Thailand Trip - Met with Few Good People Part2

I took around 10-15 minutes rest after thrilled ride on boat. Meanwhile my friend was enjoying bath in Sea and asked me to join him but i was not interested at all. My head was still spinning and stomach was still aching. Keeping in mind that he does not know the swimming, I was relaxing with open eyes. After some time, i was feeling relaxed. Till this time, my friend was done with his bath and looking for some fun with Water Scooter. I was willing to do anything to make my day and to start with Water Scooter. It seems good idea. We rented 2 Water Scooter in 800BT. They started from 600BT each and finally ended with 400BT per person for half an hour. It was the good deal and we were happy with the initial discussion. We signed the receipt and paid the 800BT. We were ready for fun. When we were riding bike, he took several picture of the bike and that time itself, this question crossed my mind – Why he has taken so may picture? But i never bothered to ask him and started my ride after my friend.

After few minutes, I got the idea to take care of this water scooter in scary Sea. It was Fun and I left the shore too far in few minutes. After few minutes, I realized, my friend is not with me and we were driving in opposite direction. It was very bumpy ride when I fasten the speed and sudden turns pour the water on face and it feels like sizzling rain. I never see a Sea as elegant as in Hong Kong. It’s so calm. Sometimes you need to remind yourself that this is not a lake or river. It’s a Sea. Sometime I am curious and want to read about this. What’s the speciality of this reason which makes this Sea so calm? Is this artificial or natural? Anyway if you have time, please explore some exciting engineering projects of 21^st century which have been successfully launched in Hong Kong.

Let’s stick with the topic. I was thrilled to see and feel the huge amount of water. Big waves were not that scary after spending few more minutes in Sea. Sea shore was so wide and all those locations were looking so similar. Everywhere, there were people and boat. It was so colourful. I was sharing this because I am not able to locate the place where I took my boat. I saw boat guy who was following me.  He accompanied me till shore and then I parked my scooter safely.

As soon as I reached there, I smiled to see my friend because I was expecting the same after this amazing experience. Boat owner came to me and told, your friend damaged my boat and he need to pay. Atmosphere was tensed and I can feel it from seeing my friends face. I walked where my friend was seating and asked him, what happen? He told there is scratch on the water scooter and big boat too while parking the boat and he want to pay 1000BT and settled things as soon as possible. But they want 20,000BT (30,000INR) for Water Scooter and around 35,000BT (52,500INR) for Boat. I have seen my friend’s face and realize situation is as worst as it could be.

First of all, I was interested to know, how much damage happen before proceeding for any negotiation. There was minor scratch on Boat and wound sign on Water Scooter. It was big relief to know that situation is more over given hype by local people than the incident severity. I talked to my friend about the situation and asked him, how much money we can pay to solve this mess? He has shown 1000BT in his violet and asked me, how much you have, there was around 1200BT with me. So rough figure which I got to which we can pay was 2000BT. You can imagine the situation where you need to bargain from 50,000BT to 2000 BT. It was disaster.

Big Fat Guy with Big belly, as ugly as you can imagine. I will never forget his face. He came to me to talk for Water scooter only because he owned the water scooter. This was the very difficult situation to bargain with 2 different people at same time for 2 different damages. I started talking politely as much I can. After few minutes, he told me the last price which was 15,000 for his boat only and then and there I realized, talk is waste of time with these people because they want to make money out of this situation.

I returned to my friend and exchanged information about the negotiation. We agreed on this point that we do not have this much money so we cannot pay this amount. I told him to wait here and I will ask Hotel Management to suggest some solution.

I got the responsibility on my shoulder to call help in terms of anything which can solve this problem and I can pull my friend out of this trouble. I went to nearest Indian restaurant which was owned by Sardarji. I was the unique customer who went their not to order anything but looking for some help. I explained the basic details regarding the situation and asked any suggestion which can help us. He was not amazed to here the situation which was big relief for me. He asked few question and suggested few things like-

Are you holding your passport? I said, yes.

He advised; do not give your passport to any one in any situation. Not even Police. As per the legal norms, you should only handover the passport to Your Embassy. Anyway, this information was not useful in this situation but indeed important and good to know.

He told me to approach the police as this problem is so often these days and local people also try to avoid confrontation with these people regarding these issues. I thanked him and returned to my hotel. I was hopeful to get help from hotel. They were local and these guys obviously will be aware about the situation and with some good acquaintance which might help us.

