Having lived in Italy for around 5 years prior to my relocation to Thailand, if I was going to miss any type of 'farang' food, it would certainly be Italian.
Whilst living in Italy you could pretty much be guaranteed an excellent meal no matter the type of 'eatery' you visited and without any reference to 'budget'. Some of the very best meals for example have been served by tiny 'family run' trattoria's, where the only option was what they were cooking that day. Many of these places have the ambiance of a genuine Italian family home and though at first you may feel a little 'out of place' as the regulars and the hosts discuss the latest local news, government issues and of course 'football', you are given a genuine welcome and eventually the conversation will get around to involving you. After all, they are all 'dying' to hear where you live, where you come from and what you do, etc!
Anyway, as I now have developed a passion for Thai Food, it was not the food that drew me to Trattoria Toscana Pizzeria on Beach Road, but the memories of some excellent Brunello di Montalcino that I have partaken of during my stay in Italy. Surely, this genuine 'upmarket' Italian Restaurant would have such offerings? I'm pleased to say that they did.
In true, lonely sad man style I visited Trattoria Toscana Pizzeria alone. Another appointment had been cancelled at the last moment so I was at a bit of a 'loose end' and seeing as though it was Buddha Day in Thailand, the police had declared that all bars should close. Many actually didn't, but instead chose to turn out the lights and turn off the music .... this was as good as closed to me!
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Trattoria Toscana Pizzeria
Category: Restaurants, Added: May 31, 2007, 2 CommentsMonkey Brains and Bugs at the FLB
Category: Hostess Bars, Added: May 08, 2007, 3 CommentsLast night was going to be a pretty quiet night.
Or that was the plan, however, as everybody who visits Pattaya knows ...... you can never make plans in Pattaya! Something or somebody will always create a detour from the original path.
In this case I believe the blame lies with Talen (Tim) a great American friend who I met during the first week of my arrival in Fun Town.
Anyway, Nuts (Brian) and I, had arranged to meet up in Lennies Bar at the Jomtien Road end of Soi Diamond. Lennies Bar is currently offering 'Free Draught Tiger Beer' on a Wednesday between the hours of 7:00pm and 9:00pm.
Not really being a Beer drinker the Free Beer isn't really a great incentive for me, but it's a good place with a decent manager (Sunny Valentine) and friendly girls. We got there just after 8:00pm.
It turns out though that Nuts had company with him. A girl from a restaurant where he'd been eating had caught his eye, and he'd asked her out the previous night. A couple of drinks, some food and visit to the pictures ensued and the night ended with him escorting her to her room, some mild kissing and him departing alone without even entering. What a nice guy!
Now though, he had hoped to spend tonight in the company of friends for a stroll of Walking Street, but this girl had decided he was a 'good catch' and had 'locked on' pretty tight!
She seemed a nice girl though and spoke perfect English.
After a few drinks at Lennies, and me buying a couple of Lady Drinks for one of the Hostesses, we departed and headed off to the FLB on Walking Street.
One of the girls there had only returned today after spending one week at the equivelent of a Convent (strange I know!), she's a really nice girl, too quiet really so she tends to fall into the background with all the goings on in the FLB. Anyway, I wanted to catch up with her.
We get there and meet up with Talen. Talen is still in the company of the lady he had barfined from the very first bar of the Covent Garden Bar Crawl the other day. Looks like he's going for a record!
So much for the single guys night out!
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Or that was the plan, however, as everybody who visits Pattaya knows ...... you can never make plans in Pattaya! Something or somebody will always create a detour from the original path.
In this case I believe the blame lies with Talen (Tim) a great American friend who I met during the first week of my arrival in Fun Town.
Anyway, Nuts (Brian) and I, had arranged to meet up in Lennies Bar at the Jomtien Road end of Soi Diamond. Lennies Bar is currently offering 'Free Draught Tiger Beer' on a Wednesday between the hours of 7:00pm and 9:00pm.
Not really being a Beer drinker the Free Beer isn't really a great incentive for me, but it's a good place with a decent manager (Sunny Valentine) and friendly girls. We got there just after 8:00pm.
It turns out though that Nuts had company with him. A girl from a restaurant where he'd been eating had caught his eye, and he'd asked her out the previous night. A couple of drinks, some food and visit to the pictures ensued and the night ended with him escorting her to her room, some mild kissing and him departing alone without even entering. What a nice guy!
Now though, he had hoped to spend tonight in the company of friends for a stroll of Walking Street, but this girl had decided he was a 'good catch' and had 'locked on' pretty tight!
She seemed a nice girl though and spoke perfect English.
After a few drinks at Lennies, and me buying a couple of Lady Drinks for one of the Hostesses, we departed and headed off to the FLB on Walking Street.
One of the girls there had only returned today after spending one week at the equivelent of a Convent (strange I know!), she's a really nice girl, too quiet really so she tends to fall into the background with all the goings on in the FLB. Anyway, I wanted to catch up with her.
