An ordinary life in an extra-ordinary place
Archive for February, 2011
Next stop on our search for a decent cake shop was La Baguette, close to the dolphin roundabout in Naklua.
The decor is the opposite of the gloomy Nice Delice. Light, bright, white, with plenty of comfy chairs. The staff are friendly and the cake selection is extensive. But after a breakfast of almond croissants on a busy Sunday morning we decided to leave the cakes for another day.
And that other day was this morning and I can confirm that the cakes are damn fine. The only dampener on an otherwise excellent outing was the appearance of yet another cockroach; albeit a tiny one.
Never mind, La Baguette ticks all the boxes and we will be back.
Contact form now re-installed and moved to the right of the menu bar by my whizzo son.
Genuinej reports problems with making a comment; if you are experiencing same please let me know via the contact form. Details of problem and operating system would be useful.
The ladies polo tournament is an annual event and the name is a little misleading because not all the players are ladies. Each team can include one male player, almost always an Argentinian. In previous years this resulted in some spectacularly bad ladyboy impressions:
This year, sadly, there were no balloons stuck up shirts, but there were six teams of ladies and their token lady.
Best to hold onto that stick thing….
We made two visits to the excellent Love At First Bite cake shop in Chiang Mai; and whilst throwing down vast quantities of cholesterol, we pondered whether Pattaya offered anything similar. Only one way to find out…
Our first visit was to Nice Delice next to Friendship supermarket. It’s owned by a Frenchman so I have no idea how you are supposed to pronounce the name. Thought I might find out when we walked in and maybe someone would call out “welcome to Nice Delice!” in a cheerful voice; but that didn’t happen. In fact the staff just stared at us. No smile, no greeting; and not once during our visit did their grumpy demeanour change. Maybe it’s a French thing, but it is certainly not the normal service you receive in Thailand.
Maybe it was the decor; straight out of a crap 1980s disco. Dull red, patterned walls, garish signage and inadequate lighting. Enough to make anyone depressed.
The plan was to order breakfast, and then move onto cakes. My breakfast choice was coffee and croissants. The croissants were good, the coffee was bitter and was dumped on the table with no offer of milk or sugar; maybe it’s a French thing.
The general consensus was that the pastries were tasty, the drinks were variable, and everything else about the place was bloody awful. Any enthusiasm for moving onto the cakes disappeared when a cockroach was spotted, scuttling across the floor. We paid the stone-faced bitch behind the counter and left; never to return. They should change the name to Shit Delice.
On the way home we tried another place, Brew and Bake near the Excite Disco. Bright, fresh and staffed by a smiling young lady who served us excellent coffee and reasonable cakes from a rather limited selection. Not bad, but the hunt for a Love At First Bite replacement goes on.
After three years, Pattaya Days is overdue for a visual update. It’s also overdue for a content update; but you are stuck with me so that is not going to happen.
But here is the visual bit. Found a template which almost did the job; then handed it over to The Son who worked his coding magic. And after several minutes of hard labour; here it is.
Photos have more space, and if you want to avoid all the photo tech talk, just click on the “Life” menu. If you do want the photo tech, then there are options for that too; although I have not yet gone back through all the zillion posts to re-classify them.
I would like to thank The Son for making it work, and Pattaya city hall for removing the “City” sign on the hill and replacing it with a sign saying “Days”.
Let the bitching commence…..
We stayed in the Pak Hotel in Chiang Mai; a really friendly family-run hotel with great breakfasts (best Cinnamon rolls in the known universe). There was a corner with photos of previous guests; at night I thought it looked rather sinister, lit by a single weak light.
GF1 with Voigtlander 25mm at F0.95
Just up the road from Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai is the King’s winter palace. The buildings are not open the public, but there are acres (or rai if you prefer) of most beautiful flower gardens I have encountered in Thailand. Well worth a visit; but you have to phone first to make sure they are open.
GF1 with Voigtlander 25mm
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