Sea-Hawks

1st Day Udon Thani (Day #5 Mini- trip) My Grab Taxi driver was bombing down the freeway as we left Khon Kaen. The app said it would take 2hours 3 min. to get to my hotel - @ Home at Udon Thani....we pulled up to the hotel in 90 mins!!!Checked in and got squared away in the room. Hotel is not too bad....although going up and down 3 flights of stairs may get old fairly quickly. I can’t believe how close the hotel is to all the action!Decided to walk around near the hotel, walked to UD Town shopping area and walked passed Bar’ista Brasserie. Lots of great little open markets and food stalls all over town, plan on eatting a lot of meals around town. Stopped by what was essentially a .99 cent store, a Don Kohote etc.... and bought a couple needed items - storage container #29 baht and scissors #25 baht. Saw a little fruit smoothie stand.....I attached a pic with the 2 girls who worked theres. I know you can’t really tell, but the girl on the left was so cute, I went and bought a fruit plended drink from her. #35 baht and it was excellent! A bit warm today but enjoyed the walk around UT. There was nice little breeze that started around 4pm and made my way back to the hotel to rest up before going out tonight. Sent from my iPhone

....ok, once I return from Issan, I’ll stop by the bar to pick up my shirts. Btw Phil, you being an avid golf fan, why no golf shirt versions?

Day #4 Khon Kaen to Udon ThaniWoke up next to a sweet Thai girl next to me. No time for messing around. I quietly head to the bathroom for a shower. When I step out my girl is starting to stir and asks me if I want to mess around....I say I have to get ready to check out and head to Udon Thani. She starts to get outta bed and I gentle push her back onto the bed, she laughs and I say I change my mind...I tell her 5 minutes....she says how about 1 hour....she notices I am getting aroused and laughs. I get off her and tell her not have time to mess around, give her a wink and get back to the task of packing last minute items into my suitcases. After I finish, we chat on the bed for a few minutes and I send her out first. Very much enjoyed my time with her. Much more relaxing and enjoyable with girls up here in Issan. I gather up my things and use the Grab Taxi App from my phone and book a ride from KK to UT. It arrives in only 1 minute. I am loaded-up and heading to Udon Thani.- side note - When I arrived 2 weeks ago to Pattaya, it felt like the quietest October I can remember. Same thing here in KK. I chatted with a few falong the past few days and they all say it’s been a bit quieter than in the past. Since I have now left KK, I will add those cheat sheets from other board members down below. I’m not gonna sort through them, will just “re-post” all that I have. And as I said before, if the original poster doesn’t want me to re-post their prior notes, message me and I will delete, regardless, a BIG Thank You to those original posters with the helpful notes!!!

- continue - (Evening) Day #3. Khon Kaen After my quick nap, shower and shave and head over to Pomodoro Restaurant. As I approached the restaurant a girl asks me if I want to sit inside or outside, I chose to sit inside and away from all those dam mosquitoes. There are 3 Thai gals working. One is a bit chubby, another is just ok, and my gal, who ends up being my server/waitress is kinda cute and really sweet. After she takes my drink order, she comes to chit chat and help me with the menu. The menu is quite large and she helps me order a couple of pasta dishes. One is a red sauce dish, seafood pasta. The other dish that was recommended, was a mushroom cream sauce dish with prawns, made with fresh handmade pasta. Both dishes are excellent, but that fresh pasta with cream sauce was the bomb!!! I chitchat with the cute server a bit and we seem to get along quite nicely. If this wasn’t my last night, I would’ve looked more into the possibilities 😉 I square up my bill, leave a very healthy tip and head out. My service girl smiles and says to please come back again. I attached the bill from Pomodoro Restaurant- it has the item numbers on my bill. That cream sauce dish was item #112, but remember, only certain dishes each evening has the fresh handmade pasta, so inquire before ordering. A huge difference between the pre-made noodles and the fresh made pasta! I leave the restaurant and walk around the corner to Eric’s Bar. My girl, from the 1st night comes right up to me and we grab a drink. I tell her I don’t want to stay long and need to get back to the hotel room to pack and clean-up a bit. After our drinks, I settle the bill and head out, back to the hotel with my girl in-tow. We both shower and have a very long enjoyable session and somehow I fall asleep.... I wake up a bit and see my girl cleaning up the room and tidying up the the disaster I made in the room the past few days. I mumble to her about not have to clean-up and just relax and she comes back to bed to cozy up to me. We both fall asleep. What a memorable day and great few days here in KK....isn’t life Great!!!

