This photo of my photoalbum was taken in Okinawa.

Pattaya Beach
Whilst Thailand has some of the world's most beautiful beaches, Pattaya's is not amongst them. Despite recent efforts to improve the beach,it remains in a sorry state. At high tide the beach is, in places, less than a meter deep. Pattaya Beach is situated along the central city in close proximity to shopping, hotels and bars. The over-abundance of jet-skis and speedboats has contributed to the pollution of the water along Pattaya Beach, as has the sewage outlet at the end of the pier. The section of beach from Central Road (Pattaya Klang) south to the harbor is adjacent to the core of Pattaya's abundant nightlife area, hence it is less family-oriented than the North Pattaya, Na Klua and Jomtien beaches. Most sections of the beach are covered by rented deckchairs run by local beverage vendors during daylight hours so finding an available spot of sand is rather difficult and also unadvisable due to the poor condition (dog faeces etc.) of the beach. Visitors are advised to avoid the beach after dark. Although the Beach Road itself is busy and brightly lit, some criminal elements find the unlit beach useful as a cover for their activities. The local police have started to target this area in various ongoing clampdowns.

Pattaya is a city in Thailand, located on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand (12°55′39″N, 100°52′31″ECoordinates: 12°55′39″N, 100°52′31″E), about 165 km southeast of Bangkok in the province of Chon Buri. It is one of the largest centers of tourism in Thailand, with some 5 million visitors arriving in 2004. Tourists visit Pattaya for many reasons including luxury hotels, beautiful beaches, friendly people, excellent shopping, reasonable prices and a wide variety of nearby tourist attractions. Others come for the world renowned nightlife. The city had 101,378 registered inhabitants in 2007. This figure excludes the large number of Thais who work in Pattaya but remain registered in their hometowns, and many long-term expatriate visitors.

When Europeans began to explore the islands they encountered several indigenous populations living at a Neolithic level of technology. Although the history of the settlement of the Canary Islands is still unclear, linguistic and genetic analyses seem to indicate that at least some of these inhabitants shared a common origin with the Berbers of northern Africa. The pre-colonial inhabitants came to be known collectively as the Guanches, although Guanches was originally the name for the indigenous inhabitants of Tenerife. The islands were known to the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans, and are mentioned in a number of classical sources. Pliny the Elder describes a Carthaginian expedition to the Canaries, and they may have been the Fortunate Isles of other classical writers. Although largely forgotten in the Western world until their rediscovery, they may have been visited occasionally by Arab and Mediterranean travelers in the Middle Ages.