Standing Up for Pattaya

[Marmite the Dog]

The bit where Loy Toy and Sabang live is OK, but it's not really Pattaya.

The bit with all the bars in it is a magnet for the world's scumbags. Horrible shit hole.

[Marmite the Dog]

From my observation, and especially as I had lived in Bangkok for the first 14 years here in LOS most of the bad vibes I am hearing are coming from people who very rarely come to Pattaya, let alone live here for any amount of time.

Did you think that the reason some of us rarely go to Pattaya is because we don't like it?

[good2bhappy]

As I said earlier I have a small pad in Jomtien.
It is nice to take the family down and use it as a base for exploring the east coast area.
We did a day trip to a hill temple in Chantaburi recently- good fun.
However it has been years since I ventured down into the city lights at night

[Thai Pom]

Everybody makes their own choices. When I go to Pattaya I have a good time, golf , booze great seafood. Friends that live there that are not scumbags, you don't need to see/mix with them if you don't want to!! There are scumbags in all places.

[kingwilly]

I think a few of the people defending pattaya here are feeling like we are calling them scumbags and so on.

NOT ALL PEOPLE IN PATTAYA ARE SCUM.

But pattaya does attract more than its fair share of scum.

To suggest otherwise is disingenuous.

[Marmite the Dog]

Friends that live there that are not scumbags, you don't need to see/mix with them if you don't want to!

Of course not, but Walking Street is full of the world's excrement.

[Loy Toy]

Did you think that the reason some of us rarely go to Pattaya is because we don't like it?

How can you not like what Pattaya, or more specifically Chon Buri Province has to offer?

You can wake up in the morning and without doubt I will claim the world is your oyster.

As you rightly said where we live (Sabang, Larvidhr, Burriramboy formerly and myself) is not really Pattaya, Pattaya and as unfortunately the world (including those that have never lived here) knows it is based on what goes down in a single square Km of land where myself and most other locals rarely venture.

Really, and as former long term resident of Bangkok I have no intention about going back to live there as Pattaya is far and away a more comfortable and appealing place to live. Chalk and cheese and as someone else has claimed on this thread.

The again it is horses for courses!

[Marmite the Dog]

How can you not like what Pattaya, or more specifically Chon Buri Province has to offer?

It's expensive and I don't like beaches or Russians.

What else has Chonburi got to offer?

[good2bhappy]

or Russians.

there are a few these days
but the woman make nice eye candy sometimes

[Loy Toy]

Many places to get away too and you can be on any major highway North, South or East in a heartbeat.

It sometimes has taken me 2 hours just to get out of the Sukhumvit shitfight.

What else has Chonburi got to offer?

Fookin ell the last time I was on Cowboy, Nana or Pat Pong there was plenty of excrement also. Can someone explain to me how Walking street is different to these places in Bangkok?

The only difference as far as I am concerned is that the scum in Walking Street are breathing in fresh sea air whilst the mongerers in Bangkok are inhaling carbon monixide.

Of course not, but Walking Street is full of the world's excrement.

[Marmite the Dog]

Can someone explain to me how Walking street is different to these places in Bangkok?

No Russians on Cowboy and I didn't like Nana or Patpong either.

[Panda]

Nothing wrong with being a scumbag in a shit hole for a short period if you want. Just so long as you can go home and be normal again when you want.

[Loy Toy]

Nothing wrong with being a scumbag in a shit hole for a short period if you want. Just so long as you can go home and be normal again when you want.

It also keeps you feeling young and with that special spirit and knowing the "meaning of life".

I often think about those poor souls back in the old countries just wanting to get out and have an afternoon splurge but have absolutely nowhere to go or it is just too ridiculously expensive to do so.

Out at 1 in the afternoon, a bit of a pissup and fun and banter with the locals and back home for dinner and in time to say good night to the kids for about 500 Baht!

Ya wouldn't be be dead for quids!

[Panda]

Nothing wrong with being a scumbag in a shit hole for a short period if you want. Just so long as you can go home and be normal again when you want.