I talked to Manager and for the first time in the day, I was speaking consistently and tried to explain the problem as detailed as possible. After knowing each and every detailed, he smiled and told me to contact Police. I was not comfortable to contact Police without knowing how local Police will react to this situation. He suggested to contact to Tourist Police first as they are more friendly and there is no harm in doing that. As I was not having local SIM. I borrowed his phone and called Tourist Police. Till this time, I was like recorder which you can play anytime to know the incidents which happen earlier.

I explained the problem again and he asked few questions like-

How much they are asking to pay? I said the amount.

He said, do not pay a single Penny and go to Local Police.

I asked him, is this the good move to go to Police? As I need to leave Pattaya tonight. I might backfire as I can see the situation.

He said Please contact to Captain Rank police there. Do not talk to anyone and go to hire rank officers who can help. I insisted him to come and help me. But very kindly he rejected the offer and expresses his situation and helplessness. He gave me the address of nearest Police station and some motivating word which was required in that situation.

Last Hope was the Police and my steps moved to the Sui 9 which was nearest Police station. I was in the corridor of police station and met few foreigners. I talked to them and they explained as funny as possible their situation, how they got traffic ticket while drink and driving along with wrong turn. I asked him who will be the right point of contact here. They suggested the corner where 2 gentlemen and foreigners obviously were seated in the Police inform. I waited for 2 minutes and got the call to take front seat and explained the situation. They saw each other and exchanged the smile which was very familiar for me till this time. Immediately junior officer came to me with slip and suggested me to go to North Pattaya as water issues are no more taken care by Police in Pattaya. There was address written on Slip – City Hall. I thanked them and moved out of the Police Station. Now question is – how to go to North Pattaya from south Pattaya as possible as I can. Someone suggested me to rent the Bike and they will give you the ride till North Pattaya in 60 BT. It was costly that I can understand. You can rent bike in 200BT for 24 hours and I am paying 60BT for half an hours. I remembered my friend face and the demand for damage. I rented the bike and I was in the City Hall.

Guy, who drove me till City hall, does not know the English. So when we reached their. He shown me the building and from their – I was on my own.

It was difficult to know where to go. Everything was in Thai Language. I saw a lady who was in the uniform and asked her to help me. Anyway she does not understand at all and guided me towards a big hall which ended with the room full of files and few faces. Those couple of eyes were asking so many questions to me. Someone came to me and asked the purpose behind visiting this government office. She understood the situation and called his superior who can speak English better than her. He came and they talked to each other for few minutes. They were looking so positive and their body language reflects that they are interested in solving the problems. Finally I met with a gentleman who was looking around 50year old. He entered the room and everybody shows the respect towards this gentleman. His firms stepped moved towards me and we exchanged the handshake. He was not bothered to seat and asked me basic details regarding the damage. I conveyed the fact and explained again the whole incident. He smiled and told me, not to worry.  He exchanged few words with his sub-ordinates and everybody get back to their seat. I thanked everyone their and followed Mr. Gentleman. He moved towards his big Toyota Car and offered me the Seat. We talked about the current beach issues and traffic Problems in Pattaya. He explained his works and his office works to me. He asked me, how much max I can pay to resolve this situation? I took the money from the Pocket and given the figure which was 3000BT. We reached Pattaya Beach. He walked along with me towards the boat where this incident happened.

I saw, my friend was also walking from the same direction. He told where were you? These guys took me to Police station and threatened me to give to them. But Police denied to take this situation in their hand. This was the same reason which was explained to me earlier that water issues will not be handled by local police anymore. They threatened my friend and said, we will call local Mafia and they know better how to take money from you. All the sudden they saw me with this officer. It was the dramatic change in the situation. Everybody was greeting him and trying to please him. He asked something to them in Thai and they shown the damaged boat to officer. He took some pictures and then he started speaking in Thai. He was speaking for next 5 minutes and everybody was listening around him. They shared few thought with him and suddenly he took few pictures of local Guys. They were pretty scared with this officer. We were silent because the right person was dealing with this matter and he was expert in this. Argument stopped and then silence. He called me when he finished his arguments. He said, 1000BT for boat and 200BT for water scooter. They admitted this offer as politely as they can. We offered the money to them as we won the game. It was big relief….

I can imagine how much relieved my friend will be. We moved toward his Car and he dropped us on our Hotel. I offered him the courtesy drink and he refused very politely. He gave his Card to me and I smiled when I read the card – Chairman of Peace, Pattaya. I thanked this gentleman again and we walked towards Hotel. I took deep breathe and thanked GOD.

