Day 6 - The REAL Patong Beach

Today was pretty mellow. Woke up and headed out to grab breakfast. Thai people don't really do breakfast in the traditional sense, so it's actually kind of hard to find in the mornings, especially considering that I wake up fairly early and this is a late-rising party town.

I took a stroll up and down the beach and wandered a bit further into town, after finding a croissant. I love watching the locals in their daily routines: riding their scooters and honking or walking by and bowing in front of the shrines on their way to work, arranging the goods as they open up their storefronts, buying fruit from the carts that make their way up and down the street, etc.

My afternoon consisted of a fish pedicure, some fantastic Pad Thai at a beach bar, and hanging out with a bunch of expats (an Arizonan, Aussies, and a Brit).

The fish pedicure was terribly ticklish. Every time someone walked past, the fish would scatter, and when they'd come back to my feet, it was pure torture! Such a strange sensation! While I'm glad I tried it purely out of curiosity, I don't really believe the fish nibbling for 10 minutes accomplishes much. Definitely more of a novelty, but it was worth the few bucks to try it out. :)

Lunchtime was a little interesting. I was eating my lunch at a beach bar, and a group of 4 middle aged folks invited me to slide around the bar, sit with them and hang out. We went through all the typical "where are you from", "what do you do".... Well, apparently one of the gentlemen was an unlicensed realtor of sorts, and brokered the sale of a bar to the Aussie couple. They proceeded to tell me about the "working" girls they are hiring for their new bar, but assure me that it's common here, sex means nothing to the girls, and that 90% of the girls that work in the bars in this area are "for sale". They are very clearly attempting to justify their social disrgraces by believing that because the girls don't appear to place any value on themselves or their own bodies, that it's a fine business to be in, and if the girls don't care, they shouldn't. I can bet that if these girls had the option to make the same amount of money to take care of their families in any legitimate way, that they would all gladly walk away. It was really quite disturbing how complacent they all were, to the point where they were talking about the girls as if they were commodities. In fact, the woman (normal looking, 50's -ish) was even snickering about being a Madame. While disturbing, I really am fascinated by social classes, the underworld, and such, for no other reason than it being another slice of life. Life isn't all sunshine and rainbows, and understanding why people do what they do, the psychology behind a persons decisions or lifestyle choices is important, as it breeds compassion. With that being said, when they set up a line of coke for me, I excused myself and called it a day. Lol