Escape from Reality

Last week, I went down to Pattaya to meet up with some friends for a week. It was an interesting time to catch up with some friends that I haven't seen in a while and to meet many new people. One night, a bunch of my friends took me out for my birthday. We found a great Mexican restaurant called the Blue Parrot. Here we are enjoying some delicious food.

Mmm... fresh salsa, tacos and enchiladas!

Another night, we went to Bob's BBQ. I ordered the large pulled pork sandwich and boy was it! Large, that is. Look at that thing... it must have been 7 inches in diameter and 2 inches thick. It wasn't quite back-home barbeque, but it was good.

Speaking of pigs... these guys below are partaking in what Pattaya is probably best known for- prostitution and sex trade. The "entertainment district" is filled with dirty-old-white men, young Thai girls, young Thai boys and transvestites. Here you can see one of the girls with a guy old enought to be her grandfather (but dumb enough not to realize she is someone's daughter). It's really a sad scene: dozens of girls hanging out on the strip near the beach waiting for some pathetic guy to buy her for the night. Or, large open air bars filled where a guy sits with 2-3 girls as they chuckle, rub up on him and get drunk (if these guys looked like Brad Pitt maybe, but most of them look more like Danny DeVito). The guys think that the girls will make them feel better and the girls think they have to do this to make a living, but really they just make themselves more empty inside.

Another common site in Pattaya are Russians and Chinese. I think the Russian underworld runs most of Pattaya, so it's a big tourist destination for anyone from Russia that comes to Thailand. I've heard the Chinese men like the transvestite cabarets and since there is a woman shortage in China, many come for a wife or fling.

One night I met Mikael and his friend. They had come from Moscow to get drunk with their buddies and hire prostitutes. I tried to share with Mikael about Jesus. It was kind of hard since I know about 7 words in Russian and his English wasn't that good and he was drunk- a point that was all too clear when he forgot one of his son's names. To make matters worse, he could quote the prices that he and his friends paid Thai hookers to have sex the night before, but stammered for almost 5 minutes to try and remember his other son's name... he never did. I prayed for him and then rejoined my friends.

Please pray for Mikael and all the lost men of Pattaya and especially the women entangled in the sex trade there.

It's good to be back in Chiang Mai.