Day 98 of OBO (7 December 2007)... Shopping and Red Light District

It's a Friday... The mission is almost over... Well, today, we went to the orphanage in the morning... As usual, I was with Nut... He was left alone on the mat when I entered... So I picked him up... He played for a while and then fell asleep on my shoulder... After a while, I put him in his cot... After the orphanage, we went back to the centre for lunch...

After lunch, we gathered to go shopping... We went to Mike shopping centre... Nat and a few others didn't go 'cause they went to the drop off centre to play with the kids there... Anyway, Nino and I went together... We walked around the whole shopping centre... There was nothing much to buy there... Everything was quite expensive... So after a while, we went to get a drink and then went back to the meeting point to wait for everyone... We headed back to the centre for mass and dinner... I was so tired that I actually slept during mass... *oops*

After dinner, we went out again to the shopping malls... But this time, we were going to walk through the red light district of Pattaya... Before the walk, we went to the Ripley's Haunted House in one of the shopping malls there... It was an experience from hell! Quite literally... Well, we went in groups of about 9... In my group, there were the IJ girls, Fr Simon (the spiritual director of this mission), Maria, Nat, Nino and myself... Nino led the way since he was there last year... Behind him was me, followed by Maria, the IJ girls, Nat and Fr Simon... Well before we entered we were already screaming our heads off... But honestly, it was more of the screaming than the house itself that scared me most... Well, I was just glad that it ended...

Anyway, after the haunted house, we walked around the shopping centre for a while before meeting outside for the walk down the red light district... Well, like all group, we had a few late comers... Of course some of us were a little irritated by the lack of responsibility... Anyway, after they arrived, we started the walk down the lane... Well, it was quite an eye-opener... There were rather young girls, transvestites and pimps all lining the area... And, of course, there were the couples acting dirty with each other, the A-Go-Go Bars etc... The walk took about 30minutes... After that, we headed back to the centre...

Upon reaching the centre, I went to wash up and then went for another round of scaring myself... LOL... This time it was ghost stories... Although it's just stories, the 'scary' effect was still there 'cause the haunted house experience was still fresh in my head... After a while, I headed off to sleep... Well that was pretty much what happened... Most definitely an experience not to be forgotten...