TrongpaiExpat
July 25th, 2006, 16:50
Yesterday the BF and I went to Chonburi to visit a sick friend in the hospital. We converged with another 12 friends in the parking lot for the visit. The sick friend was doing better, so 8 of the visiting party decided that a side trip to the beach was in order. We then all converged on Bang Phra, just north of Si Racha, which is just north of Pattaya. I was not prepared for a beach visit, no bathing suit, no sunscreen, no towels. As it turned out, If I had a bathing suit I would not have fit in, this is a Thai beach. Thai people got to a beach fully dressed, casual, some in shorts but not a shirtless person in sight.
We took a songtow from Chonburi quite a distance from Chonburi to Bang Phra for only 10B each. It took about 20 min. in light traffic.
The beach is pretty much set up like Jomtiem. There is a parallel road with parking, a walk way that looked new and beach chairs with umbrellas that looked old and worn. The chairs are not set in pairs of twos ,like jomtiem but are arranged around larger tables with 10 chairs in a group, just right for our group, but I guess if you come with a smaller group, they could rearrange the seats. There were not many people, I was told that it's busy on weekends.
No massage service, no nail service and no mercantile vendors. No Euros spilling out of speedos and no eye candy either.
There is food service of sorts, from various vendors and only Thai food at about half the price of Jomtiem. You pay for each item at a time, no check bins. All the food comes in various plastic baggies and it seems that all of them end up at the water line on the beach. The amount of trash washing back and forth was increasable. Of course, there was nearly no one actually in the water. A few children, here and there but most come to sit, talk and eat.
I left the group and took a walk alone. Unlike Jomtiem, no offers of company, no looks from boys, girls or anyone. I was ignored. I guess this is close enough to Pattaya and Bangkok that a farang was not a unique creature yet I spotted only one other Farang, surrounded by empty Singa bottles.
Our group was a rather strange composition by western standards. I was the only farang, two lady boys, a middle aged Thai couple and the rest gay boys. One of the lady boys had with her this young boy, I though maybe a brother. I latter find out that the young boy was 16 and is the BF to the older Lady boy. Problem with police I asked, no not problem for Thai people, only problem for farang!
We took a songtow from Chonburi quite a distance from Chonburi to Bang Phra for only 10B each. It took about 20 min. in light traffic.
The beach is pretty much set up like Jomtiem. There is a parallel road with parking, a walk way that looked new and beach chairs with umbrellas that looked old and worn. The chairs are not set in pairs of twos ,like jomtiem but are arranged around larger tables with 10 chairs in a group, just right for our group, but I guess if you come with a smaller group, they could rearrange the seats. There were not many people, I was told that it's busy on weekends.
No massage service, no nail service and no mercantile vendors. No Euros spilling out of speedos and no eye candy either.
There is food service of sorts, from various vendors and only Thai food at about half the price of Jomtiem. You pay for each item at a time, no check bins. All the food comes in various plastic baggies and it seems that all of them end up at the water line on the beach. The amount of trash washing back and forth was increasable. Of course, there was nearly no one actually in the water. A few children, here and there but most come to sit, talk and eat.
I left the group and took a walk alone. Unlike Jomtiem, no offers of company, no looks from boys, girls or anyone. I was ignored. I guess this is close enough to Pattaya and Bangkok that a farang was not a unique creature yet I spotted only one other Farang, surrounded by empty Singa bottles.
Our group was a rather strange composition by western standards. I was the only farang, two lady boys, a middle aged Thai couple and the rest gay boys. One of the lady boys had with her this young boy, I though maybe a brother. I latter find out that the young boy was 16 and is the BF to the older Lady boy. Problem with police I asked, no not problem for Thai people, only problem for farang!