Seafood Chasers: Mae Ramphueng Beach, Thailand

Just a 20-minute drive away from the dazzling neons lights, blaring music and transvestite bacchanalia Pattaya there is an entirely different world, completely unknown to your red-skinned and pot-bellied package tour Joe.

Imagine a balmy tropical night: the dome of the starry sky and palm trees above your head, the warm sea lapping at your feet as you sit on a lounge chair sipping ice-cold beer. Today's catch that fishermen are unloading off their colourful long-tail boats ends up straight on the charcoals: palm-sized prawns, meaty crabs and juicy rock lobsters. Red snappers get promptly steamed in lime juice with chilies, garlic and heaps of fresh coriander. Red shrimp stick out of the earthenware pots with pungently fragrant tom yum. Bright plumes of fire dance underneath the giants woks where smiley Thai ladies stir-fry seafood rice. The clank of kitchen utensils and cooks' cheerful banter mix with the soothingly rhythmic sound of the surf.

This miles-long strand of white sand is virtually unknown to foreigners. The only white face you see here will be in a company of other Thais. This area does not know glitzy hotels and shopping malls like Pattaya but it is a huge hit with middle-class Bangkokians who flock here on weekends for fresh and delicious food, one third of Bangkok's price.

The Mae Ramphueng beach is dotted fishermen's villages who make their sole living from the makeshift seafood restaurant trade.