Thai Dyed: Middle Man: Episode VI

(Sorry for the long delay - I'd hoped to finish these before leaving for China, but didn't quite make it)

Dec. 23 and 24

Lazy couple of days wandering the streets and malls of Pattaya. We found last-minute Christmas gifts. We also found a vendor selling reading glasses for 100 THB (less than three dollars!), so Ted and I stocked up. Stumbled upon a string trio in the mall, and enjoyed the mini concert. The guys finally picked up their suits, and I think everyone was happy with their purchases. Ted's friend decided he'd had enough of life in the slow lane, and checked into the Hard Rock Hotel to meet up with some other friends. We enjoyed having him, but it was nice to have Ted all to ourselves for a bit.

Loh! (handsome)

We had Christmas Eve dinner reservations at Big Fish in the Siam@Siam Hotel. The all-you-can-eat buffet and free flow wine was accompanied by a Thai Santa and some cute carolers in their Thai Christmas wear. Their versions of traditional Christmas carols were interesting, to say the least, but charming in their own way (they changed keys about five times). Mika's family was able to join us, which made it even more enjoyable. A gentleman sang and played acoustic guitar, and was quite entertaining with his jazzy riffs and multi-national music. Tim and I even squeezed in a dance at the end of the evening. Very nice.

Siam@Siam Hotel

Still sweethearts

We dropped Ted back at the Hard Rock to hang out with his bud that night, and we headed back to keep our Santa vigil.

Dec. 25

Our doorbell rang Christmas morning, and Mick's wife delivered the now traditional "essence of chicken" gift. Mick drove us to Christmas mass, then we swung back around to the Hard Rock to pick Ted up. We didn't meet up as easily as we'd hoped, and Tim wound up grabbing a quick breakfast in the hotel lobby. He was sorely tempted to put the meal on Ted's friend's tab, but didn't; he thought that would be an excellent joke. 555 (Thai version of LOL).

No altar boys today - the kids had school!

We decided to try to squeeze in a visit to the zoo on Christmas day - pretty much everything is opened as usual here. Ted had remembered hearing about the orangutan who would come down from the tree and pose for a picture with visitors, and wanted to see for himself. Mick ran into some car trouble and we didn't get on the road until after two. With the zoo only opened until five, we had to go fairly quickly to see all we could see.

We enjoyed feeding the giraffes and rhinos, seeing the white lion cubs, and checking out the hippos. We pulled up to the orangutan exhibit at 4:30, and the keeper said the exhibit was just closed - argh! So disappointing. This was the thing I most wanted Ted to see - you can actually hold an orangutan there. Still, it was a lovely visit, and a nice drive around the park in our rented golf cart.