Pattaya

           About a week ago I went on a trip with Rotary to a city with the name of Pattaya. Now if you look it up on google images the first things you will see are a bunch of half naked women and bars, but that is NOT the reason Rotary took us there. The main purpose of the trip was for our group of Exchange Students to continue their efforts with raising money for the flooding relief in Bangkok. Now, granted, we did get some free time, so it wasn't all work and no play.

    First off the two other Exchange Students from my Rotary club and I decided not to go straight to Pattaya. Instead we headed to Kohn Kean, another city of Thailand, and joined the Exchange Students there in practicing for a performance for the fundraising. It was an interesting start to our trip, but it was very entertaining seeing as we got to be with so many other Exchange Students. The next day we woke up, got into two different buses and headed off to Pattaya.

Our bus consisted of a bunch of guys: (from back to front) Emiliano (American), Diego (American), Raul (Mexican),  Me (American, lol), Joao (Brazilian), Alejandro (Mexican).

    When we got there we went through some Rotary stuff, but then we found out that the evening was ours to do whatever we wanted. To give you an idea, Pattaya has a beach(!), Subway (hard to find here), and out hotel had its own pool. So as you could imagine we were overjoyed. That evening I headed to the beach for some salty fun. We decided public transportation was too expensive so we walked...

(from back to front) Ken(Japanese), Victoria(Canadian), Clarissa(American), Kayla(American) 

The street was quite interesting actually. The white slopy things you see are actually benches!

   This event seemed to be less stressful than usual Rotary gatherings, because the next day we were allowed to sleep in. Once we woke up we ate breakfast and headed for the road (walking not driving) and began our own parade to try and raise money along the streets.

Some of the outbounds and I even stopped at some businesses along the way, hoping they would give. 

In action, holding the box high, and asking random foreigners for money.

    At the end of our personal parade we came to a stage, and found out it was time to present what we had been practicing in Kohn Kean: our dances. I'd have to say it was actually pretty fun, and we raised over 50,000 baht! (Now you can convert that to your own currency, but I think it sounds more impressive in baht.)

The Americans did the Cha Cha Slide, and well anyone else who thought they could do it joined as well. 

The Brazilians amazed us all with the native dancing, but in the end they couldn't resist asking others join them.

This was interesting dance, (if i remember correctly: The Tango). It was well done, and the audience really enjoyed it.

  After we got another few hours of free time, and the same outbounds I was walking with in the parade pulled me along for another excursion to the beach. I was completely unready for it, but I went anyway and had a great time.

The outbounds convinced the Japanese student, Ken, to let them cover him with sand... 

The group of Thais, plus a Japanese and an American... Hmmm..  Can you guess which one is me???

   At dinner we found out we were presenting the same show as we had earlier that day, but this time it was for a bunch of Rotarians. And also this time we added the traditional Thai dance, which I'm proud to say I got to take part in.

Traditional wear for a Thai dance. (And no we didn't get to keep the outfits, but I did ask for one for Christmas and might just get it.) 

The full group plus a few extras.

    The last day I woke up early and, with a few others, went out to view a temple. But this temple was on the beach, and to get to it we got a free ride in a horse in buggy (in Thailand!).

It was a small buggy, so we put the fourth guy (who took the photo) next to the driver. 

To get any closer we had to pay an extreme amount of money, so we settled for this. I think it turned out all right.

   That evening we spent another night in Kohn Kean, but we were so tired that we didn't do anything. The next day I basically woke, got into my host dad's car, and headed back to Udon Thani.