I want to go to Thailand again...
We've been in Pattaya for a few days now. Our first hotel was very budget-friendly: a spacious superior room on the third floor cost 13,700 baht for 28 days, which is about 32,000 rubles. Despite the low price, the hotel is very decent. It has everything you need: a pool, breakfast, air conditioning, and a large balcony. The maids smiled pleasantly and were willing to accommodate us in any way. The only drawback was a poorly functioning TV. Even the lack of an elevator and the steep stairs weren't as scary as they initially seemed. We noticed that we slept very well; we practically didn't wake up at night and spent a long time in bed in the morning. The bed linen was very nice. But then again, that's the case with every hotel.
The local guests are all foreigners, and you can't hear Russian spoken. Every morning, you meet them by the pool, they smile, chat about their own little matters, and try to talk to us. It's a shame I don't understand them when I'm sober...
This hotel is like my parents' dacha, where distant relatives I've never met before have gathered.
I didn't even want to leave.
When we come to Thailand, my wife and I try not to stay in one place, but to travel. And not only around the country, but also around Pattaya itself. We book hotels in different parts of the city, and sometimes in a month, which is our typical stay, we can change five or six hotels. A friend of ours from Murmansk once stayed in Pattaya in his villa; we left our suitcases with him and traveled light. This kind of vacation was discovered for us thanks to one meeting...
In Pattaya, on Jomtien, in 2012, we met some young guys from Tver. Two very sociable couples, doctors. We somehow got along easily. They're about 10 years younger than us, but they've traveled half the world. One day, they offered us a flight from Bangkok to Singapore for a couple of days. It was unexpected, but we agreed. The guys' plan was this: We'd book plane tickets to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, with a transit flight through Singapore, and then from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok. This would give us two transit countries, allowing us to stay visa-free for up to 72 hours. We booked hotels there for that time. And it all worked out. And it was surprisingly cheap. On local low-cost airlines, a plane ticket to Singapore cost the same as a taxi from Sheremetyevo Airport to central Moscow – a couple of thousand rubles. In our case, 2,000 baht per person. Other legs were even cheaper – around 700-800 baht.
Back when the ruble was worth its weight in gold and the baht was equal to the ruble, Russians had far more leisure options than they do now. Time has passed, and over the 20 years we've been coming here, prices within Thailand haven't changed at all, and in some places they've even gotten lower. But for us, due to the weakening ruble, prices have almost tripled. I'm not being modest; vacationing here is still affordable for many of our compatriots, perhaps even more affordable than on our Black Sea coast.
So, the time spent with these guys on this unforgettable adventure, which requires a separate story, changed our entire understanding of vacations in this country. And Tanya and I have been everywhere since that meeting: we flew to Hong Kong for a week, then to Macau—the Asian Las Vegas with its huge casinos; to Phu Quoc Island in Vietnam for a few days; and to Cambodia. We rented a car and traveled from Pattaya across the country to Phuket, staying at colorful local hotels along the way. We flew to Koh Samui, then took a ferry and bus to Sumarthani, and then a passenger train to Bangkok. And I can say that each time I visit this country, I find something new, an unexplored adventure.
For me, Thailand is like the North. You have to accept it or not. Those who accept it are drawn in. I want to return again and again. When I talk to people visiting Murmansk for the first time, some are fascinated by the polar day or polar night, the unpredictable weather, the nature, the northern lights, the people... Others are disappointed with these same things, thinking it's nothing special – just another day, just another people. A waste of time and money.
The same is true for Thailand. Some people are irritated by unfamiliar smells, local food, puns on the roads, loud music, the constant partying, women who look like men and vice versa, the less-than-clean sea in the city center, and the general local flavor. We fell in love with it all and can't imagine life without it, and by the time we leave, we're already missing it...