Pataya

We were invited by the Office for International Students to join the Chinese first-year students for a beach day today in Pataya. The idea was to meet some of our future students and enjoy a day at the beach with some cultural exposure.

It was emphasized repeatedly last week that we needed to be on time for our 7:30 a.m. bus pick-up. Though we were on time, the bus was an hour late. Two hours later, we arrived at the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden & Resort but had missed the "cultural show" due to bus lateness. So we watched a weird, depressing elephant show, visibly unhealthy monkeys dressed in strange human clothing, and unfortunate tigers weighed down by chains that were only 1-2 feet long. One of the tigers couldn't even stand up b/c the chain was so short and he appeared so drugged up he could barely focus his eyes. Ick. I love tigers like no other, they are absolutely my favorite animal, but this was just super saddening and I really didn't feel comfortable getting my picture taken with the tigers like so many of the other tourists. I did pet the thing though. I couldn't resist that much.

Anyway, after the animal depression, we had a huge buffet lunch and then took a trolley tour of the garden in this resort. Odd garden overall, but it had lots of really beautiful orchids. We had to stay until the 3pm cultural show, which was an odd combination of dancing, Muay Thai boxing, and sword fighting atop elephants wearing obnoxiously colored styrofoam hats. Then we hopped back on the bus and finally landed at the beach around 4:45. We stayed there until 6, making for a pretty unsatisfying beach day. Jenn, Kate, Angelica and I went down the street for a drink instead of packing into the already crowded Pataya beach.

Also it rained all day. Kind of a bust. Most of us are done with the group tours. I know that the university is trying to take us on trips they think we would like, but it really hasn't worked out so far. I don't want to be unappreciative, but I'd just rather take my own trips from now on instead of spending entire days touring shopping malls or circus-like, touristy animal havens.

Did I mention that right there along side the tigers and fat, costumed monkeys was a black man dressed like some uncivilized tribal dude? He was all decked out in "traditional African" costume and tooth necklaces and crap. On display right there with the animals. Absolutely effed up.

On the way up side of the day were the beautiful orchids and other flowers in the resort garden. And also that I got to pet a beast of a tiger (drugged up as he was).