It is a slow morning as we aren’t doing anything ashore but lunch and grocery shopping for snacks. Slept a little late, had leisurely coffee in the room, knowing the tours were leaving early, then hit an almost empty gym.  Pure heaven. Showered had our first Elite Plus breakfast in Tuscan Grill.  Choice of plates;, fruit, cheese etc.  We ended up sharing a Supreme plate, which was a combo of all.  Oh, way too much food!  But very good.  At least there was a ton of fruit, and smoked salmon.

Even after a late breakfast, we still had time to waste before going ashore, so we went to Café al Bacio for coffee.  Nice, we actually got a window table there too – which last cruise were impossible to get, but 3 out of 4 others there were sick as dogs. Hacking up a lung or sneezing and sniffling.  Ugh. Back to the safety of the cabin quick!

Finally on the tender around 10:45, we landed ashore and began to wander the main waterfront drag in Pa Tong. We had originally planned to take a taxi to Karon, the next beach around the coast – because our guide last time pointed out it was quieter than Pa Tong. Figuring that was more our speed, and we just wanted a decent Thai seafood lunch, we started doing some research and found that it is a big Russian enclave.  Well, you know our feelings about that! Plans changed quickly and we decided to just stay in Pa Tong and find a restaurant there – as there is no lack of choice, that’s for certain.

We ended up choosing Patong Seafood, which didn’t open until noon, meaning we still had more time to kill.  Not really the best scenario for the location – there isn’t really much more than resorts and restaurants and tour hawkers on the main street where we meandered.  It was crowded and filled with fat wandering tourists and scantily clad bikini girls – some who should have been wearing bikinis, many who shouldn’t have been.

Finally stumbling upon a market area, we veered off the main street perusing all the typical souvenirs with Pa Tong prices (meaning far more pricey than Chiang Mai or Bangkok prices).  The elephant pants were 250B! We buy them for 100B in Chiang Mai all the time.  Sigh. We expected this, but still. We did manage to find a sweet little coffee place that had air conditioning, where we literally cooled our heels, wasting time until a little before noon.

Walked back to Patong Seafood at the appointed time, but they were still not open. Getting ready, but not there yet. The staff were at the back having their staff meal, none of the tables are really set yet, and they don’t have their menu posted out front.  It is a huge open palapa dining area, we can watch everything going on and since we are tired of fighting the crowds in the streets, we just hang out in the shade at the front if the palapa dining area, watching the taxi drivers avoid fares (seriously, they were too happy sitting in the shade and smoking) and examining the crab that are out front in the huge restaurant tanks.

Eventually a waiter comes over and seats us at a table in front of the fans.  Thank you sweet man!  Jam, was his name, and he was great. Said he saw us out there waiting and decided to come get us! After ordering our beer and wine, we told him we wanted charcoal grilled fish – but they just opened and the charcoal wasn’t ready (sounds familiar! Just like Singapore!) Except this time, Jam just says it isn’t available.  Ok, onto our next choice: fried fish and garlic (at Jam’s suggestion) and fried squid with garlic (good for the digestion Jam tells us).  He talks us into mixed vegetables – what the hell. We need veggies!  While totally expensive (remember it’s Pa Tong!!!), it was all excellent and totally worth it. Jam became our personal server too, coming over to put pieces of fish on our plate and dish out veggies when he saw we finished what was on our plate. He was the best!  Then when it was time to pay the bill, he basically held us hostage until we did a Google review!  We didn’t have a problem with that – all was fabulous and we put that in our review! 

While we were sitting there waiting for our food, we hear this loud electric beat music and look out into the street to watch 2 huge tour buses coming by.  The first one is all men who are partying, dancing to the music in their seats, hanging out the open windows, having a grand old time.  In the 2^nd bus, it is all women in scarfs, clearly Muslim, no music, no nothing, just open windows and women covering their eyes or mouths with their hands. Clearly together- but so fucked up!  I mean honestly!  That is a category of so fucked up all on its own.

Anyhow, lunch is now handled, we’re off to the grocery store, traversing down Bangla road – the famous crazy bar/red-light/lady boy street. Ay yi yi!  This is everything we hate about Thailand and tourism all rolled up into one package! Eek!  None of the culture, sweetness or deep traditions here. Just the “naughty” side of things as our guide from the other day said.

Finally through the mess and into the grocery store, we buy enough crap to spend all our remaining Baht (including more chocolate for our “friend” Maja!) and make the slog back to the tender. Ugh. Definitely not our kind of place. Give us Chiang Mai any day over this. Again, though, not unexpected.  We made the most of it, did what we wanted, and now can wave goodbye in about 5 hours.

Back aboard we hit the gym again, stock up our beer and wine reserves for our evening and stay in the cabin the rest of the afternoon until dinner. Then pre-dinner drinks on the balcony listening to Kristine, the awesome solo singer, playing up at sunset bar.

Same as last night, fantastic way to avoid the crowds and still hear music!  Onto dinner, then no show again tonight, as it’s the Strings again, so balcony (with the breeze, it is lovely sitting out there) and 6 Feet Under.