Pattaya, adventure tourism is the thing.

[swissie]

The TAT promoting Pattaya as a Family/Sports/Shopping/Cultural Hub is all wrong. They are barking up the wrong tree.

"Adventure Tourism" is the thing!

Where else can you get so much adventure for so little money:

- Dirty beaches.
- Walking is risky, must keep your eyes on the sidewalk. Potholes, uneven pavement.

- Walking over a street gully. The smell reminds you of a clogged toilet.

- Crossing any street. Adventure pure.

- After a heavy rain, you may get to walk back to your hotel, kneedeep in water.

- The air-pollution so bad, you wonder why you ever stopped smoking.

- Eating at food stalls. Risking to spend the next day in the toilet.

- A 1 month rental can become 30% more expensive when the Electricity/Water Bill is presented.

- Getting lied to regularly, but always served up with a dazzeling smile.

- Massage parlors, where you are getting more than you asked for.

- Asking for directions from Naklua to Walking Street: You may end up in a suburb of Chiang Mai.

- Getting stopped by police (for any reason). "Your negotiating skills" on location will decide, whether you will drive on or will spend  the night laying on a concrete floor without pillow.

- Shopping: Likely you overpay a cheap chinese import by a factor of 15.

- To add spice: Get attacked by a bunch of ladyboys on beach-road

.
THIS is what I call "adventure tourism", that the TAT sould be promoting. In comparison, no Photo-Safari in Kenia, no Ship-Cruise around Antarctica, nor any stay in the Canadian Wilderness could possibly offer more "adventure" than Pattaya does.

I may have missed a couple of additional "adventure" opportunities as far as Pattaya is concerned. Feel free to complete the list.
Cheers.

[newnative]

      Umm.  Just have to ask, so why are you here?  Most tourists aren't going to be too concerned about the majority of the things you mentioned.  My four sisters just came to Thailand for a visit.  We spent most of the time touring Bangkok and then went to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat and Siem Reap but our last stop was Pattaya.  None of them had a problem with, or complained about, any of the things you mentioned.    (Bangkok, by the way,  also has many of the same supposed problems you mentioned (flooding, smelly streets, questionable prices for merchandise, dangers crossing streets,  street food dangers, massage parlors, police, etc.) but my sisters had no complaints there, either.)    

    Time was limited but they loved the shopping choices here--both at Central Festival and all the local places we visited.  We had a nice day at Nong Nooch Gardens--they loved the Thai Culture show and also the elephant show.  One of my sisters had her heart set on an elephant painting and she found a nice selection--and only 350 Baht each.  Not exactly price gouging.  Nong Nooch seems to have expanded quite a bit since I was last there and really does a nice job.

     We also went to Sanctuary of Truth--I had never been there and it's worth a visit.  They also had fun at The Floating Market--which also seems to be bigger since I was last there  All my sisters love seafood so they enjoyed the good restaurant choices we have here--with many having beautiful bay views from where we were sitting. 

      We also took in the Kaan show at the D'Luck Theater.  Really an amazing, very entertaining show that we all enjoyed a lot.  Very impressive theater and a first-rate, professional operation--a great asset for Pattaya.

      We didn't spend any time on Walking Street other thank driving through it on the way to my condo.  Ditto for Soi 6 and the like.  If we had had more time I would taken them on an overnight boat trip to one of the islands and a drive to Silver Lake, among other things.  They had a very nice time, nevertheless. 

     I think we, who live here, get much more irritated about the things you mentioned than a tourist does.  As I said in an earlier post, a tourist is here for a few days and then gone.   A smelly street is something for a tourist to maybe remark on--but he's just going to smell it for a few days.  We live here and smell it all the time--and hope the city will do something about it.  Pattaya has its problems, of course, but, for me, the good outweighs the bad.  If the bad comes out on top, one should be looking for another place to live.