l the drinking on this trip, it had to be offset with long bike rides and fitness classes even if I didn't feel like it.  

So it was more or less a rinse and repeat of the last run through the hills.  This time I took a more northerly route and happened to pass by a different international school.  You guessed it, I remembered the name and fired off the resume.  If I actually got a reply, then maybe I wouldn't sell the condo.  

Along the way back I happened to find a hidden beach with an old US Air Force jet nearby.  This helped jog my memory of how Pattaya began in the first place.  It was all due to a US military base used for flying missions in the Vietnam War.  The Thais, being the friendly and enterprising people that they are, they set up businesses to cater to what the military needed.  The Thais were also more than happy to provide logistics support since they also faced the immediate threat at the same time with the Khmer Rouge.  

Indeed I recalled some stories that locals shared on previous trips where a hill was named somewhere near Buri Ram that people literally spilled blood to stop the Khmer Rouge from invading.

One thing you have to understand about communism is that it's expansionary by nature, and thus needs to be contained.  The Khmer Rouge were not content to just let their own people suffer, they wanted to take over Thailand as well.  The Thai people faced very real threats at that time and well, the US Air Force were the world police to deal with such threats.

Sadly, it doesn't look to be so simple anymore.  The threats that the free world faces now are a lot more complex.  The US would be stretched very thin militarily to deal with all of them at once, which is more or less what's happening.  Ask yourself how they could have the resources to handle conflicts in the Middle East, Ukraine, and Taiwan all at the same time? 

But Thailand remains the great place that it is thanks to those who fought back the invaders.  Pattaya has that connection and will always have a special place in my heart.  

Can we also dare ask when Ukraine also manages to fight off the invaders?  Can they do it without US aid?  When that happens, after the initial reconstruction, there will be an absoutely massive econoic and tourist boom.  You gotta read the tea leaves and see where this thing is going.