I.
Best motor
bike is
the Yamaha Nouvo Motor
Bike.
For Pattaya driving the Yamaha Nouvo is a magic carpet
ride. The bike has stunning lines, weighs just 230 pounds, displaces 115
cc's, and develops just 9 horsepower while costing only $1300 U.S. brand
spanking new. But a man who's weight runs no more more than 200 pounds or
so who has a slender Thai girlfriend, the Nouvo is all that's needed to
get around in Pattaya traffic better than anything else that's out there.
These things will top out at better than 100 kilometers per hour, which is more
than enough for even the fastest moving traffic in Pattaya and even enough to
take you and your favorite girl out beyond the city for short excursions off the
superhighways. There is no clutch and the shifting is all automatic.
There's no chain--just a long life drive belt. The Nouvo behaves like a
glorified golf cart. You just twist the throttle and it goes. Want
to creep long at five miles an hour? No problem. And because it's
fully automatic, the power transitions through the gears are both seamless
and painless. Acceleration seems faster than manual transmission
motorbikes in the 125 cc. class.
The Nouvo has an extra wide seat that is
much more comfortable than the smaller and narrower seats of lesser bikes.
There's a storage compartment beneath the seat that's large enough for a helmet
and other things. It has a disc brake up front. The machine is quiet
and smooth due to an excellent muffler and an engine that is counterbalanced.
Typical Pattaya driving will leave you filling its tank up every five to seven
days and that'll cost you one hundred baht or less. Since it's so much
lighter than true motorcycles it's more agile and if you get hemmed in by other
bikes once you have parked it you can always extricate your Nouvo by lifting it
around the parking lot which is something you couldn't begin to accomplish with
a much larger machine.
Face it, driving any bike in Pattaya is a
dangerous proposition. The main reason the Nouvo's the best is that its
automatic transmission makes driving so easy that you can focus on avoiding
potential accidents instead of shifting. And unless you are a pretty hefty
guy, thinking a bigger machine is going to do the job better for you is just
wishful thinking.
Now that's a real tough one. There are very
inexpensive restaurants that will often serve even better food than what one
often finds at much pricier places. But most of them lack the ambience
that other more glamorous restaurants provide in spades. Or their service
might be far less than top notch. Then there are those relatively
expensive restaurants which provide great Western and Thai food in a beautiful
setting. Trouble is one cannot afford to eat in them day in and day out,
especially if the Thai girlfriend is brought along.
After giving the matter serious thought
Madame Nook gave her number one rating for best all around restaurant to Star
Dice I on Beach Road which is just North of Central Pattaya Road. Madame
Nook finds the setting and ambience at Star Dice I to be very beautiful with its
nice view of the Gulf of Thailand. She's found the service to be first
class and its Thai food to be top shelf. All of which comes at a modest
price. Ironically Madame Nook doesn't get to eat here that often because
she lives just a bit too far out on the North end of town.
3. All around
Best furniture Store
is Index
which is located on the East side of
Sukamvit Road just North of Central Pattaya Road. One needs to go no
further than Index to completely outfit an entire condo or house.
The styling of its furniture lines is refreshingly modern yet classy. You
can get a whole kitchen here, lighting for the entire place, washing machines,
towels, coffee machines, and dishware. If you want to completely furnish
your new condo or house without ever leaving the first store you come to, Index
should be that store.
4.
High
end Best furniture Store
Is Decorum
Which is located next to the
Friendship Store on South Pattaya Road. All the furniture here is Teak.
They will even make a custom made desk here to your specifications. There
are also very high quality lights and other things to buy here that will really
set your place off as being one step above your neighbor's. But all of
this doesn't come cheap. You will pay substantially more than you will at
Index, but the overall quality of what they sell here puts Decorum into a class
of its own.
5. Best Supermarket is
Carre Four.
One has the widest range of selection
here at some of the best prices in town. It's a great place to get
excellent cuts of meat. Its shopping aisles are wide and the overall
appearance of the place is second to none.
6. Best Shopping Center
Once again, our top rating goes to Carre Four.
One can buy entire kitchens and
bathrooms at Homepro, which is one of its two largest stores, along with a wide
assortment of tools, towels, curtains, mattresses, patio furniture, etc. while
its supermarket gets our highest rating. On the ground level there's a
great place to rent videos along with an excellent food mall where you can buy
cheap and very good Thai food. There's a Kentucky Fried Chicken and
a Subway along with other Western style fast food places. But it does not
boast a movie theater such as you will find at Big C or the Royal Garden Plaza.
Its major weakness was the lack of an English bookstore although there's one
that caters to Thais but recently the people who run Bookazine at Big C have
just introduced a smaller version of their excellent Big C book store on
Carre Four's first floor.
7.
Best Beer Bar
Is the
Malai Bar
Which we
gave our number one rating as the Pattaya Bar of the month. Bottled beer
comes at a fair price which runs from 40 baht for Chang to 60 baht for Heineken
with Singha and Tiger going at 50 baht a bottle. Unlike most Pattaya beer
bars, its owner hits the beer bar target market squarely on the head.
