Cape Dara Hotel Pattaya is a nice beach side hotel overlooking the ocean. Located halfway between central Pattaya and Wongamat beach. The hotel mini bus will ferry guests to the Dolphin roundabout where they can link up with the Naklua Rd restaurants or a Baht bus to Walking St.
Cape Dara Hotel Pattaya
There is something about polished hardwood floors that adds atmosphere in the tropics.
Cape Dara Resort Hotel Pattaya Coffee shop
I must admit I didn’t try out these stools, personally I prefer a chair that I can lean back in. 🙂
Ming Xing Chinese restaurant
This is a delightful restaurant which offers a daily Yum Cha for 499 Baht and the food was excellent.
Here is a mango desert served at Ming Xing Cape Dara Hotel Pattaya. Mango is without a doubt my all time favourite fruit.
Sandy beach
Wongamat & Cosy Beach Pattaya are located north & south of the main Pattaya beach and offer far better conditions than the very busy and noisy Pattaya beach. There are no noisy speedboats taking people para sailing and to the islands so it is much easier to relax and enjoy the warm waters of the gulf of Thailand.
Location
Cape Dara with the rather recognisable roof line is behind the Dusit Thani hotel which is the yellow and white building being repainted.
Thank you for visiting my Cape Dara Resort Hotel Pattaya photo blog. I forgot to mention they run a shuttle from the hotel to the Dolphin roundabout, from there you can take a baht bus along Beach Road to Walking Street.
Fabulous views, excellent restaurants & a very good room rate if you book through THIS LINK.
The building in the middle is the Holiday Inn, on the left is the Amari Hotel which is another very good five star hotel. Use THIS LINK to book for a very good room rate.
Sutus Court is a great budget hotel right i the heart of one of Pattaya’s main bar areas, just use THIS LINK for a terrific room rate. 420/100 Moo 9 Soi Buakhao.
This is the view from Horizons the amazing rooftop bar. A great five star hotel located opposte the beach & above the Central Festival shopping mall. Just book through THIS LINK for an excellent room rate.
Beach Club Pattaya Bay is a fantastic location to enjoy a cocktail or 3 and watch the sunset. You can swim in the ocean or the 2 beautiful swimming pools.
Relax with a cold beer
No doubt this is one of the best locations in Thailand, happy hour is 5 to 7 pm every day and the food is very good.
Tapas for lunch at Beach Club Pattaya Bay
This is a great spot to have lunch, swim and check out the eye candy.
Did I mention the sunsets
We have some wonderful sunsets in Pattaya.
Breathtakingly beautiful
Sunset over the gulf of Siam.
Beach Club Pattaya Bay Seafood Buffet
The seafood feast on Friday and Saturday night was initially priced at 999 Baht but I believe now it has become more expensive.
Do you have a sweet tooth?
A huge variety of beautiful deserts.
My Australian friends
The beach club is on of the first paces I take my friends who are on holiday from Australia.
Muay Thai World Champion
This is Nathan Corbett from Australia’s Gold Coast in Thailand training for his next title fight. He absolutely loved the Beach Club. Nathan has held 11 World Champion titlesin three different weight divisions, not only is he a champion fighter he is a very nice person.
Watching the sun go down while enjoying a cocktail.
Take a look at this photo, you could be anywhere in the world.
Beach Club Pattaya Bay
grab a chair, order a cocktail and take a swim in the pool or the bay.
Private tent
From memory you pay 1000 Baht or $30 usd to hire for the day, however if you spend the same amount on food and drink the tent is free.
Another view of the tents
Tents, what tents? I don’t see any tents. 🙂
Beach Club Pattaya Bay is a beautiful setting
As I said earlier you have the choice of 2 swimming pools of the sandy beach.
Centara Grand Lost City Pattaya or lost city Atlantis? They have created quite an extraordinary environment in the hotel grounds. Perfect for children to have fun.
Pools or beach, you decide.
TheCentara Grand is located on the beach so you can choose between a number of different pools or a nice sandy beach.
Is that a totem pole?
The hotel grounds are quite special, a fabulous place to take your children.
Elephants R Us.
The attention to detail is incredible, reminds me very much of some Las Vegas themed hotels.
For a great discount on rooms just book throughTHIS LINK.
A short walk along the beach to my favourite bar.
This is the Beach Club at the Pullman hotel, only about 200 metres along the beach. The best place in Pattaya to watch the sunset.
Centara Grand Lost City Pattaya
What a great place for kids to have fun, use this Agoda linkfor very good rates atCentara GrandLost City Pattaya. This is a rather expensive hotel as you can imagine, however book through THIS LINK and you are guaranteed an excellent room rate.
