gk10012001

6 minutes ago, gk10012001 said:

It is not hard to test positive, even if vaccinated.  If the officials ran around and tested every body on the island they would find hundreds of positives.  Supposedly these tourists had negative tests within 72 hours of traveling right?  So now what?  Go grab every passenger on all the planes they flew on and quarantine them?

And this assumes the test performed by the Thais are  properly done, and ignoring the possibility of more money grab.

It is not hard to test positive, even if vaccinated.  If the officials ran around and tested every body on the island they would find hundreds of positives.  Supposedly these tourists had negative tests within 72 hours of traveling right?  So now what?  Go grab every passenger on all the planes they flew on and quarantine them?

National program?  Started in February?  Pure bull appendage hanging from the bottom of his torso.

Don't need a 30 year visa.  I am quite content with a one year visa. I have no problems at all with a country checking up on expats who are immigrants from other countries once a year.  Do away with the ridiculous 90 day report and just do a one year renewal/report and all would be nice

On 7/26/2021 at 12:21 AM, thaibeachlovers said:

Good report.

 

I was recommended the Mike Hotel near Royal Garden Mall and stayed there for years. Good hotel in it's day, but fallen on hard times last time I went to Pattaya.

I eventually moved to the Sawasdee hotels, as cheaper, 300 baht, but no lift.

 

Just to be correct, Walking Street wasn't Walking Street in the early 90s, and it was just a street. I think it became Walking Street in '96. Whenever it was, I was at the opening. More like a beer garden to start and none of those farang wannabe cops. In fact no cops at all. The street didn't even go all the way to Bali Hi, and the restaurants at that end lost out badly.

 

The Marine Disco was the place from when it opened till sometime after midnight, and then I'd go to another disco behind the Lucky Star bars which was open till well after dawn. I never managed to stay there till it closed, and I had to run the katoey gauntlet at the Beach road entrance to go back to my hotel.

Back then, there was always a bar open somewhere, and not unusual to see farangs drinking early morning.

That happy situation continued till Thaksin's evil henchman did his best to destroy the Pattaya farang scene. He even sent cops from Bkk to destroy it. I saw them assembled as I was leaving to go to the islands. I'm happy I missed the disaster that was to be visited on Pattaya by that man. IMO it's never recovered to what it was before. Sad.

 

The best street back then of course was Soi 8. Never even heard of Buakhao or Soi 6 back then. The sois by the Boy Town ( not sure if that's the correct name ) were also popular.

Plenty of small gogos to be found around town, but not like the big ones to come on Walking Street. Tahitian Queen was probably the best known. I never bothered with them though, as the Bkk ones had spoiled me.

 

Beach Road had a lot more bars along it than now. It would have been hard to walk far without a bar complex.

Naklua had a good collection of bars not far up from the Dolphin.

 

Only 3 malls then The Big C one near the Dolphin, the Mike and the Royal Garden. They were plenty enough though. The Mike was where all the tour buses went in the evening, and the car park on Second was full of buses.

 

It wasn't as easy to get to Pattaya back then. 4 hours from Ekamai, and longer while they were building the overhead expressway. One needed a Walkman to while away the time in the horrendeous traffic jams.

 

No farang with sense swam in Pattaya Bay, but apparently it was better than in the 80s. Jomptien was the beach for swimming.

Every morning dozens of speedboats came down Beach road to be launched, and the bay was full of big boats. We went out to them on a small boat for trips. Loads of ?Japanese tour groups walking down to the beach all with the same regulation hotel towels to go out on the big boats.

 

For those that remember the Malibu Show, that was a big deal back then and always packed with customers. The 2 big lady boy shows, Alcazar and Tiffanies were very popular with Asian tourists. I suppose they are closed at the moment.

 

Since those happy days, the nice beach promenade has been destroyed, the walkway around the headland to Naklua beach collapsed, the derelict marina was built, the ghastly Waterfront monstrocity was erected, the promenade to the Lighthouse was turned into a speedboat park, and the nice grassy park at Bali Hi had a stupid carpark built on it. Seems the leaders are only good at bad constructions. They couldn't even make 3rd road wide enough for increased traffic in later years, despite it going through empty fields.

Pitiful.

my first visit was in Sep 2004.  I so loved the late nights or early mornings after I hit the sack early but then at 3 or 4 am was awake.  Could stroll down to walking street and that bar complex near soi diamond that had like gate posts but no real gate was always open. So many girls went there after work.  Good hook up time without bar fines.  And of course all along soi 7 or soi 8 as well as other streets.  Some times I had the flight from the USA that got into BKK at 0130 am.  No problem.  Take a taxi to Pattaya, check into FLipper lodge or whatever.  Then about 3 or 4 am now still easy to walk around the sois and many bars were still quietly open, with the lights low. Easy to find some company.  Gosh it was heaven.  And walking home late after closing but just wandering around, the burger carts on the side streets were great to sit and get a cheese burger fries and a coke.  Met some interesting people at 330 am.  7 11 always fun at those times also. and of course KISS was open 24 hours.  What a great getaway.  I am a small butterfly and just loved the fact one could do these things if they wanted.

  I so agree with the malls.  Garden, Mike and Big C were plenty. Kept the smallish town feeling of Pattaya.  Loved the trees and natural shade along beach road.  remember metal park benches to sit on.  There were flower beds towards the north side of beach road.  Just beautiful.  Now cold, sterile, trees hacked, obscene bright stadium lights ruin the night time scene.  Tops market corner of Pattaya Klang and Second road was all a tourist needed for light food shopping.  Fresh bread, some cheese.  Great snack for the hotel fridge.  Internet shops were fun.  I had no thai phone or anything like that so used to use some of the little phone stalls now and then to check my USA voice mail. (remember the red english phone booth place)? Pig and Whistle was packed with euro expats and tourists.  Loved the full english breakfast.  The Pattaya girls were so much leaner and more fit than most are today.  Much more chubbiness due to western food I guess, KFC and what not.  Killing myself now just thinking of when to head back for trip 16 and semi retirement.  Gonna give the COVID thing a few more months before I make any trips there and hope things sort out well

I was considering doing the sandbox, but that last example of the lady that had to go pay for another quarantine because somebody on her plane allegedly tested positive is just absurd.  I don't sign open ended contracts and I can't accept responsibility for other people's actions