It also keeps you feeling young and with that special spirit and knowing the "meaning of life".

I often think about those poor souls back in the old countries just wanting to get out and have an afternoon splurge but have absolutely nowhere to go or it is just too ridiculously expensive to do so.

Out at 1 in the afternoon, a bit of a pissup and fun and banter with the locals and back home for dinner and in time to say good night to the kids for about 500 Baht!

Ya wouldn't be be dead for quids!

It could be a day on the beach with beer, BBQ prawns, fresh fruit and a massage and manicure for far less than a mundane night out back home, or it could be a discreet roll in the hay with some hard bodied little 20 year old. Maybe both!
Perhaps its a day out on the golf course for some, or some international cuisine.

Its there for the taking. Take it or leave it. Up to you.

But as you say, there are worse ways to spend your life (or what remains of it).

[theudonshawn]

its good for a 3 day bender, other than that, who would go there?

agree strongly

As far as the "scum of the earth" stuff being pronounced on Thailand: once you learn to find your way around Udon (and I assume all the other major cities in Thailand and lots of the schools) I've run into stuff that even a scumbag like me wouldn't have any part of. (students and underage illegals from Laos in particular) Maybe it's there in Pattaya, but I didn't see it.

And at those places, westernersners are few and far between...

[Muadib]

^ The sex trade is alive and well all over the planet... You can take the entirity of Bangkok's 3 main farang-based p4p areas and they are minute as compared to the p4p scene in any major city in the US, South America or Western Europe... The difference being perception and they way they are promoted...

The hypocrisy that is Thailand publicly vilifies the sex industry while turning a blind eye to promote it for gaining tourist $$$ and the chance to ripoff every farang in sight... Outlawing porno, banning websites and blurring racy images on the tele while opening showing gruesome images of murders & accidents to a comic-book reading, xenophobic society is all too much to fathom... I doubt I will ever fully understand the 'Thai' mindset....

Pattaya & Jomtien do have their good points while resting squarely in the center of Thailand's foereigner-based sex industry... If you can come to grips with that and see it for what it is, more power to you... If you wish to partake, up to you... If not, there's plenty to do & see without subjecting you or your family to it... Where I have a problem is the colateral crime that goes along with the place... Hardly a day goes by without some horrid story of a farang being swindled, drugged, robbed, injured or worse due to the scum that frequent the place... Both Thai & farang alike... This is spilling over into the non-p4p inhabitants and placing everyone at risk...

On my last visit to Sin City by the Sea, I sat at the corner of Soi 15 & Walking St around midnight just to watch to floatsom pass by... It was truly a lesson in humanity & sociology... I've seen less frightening pikeys than some of the human waste wandering around loose that night... By the adage that you are who you associate with, I extricated myself with due haste...

I have been considering Jomtien as a possible place to call 'home' upon my eminent departure from the west... Let's just say it's becoming a smaller and smaller blip on the radar...

[whittler]

I hope I am not intruding, I am not an expat yet.(this year I hope) I have stayed
in BKK, and Pattaya/ Jomtien. I will start in Jomtien, and since I do like the beaches due to my asthma, it will be there, Rayong, Cha Am. But one thing I don't understand about this discussion, is every city I have visited in the USA,
in the enterainment / red light district, you get sleaze. Go out a few miles you
get to nice areas. Just like Pattaya. A good example, I went to Hollywood.
What a toilet, drunks laying on the sidewalks, but that dosen't mean all of Hollywood is like that. I have been coming to Pattaya since 2002, for 1 month
a year until 2006, 3 months. Now I don't drink, and usually in bed by 12 am.
but the crime I have read about in minor compared to most cities in the USA.

whittler

[kmart]

I enjoy occasional visits to Pattaya. Its just 40 minutes from my home in Rayong, and I'll drive there to shop for food; books; dvd's, and lots of other stuff I can't get here.
I'll also enjoy the odd night out there with the missus. Viva la choice, and all that.
I sometimes think of Pattaya as a large scab; not very appealing to look at sometimes; but fun to go and have a play with now and again.

