Andrea's Visit: Pattaya

January 18, 2019

Andrea's Visit: Pattaya

Andrea and I went on one final adventure before she headed back to the states. We hopped on an overnight bus and spent a long weekend on the beach side city of Pattaya. In Pattaya we attended a spa with elephants, ate amazing food, spent a day on an island, and hugged baby pigs.

Elephant Sanctuary

Elephants are the state animal of Thailand; there are elephant motifs and statues everywhere. These beautiful creatures have been used for hundreds of years as war animals and dependable work animals, much like horses in the United States. There are hundreds of famous folktales and stories involving heroic and sacred elephants. Their role shifted when logging became illegal in the 1980s, and over 70% of domesticated elephants "lost their jobs." Owners had to turn to the already flooded tourism market to make money to care for the elephants, lowering the elephants' status and standard of living.

Thailand is home to the Indian Elephant, a subspecies of the Asian Elephant. There are a variety of ways to see an elephant in Thailand, watch a live Thai Lacorn (re-enactment show), go to a zoo, go to a circus, go to a sanctuary, or if you're lucky (or unlucky) catch one in the wild. These beautiful and intelligent creatures are endangered due to diminished forestland, and as a vegetarian I want to do my best to respect them. Therefore, I recommend visiting an Elephant Sanctuary, where the mahouts (elephant wranglers) don't use pointed sticks, riding elephants is not allowed, and the health and wellness of the elephant is priority.

Andrea and I visited the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary in Pattaya. Here the elephants decide how much they want to eat, how far they want to walk, and how long they want to swim. The mahouts had a friendly relationship with the elephants, none of them carried sticks, and seemed to interact with them as you would with a beloved family dog.

We first learned to feed the elephants, either handing bananas to their trunks or dropping watermelon directly into their mouths! Then we took the elephants on a walk, using bananas as "gasoline."

The best part however, was the elephant spa, when we got to give the elephants a mud bath by smearing clay over their bodies, then helping scrub them off.

10/10 recommend Elephant Jungle Sanctuary if you go to Thailand. They have locations in Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Phuket, and Koh Samui. Tourists visiting means that more domesticated elephants can be purchased from the circus and other less-humane institutions, and be lovingly cared for.

The Sky Gallery Restaurant

My boyfriend, Tor (pronounced Thor), was really helpful in planning the logistics of our trip to Pattaya, and met up with us after the elephant sanctuary. Tor said that his aunt has a restaurant in Pattaya he would take us to. I was quite excited to meet some of his family; I pictured meeting her in an apron behind a cookstand while she was preparing Thai dtam sang - made to order food. We would sit around a table on some plastic chairs, shaded from the sun by tarps strung up above. We would fill our water glasses from a cooler in the corner while we waited for food, and she would briefly join us between orders from other customers. I would work hard in these moments, using my Thai and speaking above the traffic to ask her what Tor was like as a child and learn some new stuff to pick on him about.

While Aunt Tai was very willing to help me pick on Tor, everything else I had pictured was completely wrong. She did not own a basic made-to-order-Thai restaurant squeezed into a nook just off the street. She managed The Sky Gallery, a high-society beachside restaurant. I met her in a smart blue cocktail dress behind the host podium. She walked us to the best table in the house and removed the reserved sign. She sat down with us in over-stuffed cushioned benches. She told the waiter to bring us waters and began to talk to Andrea in English. I overheard waiter order our waters on his headpiece while we gazed over the cliff to the uninterrupted view of the sunset over the ocean.

We enjoyed some amazing cocktails and Thai food and spoke a blend of Thai and English. Aunt Tai told me when Tor was young he hated it when she came to visit because she was the only one who would yell at him when he was naughty. She said would yell at him whenever I needed her to. At the end of our meal, Tor, Andrea, and I walked down to the beach and dipped our toes in the water. Then we piled into Aunt Tai's car and drove back to our hotel.

I'm a little embarrassed that I imagined Aunt Tai's restaurant as a basic and common dtam sang place (which I love), and did not entertain the possibility that she worked in a fancy place. Even after Tor showed me pictures of the restaurant, I assumed that The Sky Gallery was a separate place he wanted to take us to and not his Aunt's place. Even after living in Thailand for a year I still hold onto stereotypes and have to work to recognize my biases.

Koh Lan

Koh Lan is one of the islands off the coast of Pattaya. Getting to the island was quite easy, especially with Tor as a guide. We took a songtaew to the South Pattaya pier where we behaved like tourists a took a picture with the Pattaya sign.

