Pattaya Trip, First for Ten Years

[simoh1490]

We're just back from spending four days in Pattaya, my first time there in ten years, here are a few observations:

 

It's gone upmarket since we were last there, much more broad-based appeal than just the sex and booze holidays for which it had become infamous in years gone by - it's easily a family destination now.

 

It looks as though the number of beer bar complexes has shrunk considerably, all replaced by one off businesses and small shopping plaza's.

 

The place is substantially more expensive than it was, Pattaya is no longer a cheap destination, we reckon it's more expensive than where we live in Chiang Mai - transportation, food etc.

 

The naughtiness of Beach Road is a shade of its former self, very tame by comparison to what it was like years ago - the town has done well to clean it up.

 

Mafia taxi drivers prevail, 200 baht to open the door it seems, not an active meter to be seen. Note: there's a taxi desk at Utapao Airport.

 

Garden Cliiff Hotel: quiet, nice setting, a so so restaurant, comfortable rooms and friendly/efficient staff. Thai Lion Air - cheap, new planes, no leg room, it worked.

 

Walking Street: Chinese tour groups abound, what more can be said.

 

Nong Nooch - disappointing, the Royal Gardens in Chiang Mai are far superior in every respect - varieties of plants/trees, displays, tackiness factor. cost.

 

I for one will not knock Pattaya again, the City has done what they said they were going to do years ago and they've turned the place around, I'd go back again.

 

People complaining about the lack of tourists there might consider the effect the growing number of businesses has had on the ratio of tourists to businesses. I suspect that even in peak season there are now probably far too many businesses there chasing how ever many tourists do arrive and many will not survive, the place is overly saturated with businesses I reckon.

[torrzent]

A fair and balanced review.  Refreshing compared to the wannabes who are always trying to knock it, like the HH expats and the whinger in the other thread complaining it is too low class so has to be avoided, even for one night.

[saakura]

Nice to hear that the previous (much maligned by TV members) efforts to rid pattaya of it's sex and sleaze image is begining to show results. 

[theguyfromanotherforum]

I go to Patterz once a month....as a matter of fact I'm going there today.

 

I do enjoy cheap 4 and 5 star hotels and food. Cosy beach is ok. 

 

The city itself is a dump and always will be.

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

Quote

The place is substantially more expensive than it was, Pattaya is no longer a cheap destination, we reckon it's more expensive than where we live in Chiang Mai - transportation, food etc.

 

I second that statement. I've been back in Pats for a couple of months since leaving Vietnam. I know for a fact I'm going to the ATM more often than I used to do, almost daily compared to every other day in early 2015-2016. And my expenditure habits are still for a normal, non-skirt-chasing lifestyle.

 

I'm mostly around Big C Extra where I live. I've frequently spent near 160-200 baht for breakfasts, 150-250 for dinner and beers are running 75 baht, whisky 120-150. Getting closer to Bangkok costs, which are still a good 30-50% higher.

 

Anyway, a good report, OP. 

 

 

Edited April 6, 2018 by Kaoboi Bebobp

[newnative]

      Nice to see a fairly balanced review.  Recently, a yahoo made the utterly absurd comment that Pattaya from Dolphin Circle to Walking Street was just one giant brothel.  Possibly hasn't been to Pattaya in ten years, either, and has no idea how Pattaya has been changing, both in the enormous building boom and the changing tourist demographic.  The OP mentioned he stayed at Garden Cliff Resort.  Just in that one relatively small area of Pattaya we have, built since the OP's last visit:  The Palm, Baan Plai Haad, Zire, Northpoint, Wong Amat Tower, Riviera Wong Amat, Serenity, and Laguna Heights, among others, plus several hotels now under construction.  And, more on the way.

[hansnl]

3 hours ago, torrzent said:

A fair and balanced review.  Refreshing compared to the wannabes who are always trying to knock it, like the HH expats and the whinger in the other thread complaining it is too low class so has to be avoided, even for one night.

Yes, probably changed a lot.

But what about all the little people earning a living there?

Where are they now?

 

[simoh1490]

1 minute ago, hansnl said:

Yes, probably changed a lot.

