Viking Hotel

Scuba Diving

by ratherton

Mermaids s the only PADI 5 Star dive centre in Pattaya. Every day, you have the choice of regular dive sites or wreck diving.

The diving in and around Pattaya isn't brilliant due to the low visibility. Apart from that, if you chose Mermaids, everything else is first class.

As well as recreational diving, they offer training and equipment repairs. All services and prices are on their website.

If you are diving in Pattaya, you should definitely consider Mermaids. I can't comment about their rental gear as I took my own but if it's to the same standard of everything else in Mermaids, then there will be no problems renting from them.

Taxis to Pattaya from Bangkok

by cbhuta

We asked several people and travel agents in Bangkok about hiring a taxi to Pattaya from our hotel. We got rates between 1600-2500 Baht for a mini-bus for the 4 of us. Luckily, we spoke to a bellboy in our hotel who arranged it for 1000 Baht + toll (which comes to a 100 or so more). So try not to pay anything more than that for a one-way trip to Pattaya.

Fresh seafood, yes... but...

by shelnlin about King's Seafood

King's Seafood kind of makes me think this kind of place is fit for a King who wants to dine on nothing but beautiful and succulent seafood...

Yep Seafood is beautiful (well I love it anyway), Seafood is great eaten fresh, Seafood is great when it is cooked well and Seafood is great when you have great surrondings to eat your Seafood in.

King's seafood has all this but why I do not know, why did I get a real sick stomach within half an hour of leaving this place? I enjoyed the food, the service was good, the soup tasted great and the atmosphere was under the stars. So why did I get a sore tummy after such an enjoyable experience. Maybe it was a bit to hard to see, maybe the lighting could have been a bit brighter, maybe my stomach just didn't want seafood that night which was sad for something it usually loves. I enjoyed eating here, but I think that what I did find was that the food was perhaps a little raw in places and maybe it may not have been steamed for as long as it should. Make sure that your food comes out piping hot for one thing and being seafood make sure it is cooked throughly. It was a nice place to dine in but I was a bit disapointed when my stomach didn't appreciate it and it left me somewhat hungry afterwards. If something is not right, send it back. I couldn't see anything wrong with it when it arrived but with seafood one does have to be careful anywhere they go so I am not going to put this place down, it is probably usually a good place to dine and my stomach just couldn't take it all in. Wherever I go in Thailand, I always order a Tom Yum Goong. This soup is a combination of hot and sour flavours and is great when it is made with seafood. Depending on your tastes you can ask for it to be made mild (not too spicy) or Spicy which by the way can be very hot if not very firey to most Westerners palates. Check out my Homepage for the recipe of this beautiful Soup under Shelnlin's International Cookbook.

Parasailing

by voodo0

Para sailing behind speed boat, is a total kick, I mean your up there flying like a bird. The the wind in your face, ocean below your feet and nothing but sky above, what can I say. This activity is not for the faint at heart, when you come down your adrenalin will be pumping. What a rush. Cost for this little attitude adjustment 300 Bahts. The trip may only last about a minute, but the after affects go much longer than that.

Pattaya Tales

by Daveo679

"Pattaya Life"

I moved to Thailand nearly 6 years ago after becoming stale in England with not many prospects for much excitement any more,
I had been a few times on Holiday and quite fancied a go at living in Thailand.
The added bonus was that I had met a Thai Nurse working in UK and we lived together for 2 & half years in England and although she did not really want to return to her native country at that time, I wanted to give it a try.
So in 2004 I left England giving myself a year to see what happened, I was however pretty determined for it to work as the constant reminders of life in UK those days working to pay bills and feed clothe and house Immigrants.
So I started travelling around Bangkok and all over Thailand with my Wife, she was from Chaing Mai in the North of Thailand which is a beautiful area but it became quite obvious after only a few weeks that she did not want to stay and quite obvious that I did so we parted quite amicably so this made me even more determined for it to work as if I returned to England I would be back to living alone.
I started doing some Voluntary Teaching near where I was living which I enjoyed immensely and could quite see the possibility of taking that up professionally but at the back of my mind I did not want to be tied down to a 9 to 5 type job as I had been used to working for myself for a number of years back in England.

It was a great experience with the children and Teachers and a fantastic way of learning about Thai people & Culture, it was so heart breaking leaving the School and all the children but I would recommend anyone having time on their hands to do something such as this.
So as my first year in Thailand started closing in I had to think about my future here, I had met a Thai Teacher who was working in the International School here in Pattaya and we became friends and I decided to move from BKK to Pattaya as I started thinking about a future in the Tourist industry here in Pattaya.
I began looking around for somewhere to live and started doing my home work on Pattaya as a whole, There were as there are now plenty of opportunities to make a life here and I decided to buy a bit of a run down building and renovate it to either sell it later or rent it out.
First I set up a company in my name so I could buy a house which I did out by Mabrachan Lake then I purchased a shop house in Soi Chaiyapoon and set about the renovations, it was hard work to start with as my wife although can obviously speak Thai she had no experience in dealing with Builders or tradesmen.
But we muddled through and after a few doors being put on the wrong way round and silly things like that we got it all done.