Yes we are wearing the same shirt. Andrea says it's cheesy, but in Thailand it's a very popular thing for couples or families to do when they travel.

Ferries from the mainland to Koh Lan run all day, so we paid our thirty baht and hopped on. The three of us were among the five percent of passengers who weren't Chinese. Once we got on the island, we were bombarded by men in vests with catalogs trying to get us to rent a motorcycle, speedboat, or sell us on one of the many other experiences on the island. One of the major selling points was,

"This beach has so many Chinese tourists. You need to rent a motorcycle to so can go to one of the other beaches without Chinese!"

Thai people tend to view Chinese people as loud and dirty. While problematic, I found myself relieved that Americans have moved down to number 2 in the ranking for loudest tourists.

We did tour the island looking for a beach with less people, hoping to find our own square of sand to sunbathe from.

The drinking age in Thailand is 18, a law Andrea was hoping to take advantage of before returning to the states where drinking for her is illegal for another two years. We walked up the beach and found her a pineapple filled with her first Mai thai.

Before leaving the island, Andrea wanted to go parasailing for the first time. Tor and I found a man with a vest and catalog and began to ask questions. The said that it was 700 baht, we would have to go to another beach. We followed a man in a motorcycle to a dirt road and crumbling concrete steps down to the beach. A choppy ride in a matchbox boat took us to a raft in the middle of the bay. Andrea instructed me to tell the driver to go easy on her and not drive her into the water. But in the moments Andrea was strapped into a harness on the raft, the boat had pulled away to the front of the raft. I complained to Tor that I hadn't gotten a chance to talk to the drive and rummaged through my bag for my phone. Before I realized it Andrea was already high in the sky, and I missed it! I was overcome by feelings of momma bear worry and began to tear up.

Andrea was too busy having the time of her life.

Pattaya Sheep Farm

In high school, for three years in a row, I only asked for one of two things for my birthday or for Christmas. An electric piano (which really would benefit the whole family because I could wear headphones and they would never have to hear me again), or a sheep. I didn't want both (ok maybe I did), but asked for just one of the two. And never got either. I know. Cry me a river. But I would have made a fantastic sheep momma. And it's not like we didn't have the space or buildings to house a sheep.

Needless to say, I was ecstatic when rolled up to a sheep farm. Tor's friend Man and his girlfriend Bow picked us up at the hotel to take us to a winery. The winery was a let down. It was more of a place to take cute pictures, and there wasn't even wine to taste! But we passed a sign for a sheep farm, and the day instantly got better.

Sort of a theme park with animals, the Pattaya Sheep Farm had different themed buildings and animal character statuettes to take pictures with, as well as a variety of animals. You could buy veggies to feed the sheep, goats, piglets, bunnies, birds, as well as the cow. Andrea and I felt right at home feeding the cow.

Back to Airport

And just like that, it was time to send Andrea to the airport, to catch a plane back to Wisconsin. I was sad to send her off. It has truly been a pleasure hosting her these last two weeks. I haven't lived at home or spent an extended amount of time with Andrea in five years. She is certainly not the same fourteen-year-old girl I remember. I was thoroughly impressed by her maturity, talent, and hard work.

Andrea thoughtfully and carefully crafted lesson plans, and enthusiastically presented them to over 250 of my students. I watched her prepare a children's yoga lesson an hour before class when plans changed last minute (as they often do in Thailand). My students instantly fell in love with her and continue to ask when she is coming back.

Andrea was deeply respectful of and eager to learn Thai culture. She asked questions I had never thought of; "why do you put baby powder on children's faces?" (we still don't know the answer). She patiently listened to me lecturing on "riap roy" (appropriate) school attire and how to show respect to elders. By the end of her two weeks she managed to pick up a ton of Thai; Andrea can respond to "how is the food?" in Thai and Lao (a language spoken by about a third of the people in my community), as well as several pleasantries. She could also tell when I was talking about her. lol

I was honestly worried about spending two weeks with Andrea, you know how the ones you love can sometimes drive you up a wall if you spend too much time together. I thought we would be frustrated with each other by the end of her trip. But she surprised me; respecting and following my rather persnickety house rules and having a chill anything-goes attitude when things didn't quite go to plan. She treated me by making breakfast every morning (a meal I usually skip in favor of 10 more minutes in bed), helped keep my house clean, and encouraged me to enjoy early morning yoga. Life was easier with her here.

I'm going to miss the time we spent together reconnecting and going on adventures. Andrea, I am truly luck to have you as a sister, and more importantly, a friend. You are going to be an excellent Physical Education teacher someday, and are already a fabulous role model. Thank you for coming to visit me, see you next time ❤