- continue - Day #3. Khon Kaen Just as I was finishing up my shower, got a text message from the girl on the first night asking me to stop at the mall and have a drink at her place of work/coffee shop . I text back ok. I left the Kosa and got on my motor bike rental and headed to Central Mall. Roads were fairly busy and once I began approaching the mall, it was quite busy. I forgot today was Saturday....funny how when you’re out and about in another country how you tend to forget the days of the week. Found a spot close to all the food tents outside as someone else was just leaving. Found out from my girl who works daytime at the mall that these food tents out in front, show up from time to time and usually last 10-14 days at a time. Btw, the food tents here are falong friendly, lol. Many of them are not simple Issan thai food stalls, but actually tasty yummy eats, many geared towards falong type eats. Made my way up to the fourth floor and met up with my girl. I ordered a watermelon and japanese pear/apple drink. Both were great, but that Japanese pear drink was one of the best drinks ever!!! Sat down and chitchatted with my girl for over an hour and agreed to meet up with her at Eric’s bar late in the evening. I stood up to head outta the mall and my girl was headed to go grab some food. I had some money folded-up and put it in her hand.....she looked at it and kept only #100 baht and handed the rest back to me, stating her food only cost #100 baht, giving me a smile. I made my way back to Kosa, but chose to stop a bit short at my motorbike rental place. Decided it was best to return the motorbike now, so wouldn’t have to mess with it in the morning the next day. Quickly returned the bike and began walking towards the Kosa Hotel. As I was walking back, came across a homeless guy wearing no shoes, very dirty and damaged feet. He was selling handmade grasshopper and goldfish on a stick. He said #50 baht. I pointed to all 3 and handed him #200 baht. These will make great stocking stuffers for family back home. Now, from time to time, I come across these homeless guys selling these cool hand made items. One time, a guy made these peacocks out of empty thai beer cans, another time I got spinning wind chimes outta thai beer cans and another time I got bamboo straw animal figurines. I always luv buying these cool hand made things from the homeless guys. They are cheap, cool and make really awesome gifts for friends and family back home. My Uncle will get one of them for Christmas. He had been a civil engineer with the US Army over 50 years ago, when he help build the many bridges and roads in Thailand. There’s been a few times during family get togethers, when my uncle has had one too many, he’ll sit and chat with me off in the corner and he’ll tell me how much he enjoyed his time in Thailand many many years ago. He told me in the past, he met a couple of different Thai gals back in those days and could have easily stayed and married one of them. We’ll sit off in the corner and I’ll fill him in on my recent Thai holiday escapades and I can see how interested and excited he gets hearing about my travels in Thailand. He is pretty much the only family person back home I ever discuss what I do in Thailand. Once back in the room, I shower and take a quick nap.... Sent from my iPhone

Day #3. Khon Kaen So did a little bit of computer work in the room this morning and then decided to go get an oil massage before lunch. - Now to clarify a bit, In between the Kosa hotel and Pullman hotel are two parallel soi roads. If you are standing at Eric’s beer bar with your back to the bar, then the Kosa hotel is to your left and Pullman hotel is to your right. In-between the two hotels are both the parallel soi roads. The soi road on the right/closest to the Pullman is a strip of stores. The Pomodoro Italian Restaurant is on the left and a bit further down is U Bar/Club. The soi road on the left/closest to the Kosa hotel is a strip of stores and a couple of massage shops to the left and 1 massage shop to the right. The massage shop on the right was the best looking set-up and the girl working here was nicely dressed in a thai style dress. If you want a nice proper massage I think this is the one for you. Now, for me on the other hand, I was hoping for possible extras, so my choices were better off from the simple set-up massage shops on the left side of the road. I went to the 2nd massage shop on the left as the girl waiting up front was a bit cuter. I went in for a 1 hour oil massage for #400 baht. It was a good oil massage and every so often my girl’s hand was brushing against my private areas. She asked me if I want HJ and we agreed on #700 baht. I won’t get into details but it was a nice finish to conclude my oil massage. If I come back to KK, I will be coming back there. After the massage, went back to the hotel to shower off the oil and then headed out on my motorbike to explore around the city. Today was bloody hot and getting hotter by the minute....a huge difference from yesterday. I spent about 2 hours driving around the city and came across a parade close to my hotel as I approached on my return back to the hotel.

