http://www.blogs.1stoppattaya.com all the things the guidebooks never reveal Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:56:07 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Located about 170 kilometres southeast of Bangkok, Pattaya makes a good destination for a weekend break, although with so many entertainment options to choose from, many people tend to stay in the small seaside city for several days. Pattaya means the 'south-west monsoon wind’ in the Thai language and ranks ... http://www.blogs.1stoppattaya.com/2010/03/11/pattaya-overview/ Next weekend's kite flying festival is going to be a great event, mark my words. The flying of kites has been extremely popular in Thailand, and Pattaya especially, for hundreds of years. The pastime has been attributed to a Chinese inventor in around 300BC who kept a wooden bird he ... http://www.blogs.1stoppattaya.com/2010/03/08/sky-high-at-kite-festival/ I’ve just heard the news that the World Thai Martial Arts Festival will be taking place in Ayutthaya next month. As someone largely uneducated in matters of martial arts, I initially thought this was a contradiction in terms. How can it be a ‘World’ festival if it’s also a ‘Thai’ ... http://www.blogs.1stoppattaya.com/2010/02/28/muay-thai-reaches-the-world/ It was great to see that the ‘Burapha Bikers Week’ was an even bigger success in Pattaya this year than it was in 2009. The now annual event attracted petrol heads from all over Thailand and the world, and plenty of rubber has been burnt on the streets of Pattaya over ... http://www.blogs.1stoppattaya.com/2010/02/22/hot-leather-at-burapha-bikers-week/ A Pattaya local is lucky to be alive after being electrocuted when installing a sign at 7/Eleven in Rayong Road yesterday. It happend in broad daylight at around 3pm. It is thought that the man’s head came into contact with high-voltage power lines while he was working high up installing a ... http://www.blogs.1stoppattaya.com/2010/02/11/man-eletrocuted-at-7eleven/ It seems at the moment that there’s a lot of rather gruesome news coming out of Pattaya. After the success and the frivolity of this week’s annual Pattaya Bed Race, it comes as a bit of a shocking blow to hear about the body of an unknown man which was found ... http://www.blogs.1stoppattaya.com/2010/02/03/more-gruesome-news/ If you’re worried about finding a suitable date in time for the Valentine’s Day festivities next month, worry no more.  Hot off the press is news that on February 13th(that’s the day before Valentine’s Day for all you useless men out there), Pattaya will play host to what is scheduled to ... http://www.blogs.1stoppattaya.com/2010/01/29/love-in-the-fast-lane/ News came this week of yet another tourist fatality, this time on Pattaya’s roads. A German tourist, believed to have been drunk, crashed into and killed an Italian tourist who was also riding a motorcycle in the early hours of Sunday morning. The 29-year-old, Davide Tomast, died of head injuries in a ... http://www.blogs.1stoppattaya.com/2010/01/20/drink-or-drive-not-both/ I was shocked to hear about the death of a Russian tourist who was sliced up by a speedboat’s propellers while swimming in Pattaya this week. The man, who has been identified as 40-year-old Poliakov Oleg, was said to have been diving by the coral off the coast of Bang Lamung when ... http://www.blogs.1stoppattaya.com/2010/01/15/a-horrible-end-to-a-holiday/ I heard something this week which excited me more than almost anything else since I moved to Pattaya. At the end of this month, something wonderful is going to take place here and I feel an obligation to share it with you all. Apparently, it happened for the first time last ... http://www.blogs.1stoppattaya.com/2010/01/07/something-worth-getting-out-of-bed-for/