The hills around Pratumnak are some of Pattaya’s more pleasant locations. A look-out point across the city, a big Buddha, a small temple complex, and plenty of trees and bushes. No surprise then that City Hall decided to bugger it up by ripping up the greenery and building this:
Out with the trees and shrubbery, and in with concrete and metal walkways, inappropriate boulders, a children’s playground, and a horrible toilet block painted in a colour which is probably described on the tin as “rustic brown”, but would more accurately be described as “shit”.
Still, having ruined a perfectly good hillside, they might as well use it for something, and today it hosted a mountianbike (sic) race.
The racing was meant to start at 11:00, but the event actually got underway at nearly 12:00, because the major and assorted cronies arrived late and then spouted endlessly. Meantime, the competitors and, more importantly, me, were left to swelter in 37 degree heat. But finally the event was underway:
There were a hundred or so riders, some of them very young:
It was bloody hot, there were some steep climbs and I was a sweaty mess in no time at all. Must have been really tough for the competitors.
After an hour or so I had had enough. But the cyclists looked like they were in for a hard afternoon; the prize presentation alone would require several hours:
I did check if there was an award for the sweatiest photographer, but I was out of luck.
Comments 🔗
2010-04-25| Pete saysSpike, your spelling gets worse by the post. The hoarding quite explicitly says it was a ‘MOUNTIANBIKE CHALLENGE’. Let’s see you retro-actively photoshop that one …..
Nice pics though!
2010-04-26| Mike saysSpike,
Where is such a list that ALL the events around Pattaya are listed on some sheet of paper. Events at Big C @ central and 2nd road are hard to find dates and times. Singing groups at various bars and hotels are hard to find.
They want to be a International Tourist Destination then get something together like upcoming events for the week or month - maybe something like Las Vegas or Reno does would work.
Missed the Mountain Bike event - would have enjoyed watching this unfold as I jog there almost everyday.
2010-04-27| Spike saysPete, sorry about that. My photoshop skills are not sufficient to correct the banner, so I have changed my text instead.
Mike, I share your pain. I find out about most events after the event. There is no one place where you they list what is going on, not in English anyway. The mountain bike event was the subject of a monster hoarding on the winding road going up Pratumnak hill about two months ago. I made a note, which was just as well because the hoarding disappeared in March. It advertised to take place on Saturday and Sunday, with no location provided, so I drove around fruitlessly on Saturday. On Sunday morning I went to where they have the Pattaya Downtown bike event, but there was nothing there. Only by chance did I then drive past the hill.
This week’s challenge, find out more about this: Trading Co. will attempt to wash a row of 10,000 dirty plates stretching from the Dusit Thani Hotel to South Pattaya with a single 875cc bottle of Sunlight liquid detergent April 26-30. I called the Dusit Thani this morning, they know nothing about it.