I saw a computer/electronics store and stopped to take a look inside. I bought a cute small portable fan as a gift for my mom and bought a USB C to HDMI cable. Both items were dirt cheap. I saw a sign at an S&P restaurant for buy 1, get 1 free drink on Friday’s sign, so stopped in for a drink. This would get me a chance to reply back to the many girls from Pattaya that have been blowing up/sending me messages asking when I would be returning back to Patts. I know from past experience that once I send out a reply, some of them would try to video call me….so stopping for a drink would allow me to take those video calls. I had just spend 11 days in Pattaya to start my trip. Most of those days were spent visiting girls I already knew in Pattaya. One of the many problems I made for myself was to get hooked-up with gogo girls that were 8/9/10’s. A lot of drama always follows as many of you already know. I had Tiger shoes for one girl who wanted a specific shoe from Japan. Another girl wanted Hello kitty stuff, another girl wanted high priced perfume etc….. I also had spent a few evenings/dinners with girls who wanted to eat only at expensive restaurants so they could order lobster, seafood, order expensive wine and the chance to post pictures on, line app, to their facebook/Instagram accts how hiso they were. I use to not mind taking girls out to eat or an evening out….but watching them constantly taking photos in order to post their night-out along with order expensive shit they don’t really have any intension of finishing or even liking gets a bit old these days. I was thinking on the trip to KK, that once I return to Patts that I’m gonna cut out these type of night outs. I personally have started not enjoying those type of night outs, spending and wasting a bunch of money and really the girls….no matter how hot they are, were more of a headache. After spending couple nights here in KK with local girls who weren’t always on their phones, didn’t want much from me and were so appreciative of just getting a lady drink….I think I will change-up my mongering style once I return to Patts. Started to misty rain in the late afternoon and made my way over to Central Mall. They have a bunch of cool food tents out front along with a band playing off on the side. I walked around snacking on a bunch of random stuff…very tasty and cheap. After the visit to Central Mall made my way back to the strip of beer bars in front of the Pullman hotel and had a drink at 3 of them. I always called over a girl I liked and sat with them and chit chatted away a couple of hours. The girls who work the beer bars here in Khon Kaen are simple, nice and always very appreciative of getting a drink. I think a lot of the local falang customers who frequent these type of establishments don’t actually always buy their girl who sits with them a drink. The girls who work these bars aren’t hardened like the ones back in Patts….very nice change of pace. I could have easily barfined any of the girls who sat with me and called it a night but I wanted to check out the Friday night scene at a couple of the clubs/music venues. There a few of these clubs and music venues scattered all along the Pullman, Kosa and Glacier hotel. A bunch of them are really nice looking and looks like a great spots to relax and have a drink. Now, it’s been misty raining here since the afternoon and it would continue throughout the night. I headed first to the Der La Jazz outdoor bar. Very nice and great vibe there. Pretty much everyone there were local thais. A lot of couples not much way of local girls looking for a guy to attach themselves to. I had a couple of drinks and listened to the music. It was a very nice place…maybe better the next time I return to actually just bring a girl with me. Just past the Italian Restaurant – Pomodoro is a place called Time90. A covered outdoor music bar. I sat down and ordered a drink. Not many people there, but the vibe was really cool and the Thai guy singer was really good. Not sure if it was the rain or what, but a lot of cool places around my hotel, but most places were less than 1/3 full. Not much in the way of meeting up with any local girls. I made my way to the Pullman hotel, walked through the lobby area and to the back section of elevators. The first set, goes downstairs to the Beer Hall Restaurant and club and the further back bank of elevators goes to the hotel rooms. I took the ride down to the “LG” level. The Beer Hall restaurant was absolutely dead…only 1 group of 5 people there and the club next door was closed and dark inside. I could see the decorations out in front of the main doors, but it seems the club is either now closed or just not open today…on a Friday??? I took a photo of the sign outside…but all in Thai…maybe explains if this club is now closed for good or just this weekend. So struck-out at the Pullman…. Headed over to the U-Bar. No cover, so just walked in around midnight. The place was 70% empty. Everyone there were local Thais. Mostly couples with 2 separate large groups. I ordered a drink and enjoyed the band play. My drink cost #160 baht and came in a decent size glass. I ordered a whiskey coke. I was given a black label/coke and it was a super stiff drink…mostly all whiskey with just a splash of coke. As I was drinking my drink, I saw two separate pairs of young Thai girls walk in and sit themselves close to the band. All four girls were nicely dressed, but none of them were looking to talk to the single Thai guys in the club. A couple Thai guys went over to talk to the girls but within a couple minutes they always scooted back to their own table. I finished my drink and headed back to Eric’s bar. The place had to be the busiest place by the hotel. About 25 people in total. The girl I had the night before was gone, so I made eye contact with a younger girl but not as cute as the girl from last night. I bought her a drink and she was delighted and sat with me for an hour as we chit chatted about random things. She asked me if I wanted her to go with my back to my hotel. I asked her how much and she says “whatever you want to pay” I asked her if #1,500 LT ok and she smiled and said ok. So paid the bill and we went back to the room. She showered first and then I went into the shower. There was water everywhere, lol. On the floor, on the countertops. I always wonder when I see this, what in the world are some of the girls in the bathroom doing??? Spent a memorable couple of hours messing around with the girl and we both fell asleep on the large king size bed. I woke up around 6am and my girl was still fast asleep so just checked messages on my phone and replied to line, viber and messenger messages. My girl wakes up and I move closer to her and she comes right over to me. We have another great session and I tell her I have to shower and get ready for some work calls and she gets up and ready to leave. I give her #2,000 baht for a lovely evening/morning and she is super happy with the money I give her. Now that I have barfined two different girls from Eric’s bar…not sure how things will go if I head back to the bar tonight (Saturday night, my last night in Khon Kean)….I guess we’ll find out later tonight.

