My First Pattaya Experience

My first trip to Thailand wasn’t all that great, but it was still amazing, if that can make sense. I had just flown in from Okinawa and had no clue as to what kind of a country Thailand was or wasn’t. I then went to a Thai marine base to
do some practice ops with our counterparts. That was not fun, but it was all I saw at first. Anyways, we settled into our barracks which was blazing hot and setup our shop right after. So far, the heat wasn’t as bad, as I have experienced
similar in Texas.

Me and a few co-workers went out to our hotel that we had booked a few weeks prior. It was dirt cheap and simply amazing. Well, not 4-star or anything like that, but it was at Sabai Inn. Very nice, I guess we had a suite or something. It had two twins
in one room and one queen in the connected master bedroom. That place didn’t last long as our command found out how many Marines were staying off base and out in town. Nothing we could do.

Back on the Thai base and back in the barracks I found myself sleeping in a puddle of my own sweat on a cot. It had just rained and was getting quite humid. I lifted the mosquito netting thinking that I would be cooler. I don’t have any clue why,
it was mosquito netting. So there I am asleep and dreaming of something happy, maybe my hometown Spurs winning the championship or something along those lines, when I awoke to quite an excruciating pain in my boxer briefs. Too deep in my sleep
I brushed it off and attempted to get more of my much needed rest. Again, pain. I dig into my shorts and lo and behold I pull out a giant beetle that was attached to my inner thigh. I looked up and on the inside of my netting I find 2 more of
the damned insects crawling around. Needless, to say big tough Marine starts dancing out of his cot screaming like a little girl. I go back to sleep only to wake up to a stray dog sitting right next to me. It was great. In addition to my first
days I had to deal with no running water, shaving with bottled water, and taking field showers.

That wasn’t the worst of it. Our command placed on us a 3 am curfew. Awesome! I know we are there on a mission and all that stuff but once I started to experience things, that curfew got a bit annoying. I probably averaged only 3 hours of sleep
a night, as we would be up at 6 am over the period of a month. I don’t know if the human body can handle such a strain but I guess that country kept me going. I did take one or two breaks just to sleep. So I worked all day and partied all
night. Our base was about a 20 minute ride from Pattaya. I don’t want to sound like I screwed all night, because that isn’t what I meant by partying all night, but I did have my fun.

My first night out I went with a few higher ups that had been there in previous years. They were telling us all their stories of grandeur about their own experiences. Yeah, yeah, whatever. I wanted to find out for myself. I did. The first bar we go into
the most beautiful (I know there are a million most beautiful girls in LOS) girl in my eyes walks up to me. We end up staying there to drink for the night. Me and my Marine buddies are going crazy but we keep our calm, as we were of higher rank
meaning we cant be stupid like the immature jar heads that give us a bad name. We leave and all I can think about is that girl. Every night same story but with a twist. We would pay our visits and then head out to the clubs or head out to eat
or head out to shop.

The few nights I decided to stay on base and rest is when I would go have a few beers at this setup of restaurants and bars on the base. It was great. You would just chill and drink under some canopy style roofing. The next couple of nights I am with
my girl and we are having a blast. She spoke just enough English and I used just enough sign language.

As an inexperienced person, in Pattaya of all places, I had no clue about all these scams and crazy bar girls. I never heard anything even though I was with only one girl about sick buffalos and neither did my buddies. I guess I was shocked to find this
awesome website and read about all the craziness that seems to go on here. Either way it doesn’t bother me. I honestly enjoyed every bit of my stay with curfews. On those nights that I would stay in, my buddies would come and tell me that
my girl would be crying cause I wasn’t there. Shocker!!! She never had me pay baht to her and when I did, she would look at me confused and then only excepted it once.

That very next day she comes back to my with a couple of CDs that I had told her I liked and a little ceramic bear in fatigues. So, I guess either she had some feelings, and no I am not talking love but something. I am now embarking on a return visit
to Pattaya to hang out with her as we have kept in touch via e-mail and the occasional phone call. My experience was great. Walking down the street feeling like Brad Pitt when I am just me was strange but still a crazy feeling when all these girls
are screaming for you (or your money). Who knows. I hope I have learned from these other submissions, but I guess I’ll have to see in my next trip. I wanted to visit the Tiger Zoo but I guess bird-flu has other ideas. It’s a sad
story for some of the things that go on over there, but LOS is almost in some cases to good to believe. I guess that’s why I am going back in December.

Stickman's thoughts:

To follow.