Thailand Trip - Met with Few Good People

I was planning to visit Thailand from last one month but Project schedule was not so flexible which facilitate some gap in between for 4-5 days. This causes last minutes ticket booking and hotel reservation. Fortunately we got Chinese festival on Tuesday and I was having one day scheduled compensation leave. I was able to leave Hong Kong on Friday evening by Hong Kong express at 22:10PM and booked returned ticket for Tuesday evening. We reached Bangkok Airport – Swarnbhumi around 00:30 which means flight arrived at right time. We proceeded for immigration. Indian needs On Arrival VISA which requires one photograph and 1000BT. Fill up the form and move to verification counter. One officer will verify your form and then let you go to another counter where your passport will be stamped with arrival date. It was not so lengthy process to get the tourist VISA if you compare with any European countries. So that was the comfortable and easy going part. We were happy to get the VISA. We moved to Baggage counter and collected our luggage. All these formalities took around 2 hour to complete and it was around 2:30AM when we realised that we need to spend few hours on the Air port because first Bus which was scheduled to depart from Thailand Air port to Pattaya was at 7 AM. So I decided to find the place to sleep. After spending few minutes here and there, we were able to find the place to sleep. We were disappointed because we compared the Air port with Hong Kong which is really nice and there are having very nice place for passenger to get some rest. Anyway, I slept for 2 hours and when I woke up, it was around 5:30AM in the morning. I decided to go to washroom and fresh myself. I got the coffee from local store which was again the bad experience but you need something to drink in the morning before you start the day and that should be hot.

Heavy rain started in the evening when we reached to Pattaya. It was Saturday evening. We rented the Bike as soon as we get Pattaya and that was the pretty good decision. We started travelling from Saturday morning and covered few Buddha temples and Jomtien Beach Area which was quiet and beautiful.

It was clean and less crowded. If you will go to Pattaya and want to stay at quiet place, this place would be the good choice. Specially who are going with family and want to make the distance with go-go bar and walking street, please stay here. And those who are interested in Go-Go Bars and Walking Streets Area, Obviously you will stay near to Pattaya Beach. Based on my experience, i will try to add some advice if you are renting room here. Room those are pretty cheap, there are chance that you do not like because of hygiene and the surroundings especially family. If you are bachelor and pretty clear about your intention, please do not go to cheaper price only because you will not be travelling to these places so often and you will not like to ruin your holidays because you are saving few bucks.  I talked to few tourists who shared very horrible experience specially a lady who was travelling with her daughter and her company sponsored her trip. She was pretty upset about the room because she got here and there lipstick mark, dirty and funky odour smell and room was located very near to Go-Go bar which makes things hard for her teenage daughter. It’s always advisable to check room before renting. In case you are trying to make booking online and looking for decent stay, please go for the good brand which might cost 800-900Baht and more. In case of cheaper room, please read the review very carefully. It’s useful. People are so kind these days to share their experience on the blog. I always advise to read few blogs and trip adviser sites before going to any tourist destination. Not only because you will be safe. It will be useful to organize your trip before you reached there. Information and Mental Preparation always helps if things are not moving in the right direction.  

Saturday Evening, around 10PM, i was looking something nice for dinner as we had Sub way in afternoon. I thought to go in that part where we have not covered in the day. I drove 10 minutes and then rain started. There were torrential rains which compelled me to stop. I parked the bike and moved towards a Pull Bar. I was not in the mood to play Pull but there was no other way to keep yourself occupied in the heavy rain. Fortunately I got the company from someone who looks for me as bar staff.  She introduced herself and we started the game. She was playing pretty good and forced me to take interest in the game before i loose. After first game, i realized she is going to cost me a drink. Still It was raining outside so there was no other way to avoid her company. We played 4 game together and score was 2-2.  She insisted me to play other game but till that time, rain was stopped and there was no reason for me to play another game. I went to pay the bill at counter and after some beautiful talk i was able to leave that place.

