Captain van der Wal tells us that our berth in Laem Chabang is still occupied, so we’re going to stop in Pattaya first, and then move to the intended location later. The ricochet of problems this causes is vast, but at least on our walk we get to see a new approach and the Pattaya skyline from different perspective, as well as watch the roof open over the indoor pool.
By 11:00 we’ve done walking and soon after our Spanish, and finally we get some elevenses to tide us on a bit. Then it’s time to dress for dinner, well lunch, a late lunch to be precise. Firstly we have to get across to land, Pattaya doesn’t have capacity for a ship, so we’re tendering in.
A rough, hot and humid journey but we’re on time and our driver is waiting at 13:00. To be precise, he’s our friend Damiera’s driver (they have his and her drivers!) and we are collected and driven to Bangkok. We get to Kuku & Damiera’s apartment around 15:15, traffic bad enough but could have been worse.
Just like last week we have a lot to catch up on, and we spend a fabulous afternoon doing this over an excellent long lunch. Both food and wines are stunning, we won’t need anything else today.
It’s dark when we leave and the views from their 18th floor are lovely, plus the area around their rooms. In one you can see the site of the former British Embassy which we were honoured to be taken around by the Ambassador a few years ago. It’s been moved now.
We get back to Westerdam around 22:00, the traffic again not too bad except at either end, Bangkok and the port very heavy. We came by iX3 which was lovely but the return is in a Toyota minibus with two “business class” seats so we could just lay flat and snooze, not that we needed to. A memorable day!
