18 October (cont) – Schnitzel and shooting

We returned to the hotel so P could make extensive use of the day spa (which she continued to do on subsequent days). I’ll admit that I did, too. It was literally a hop, skip and a jump from our room, and really cheap. I got a great massage and skin treatment out of it. Sure, I probably could have gotten the same on the beach or street but this was so much simpler.

For dinner, we headed up to Patong, which is kind of the equivalent of Kuta (for those who know Bali). The popular beaches, the tourist shopping, the bars, the red light district… and the ping-pong shows (seriously, be careful about that link). Anyway, we did none of that. Our driver, recognising that we were just out for dinner and not interested in any “action” dropped us off at Jungceylon, a large shopping mall with the promise of picking us up in a couple hours.

We wandered the shops for a bit, then settled on a german restaurant for dinner. For a total of about $30, we had drinks and two all-you-can-eat buffet meals of vaguely passable standard. And then I saw it: “First shooting range in shopping mall in Thailand.” Out of morbid curiosity and the need to prove something to myself about my convictions on gun control, I felt compelled to try it out.