[kingwilly]

I sometimes think of Pattaya as a large scab; not very appealing to look at sometimes; but fun to go and have a play with now and again.

great analogy!

[Marmite the Dog]

I hope I am not intruding, I am not an expat yet.(this year I hope) I have stayed in BKK, and Pattaya/ Jomtien. I will start in Jomtien, and since I do like the beaches due to my asthma, it will be there, Rayong, Cha Am.

Where do you think you'll retire to? Udon's full of old farts, you might like it here (seriously).

[Loy Toy]

I have stated enough disparaging remarks about Pattaya and I should know because I live here but how is Pattaya better or worse than any other South East Asian City really.

I have spent time in Jakarta, Manila, KL, even Singapore and for example and found whore mongers, piss heads and the like in all those places.

From personal experiences I dislike Jakarta and Manila with a passion but I am sure there are nicer places in those cities than just the bar areas where you will find the scum, louts and rip-off masters.

In fact I have always felt a lot safer in Pattaya then just say Jakarta but that was most probably because I had no local knowledge.

To run a whole city down and based upon a weekend of whore mongering and drunken mayhem is just plain ridiculous to me.

Always look beneath the surface and you may find a city full of fine restaurants, true Thai culture, decent people and a semi-rural lifestyle possibly the best in the whole of Sotuh East Asia.

About Pattaya.................We got it all!

[estuecklin]

I 100% agree with marmite... you know the absolutely truth about Pattaya is that there all the crowd of all nationalities (Thai and foreign) meet together... I know that place since there was just 2-3 high buildings.. that time it was a resort! Now its the "bin of Thailand".. and you know.. sometimes even in the bin you can find something good.. because there was someone smash it the wrong place.

[kingwilly]

About Pattaya.................We got it all!

Libraries?

Museums?

Trendy Nightclubs?

Jazzclubs?

Galleries?


Face it, pattaya is little more than a playground for whoremongers and a few facilities to provide entertainment for said mongers?

[Marmite the Dog]

Always look beneath the surface and you may find a city full of fine restaurants, true Thai culture, decent people and a semi-rural lifestyle possibly the best in the whole of Sotuh East Asia.

Absolute cobblers.

Most of the Thais in Pattaya are the trash of Thailand along with most of the foreigners being the trash of the West.

Just remember, we're talking about Pattaya, not Chonburi.

[sabang]

There are only commercial art galleries in Pattaya as far as I'm aware. Museums- no government museums here, just commercial collections like Ripleys 'believe it or not' and the quirky bottle art museum. All sorts of Theme Parks like Mini Siam, an aquarium and so on.

Incidentally, how much of your time in Jakarta have you spent in world class public art galleries (is there one) and museums Kw?

There are trendy nightclubs, a public library and jazz clubs.


I've already said that personally I reckon Pattaya is overrated as a tourist destination- but it's not my dollar they are spending. It certainly packs them in, and the plain fact is the infamous western 'sex tourist' is a declining sector of the market- and quite a few of them are down for the weekend from Bangkok anyway! Russians/easten Europeans and package tour Asian groups are just as important now.

But as far as living here goes, well the definitive opinion comes from people who actually live, or have lived here. In the main, they speak highly of the place- mainly because of the large variety of activities available, the reasonable prices, substantial expat community and proximity to the eastern seaboard industrial estates. For many, the proximity to the airport is a bonus too. For the keen golfer (there are many here), it's a nirvana.

As for the infamous 'scum' element well I am sure they are here, although I rarely encounter them. Apparently Soi Yamato is a fine place to see lager louts- but if I have ever been there, I don't recall it. I suppose because of the sex and booze on offer Pattaya attracts these folk, but in fairness every cosmopolitan place does.

The 'local scum' element- like every other tourist magnet, Patts attracts them too- contributes to the main downside of this place imo- the local crime rate. Thats one to keep an eye on- most accounts are that it is getting worse, although I've yet to have a problem.