I was hungry so decided to make the 3.7 mile trek to Vacca Italian Restaurant. It was a very cool morning and it was a very enjoyable ride through the city of Khon Kaen and before arriving to Vacca, I passed a number of large dinosaur statues around the city…..anybody know why there’s a bunch of dinosaur displays around the city of KK? Arrived at Vacca and parked my motorbike in the back parking lot. It seems that this is some sort of complex that had a few other shops/venues. Walked into the place and was greeted very warmly by two thai gals who sat me. Very nice inside. I noticed the sign out front advertising – buy 1 pizza get 1 free – Monday thru Sunday 11am-5pm. I ordered a mango juice and a couple of pizzas. My pizza was great, but only ate ½ of one and ¾ of the other one. I really didn’t need both pizzas…I should have had them make me just one….. After eating and settling the bill, I took off on the motorbike and drove all around the city. I came across one of the many Khon Kaen Universities around town and stopped to have a walk around one of the campuses….very nice and, yes, the school girls walking around…many of them quite cute. I came across a small homie coffee shop and stopped to have an ice coffee for about 45 baht. I saw a SCB branch and stopped to make a deposit. I used the self-service machine, but still charged me 51 baht just to deposit money into my own accts….gotta luv those banking fees here in Thailand. “Anybody know if there is a way to avoid, or get these type of fees waived??? I keep a decent amount of funds in my acct. (if I was back at home these type of fees considering the amount of cash I keep in my accts, I would get my fees waived) .and feel that I shouldn’t have to pay these types of fees even in Thailand.

Day #2 Khon Kaen Woke up around 3am and made a couple work calls back home and checked both work acct. emails. This having to carry around 2 secure labtops everywhere I go is such a hassle and on top of that having to log-in etc…..takes times. Along with the personal labtop, I am traveling with 3 labtops which makes it bothersome anywhere I travel….but I can travel & work remotely which is a nice option to have….which I guess most people would luv to have my kinda problem….so I should stop bitching and complaining, lol. It was a quick morning - work check. I was done with the emails and had 1 quick assignment completed, I was done in about 90 minutes. There are a number of nice things about staying at the Kosa, but two nice things about the rooms themselves, the King size bed and having a shower tub. Both of the places I currently own don’t have a tub, just really nice walk-in showers. Although I installed these really fancy shower heads and features along with small enclosed pockets to be able to prop-up my phone so I can watch videos while I shower or turn on my portable blue tooth speaker in the shower…..I do miss a relaxing bath. I hopped into the tub and just relaxed for an hour while ….very nice!!! Once done, I gathered a few things, as I have a couple errands to run today. The first stop was at the motorbike rental place in the strip of shops right in front of the Pullman Hotel. www.topcarrents.com email: [email protected] 081-320-4348 or 089-711-2829 I had my passport with me, paid #600 baht for the 2 days along with a #1,000 deposit. Quick and easy and I was driving down the road. (Photos down below) My first stop was the post office about 2 blocks away. I had a few thai holiday cards I wanted to send out and felt more comfortable sending them from either BKK or somewhere in Issan vs. from Pattaya, lol. Walked in and not a single person there, how awesome was that. I walked up to the window, but the thai guy pointed to the self service ticket number machine…..so went to the machine, pushed the button for a ticket number….the guy pushed the bell for my number and then walked to the window….lol. I was in and out in matter of minutes.

