Lukdod – the cheapest shopping in Pattaya!

Shopping in Pattaya is a good relaxation and it's everywhere. There are thousands of shops, big, small, modern or modest, department stores, supermarkets, street vendors and markets. The most interesting big stores are: two UK’s superstores Tesco-Lotus, based one on North Pattaya Road, just east of the Dolphin roundabout and the other out on Sukhumvit Road at Moo 12 and Thai’s answer to foreign superstores - Big C which based in Central Festival Centre and one on South Pattaya Road at Sukhumvit Road. Look at Map of Pattaya and Jomtien and Economy Class Vacation in Pattaya. Between Beach Road and Second Road you can found Mike Shopping Mall with five floors of shops and many stalls on the ground floor. Small shops and stalls are everywhere. You can buy anything you want but pay from 50 to 500 THB for the same souvenir. Of course prices in the Central Pattaya are bigger then in my favorite Jomtien. But if you want to return home with some of the country's wonderful handicrafts and don’t want to loose your time (and your money) for long disputes with Thai salespeople – go to the Lukdod shop. It base 209/10 Moo 6 North Pattaya Road – ten minutes for a walk from Pattaya bus station. All of those baskets, jewellery, handbags, rags, wall-hangings and other consumer goods which you saw on the Beach Road here you can buy more chipper. Because Thai sellers are taking some of there merchandise from Lukdod. All of my visits to Pattaya I spend two ours and $100-200 for a big backpack with all kinds of Thai souvenirs: wooden elephants, crocodilian belts, skate’s handbags, elephant’s shit notebooks. And everybody at home knows – don’t ask me about souvenirs because elephant’s shit happened!
Alien vs. Predator – it’s my son’s best souvenir.

Why I choose the Jomtien beach

I choose the Jomtien beach because I can have all I want in this place. If I want to eat excellent Thai food, I can ask my beach mistress and after 15 min I have Tom Yam – spicy and sour soup with shrimps forTHB 100. If my wife wants to drink her favorite Pina Colada – I pay THB20 for cold coconut and THB75 for a small bottle of Thai whisky and she is OK. Three minutes to go to Seven Eleven and one to make a cocktail. I can leave my cameras and computer on the beach without any problems - my beach mistress is very attentive. One-mile walk – and we can talk to my Indian friend about making silk suits for us. I swear with my traveler's honor – we paid $240 for three good suits of Kashmir silk last year! And my son - a crazy teen – has been wearing his so far. There are a lot of speed boats near Jomtien – you can visit Monkey Island or others. There are many other tourists and while my wife was talking about visiting Alcazar Show or Nong Nuch Garden I could visit the Walking Street with my favorite Go-Go bars. It takes ten minutes and costs THB10 (without bargirls). There are many Thai style restaurants, some with nice designe, good menu and low prices. And the major point is that the sea near Jomtien is not very dirty! I can swim there. Or how else I must answer the question – why I sit by the sea.

During my first visit to Pattaya when I was 40 years old I had a big depression. Forty is the bad age for a man! My friends and I stayed in the Asia Hotel in Budha Hill. And what I saw first was a sunset above the beautiful tropical island. This fantastic view killed my depression! Then we had many crazy experiments. The first case happened when a Thai girl we took in the Walking street turned out a lady-boy! Then my smart phone and some money disappeared with her-him . We got drunk on our first day in Pattaya! But I was so happy because I was in Paradise!