Kids paradise
Lot’s for the kids to do here.
Many places to explore
At the Centara Grand there is a surprise around every corner.
An imposing entrance
When you arrive at the door of Centara Grand Lost City Pattaya you just know this hotel is rather special.
Spectacular entrance
Most certainly one of the premier resorts in Thailand.
The Cove condo is beside Centara Grand
Beyond the Cove is Cape Dara Hotel.
A fascinating property
There are restaurants and coffee shops should you care to visit.
Copper elephants
As I said earlier it does remind me of Las Vegas.
Great design
Everywhere you look there is something interesting to see.
For a great discount on rooms just book through THIS LINK.
Fabulous views, excellent restaurants & a very good room rate if you book through THIS LINK.
The building in the middle is the Holiday Inn, on the left is the Amari Hotel which is another very good five star hotel. Use THIS LINK to book for a very good room rate.
Sutus Court is a great budget hotel right i the heart of one of Pattaya’s main bar areas, just use THIS LINK for a terrific room rate. 420/100 Moo 9 Soi Buakhao.
This is the view from Horizons the amazing rooftop bar. A great five star hotel located opposte the beach & above the Central Festival shopping mall. Just book through THIS LINK for an excellent room rate.
Manly Sydney beach-side suburb is one of my favourite places in Australia. Most visitors arrive by ferry from Circular Quay, a 30 minute journey which showcases the best harbour in the world.
A great place for drinks, food and lots of eye candy.
Cold beer beside the harbour
Sunday afternoon is a busy time at the Manly wharf hotel.
Old friend Paul Slaughter
We have enjoyed many Sunday afternoons drinking cold beer and watching the young girls pass by. Both of us fully realise at our age we are totally invisible to them. Ah! I’m so happy to be living in Pattaya. 🙂
Fish & chips at Manly beach
I was showing my friend Sue from Shanghai the delights of manly, so naturally we had to sample the famous fish & chips. 🙂
Sydney Circular Quay Manly Ferry is one of the most famous trips in this great city. I remember a slogan from when I was a child, “7 miles from Sydney & 1000 miles from care”. This was the slogan used by the Port Jackson & Manly Steamship Company in 1940 to describe Manly “Australia’s Premier Seaside Resort”.
Nice small hotel in a good location, for a great room rate just book through THIS LINK.
Docked at Manly wharf.
You can sit here and watch the ships roll in.
Lunch at Manly
Sue & I eating traditional fish & chips at Manly beach, and they said in the 40s, “7 miles from Sydney & 1000 miles from care”. 🙂 Thanks for visiting my Sydney Circular Quay Manly Ferry photo blog.
Please note, this is not part of my Travel Blog. It’s part of my personal history.
Tyrrel’s Hunter Valley
Sydney Melbourne Hunter Valley
Sydney Melbourne Hunter Valley in 1996 started on the Gold Coast where I was living life to the max. The highlight was a great road trip in my Porsche 928 with good friend Ross Kennedy to the Hunter Valley, Sydney, Falls Creek & Melbourne. Also caught up with an old friend from the Gold Coast Jill McCrossan, one very sexy lady.
Talking about sexy ladies
Well Emily certainly was in that category.
Please note, this is not part of my Travel Blog. It’s part of my personal history, check it out if you wish, also note this post contains nudity, so if you are bothered by naked humans please leave now.
Drinks at Saks
Drinks at Saks before going to the Ray White ball at the Sheraton Mirage. From the left we have a girl whose name I forget, then Phil (Swifty) Gregory, Claudia Scrupin, Duncan McGuiness, Emily and yours truly David Herd.
Little did they realise at the time but Swifty and Emily would marry and have a couple of kids.
Great photo, if I say so myself. 🙂
Such a beautiful big smile.
Saks was our main haunt
Saks was a great bar at Main Beach owned by Duncan McGuiness and Steve Solomon. Their main business was building upmarket housing estates. A couple of very nice guys who sadly went broke around 2011 and their company Solmac went into liquidation.
Saks with Eugene and Debbie. This was a memorable night at Saks, I watched as Plugger Lockhart kicked a famous point to put the Swans into the Grand Final.
One of the hottest babes in 1996
I met Donna Turnerin Sydney when she was 18 yo, even after various husbands and 3 or 4 children she still looks as hot as ever, especially in my kitchen. 🙂
Hot Hot Hot in Sydney Melbourne Hunter Valley
It is now 20 years later in 2016 and Donna is still a hot chick.