There's a four man Thai band here playing sixties, seventies and eighties music
that ranges from the Rolling Stones to Country Western. Face it, most beer
bar customers are older guys who want to listen to the music they grew up
with--which is definitely not the noise the young kids of today want to hear.
But for the most part these kids cannot begin to afford a plane ticket to
Pattaya. Because Malai Bar focuses upon the customer instead
of serving up the music its bar girls might want to hear or teenagers in the
U.S. and Britain, sells beer at lower prices than many, and gives great service
it is our far and away choice as the number one beer bar. There's far too
many bars in Pattaya that either cater to their own bar girls or a young
immature crowd that's thankfully missing in this neck of the woods. Their owners
need to go to the Malai Bar to study from its Thai female owner the lessons of
Marketing 101. Only thing is it's a bit out of the way for many
since it's in Naklua rather than in Central Pattaya.
8.
Most impressive single attraction
In the Pattaya Area is
Nongnooch Tropical Gardens.
It's huge, and it's breath taking, and
it's elephant shows are unlike anything you are ever likely to see in the
States. Nongnooch can easily be considered world class.
9.
Best place for live music
Hands down has gotta be the Blues Factory
Just off of Walking Street. The
music starts at 9:30 p.m. Mary, the female vocalist is a look a like and
sound alike Tina Turner. Except I think she's even better. And she's
incredibly gracious as well. But the rest of the staring cast is
outstanding as well, especially Snowman who's absolutely brilliant on the guitar
and who hails from Chicago (that's from my home state, Illinois). Later
into the evening, around 11:30 another band comes in, but this time it's Heavy
Metal, not the Blues.
10.
Best high end restaurant
Is Greg's
Kitchen
Which is just South of the Bangkok Bank on
the East side of Pattaya 2nd Road. Greg used to be a London chef, but his
Thai course offerings are excellent and in larger portions than is commonly
found elsewhere. I particularly like his meat pies and his Hungarian
Goulash. Greg's attention to detail is second to none and his Western food
is so delicious that its taste continues to linger on days after one has left
his place. Yes, Greg's an Englishman, and although in general the English
have a reputation for serving up some rather bland food, Greg's an
outstanding exception to the rule. Moreover, his Western food runs the
gamut of the best of the best from a variety of European countries.
11.
Best
place to live.
Well that's a no-brainer. Of course it's where I
live. Over here at
Wongamat Beach.
Wongamat Beach is a couple of miles
North of Central Pattaya in Naklua. There's more trees and flowers here
and the pace is much slower. The condo's just 200 meters from the Gulf of
Thailand. Restaurants are for the most part less expensive and there's
lots of great German restaurants that serve both Thai and German food at modest
prices. The boisterousness of the Central Pattaya bar scene is decidedly
lacking. In a sense one gets the feeling of living in Ko Samui or Phuket
where everything's not in one's face and there's a touch of glamour in the air.
One can easily remain here and not venture out into the hyperactivity of Central
Pattaya while enjoying the ambience of its ocean setting. The great
thing about the area is that it offers the best of both worlds, since Central
Pattaya's just a thirty minute walk away.
12.
Best
place to buy videos
Is on the third floor of the Royal Garden Plaza.
Starting on the Beach Road or Western
side of this department store, take the escalator and turn left once you are on
the third floor. Here you will find the largest selection of videos (for
audio cd's) I have yet found for sale in Pattaya.
13.
Best
place to take a scenic drive
Is the area around Buddha Hill.
Actually there are three high elevated
points here. The first is close to the main pier just South and West of
where Walking Street ends. The last is the one where you will see the
large gold painted statue of Buddha. There are a number of gorgeous hotels
and resorts in this area. The best part of the drive are the terrific
views of the ocean and city and the almost complete absence of traffic.
For that matter this is a great place to take a long walk or to do one's
jogging. There's a wide assortment of trees along with a Kaleidoscope of
flowers to be found as you twist up and down the hills and around the curves.
And compared to most of Pattaya the place is relatively uncluttered. It will
remind you a bit of Singapore where the streets and sidewalks are kept
scrupulously clean.
14. Best swimming hole
is
Naul Beach
At Koh Larn Island. Naul Beach is on
the South end of the island. Unlike Koh Larn's other beaches Naul faces
Pattaya. Here you will find some of the best snorkeling on the entire
island as jet ski and motorboat traffic is minimal and there's a lot of coral
that provides a haven for a variety of fish. Expect to find just a handful
of Westerners here at any given point of time and that's on a good day.
Other times you might find you have the entire beach to yourself. Although
You can get beer and soft drinks and some snacks there really isn't a real
restaurant on the beach. It's a great place to have your own private party
for yourself and your friends, and I'm sure the few people who are there to
serve you refreshments will be happy to see you. One great way to visit
this off the beaten path beach is to rent a motorbike as soon as you get
off the ferry. (most of the beach scenes in this video are of Naul Beach)
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