Yes Vacca, looks great. And open for lunch better yet. Can eat there and still keep my evenings free. Can You recommend any dishes?

- Continue –Day #1 afternoon/evening So I walked all over as the weather was a bit cooler here than Pattaya. Saw a lot of city. It was nice. I think tomorrow though I will rent a motorbike so I can cover more distance. On the same Soi as the Pullman & Kosa, is the strip of beer bars ie Eric’s bar, to the left of those section of beer bars is a hair salon and place to rent a motorbike. I made arrangements to rent a motorbike for #300 baht per day and to rent for 2 days. Will pick-up the bike on Friday maybe after having an English breakfast over at the Blues Bar. (Thursday early afternoon) Walked over to Tukcom which was almost dead and 50% empty. Told by a local falong that most of the business moved over to the Central Mall. I made my way over there. Stopped at the Starbucks but the line was wrapped around as I found out it was buy 1 , get 1 free day, so decided to skip my afternoon ice coffee. Stopped by the Boots to grab some supplies and went back to the hotel for an afternoon nap. Got up from my nap around 7pm and got ready to head out to the beer bars just off to the left side of the Kosa hotel or basically in front of the Pullman hotel. Stopped and had a drink at the first couple of beer bars. Both had about 3-5 girls working. Both bars, the girls were like 5’s/6’s with each bar having at least 1 girl working at the bar that was at least a 7. I could have easily barfined a girl at each of the first 2 beer bars but wanted to at least check out Eric’s bar next door. (The whole beer bar scene here is very small and it isn’t so much in your face. I would suggest no matter how few girls it looks like there are at a beer bar….just go in and sit down. Not a ton of places to go, so best to have 1 drink at each place. And don’t expect the girls to try and flag you down here in KK beer bars. You need to be “proactive” and go in yourself.) Both the first two beer bars I visited were not pushy at all. All the working girls were polite and a bit shy compared to what we are use to in Patts. Also, the girls didn’t just necessarily come over and try and get me to buy them a drink. If you like a girl, you need to make eye contact and motion her to come on over. I noticed that all the girls are more reserved and majority of them are dressed simple. I also noticed that all the girls had cheap phones. No brand new iphones here! Lol. Eric’s bar had 11 girls working. A few 5/6’s and maybe four girls who were 7’s. One young cute 8/7 took off right away with a European customer. A few older local falong customers were seated/perched up at the front of the bar, so I chose to sit directly at the bar. Sat down, nobody was too pushy and everybody was polite. I made quick eye contact with a couple girls and 1 girl who was a bit older but was a 7, I looked at her a bit longer and she came right over to me. I chatted with her for a few minutes and asked her if she wanted a drink. She thanked me a lot for being so nice and ordered a samsong and coke. I just ordered a coke lite. We sat and talked for a while about everything and nothing. This girl was 34, but still cute and very polite and soft spoken. She grew up just outside of KK and moved to KK a couple of years ago to work at Central Mall at a coffee shop. She still works days at the coffee shop in the mall and works nights at Eric’s Beer Bar. She has been working at Eric’s now for about 6 months as she told me she wants to buy a car next year as she has her mom and a 10 year old son to take care of and it would be nice to have a car…..says she’s never owned a car before. (always suprises me how many thai working girls want to own a car. This girl rents a room, and instead of saving money in the bank or buying a condo/house….the car seems the most important goal….Mmmmmm) She invited me to come over to the Mall tomorrow to have a coffee or mango drink. She asked me not to bring up the fact that she works at a Beer bar with any of her co-workers. She asked me what I was gonna due tonight. She said she had a bottle of JW Red over at U bar and if I wanted to go with her she would supply the whiskey and I could pay for the mixers. I told her I was a bit tired and had some work calls at 3am tomorrow morning back to the states so planned to make it a short night tonight….she suggested a ST while giving me a smile. I asked her about the barfine and costs….she said barfine is #400 baht, but that she would meet me at my hotel lobby in 10 mins after I left and she said she would like #1,000 baht for herself st if that was ok. I agreed and paid the bar for the 3 lady drinks and my coke lite, which came out to be #790 baht….seemed a bit high??? Oh well. I scooted over back to the Kosa hotel and waited in the lobby and in less than 10 mins. she had arrived. We went up to the room and she was sweet and very warm to me. We both showered separately and without getting much into details, it was a wonderful couple of hours. She never once said no to anything, she wasn’t a clock watcher and seemed to be very easy going. I had a wonderful time with her this evening so I gave her also a #200 baht tip. And as she gave me a hug and kiss out the door, she said to call or message her tomorrow if I wanted to visit her at her job/coffee shop at Central Mall tomorrow. Recap: Read quite a few reports prior to coming to KK. Most of it centered on the place being too small, not good bar scene and boring place… I got a very much different feel for the place. KK is a nice Thai city, with a lot of well mannered, polite Thais out and about. I felt and saw a few girls all over town looking at me and anytime I smiled, they smiled back at me…even if shyly. Yes, the bar/girl scene here is very small and not yet sure how the clubs are, I would say with the proper attitude and direction, you can enjoy a nice couple of days here. As I stated before, when you visit the beer bars, don’t just walk on by or wait for a girl to flag you down. You need to be more assertive or just go inside yourself. Also, if you only see 1-3 girls in the beer bar, just go in anyways. There is usually a couple to a few more in the back. At the 3 beer bars I visited last night, all three had at least 1 girl that was barfinable….and in reality, we only need 1…..right???

