Tomorrow I travel by bus back to Bangkok for a few days before flying on to New Delhi, so time for another update...

Pattaya itself is an unexciting city completely dominated by the tourist industry. It has the usual collection of Shopping Malls, Restaurants and Bars, Currency Exchanges, etc. I visited Pattaya both during the day, but also at night when the place really begins to come alive. My guide book sums it up when it says "The city swarms with male and female prostitutes, spiced up by a sizeable population of transvestites, and plane-loads of Western men flock here to enjoy their services in the rash of hostess bar-beers, go-go clubs and massage parlours". In many ways, it is tourism gone wrong. On the evening visit I took wandered along Walking Street - a pedestrianised area close to the beach where the main item on sale is sex. Perhaps the oddest thing was seeing that intermixed with this was the odd shop such as a 7-eleven and MacDonald's.

The other thing that stood out, perhaps more here than anywhere else I've been, is the number of couples consisting of an older Western guy and a younger Thai partner - and I don't just mean couples for the night. Often these are family groups with babies and children. On one hand I might argue so what - does it matter how people find happiness? On the other hand, if it was just about people mixing to find happiness, then I might have expected to see similar numbers of Western ladies with Thai guys, or even just similar aged couples. I wonder if one aspect may be that the Asian culture is much less confrontational, and that some Western guys are intimidated by Western women that feel the need to fight to achieve their due equality. (I also wonder how many people I've managed to offend with this remark.)

One last observation on Pattaya in general is the prevalence of Russians. In the Philippines, it was Korean tourists, but in Thailand and particular Pattaya, it is full of Russian tourists. For example, the hotel menus given entries in Thai, English and Russian for each dish. I would guess that 90% of the occupants of the hotel are Russians. Back to the guide book: "More recently, there has been an influx of criminal gangs from Germany, Russia and Japan, who reportedly find Pattaya a convenient centre for running their rackets in passport and credit-card fraud, as well as child pornography and prostitution." I'm sure that everyone at the hotel are just families on holiday like me, but just occasionally, in the restaurant, it can feel like you are sitting in the middle of a Mafia gang.

The highlight of my week here was yesterday when I visited the Elephant Village. There are about 30 elephant on site, drawn mainly from the elephants who used to work in things like the timber trade, but also from elephants exploited in the tourist trade. There was also a 6 month old baby born at the site - cute as can be. I did the Combination Trekking tour which consisted of:

• 1 hour on Elephant back wandering around the park;

• 20 minutes on a guided foot walk;

• a short visit to a silk house;

• 20 minutes on a raft/house boat being pulled by hand across the lake;

• 20 minutes in an Ox-cart back to the start;

• Lunch before the return back to the hotel.

The elephants where great - completely tame and very friendly. They are bribed by small bunched of bananas that you can buy for about £2. I was trying to feed the baby, but Mum got most of them. Mum was like a hoover sweeping up everything on offer, while the baby was still learning its trunk co-ordination. I never realised how hairy elephants are; the babies hair was like a wire brush. It was a really nice day at a slower pace of life. It struck me that 250 years ago, these elephants and ox-carts where as good as it gets for local transport. Things as fast as steam trains must have looked like magic when they arrived.

Most of the rest of my time has been spent around the hotel. After the buffet breakfast, the toughest decision is which pool to laze by. The first splash pool is closest to my room, but the second also offers a pool-side bar serving very nice cocktails. The third pool is down by the beach and boasts a nice café, but it is also the most exposed to the sun (the weather here is much better than it was in Ko Samui). Lunch and Dinner can be taken in any of the 4 restaurants with a wide variety of offerings. To help alleviate the stress of these difficult decisions one can always get a massage at the spa, but do you go for just a facial or a full traditional Thai massage. Oh my God - will the opportunities for self indulgence never cease!