My favourite song from 1996
The technicolour team
Duncan McGuiness, Jim Bell, Ross Kennedy and David Herd.
At the polo
These two gorgeous babes were known as Lushy and Mushy, can’t remember their real names. 🙂
Ami and Alan Pearson.
Alan was a friend of mine when I lived in Adelaide in the 70s, he now earns his living as a musician in Airlie Beach.
Mami & Mariko
Two gorgeous Japanese girls who often called into my home in Upton St for drinks and fun.
I did mention fun didn’t I? 🙂 🙂 🙂
Everybody loves Tim Tams.
Billy James & Allison Schroeder
Billy was a well known Gold Coast real estate identity and Allison one of the sexiest chicks in town.
Allison 18 yo in in 1987
I was lucky enough to take Allison out a few times in 1987 my first year living on the Gold Coast. Although I was about 25 years older than her I used the “tried & true” technique, I promised her the world and bought her an atlas. 🙂
Visiting Tim in Sydney
Ross Kennedy and I took a road trip in my Porsche to Falls Creek for some skiing, stopping on the way at the Hunter Valley & Sydney. I knew about Rossco’s fascination with gangsters and the underworld so naturally I took him to meet Big Tim Bristow at his home in Newport.
Tim’s beast
We were there an hour or two listening to some of Tim’s stories most of which I had heard before many times. As usual Tim’s phone never stopped ringing, but there was one call Ross & I will never forget. Roger Rogerson was in many ways more notorious than Tim, he was known for being a ruthless crooked cop who shot first and asked questions later, the most famous case being where he shot and killed Warren Lanfranchi in a back alley in Chippendale.
Oaks Hotel with old friends
Derek Pugh, Ian Rich& Paul Slaughter, Pauls sister on the left and his girlfriend Clode on the right.
Falls creek, let the games begin.
We had a terrific few days, drinking too much and having some of the most spectacular falls ever seen at Fall’s Creek. Little did I realise after this 1996 adventure I would never ski again.
Melbourne
Drinks with Rossco’s friends in South Yarra, from the left Ross Kennedy aka “Shoeless Joe Jackson, David Herd aka “The Cincinnati Kid”, Craig Belcher and Johnny Mac.
Yum Cha in Chinatown
This gorgeous girl Jaqui O’Brien actually lived in my house for a few months in 1987, she then worked with me for a short time in 1998. A lovely lady until she had one drink too many, she then turned into a nightmare. Rossco came up with a classic name for her, “Jacqui Petrol”. 🙂
Rossco & DH
The high rollers have hit town. 🙂
On the subject of gorgeous girls
Meet Jill McCrossan, another super hot chick I was lucky enough to be involved with.
Felling no pain
I’m too sexy for my shirt. 🙂
A day at the beach in Coffs Harbour
We had a great couple of days at Tony Murphy’sapartment, the spa was excellent. 🙂
Both sides look great
A great view from every direction.
Meanwhile back on the Gold Coast
Natalina from the coast and Rodney Rosenfeld from Melbourne.
John Sinclair & John Cece
Both these guys moved from Adelaide to the Gold Coast, they were good friends and now mortal enemies. 🙂
Great fun in Manila
Here I am with Simone and Doug Ritchie in some club in Makati. 🙂
Pascal, Junko and Rene
Pascal was gorgeous girl, 1/2 French & 1/2 Vietnamese, Junko is the Japanese wife of my good friend Phil Thomson and Rene was a rather sexy Australian girl. 🙂
And the beat goes on
This is a rather significant photo, on the left is Larry Krausz, a good friend to all of us. It’s now 2017 and he is fighting a huge battle in Robina hospital on the Gold Coast. Larry suffered a major stroke on October 28th in Pattaya where he had been living large for almost a year. Our best wishes are with Larry, hopefully he will recover enough to lead a comfortable life.
Maybe one more look at Donna
Certainly one of the sexiest ladies ever to decorate my kitchen. 🙂
One more shot of lovely Emily
As you can see Emily was a total knockout.
New Years Eve at Mustang Sally’s.
One of my regular Main Beach haunts.
Farewell folks
Thanks for visiting my Sydney Melbourne Hunter Valley photo blog.
This colour coordinated guy shot past us like a guided missile. 🙂
This is more our speed
As you can imagine it is far too hot to walk the course.
Unless we meet one of these guys
Then we go faster, much faster. 🙂
Here we are Legends in our own lunch time
Duncan Paul, David Herd, Steven Bates and our sweet caddies.
