Saturday, March 7, 2009--Pattaya

Saturday, March 7, 2009--Pattaya

Note about yesterday's post: Pictures have now been added! Due to internet issues yesterday, we couldn't post the pictures until today. Feel free to go back and take a look now.

Today was our first full day here in Pattaya and we decided to make it a leisurely day. We managed to sleep until about 6 a.m., which is pretty good considering the time change. We got up and enjoyed some coffee while we waited for Julian and Wit to get up. The internet connection was still giving us problems, so we weren't able to do much.

We decided to go for a walk on the beach. You can see some pictures here. It was quite pleasant, but already busy since it was a Saturday. Many of the locals visit the beach on Saturday and Sunday, whereas the tourists pretty much own the beach during the week.

Wit, who has become quite the gardener, went with one of his neighbors to pick out some new plants at the nursery. He bought so much stuff that he had to get the nursery to deliver it for him, LOL! Wit has done an amazing job with the yard at the house. See the pics here.

While Wit was gone, we mostly caught up with Julian and had a light breakfast. The weather was wonderful--warm, sunny, but not oppressive at all. We really enjoyed sitting out on the porch for much of the day. Even the mosquitos left us alone! Joe made friends with the guppies and goldfish in the bowls on the patio--I think that feeding them brownie crumbs did the trick!

Around 12:30, we all decided to go to lunch at the new Central Festival. Central is the national department store in Thailand. The new mall just opened a few months ago and Central is the anchor. It is a very nice place--very modern (see the pics below), has lots of parking (always a challenge here), and a huge variety of stores. It is 6 floors of shopping and food. We ate at the Food Loft, which is the high-end food court. We had a number of dishes, but once again forgot to take pictures except for dessert! Here are some pictures of us at the food court and of the dessert--mango sticky rice with coconut milk. It was delicious!

After lunch, we wandered around a bit and Wit attempted to return a shirt he had purchased. Let's just say that returning an item here in Thailand is not easy--he is still waiting on the "decision" about whether or not they will take it back! I'm not anticipating an answer for quite some time, LOL!

When we came back to the house, we all took a nap until the sun went down. Julian and Joe went for a swim in the pool, then we all went to dinner at Bali Hai. This time, we remembered to take pictures of the food, and a few of ourselves! You can see them here.

After that, we watched an episode of the Showtime program, "Dexter" and then called it a day.

Tomorrow: Possibly a trip to the floating market; celebrating Julian's birthday; a trip to a nursery; and our continued quest for the wonderful Thai fried chicken!