It may come as a surprise to some that Pattaya is not about what the stereotypes make it out to be.  As the weekend was proving, you can make it to be whatever you want.  This was to continue on Sunday morning where some friends invited me to church.  Yes, such places exist here, but when I walked in there was a bit of confusion:  it seemed more like a nightclub.  Maybe you can't escape the Pattayan stereotypes after all.  Apparently some Korean DJ team had made a guest appearance and did a live performance inside a church.  If you didn't know any better, you couldn't tell the difference from a club.

This was quite the surprise, and yet again we've seen fitness gyms also take on this kind of nightclub hybrid role.  A good example of that is in Dallas Texas where, unfortunately, there wasn't time to check it out on my previous trip but remains high on my list for a future trip.

Well it was becoming clear what tonight's plan would be:  scope out more of the nightclubs in Pattaya.  

Before that, there were more preparations needed to be done for the buyer arriving tomorrow.  I decided against taking out stuff from the condo and decided to just leave whatever was there as a gift for him.  After all, the focus has always been on minimalism.  If there is stuff left behind, let him make the most of it.

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I then slept all afternoon in my condo, acutely aware that the time was ticking down to a matter of days and hours before I wouldn't be here anymore.  In a way it felt like letting my baby go to someone else's care after the kid grew up.  It was an incredible 10 year journey.

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Then it was time for another nap before hitting the nightclubs.  Why I didn't do this in all the 10 years of having a condo in Pattaya was beyond me.  I felt like a complete moron for not having taken advantage of so many other opportunities that the city had to offer in all the trips I had come here.  In particular, 2015 was the most wasted opportunity when I stayed in the condo to inaugurate it.  For over a month in July I simply went to the same places everyday and didn't venture to explore or try out new things.  Condo pool, beach, same cafes and restaurants, same bar street.  It was boring because I made it so.  And now it was becoming painfully obvious, there is so much more to Pattaya than the usual traps.  All it took was a trip this time where I purposefully tried out new approaches and new strategies and was completely blown away by the results. 

And of course, all this happens when I'm just about to sell the condo.  I have big doubts if I'll ever come back here.  With all the new things I'm trying in my life, the key 7 words are:  Why wasn't this done 10 years earlier?

But still, I was learning to explore my city and get familiar with all the ins and outs of this mecca at the very end of the time with this condo.  It was both bittersweet, a feeling that I'm so stupid for squandering opportunities, and yet realizing how much I've grown in this journey with the condo and learning what I can do better for the future.

So with these thoughts on a Sunday night I got on my bike and made a plan to hit every single nightclub on Walking Street.  It wasn't hard to find the first one, after all you could enter from a myriad of back alleys and the whole thing was only a 1.2km bike ride from my condo.

With that in mind, I decided to take 1000 baht cash at a time and if I needed refills I would simply bike back to the condo and take more.  That strategy proved to be a lifesaver.  Each drink in the club was about 200 baht each and I conserved by ordering vodka sodas.  These are the among the lowest calorie drinks you can buy and I paced them out about once every half hour or so.  

The first club was all live band cover music and I just simply danced and got into the music and couldn't give a shit if I was there by myself or not.  I wasn't there to hit on anyone or buy people drinks or any of that crap, just dance and enjoy the life.  One of my best friends in Shanghai said this is exactly how you do it.  You either go to the clubs with friends or you by yourself and make friends while you're there.

Unfortunately while I was totally getting into this at the second club I was pickpocketed out of my last 200 baht.  This was discovered while trying to order another drink and there was no money.  I resolved to be more careful the next time but also super thankful that my small budget cash strategy had saved my ass.  I then biked back to the condo and got another 1000 baht.

The next club I talked to the security and explained what happened at the last one.  It was another live music venture.  He gave me the gesture to say "I'm watching you" and he wanted me to just go dance and enjoy the music without worrying about pickpockets and all that shit.  Later on I sat down at a table and started talking to him.  At some point I asked him the question that had been on my mind for years about Thailand.  I knew very much that sanuk was a fundamental part of Thai culture but I wasn't yet sure why.  So I simply asked, "Why are the Thai people so good at finding ways to have fun in life, in both the big and little things?"  He positively beamed at that and went on to explain.

He said, "Life is short and we are not guaranteed about what happens tomorrow.  So we need to enjoy life and we are very good at that.  Thai people are blessed to live in the land which we do.  We live in peace and have not had colonial powers take over.  We are very proud of that.  If you study the Thai flag you will notice that the white represents the peace and purity which we strive to live in and we believe that a divine angel protects this land.  All around us is conflict.  Just look at Myanmar.  The red of the Thai flag is the bloodshed that was fought for the freedom in which we live.  We are not perfect.  Things are still a mess here.  Look at the darkness of the last ten years.  We just had an election and Thailand is getting better, but we don't know the future.  We need to enjoy the present moment today and not worry about tomorrow.  So that's why we have fun"

His answer explained a ton.  Interestingly he said nothing about the blue which is the monarchy.  But he was completely correct that life is short and we can't get back the time.  

I then continued to enjoy the live music and gave him a nice tip for watching out for me.

Later I went to one club after another.  The highlight was Myst Club which was absolutely packed and this was well after 2am.  Eventually though I had to call it as there was a business meeting the next day.

At that point later at night on my bike ride back, the words of the security came back to haunt me.   "We can't get back the time"   "Life is short"  My mind immediately went back to the Shanghai lockdown where that time will never be gotten back.  They had taken life from us and I was going to take it personally.  Not only they had ruined the lives of 25 million people, they had ruined mine too with a traumatic memory that I can't shake no matter how hard I try.  And for what?  To contain a hyper contagious virus that by April 2022 had already mutated to the Omicron variant which was even less potent than influenza.  I should know because I had both.  

The lockdown was never about the virus at all.  It was about control and a practice round for what the Chinese government could do next.  Most other people I know are trying to move on by pretending it never happened, and it fits with the fact that we're never going to hear an apology from the government over this.

At that moment I resolved that I would exact revenge for what they did to us in the lockdown:  in my own way, at my own time, and in a way nobody would expect.  But it would become a life priority.