Walking by the Glacier hotel, looks like a club attached to the Glacier, may check it out on Friday or Saturday. There were quite of few outdoor venues that looked nice. In between my hotel Kosa and The Pullman hotel was an outdoor beer section and steak restaurant. It really had a cool look and vibe. A nightly band every night on stage. Walked by the U Bar, a local hiso club, not sure if falong friendly in terms of catching a date, but will give it a whirl on friday and see if anything happens. The U bar is on a soi in between the kosa and pullman. a block further down is the outdoor jazz music venue. Very chill place and great music. If I find a date one night, will head over there to spend more time. After looping all the way around, I passed the Blues bar. Saw a lot of local falongs at this place and advertisement for english breakfast. Plan is to have breakfast here later this morning.

Kosa hotel is on the same street as the Pullman hotel.....basically next door. A few bars all along this soi and club bars around the corner. I was originally gonna go to the main bus terminal to buy a ticket to get from Khon Kaen to Udon Thani, but after seeing what the cost was going to be to get from my hotel to UT, decided canceling the bus route and just hire a Grab Taxi to get to UT in a few days out

...always makes me curious to why my bags get so dirty and beat up when traveling/flying in Thailand. Lots of great places to visit here in KK. Plan to rent a motorbike for #300 baht per day and bounce around town. temperature is just perfect up here in kk.

Nice new Toyota suv arrive about 15 min early, so got in and off to Utapao airport. I used this airport 12 years ago and thought it was dumpy. As we pulled up, not anywhere the looks it was a dozen years ago. Although a small airport, very modern, stores up on top and nice clean and modern bathrooms. Actually probably better than Don Muang or Suvarnabhumi. Absolutely no line at Air Asia, but the airlines next to me had a jammed line......lucky me! Quick check in and went upstairs. It seems all the shopping/stores are only for INTL departures. As I am flying domestic no access to the shops. Made my way through security and wait out the 30 min. until boarding. Was thinking about getting the dark choc frappy but decided to go for the more sensible fruit smoothy Beautiful sunrise this morning. My photo doesn’t do justice. Plane about 50% empty and quick 1 hour 5 min hop to KK. Grabbed my bag and used Grab Taxi as it is so cheap here in LOS. It took us 20 min as we missed a few lights and had to wait the entire rotation. I tipped the driver 100 baht. Kosa hotel is across the street from tukcom mall and the Starbucks is literally across the street. It seems that the Kosa hotel ratesposted here are way higher than the booking price on line......so best to book On-line! Grabbed a coffee in the lobby while waited for my room to be ready and getting ready for my work call in 30 min at 10am. Completed my call and headed outside to walk around my hotel and the Pullman hotel next door. Passed by Erics Bar Khon Kaen, passed by My Bar and Club Rad. Will check out these and other bars later tonight. so walked all over as the weather was a bit cooler here than Pattaya. Saw a lot of city. It was nice. I think tomorrow though I will rent a motorbike so I can cover more distance. Walked over to Tukcom which was almost dead and 50% empty. Told by a local falong that most of the business moved over to the Central Mall. I made my way over there. Stopped at the Starbucks but the line was wrapped around as I found out it was buy 1 , get 1 free day, so decided to skip my afternoon ice coffee. Stopped by the Boots to grab some supplies and went back to the hotel for an afternoon nap.