I started back to the same road to reach Hotel before rain start again. It was 11PM and the road on which i was driving was declared one way after this time. This was disaster for the first day. Thank God there was no police otherwise i should paid some fine for this. I took U turn and tried to take the parallel road which goes to my Hotel. I tried to take every immediate turn but there were jammed everywhere and hell lot of water. Finally got the right road after some short cut and brave but foolish turn. Hotel was hardly 15 min drive from that turn but it’s like heavy rain was waiting for me to come to that road and it’s started again. Fortunately i got the place to eat which was on the main road itself. I stopped and till that time i was soaked. Thanks to Shorts and Slippers. I was not worried much because it was easier to carry these light cloths in the rainy weather. After few minutes, i got some hot drinks and the snacks before my main course arrived. I saw the heavy rain after several months. I always enjoyed the rain and it was pleasant to watch each drop and hear the sound. Specially if you are seating at the nice place where you can feel the rain without getting wet. I finished my dinner as slowly as possible. Enjoying every bit of weather and the food. I finished with my food around 12:45AM  but it was still raining but not with that intensity as before. So i started my bike and reached Hotel. I parked the bike in Hotel Parking and went to room. Till this  time, i was feeling sleepy. Room was so cosy. I went to  bed and slept well.

Sunday, I was so fresh after a very good sleep. I took my breakfast and we planned to roam around in the rain itself.  I started the Bike and turned to main Road.

Trouble-1,

It was so much water that our bike stopped. I thought to take a walk instead of going by Bike. We tried to start the bike but there was no chance.  I parked the Bike and we started roaming by walk in a pretty suitable cloth for rain. We got some crazy people like us. Roaming in the rain and enjoying their stay in Pattaya. Trust me, City was full of water but people enthusiasm and buoyancy  was not stopped for a minute or something which can stopped them to enjoy their trip. I am sure so many people will love to stay in hotel who does not like rain or getting wet.

We stopped to a bar and ordered something to drink so we can chill out. A Lady came and asked my friend , you want to ring a bell and my friend rang the bell. Here You Go –

Trouble-2, Do Not do anything at unknown place which is not causing you a penny.

When we finished the drink, we got to know we are going to pay the bill for all those 2-3 people who were drinking along with us. OOOOOOOOOOOOH – it was too much, that was  my first response and I felt so irritated when heard the logic, If you ring the bell you will pay for everybody.

My friend talked with them politely and finally issue got resolved. I can assure you, those are the nice people on the bar and mostly Ladies no gents otherwise It had gone worst.

We have not returned the bike yet which was supposed to be returned to their owner on time because they took 1000BT as security and the passport photo copy.  It was raining from last 12 hours and there was hell lot of water stored inside the City which was in hurry  to go to Sea and we were walking to the road near to Sea. You will be in Sea in matter of second if you slipped here. I was walking along with Bike using the pedestrian path as much as possible. We realised that shop was quiet far from hotel and we will not be able to took this Bike across the water without denying more disaster. I left the bike there along with my friend and i walked to the Shop to talk to the lady who has rented us the bike. Ladies are doing most of the work in Pattaya as long as there is no trouble. I talked to that lady and tried to explain the situation but she denied to help and send somebody to help us in bringing the bike back to her shop. After 5-10 min talk i realised , Conversation with Lady is waste of time and effort so i left the place without concluding anything.  It was horrible walking across the road which was 20ft wide – full of water and water speed was terrible. I observed few brave heart people were doing this stunt to cross the road in heavy water. I followed one of them and did the same thin. I repeated this 2-3 time while reaching to the Bike where i left with my friend. I got some confidence while reaching to that bike and concluded that we can do this. My friend was terrified to see the amount of water and speed. I insisted him and make him believe that together we can do it. I was laughing while crossing the road in so much water. When we rented the bike, we never thought about this situation. Believe me Guys, one important thing which i missed is to see the weather forecast. We are not used to when we live in  – Hong Kong , Thailand or  India too. It would be useful this time if we have known this fact.  Finally we returned the bike and got 1000BT back but she did not returned the Passport photocopy because she was unable to start the bike. We left the bike and felt big relief while coming back. Pattaya was more beautiful without Bike J.

We went back to Hotel. We have taken Thai Massage which was need and credit goes to Rain and Bike which was followed by Hot Bath and Good Food. It was the right time to spent some time inside the Hotel. We took 2 hours rest and started our journey again in the evening.  Still it was raining. We planned for Parachutes, Jet-skis and speedboats – all water activities are on hold till further notice. It was so disappointing for so many other tourist also who came there to enjoy the water sports.

We booked the famous Alkazar Dance-Musical show of Pattaya which was most popular show in Pattaya. After watching, i realized, there was too much marketing which has given show popularity to this show. Indeed it was good after so many other disappointment but here also, rain was waiting for us.

Finally We went to walking street which is so famous. If you have not visited this place, you are missing something in Pattaya as i heard. So we went there. After spending few hours we came back and have food and sleep with hope for better tomorrow – Sunny please....

Next Story will be on below picture, How Water Scooter touched the three angle and story begins.....