Today we docked at Laem Chabang which is on
the eastern side of the Bay of Thailand to Koh Samui but still 2.5 hours south
of Bangkok by car.
Jomtien Beach |
The reason for this is that it is about an hour from Bangkok, just south of the larger, louder Pattaya, and has a few high rise apartment blocks on the beach that are well constructed and cheap to buy, freehold. Cheap means $US100K for a one bedroom that you can easily rent or leave vacant for your own use. I spent some time with real estate agents as the investment and returns appear sound.
The high number of farang has given the town a strong western influence in food, shopping and drinking partners.
Pattaya Beach |
You can buy whatever you wish for, really .......
As a sideline, the apparent prostitution in many Asian tourist destinations has two sides to the story. Poverty is the norm, women and men have families to support and need to make money. There are no government benefits. Tourism has diminished normal income from farming so tourists are a source of income. Women and men work by day and don't want to necessarily spend every night in bars but do so to support their families with secondary income. The farang don't understand or care about this.
To take one scenario, a farang initially pays for a women who may become his girlfriend and then he expects to not continue paying for her time. The women becomes stuck as she needs the money and cannot simply be friends with the farang "for free". The farang wants her friendship and company but doesn't want to feel he is a customer.
Herein lies the cultural disconnect . I won't even begin to try to explain Lady-Boys but the concept is similar.
end of sideline.......................................................
My foot : |
Not a lot of wit or dry commentary in this update, perhaps it is the calm before the storm :
The foot feeding fish, are they the ones that John West rejects? I hope so. Nothing personal but I don't want to be "after your feet" in the food chain !
ReplyDeleteStop having so much fun, its not fair to the rest of us :P
ReplyDeleteYeah. What he said
DeleteHey, the fun is only just warming up. The best comes later :))))))
ReplyDeleteThat's right. Rub it in.
Delete