Now they have 3 or more beaches in Ban Chang, Which is only about 45kms from Pattaya, Had Phala is the most built up one, this was mainly a fishing village but then they learnt about selling land to farangs and that farangs like things to look nice, so they have sort of split up the beach, the fishing folk have a safe blocked off harbour, ie there is a sea wall there, and they have left the nice bit for people to enjoy themselves.
There are 2 main restauarants opposite the beach with seating on the beach, the "Krug Krun" whatever that may mean and the "Pala Seafood restaurant", No that is not my spelling mistake, they got 20 signs to where Phala beach is and this restaurant decided to spell it differantely.
Now thinking about it it is a million times better than Jomtien or Pattaya as at least they have a public toilet there, so not everybody is pissing in the sea, it does make you wonder though why they can't manage to fit public toilets in the main tourist areas.
If you use the reataurant areas on the beach you will find that you are innudated with ants and other insects, so it's best to take a hungry Issan gal with you to eat these pests. On our first table there was an all out battle between red and black ants, obviously the red killer ants were winning so we changed tables, here on this table the red and black and other ants all seemed to get along.
The Fishing here is good as the water is pretty damn clean, so it may be worth bringing your rods....