The Road to Phan Thiet

After I went to sleep last night in Phan Rang, I had nightmares about what a whole day spent there could be like. I worried about scenarios like running into the restaurant owner that wanted me to party at his house or bumping into the Russian's who'd shared there rum with me. After a shot of the Hanoi vodka from the night before to calm my nerves, I packed up my stuff in a rush to prepare an escape south toward Phan Thiet. I wrote down the names and addresses of several hotels in Mui Ne in an effort to avoid yesterdays mistake, and made my way through the pouring rain to the front desk to get a cab.

view from my hotel room in Phan Rang

230 Fifth

On the roof of a building near the Flat Iron one can find 230 Fifth, the same place I spotted in my previous post. This place is tricky on the wallet, you've gotta show up early if you want to get a seat, and as it gets later the view of the city makes it difficult not to stay and order another highly marked up drink. That's how over the course of 3 hours I spent 100 bucks on wine and a plate of fish and chips. The view and atmosphere here are well worth a visit, however next time I come here I'm bringing a flask along with me.

view west

View Lounge @ Marriott Marquis

After getting of to a late start on exploration on this day, I chose to take it easy and track down a rooftop bar in the near vicinity. The Marriott Marquis can be found on 4th street below market, only about a mile from my temporary home, up on the 39th floor is the View Lounge. This place has two rooms with wide open windows opposing one another, looking to the east and the west. If you can manage to get a seat at one of these windows you'll be happy, however there's additional seating with second tier views in the smaller rooms around. I was happy with the slider appetizer I ordered, which consisted of one pulled pork, one chicken and one beef burger. The only downside to this bar is that you can tell it doesn't have any history right when you walk in, which is a nice feature of many bars and restaurants in San Fran. Either way, its worth checking out for the view.

View Lounge view east

South Of Pattaya

I decided to visit Sunset beach just south of Pattaya, on the way there the surroundings started to look more run down like I imagined Thailand. At sunset beach I found a restaurant surrounded by bungalows for 200 a night. The view from the place was great, as it was an isolated point on the coast.

Aer Bar / Sunset

I made an effort to go to the races today, only to realize there were no more races. I think they are wrapping up the season for monsoons, Instead I was able to get some pictures from atop the Aer bar looking down on the race tracks, and the other things below.