So tried to book Meeow taxi, Mr T and Nam taxi but all 3 wouldn't drive from Pattaya to Utapao so I booked the taxi stand next to the Grand Hotel. Cost 1,000 baht. Flight from Utapao to KK via Air Asia with luggage fee was 990 baht

Flight Info and which airlines fly where On the next post I will attach the UT info, just so all flight info stuff is all in one section of my report

....sorry for the multiple posts, but labtop is already packed and anyways all my cheat sheets are on my phone anyways. I wanna give a big thanks to the other board members who provided me all this great info and instead of thanking each person every time I used their info and because I am lazy, I’m just gonna just post the photo screenshots from my phone..lol. You ll be able to see where my info came from and which board member supplied the info. btw, if a BM doesn’t appreciate me attaching their info to my TR, please message me and I will remove that particular screenshot.....but remember prior posters....the reason this TR is even possible is the very valuable information you have supplied me!!! thanks again!!!

Day #1 So alarm set for 4am wake up call, but with the crazy loud music being played now below me, I’m up just past midnight. In about an hour the crazy thai music will start....thats been the MO this past week. Staying over at Secrets hotel on the 1st floor and scooters bar tends to turn up the music even louder after midnight. Yes, I am aware it is less noisy on the 2nd and 3rd floors, but since I started staying at Secrets Hotel 12 years ago and to where we are now.....I am now old and now my aching knees make it too difficult to walk up them dam stairs....so easier to stay on the 1st floor Reflection: when I first started coming to LOS over 12 years ago, on my first couple of years, I got around a bit and saw a bit of Thailand. Somehow the past 10 years, I’ve almost exclusively been only in Pattaya. The original plan was to see all of Thailand, but after the first few trips, I ended up not adding stops/destinations and spent the entire time in Pattaya and maybe a minimal time in bkk on the way in or out before flying home. Tentative Future Plan - I plan to give it a go and see a bit of Thailand....at least the places that still allow me to find a date for the evening lol! Unlike my normal friends back home who take sightseeing trips to many exotic places, I don’t mind bouncing around the many wonderful places of Thailand, but there better be a few gals out and about wherever I visit and the begin/end and majority of my fun will still be had in Pattaya! So when putting the itinerary together I looked over the thai cities and decided that during the first 5 weeks I would add a visit to Khon Kaen and Udon Thani. Now the reason I chose KK first was after doing a bit of research, I learned that the nightlife in KK is minimal, so decided to get that outta the way first. Then once I head up to UT I would have a bit more fun with a few more nightlife options. Reading up on the different forums, found out that not all boutique airlines fly up to KK or UT. And importantly that you cant actually fly from KK<UT or UT<KK ....yikes! After reading a lot of Lottellee Winna trip reports/life reports, realized maybe simplier flying outta Utapao instead of making the trek into Bankok ( Subumniv/Don Muang airports)

Have to head up to Khon Kaen for a meeting tomorrow and will spend 3 days milling around KK and will report back about the place. Udon Thani - then heading up to UT for a couple of meetings and stay a full week and let everybody know my thoughts on UT. After returning to Patts and a couple weeks in P/I, will head over to Hua Hin for a few days and report back

Hello Guys! It seems some of the posts here are a couple months old.....less traffic than the past Secrets forums??? Btw, anyone know any of the mods and get me past the required 10 posts? thxs Todd Aki (todd2rip)