But what about all the little people earning a living there?

Where are they now?

 

Spread around in different businesses I imagine - the former bar beer girls are probably working legit (fronted) massage which exists by the thousands, hotels and restaurants will have absorbed the rest, some may have gone home or moved elsewhere..

[wvavin]

Not only Pattaya, the whole country is up marketed but only the brains.

[irishken]

Good review. Not long back from there myself and i had my Kids with me.

They didn't see anything that kids shouldn't see.

Stay away from the dodgy soi's and Walking street and you'll have nothing to worry about.

We stayed on Soi 4 which has no bars and its quite .

Lots of daytime activities to do, Nong Nooch, Sanctuary of Truth and a couple of world class water parks along with lots of other days out.

Beach road is clear, from what i could see of ladyboys and the sand is clean which amazed me. 

Drivers were even obeying the traffic lights, well a good proportion of them anyway so its an improvement . 

Its a huge improvement from the first time i visited in 2005 and then i stayed away from it for 11 years.

[simoh1490]

1 minute ago, irishken said:

Good review. Not long back from there myself and i had my Kids with me.

They didn't see anything that kids shouldn't see.

Stay away from the dodgy soi's and Walking street and you'll have nothing to worry about.

We stayed on Soi 4 which has no bars and its quite .

Lots of daytime activities to do, Nong Nooch, Sanctuary of Truth and a couple of world class water parks along with lots of other days out.

Beach road is clear, from what i could see of ladyboys and the sand is clean which amazed me. 

Drivers were even obeying the traffic lights, well a good proportion of them anyway so its an improvement . 

Its a huge improvement from the first time i visited in 2005 and then i stayed away from it for 11 years.

Our experience almost exactly. 

 

Sanctuary of Truth was a bit odd, it was impressive but struck me as a vanity project. It's located right next to our hotel and it would have been two minutes if allowed to walk down the beach, but no. Instead, had to take a 200 baht taxi and drive for fifteen minutes to get to the entrance, odd!

[newnative]

1 hour ago, simoh1490 said:

Spread around in different businesses I imagine - the former bar beer girls are probably working legit (fronted) massage which exists by the thousands, hotels and restaurants will have absorbed the rest, some may have gone home or moved elsewhere..

     I agree.  Every new condo project--and there have been many--requires management staff, security staff, gardening staff, accounting staff, pool staff, engineering/maintenance staff, and cleaning staff.  My condo project alone has a yearly budget of 10 million baht just for management staff.  Add in all the jobs created by all the new hotels and businesses and I think it's clear that if you want to work in Pattaya, there is a job.  And, more jobs to come with the massive Terminal 21 project set to open sometime this fall.

[champers]

A lot of Thai ladies from up country don't have any educational qualifications but are as sharp as tacks.

[CGW]

5 hours ago, theguyfromanotherforum said:

The city itself is a dump and always will be.

I agree! but isn't every city in Thailand a "dump" to some extent, poor planning with no thought to the future? The same cheap tasteless concrete building, Thailand has never won any arcitectural awards for obvious reasons 

[simoh1490]

Just now, CGW said:

I agree! but isn't every city in Thailand a "dump" to some extent, poor planning with no thought to the future? The same cheap tasteless concrete building, Thailand has never won any arcitectural awards for obvious reasons 

The point about Pattaya is that over ten years ago it was a very seedy party town and everyone knew it, but the government left the place alone because it had a viable plan to turn the city around and it has achieved that in my book.

[PerkinsCuthbert]

"Upmarket" family destination? Lol. Upmarket is where you don't even have to clap eyes on the riff raff for the duration of your vacation, except when they do your bidding, and then your nose is so skywardly pointed you don't notice them anyway.

Edited April 6, 2018 by PerkinsCuthbert

[theguyfromanotherforum]

20 minutes ago, CGW said:

I agree! but isn't every city in Thailand a "dump" to some extent, poor planning with no thought to the future? The same cheap tasteless concrete building, Thailand has never won any arcitectural awards for obvious reasons 

 

Yes, but some other cities at least got some charm to it.