Mitch Grosky goes straight up the middle
Mitch made it look easy.
Legends Golf Club Malaysia Mitch Grotsky
The course was magnificent.
Legends Golf Club Malaysia
Designed by Jack Nicklaus, The Legends is one of the toughest tests of golf in South-East Asia. Legends can be best described as dramatic and can always be found in excellent condition.
The original concept of this resort included three championship courses: one designed by Jack Nicklaus, one by Arnold Palmer, and one by Gary Player. Only the Nicklaus course and nine holes of the Palmer course have been finished, though. The Gary Player course remains in the planning phase.
The par-72, 18-hole Jack Nicklaus course opened to golfers in 1997. This 6,710-metre (7,338-yard) course features views of the neighboring palm oil plantation. Don’t be surprised if monkeys stop to check out your game on the back nine too.
Legends Golf Club Malaysia Lovely par 3
Legends Golf Club Malaysia is a beautiful course, if you are a golfer put it on your bucket list.
We almost had the course to ourselves
A guy called John Hallisey said “My worst day on the golf course still beats my best day in the office.”
Where else would you rather be?
We almost had the course to ourselves.
My lovely caddy
With two hole to go the storm came in and blew us off the course as so often happens in South East Asia.
Legends Golf Club Malaysia directions
Rated 16th best course in Malaysia, it,s hard to believe there are 15 better. 🙂
This is not a travel blog just a personal photo collection from 2000.
Bangkok Samui sexy babes
Bangkok Samui sexy babes in the year 2000. I spent New Years Eve two years in a row, 1999 in Samui for the millennium & in Pattaya NYE 2000. The millennium was special for me due to a brief romance with the Italian princess pictured above. He name in Barbara Manelli and she was hot, hot, hot. 🙂
This it not part of my travel blog, just part of my personal photo & travel history from 2000.
Thailand New Years Eve
Thailand New Years Eve This is how Chaweng beach looked early New Years Eve 1999, in fact my friends and I had dinner right there on the beach. The photo quality is terrible due to the early days of digital cameras.
New Years Eve 1999
It was a terrific night on the beach even though my whirlwind romance with Barbara aka Gypsy was over by then.
Barbara Manelli aka Gypsy.
Oh my! She was one of the sexiest most gorgeous ladies I have ever had the pleasure to be with. The affair didn’t last much more than a week but the memories will stay with me forever.
Be patient we will move on shortly. 🙂
The romance was short but sweet. 🙂
Even now in 2015 I still occasionally think of her with affection.
I stayed at the Relax Bungalows a few times and found them very comfortable on a quiet section of the beach. Still very cheap if you book through Agoda, between $50 and $60 per night.
Dr Evil and his two favourite ladies, Jane & Gypsy. In fact Jane was with me in Koh Samui in August 1999 when I first met Barbara.
My special three pack.
This is a special photo, only 6 or 7 times in my life have I been able to get 3 girlfriends in the one photo, priceless.
Bangkok Koh Samui sexy babes
So many girls and such little time.
One girl and two boys.
That’s Thailand for you, sometimes things can be very confusing. Of course one of the boys is Pothole aka John Martin, and he doesn’t care which one he winds up with. 🙂
Girls from Soi 33 Santana Bar
Soi 33 was one of the best areas for bars and restaurants.
John Sinclair loves Bangkok
My friend John in a familiar pose.
Bangkok girl called Dow.
What a gorgeous face.
Another Bangkok girl who’s name I forget
I do remember however that she was a very sweet lady.
Great shape in Bangkok
I am fairly sure she hits the gym. 🙂
Cold beers in Pattaya
Tony Murphy, Michael Dowd, John Sinclair, Rush and David Herd.
One final look at Gypsy
Barbara will always be one of the most exciting ladies I have ever known’ Many thanks for visiting my Bangkok Samui sexy babes photo blog.
This it not part of my travel blog, just my personal photo & travel history from 2002.
Two Thailand trips
Two Thailand trips in 2002, by my standards it was a very quiet year for travel. Shanghai & Beijing however gave me a great introduction to China. Digital cameras were in their early stages so the photo quality is very average indeed.
The photo above shows the team in Bangkok celebrating John Sinclair turning 60. From the left is John Martin aka Pothole, Michael Dowd, John Sinclair, Apple Pie, David Herd and Tony Murphy.
Happy birthday John
Birthdays seem to roll around so fast the older you get.
Christy’s in Soi 33 Bangkok
Soi 33 Sukhumvit in Bangkok.
Here was my choice.
