers are almost as bad as the street stores. My problem with street stores is that I would really like to just stop and look to see if they had anything of interest. But as soon as I slow down to look, I am attacked by the women saying "sale, sale, make you good deal, how much you offer" before I even have a clue what I might be interested in. City Mall was almost as bad. Gee even the eyeglass place had "welcome girls" tying to get me in, probably just because I wore glasses! I assume they just rent space to venders who prefer to be in a nice modern cool mall instead of on the hot streets with their shack like stores. Motor bike rental places are also all over with scads of bikes outside. One local calls them death machines since I guess so many people have been killed on them in Pattaya. As reported earlier I did have some fun zooming around on the motorbike taxi's in Bangkok after Long Gun suggested we take them from my hotel to beer garden. But the drivers were not drunk, were licensed as taxis (I guess) and seemed to be quite good drivers? Not like the guys that rent them get drunk and crash that I understand from local reports is common in Pattaya. I'm back at hotel with more baht and more Internet time.
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