 

The other guy listed some supposed hiso condos being built. Let's see how they stand the test of time in 10-20 years. Just look at what mess Bangkok is.

 

I used to love Bangkok, but now I realize it's because I was just visiting. Living is another animal all together.

[Thaidream]

Very good observations from the OP-  but I would add that many parts of Pattaya are overbuilt and as someone observed no way all those enterprises will survive.  I visited Pattaya last week after a year hiatus.  I much prefer the Southern Coast of Thailand but Pattaya does have things to do for families. The sleaze can be avoided.  Plenty of respectable pubs and international restaurants as well as good priced Thai food.

 

Prices in Pattaya are rising just as everywhere in Thailand. Actually, the economy is doing well in most sectors except Issan where prices of rubber and rice are flat and jobs of value scarce or non existent.

 

I do believe Walking Street will be gone within the next 10 years as eventually the illegal business on the seaside will get torn down and the powers that be force all the gogos and sex sites to either go out of business or relocate. Thailand doesn't care if the mongers leave and never come back-  Their replacements are already coming and craving more upscale entertainment.

[simoh1490]

The area around the hotel where we stayed was actually quite impressive, a previous poster mentioned, "The Palm, Baan Plai Haad, Zire, Northpoint, Wong Amat Tower, Riviera Wong Amat, Serenity, and Laguna Heights" and I recall seeing some of those places. Many of those buildings wouldn't look out of place anywhere in the Western world, well designed, nicely maintained and visually very appealing, of course, if you've never seen that are you won't understand. As for the definition of "upmarket": there's no question that ten or more years ago Pattaya was distinctly downmarket and all that's being said here is that it has successfully turned around, not that it's the pinnacle of upmarket locations, just that it has improved considerably. But there again, if you didn't know the place ten or fifteen years ago, you wouldn't understand that either!

 

 

 

[Thaidream]

First visited Pattaya 48  years ago when it was a sleepy village with 1 Western style Hotel. Beach and sea pristine- lush gardens and shrubbery everywhere.  No pollution and little night time activity- no GoGo Bars or ladyboys plying their trade, No traffic and no stress.

I preferred the old Pattaya but  not everyone likes quiet. Terminal 21 in North Pattaya will attract Bangkok Thais for weekend out and as that becomes successful- expect more malls and traffic.

[NoshowJones]

Nice to read about these reports here but, they need to do something about their road system, I went down round the Dolphin Roundabout and up North Pattaya Road to a filling station for petrol for my motorbike, I wanted to go back and then down Beach Road. Because of all the U turns being blocked off, I ended having to go up Sukhumvit Road, and down Pattaya Klang.

That is quite a few Ks from about halfway down North Pattaya Road. All the idiots who made it impossible to go back the way I came are only moving the traffic to clog up another part of Pattaya.

[simoh1490]

It's trip related so I'll throw it out for humour value:

 

We went to the Thai Lion Air desk in CNX airport to buy our tickets and the girl asked where we wanted to go. We replied Pattaya and she said, "sorry, we don't fly there". Initially confused we stepped away thinking we'd made a mistake and gone to the wrong airline, later we realised we hadn't. I booked the tickets online and later went back to the TLA desk and asked the girl what her problem was - she replied that Utapao is in Rayong and not Pattaya and that she was technically correct, I regret to say I lost my cool and called her f***ing idiot and walked away. For those not aware, Utapao was referred to as the Pattaya airport or Pattaya/Utapo for many many years, in recent times it seems to have been rebadged and is now referred to as Utapo Rayong, in some circles. Technically and officially the airport is titled, U-Tapao Rayong - Pattaya.

[NoshowJones]

13 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

Very good observations from the OP-  but I would add that many parts of Pattaya are overbuilt and as someone observed no way all those enterprises will survive.  I visited Pattaya last week after a year hiatus.  I much prefer the Southern Coast of Thailand but Pattaya does have things to do for families. The sleaze can be avoided.  Plenty of respectable pubs and international restaurants as well as good priced Thai food.

