#jdworldtour: It's a hard life in Thailand

Today has so far consisted of waking up, having breakfast, then getting an hour long Thai massage for a mere $8AUD, eating and swimming.

This was my first real experience with a proper massage... and it hurt! This tiny Thai girl was pressing hard with her elbows and fingers all over my body - it was a total top to bottom run around. I didn't actually realise how painful pressing on your hand between thumb and forefinger could be...

After the massage I felt incredibly relaxed. It really did the trick to relax the muscles.

Fitzey and I followed up the massage with some Thai food from a local corner shop. Green curry with pork and rice seemed to hit the spot pretty well - and open up the airways! Cant complain for $4.50..

This was followed up by a dip at the beach. Never have I been in such warm water before - so damn good! Walking for a few minutes was enough to dry off - who needs towels in Thailand?!

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I'll now rewind for a sec.

After arriving in Bangkok around 9:30PM two nights ago, we caught a local bus to the hostel. The hostel in a box was really easy to get to from the airport and very well presented.

After a long day of flying Air Asia I did not particularly feel like doing a whole lot. We would have stayed an extra night in Bangkok had the hostel had room, but they didnt, so we decided to catch a bus the next day to Jomtien, a beach just south of Pattaya.

A quick walk and BTS Skytrain ride we arrived at the Eastern Bus Terminal. I had read about the first class bus services available and seen these massive air-conditioned coaches driving around and was excited for the two hour trip to Pattaya, for once again only around $4.

Upon seeing our chariot I was a lot less impressed. Only the "second class bus" goes to Jomtien where we had to go, which I read where pretty similar to first class, usually just without the onboard toilet; we had a minivan with ten seats.

The ride was bumpy and the aircon not the best, but it got us here which is the main thing!

We spent most of the day walking around orientating ourselves with the area.

Given that it was a Saturday night we had to head out to Pattaya, a notorious area filled with debauchery.

An easy Songtheaw ride for 10 baht ($0.75) will get you to Pattaya from Jomtien. A songtheaew is pretty much a ute with a cage and seats on the back, that more or less operates as a bus between set destinations with jump on/jump off as necessary. Flat rate fairs with about twelve people maximum occupancy.

After arriving in Pattaya we headed to "Walking Street" which is where the dude working at the hostel told us to go. It is apparently just lined with bars and strip clubs and not much else.