That is a super smile.
This really needs no caption.
You gotta love Thailand.
Hit the road Jack
John Sinclair and Bruce Donnachie outside the Office in Soi 33, it is a terrific sports bar with lots of TVs and good looking staff.
Phung, aka Cleopatra
My favourite Nana Plaza girl, we met last year in 2001 and hooked up with each other for quite a few years until about 2009. I believe she found a sponsor and is living in Europe now.
The Bus Stop in Soi 4 Nana
Mike Dowd, David Herd, Pothole Martin and John Sinclair. Once again I’m so disappointed with the photo quality, early days of digital cameras. This was actually AFL grand final day 2002 when Brisbane Lions beat Collingwood.
The Office in Soi 33.
Even now in 2015 the Office sports bar in Soi 33 is still open.
Pothole Bin Ladin and Apple Pie.
Our regular village idiot with his new girl. When things became serious we were not allowed to call her Apple anymore, Champen was her name. 🙂 I really have to relay this funny story, Pothole took Apple to Australia a couple of times and they planned to marry. At that time in 2003 little did he realize she was actively managing 4 or 5 other suitors from Europe and America. He only discovered the truth much later after cracking into her Hotmail account.
Anyhow Pothole actually used some common sense (most unusual for him) and presented Apple with a pre nuptial agreement for her signature. Her assets were about $16,000 worth of jewellery that he had given her, his were way in excess of $1,000,000. This all happened on a Thursday night, then Friday he came home early from work to discover her jewellery laid out on the bed alongside a suicide note. I think I already mentioned that he was known as the village idiot, and in keeping with this image he raced up to North Sydney police station distraught and weeping, and pleaded with the local cops to help him find her. They came to his apartment, took photographs and asked many questions.
He called me during the day totally distressed and I gave him the following advice, I said “pack all her clothes etc in her suitcase, leave it outside the door and get your locks changed. Naturally my advice didn’t go down all that well. Much later that evening who should turn up all bright and bubbly, you guessed it, Apple Pie, aka Champen. 🙂 He of course forgave her and took her back, even after finding out she was in fact having a long lunch (and who knows what else?) with a friend of his.
Two things about Apple however, she was the best Thai cook I have ever seen, secondly she finally moved to England, married an ex cop and had a lovely daughter. The husband was awarded an MBE or similar around 2013 and Apple rolled up at the Palace with him when he received his award. Not a bad ending for a chick from Nana Plaza. 🙂
As I said previously, Pothole is known by many as “the village idiot”, but he is our village idiot and he has provided us with a huge amount of entertainment over the years. His final piece of stupidity in the above “Apple Pie” saga was showing her my texts and relaying the advice I gave him to her, consequently I had abusive phone calls from Apple indicating I was the villain in the whole fiasco. That’s our Pothole for you. 🙂
Master chef 2003
This girl could really cook Thai food. What a difference in photo quality in just one year.
From 2003
Sue on the right was one of my girlfriends from Shanghai, I took her to Sydney for a weekend. The other girl is Apple.
Bee from Bangkok on her 21st birthday.
Another funny story, I was drinking in the Big Dog bar in Nana plaza when this gorgeous little girl rolled up about 8pm to the hamburger stand in her pyjamas and slippers. She looked so cute I went and spoke to her, well to cut a long story short the next night we got together for her 21st birthday, you gotta love Thailand.
You saw Bee, well here is Beer. 🙂
Beer was a dancer at Rainbow 3 in Nana Plazaand a girl with a terrific personality.
Na was one of my favourite girls.
Another funny story, as you can see I met Na in a beauty salon in Soi 22 when she was giving me a pedicure. For a couple of years every time I came to Bangkok we would get together. Mostly she would arrive at my hotel around midnight after she finished work.
Lovely Na
Things were fine for a long time until one day she said to me “I can’t see you any more David”. I was very surprised and asked her “why not, have you found another boyfriend”? She said “no, I have found a girlfriend”. Looking back I guess this was a “George Costanza” moment, I had driven a girl to lesbianism. 🙂
John settles Murphy’s debt
Luk closed her shop for 10 days to look after one of our friends. When he left to go back to Australia he completely forgot to leave her any money (on purpose I might add). John Sinclair being the gentleman he is made sure she had enough to cover her expenses.
The result
Luk is a lot happier now.
Two Thailand trips 2006.
As I am so disappointed in the photo quality I have jumped forward to 2006 to show better shots of my favourite Bangkok girl Cleo.
Thanks for visiting my Two Thailand trips photo blog.
