In my youth it was quite normal to drink to oblivion. We would go to parties and buy a six pack of beer, or if we were trying to be really tough buy some cheap spirit. I never could drink white spirits and I’ve never liked cheap whisky, so for the most part it would be beer. If you could afford it you could buy Breaker Malt liquor,  it tasted like shit but you got pissed and got some Brownie points for being able to do so. As we got older we could go to the pub and drink legally and even before we were 18 we would go and spend £1 on 3 pints of beer and a cigar. We were sophisticated you know. 

The Cochrane House Hotel was our training ground and I could not begin to tell you how much I drank or how many times I staggered home from there and that was just one venue. I’ve never been able to drink in the afternoon or the morning for that matter.Mind you I have done a few times over the years but I was young and stupid then. Now I’m just a little older and a little more wiser.  My body will rebel quite violently if I consume too much booze and so I think there is a time in life also that you realise that there is more than just drinking and partying all night,  but this is not Pattaya.

From early in the morning you will see the old guys starting their day with a beer and settling in fur another hard day at the office. After only a few days here and seeing what takes place at the Condo I’m staying at,  it doesn’t seem to be unusual at all. The same folk each night dong the same thing. Mind you they might be just tourists like me but they also look very familiar with their surroundings which makes me think that they live here. 

So this seems to be the way of Pattaya. You will get the tourists coming and going and doing their thing but there are many expats that just seem to party like there’s no tomorrow. I sometimes wonder what it might be like to live on such a basic and simple existence and of course I’ll have a beer when I’m travelling but God I get bored so quickly. I enjoy having a drink with friends and having a laugh but soon the body will begin to tell you that enough is enough.