Pattayan Sun

     The sun is shining so bright- every day- brighter and brighter! It has warmed me and I am simply glowing!
     Thailand has something special- it's not only the hot weather, nice beaches and kind people- it's like here the time flows differently- quicker and with fewer stress.
     I am so happy that I am here- I strongly recommend to everyone to come to Thailand- it's an unbelievable experience!
     Here are some photos:

     As about the tournament, I managed to win yesterday from a young WFM from China. You can see the game here:


     I play against an unrated Indonesian with a 2384 performance today. I hope to have a good game :)

P.S. A big interesting photo report with the rating favorites of the tournament to follow! ;)

Walking Street

     My Thailand experience continues and I am simply thrilled!
     It is a pity that the tournament doesn't go that well too, I made 2 draws against some weaker opponents, but I guess that one can't have it all. I try my best during the round, but it seems that draws have been the best lately...
     I went on the famous "Walking Street". It is so lively and full of "walking" people :))) There are a lot of bars,cabarets,pubs and clubs- all kind of places to make one feel good.
     Some friends of mine and I went to a rock pub with a Thai band playing live. They were amazing! We had a lot of fun listening to them :D Here is a video of the band and some photos:

Walking Street!

Some Octopus perhaps? It was really nice!

"The Hungarians"

Carting you say?

Welcome to Paradise

Levente Vajda, being among the leaders of the tournamnet with 4,5p/5

Czebe Attila

Enjoying a ride on the local cab :)

xoxo from Pattaya! ;)

So far so cool

     I am in love with Thailand!
     There've been played 2 rounds and I've got 2p out of 2. It's a double round today, so there's another game to follow in the afternoon.
     I went out for diner with some friends yesterday night and it was very cool! The city is only getting livelier at night. We tried some thai food and this time I didn't have any "chilli experience" :D I also tried a thai beer- "Chang" and it's actually not bad at all- I liked it more than the Romanian ones.
     When returning to the hotel, we found ourselves on a street with bars called "Roxy", "Red Light",etc-all pretending to offer massage... I guess it was something else meant :))) It was quite funny to look at the "ladies" standing in front of all that bars and guessing weather they are men or women :D
     A torrential rain caught us still walking then and when we finally got to our hotel we were looking like we took a shower all dressed up :)))
     Here's the game I played this morning:

     Thailand can't be compared to anything I've seen before. It's an unique experience and I am so excited that I still  have 9 days to enjoy it!

xoxo from Pattaya ;)

Thailand

     Thailand... I don't have enough words to describe how much I like it! You can judge by yourself- here are some pictures:

Pattaya City

Our hotel's inside garden

Local traffic

Irene Sukandar, my roommate :)

Dusit Thani Resort- the place we're staying at

     The tournaments starts today, at 3.30 pm local time. I hope to play as good as I feel here :D

xoxo from Pattaya ;)


   

The chilli experience

     There've been some very interesting 36 hours!
     I am writting from Pattaya- a nice resort in Thailand, but the story begins in Bucharest.
     I am in Thailand for a chess tournament-the 13th BCC Open- you can see the official site of the event here: http://bangkokchess.com/events-calendar/13th-bcc-open-2013  I decided to visit London on my way there- a quite weird decision if to think that it was on the opposite direction with my destination :))), but I definitely don't regret it. I had an amazing day in London- went for a ride on the London Eye, walked around through the rain- yeah, raining in London-what a surprise!

Enjoying a ride on the London Eye

      All in all, I had a really nice time in London! I went back to the airport afterwards and slept during my whole 11 hours flight to Bangkok :))) I didn't even feel how all that time passed!

      Arriving in Bangkok, I was very worried about the "visa procedure", but it turned out to be just a formality- so I easily passed the passport control (btw, the woman who put a stamp in my passport was wearing a Hawaian shirt :)))) and went for my bus to Pattaya. It took me about 2 hours to get to the hotel, where I was welcomed by the organizer- Mr. Kai Tuorila. I was shocked when I saw the hotel- there's a garden in the lobby- a huuuge one and the room is really nice. There were all kind of unusual fruits waiting for me there; yes "were" is the right word, because I've already eaten all of them :)))

      I went with some local friends of my roommate-Irene Sukandar- for diner in the city and I had "the chilli experience". I was eating some rice with all kinds of sea food- being really proud of myself (everyone was wondering how I-an European- can eat such a spicy food) until I tried a soup- it tasted really nice- the problem came when I tasted a green thing that turned out to be chilli- I literally started to cry, my tears seemed unstoppable and I thought that my brain will be blown away :)))) I somehow survived and I hope that "the chilli experience" will be the only thing to cry about during my stay in Thailand!

     Some photos from Pattaya will follow the next days, until then- here you can see the starting list of players: http://chess-results.com/tnr94564.aspx?lan=1

   

     Gone for some more fruits :)))

xoxo from Thailand ;)