10. Christmas on Jomtien Beach and Walking Street

I spent part of Christmas day on Jomtien Beach. I meant to go yesterday, but I got lazy. It was odd because the beach had a ceiling of umbrellas. Yes that's right, the entire beach was under umbrellas, perhaps 10,000 of them from the boardwalk to within about 15 feet of the water. That is a swath of about 75 or 100 feet wide along what seemed to be about one mile of beach. It felt like a cavern.

 The only people in bikinis and speedos are farang. All the western men I saw
were proudly strutting their stuff. Thais do not dress this way on the beach.

Most Thais prize white skin and try not to be out in the sun. The umbrellas were either overlapping or pinned somehow to make a ceiling which let in almost no sunlight. It was bizarre.

What's bad.....and what's good.
Our skin whitening cream will make your dreams come true.

You just park yourself and watch the world go by. Vendors come by and you can get whatever you want, from food to toys, to bed sheets and comforters. I got a papaya salad and a variety of deep fried things: tiny crabs that you eat every bit of, spring rolls, prawns, and other stuff. Also coconut milk to wash it down with.

Papaya salad

One girl was selling birds in little cages. I read something about this somewhere before I left, it's done all over Asia and the middle east: you buy one or more birds, then you release them. It's supposed to make you feel good, give you a feeling of release and freedom. Someone told me they often are trained to return to the seller after release. I didn't try it. 

I ate way too much of these deep-fried goodies. She wanted to sell me more and more

The weather was not hot on Christmas day. In fact it was rather too cool under the umbrella cavern because the wind was blowing pretty good. 

Working boat just off the beach

I eventually spent a couple hours lounging in the hotel room and watching a James Bond movie. I stayed at a "Serviced Residence" (kitchenette) called @Mind. It's very nice and I recommend it highly to anyone. I was happy with most everything at this hotel, and particularly enjoyed the breakfast. Did some shopping at one of the malls in the afternoon and bought a nice polo shirt. All my t-shirts are pretty ratty. When the afternoon wore on I went to an outdoor market and got buffeted and jostled until I felt hypnotized, and then finally went to see the infamous Walking Street when it got dark. I was tired by that time. Wow, what an unpleasant place it was, but now I can say I been there.

Walking Street. Go-go bars and loud, loud loud.

I met up with Jeab, my acquaintance from Bangkok, who traveled here to visit her best friend for Christmas weekend. We went out to Moom Aroi ("Yummy Corner"), a restaurant/bar with some of the best food I've had here, but it wasn't cheap. It was right on the beach with a cool gentle wind blowing, and I did not have a problem with mosquitos. We had several salads, including an oyster salad that I flipped over. I'm still remembering how good that was. I also ordered a plate of sushi, but it was not the best. Near the middle of the table there is a whole fish. Needless to say, I ate most of it. I think I might weigh more than both of these ladies combined. Since I was with civilized company, I refrained from sucking that fish's face, but I did not leave much meat on there.

Bar food, Thai style. Sooo good. The table looks littered with confetti, but it's marble.

Fa, Jeab and yours truly

Did I mention Thais love Christmas? I think for them it's all about the shopping...being an almost entirely Buddhist nation it's certainly not about religion. They also are crazy about the music. Can you imagine? Christmas music is right up there in my top three holiday peeves, but they just can't get enough of the same old songs we hear year after year.

At the bar/restaurant this little girl was making the rounds with some elves to all
the tables and doing a little dance for photo ops, but after about 100 people taking
her picture she was getting a little cranky.

They like Christmas way more than I do.

I ended up the night by trying to go see the new Sherlock Holmes movie, but was a little too late. That's when I made the detour to see Walking Street. Then I caught the baht bus back to the general vicinity of the hotel and then hopped on the back of a moto who delivered me back to the hotel for about a dollar.

Oh, I ate so much spicy food this week. I just love it.