We get there and meet up with Talen. Talen is still in the company of the lady he had barfined from the very first bar of the Covent Garden Bar Crawl the other day. Looks like he's going for a record!
So much for the single guys night out!
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CC's Cherry Bar Party
Category: Beer Bars, Added: May 05, 2007, Add commentYes, my birthday on the 28th April and CC's (Chubby Cashier) on the 2nd May, so we had to have a party. However, due to my planning ability (or lack of it) things we're left very late.
The bar where Wan was working when we met had recently changed owner, and whilst the guy seems like a 'good guy' we decided against hosting the party there because a few of her 'friends' that still worked there have turned into devious jealous monsters.
We also, turned down the bar in Made in Thailand where her 'real best friend' works, again due to a change of manager.
Anyway, i'd avoided taking her to the Cherry Bar, because I regarded it as my place of refuge and 'off limits' to her, but what the hey, they throw a good party.
In the build up, I did take her there maybe 5 times so that she could get to know the girls a little and sure enough, pretty soon she was chatting away with most of them like 'old friends'. So I decided to go ahead and book a 'surprise' party for her and asked all of the girls to 'keep the secret'.
From what I know of Thai girls, keeping a secret isn't one of their strong points, so I decided to keep CC away from the bar for the intervening few days!
On the night, we turned up with her sister and sisters friend. I'd suggested taking them out for something to eat, but said I wanted to stop by the Cherry Bar first as a good friend was having a party
When we arrived, it was still pretty early (just after 8pm) so the girls had plenty of time to make a fuss of Wan by offering gifts of flowers and 'garlands'. She looked extremely confused. Then Adam went over and gave her a really nice 'bouquet', thanks Adam. Thing is she honestly thought it was a decoration for the Bar and carefully placed at the bar front!
I went over to her and asked how she was, "everybody is so kind to me" she said. "That's because they like you and this party is for you" I said ......... no tears (I was expecting she would!) but lots of laughter ... she couldn't believe it.
Anyway, thanks to everybody that turned up on the night and of course a big THANK YOU to the staff at the Cherry Bar. We had a great time and partied till around 1:30am before barfining 4 girls (in addition to her best friend which I paid bar for and told to meet at the Cherry). Then 10 girls and I went off to 'sing a song Thai' ...... that's a Thai Kareoke. I'm sorry but I love them
The bar where Wan was working when we met had recently changed owner, and whilst the guy seems like a 'good guy' we decided against hosting the party there because a few of her 'friends' that still worked there have turned into devious jealous monsters.
We also, turned down the bar in Made in Thailand where her 'real best friend' works, again due to a change of manager.
Anyway, i'd avoided taking her to the Cherry Bar, because I regarded it as my place of refuge and 'off limits' to her, but what the hey, they throw a good party.
In the build up, I did take her there maybe 5 times so that she could get to know the girls a little and sure enough, pretty soon she was chatting away with most of them like 'old friends'. So I decided to go ahead and book a 'surprise' party for her and asked all of the girls to 'keep the secret'.
From what I know of Thai girls, keeping a secret isn't one of their strong points, so I decided to keep CC away from the bar for the intervening few days!
On the night, we turned up with her sister and sisters friend. I'd suggested taking them out for something to eat, but said I wanted to stop by the Cherry Bar first as a good friend was having a party
When we arrived, it was still pretty early (just after 8pm) so the girls had plenty of time to make a fuss of Wan by offering gifts of flowers and 'garlands'. She looked extremely confused. Then Adam went over and gave her a really nice 'bouquet', thanks Adam. Thing is she honestly thought it was a decoration for the Bar and carefully placed at the bar front!
I went over to her and asked how she was, "everybody is so kind to me" she said. "That's because they like you and this party is for you" I said ......... no tears (I was expecting she would!) but lots of laughter ... she couldn't believe it.
Anyway, thanks to everybody that turned up on the night and of course a big THANK YOU to the staff at the Cherry Bar. We had a great time and partied till around 1:30am before barfining 4 girls (in addition to her best friend which I paid bar for and told to meet at the Cherry). Then 10 girls and I went off to 'sing a song Thai' ...... that's a Thai Kareoke. I'm sorry but I love them
Covent Garden Area Bar Crawl
Category: FLB Bar Crawl, Added: May 04, 2007, Add comment
The choice was Soi 1 / Soi 2 or Made in Thailand Beer Bar Complex or Covent Garden Area just off Walking Street. A 'not so narrow' vote was won by the Covent Garden Area and after our free Pizza supplied by hosts Martin & Ricky of the FLB Bar, we were led off by Adam from the Cherry Bar.
It's only a very short stroll from the FLB to our first port of call, 'The Rolling Stone 2 Bar', and seeing as the rain had departed for the time being, pleasant enough.
Despite this being only the first bar of the night, one of the 20 or so members on the crawl was so taken with his hostess that the descision was made to pay a 'barfine' for her straight away. She changed and joined the rest of on the walk to the next venue, Catz A-Go-Go.
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