So before I talk about Malaysia I wanted to talk about an amazing opportunity I had in Thailand. About a week or so before we left Thailand my friend Josh Garcia asked if I would go with him to the city of Pattaya. He wanted to visit his friend who now lives there, but he needed someone to travel with him. After thinking about it for a while I told him I would go. So we booked a one way flight there. We would get there Friday and leave late on Sunday in order to be back by Monday.
When we arrived in Pattaya we were picked up by Josh’s friend Dianna. The first thing we did was head towards a salon on one of the bar streets that Dianna gives hair cutting lessons at. You see Dianna teaches girls to cut hair so they don’t have to work in the bars anymore, it’s pretty awesome. Since the salon is on one of the bar streets men aren’t usually allowed into it, so the girls there don’t really know how to cut guys hair. Since we were there Dianna made us the lesson, so she taught the girls to cut guys hair by using us. I got to be a part of mission work and get a free hair cut at the same time, pretty good experience if you ask me. However, it was also a heavy setting on the bar street. It was only about 11:30am but guys were already walking around and going in bars, it wasn’t an easy pill to swallow. To give a little perspective on the bar scene we were told some statistics. 8,000,000 people travel to Pattaya a year, out of all those people 85 percent go to buy sex. We were on one of 18 main bar streets, around 1,500 women work on each of those streets. And that doesn’t include Beach Road and Walking Street. After leaving there we went to eat at the beach, we met a couple of the people Dianna works with while there. We also got to meet her roommate Jenna who teaches English in Pattaya. It was actually pretty cool, one of the ladies we met was the wedding decorator for our Cambodian ministry host’s wedding, she also knew our Thailand host. That night for dinner Jenna and Dianna made us chicken and pasta, and Jenna even made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, from scratch.We also got ice-cream to go with it.
On Saturday Dianna and Jenna decided to take us to a popular island right off the coast of Pattaya, so we headed to the docks and got a speedboat to one of the beaches on the island. We spent most of the day hanging out and swimming. It was a rough day. That night we were taken to a cafe that’s owned by a man and his wife who host church there for a Thanksgiving dinner. Pretty much all of the food was home made and delicious. I ate more than I should have and did not regret it at all. While there we got to meet several other people who have ministries in Pattaya. The couple who own the cafe also go down to the lighthouse at the docks and hand out Bibles. There was also a couple who helps support children and their families in the area, they help provide food and money for education, and that really helps to prevent sex trafficking. Overall it was a really good day.
On Sunday we went to church at the cafe. It was a good service. It was actually the first time I got the opportunity to go to church since I’ve been on the race. After service we went and got Mexican food, then went back to Dianna’s place. Before we left on a bus back to Chiang Mai Dianna and Jenna took out to one of the night markets to get some dinner and dessert. Then we headed to the bus station and took a 12 hour ride back to Chiang Mai.
It was a really great time. Not only was it an amazing opportunity to get to know more people and see a different part of Thailand, but it was also an amazing time of rest, in more ways than just physical. I’m really glad I took the opportunity to go.