 

Prices in Pattaya are rising just as everywhere in Thailand. Actually, the economy is doing well in most sectors except Issan where prices of rubber and rice are flat and jobs of value scarce or non existent.

 

I do believe Walking Street will be gone within the next 10 years as eventually the illegal business on the seaside will get torn down and the powers that be force all the gogos and sex sites to either go out of business or relocate. Thailand doesn't care if the mongers leave and never come back-  Their replacements are already coming and craving more upscale entertainment.

Yes, and who are these replacements, the Chinese? The taxi drivers and road sweepers are not going to be happy about that.

[kokopelli]

My only comment is "bring back the bad old days, when fun was fun".

[CGW]

44 minutes ago, simoh1490 said:

The point about Pattaya is that over ten years ago it was a very seedy party town and everyone knew it, but the government left the place alone because it had a viable plan to turn the city around and it has achieved that in my book.

Pattaya really started to change after Central built the mall. I lived there for 15 years, I moved there in 97 because it was a party town, previous to that I would go nearly every weekend from Bangkok where I lived for 8 years. Pattaya was always Bangkok's "party" location! Back then it was a great place to party! one of the reasons being there were nowhere near the numbers of people visiting as there are these days.

Now I am old! & have little interest in "partying" 

[simoh1490]

2 minutes ago, kokopelli said:

My only comment is "bring back the bad old days, when fun was fun".

I am not ashamed to admit that I had some pretty good times in Pattaya in the 1990's and early 2000's, those days, however, seem to be long gone and if the City has its way, they won't be coming back, probably just as well really! People today though, those that visit Pattaya for the first time and think it's seedy, probably don't understand the meaning of the word and have no idea how much things have changed.

[starky]

5 hours ago, newnative said:

      Nice to see a fairly balanced review.  Recently, a yahoo made the utterly absurd comment that Pattaya from Dolphin Circle to Walking Street was just one giant brothel.  Possibly hasn't been to Pattaya in ten years, either, and has no idea how Pattaya has been changing, both in the enormous building boom and the changing tourist demographic.  The OP mentioned he stayed at Garden Cliff Resort.  Just in that one relatively small area of Pattaya we have, built since the OP's last visit:  The Palm, Baan Plai Haad, Zire, Northpoint, Wong Amat Tower, Riviera Wong Amat, Serenity, and Laguna Heights, among others, plus several hotels now under construction.  And, more on the way.

Hi your friendly Yahoo again. So sois 1,2,3,6,7,8 post office, pattayaland, walking Street, soi Diana, soi LK, soi buakhow, Pattaya Klang, south Pattaya road, and at least half the sois running from 2nd road back to 3rd road no longer have any bars in them? Fantastic good to know. I would hate to think that Pattaya had garnered a reputation for freely available sex for money.

[simoh1490]

3 minutes ago, starky said:

Hi your friendly Yahoo again. So sois 1,2,3,6,7,8 post office, pattayaland, walking Street, soi Diana, soi LK, soi buakhow, Pattaya Klang, south Pattaya road, and at least half the sois running from 2nd road back to 3rd road no longer have any bars in them? Fantastic good to know. I would hate to think that Pattaya had garnered a reputation for freely available sex for money.

You're living proof that if you want something bad enough and are prepared to go looking for it, you'll find it. By the same token, others who didn't go looking for those things yet are still fairly observant, didn't see much of them at all and certainly not as primary attractions! Which is the whole point of all of this: ten-fifteen years ago it would have been impossible to miss such things, no matter where you went, today they are easily avoided and not seen. (BTW you over exaggerate the extent of the problem by citing the names of sois that contain some bars but are not dominated by them, as in the case of sois 6/7).

[JamJar]

48 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

Very good observations from the OP-  but I would add that many parts of Pattaya are overbuilt and as someone observed no way all those enterprises will survive.  I visited Pattaya last week after a year hiatus.  I much prefer the Southern Coast of Thailand but Pattaya does have things to do for families. The sleaze can be avoided.  Plenty of respectable pubs and international restaurants as well as good priced Thai food.

 

Prices in Pattaya are rising just as everywhere in Thailand. Actually, the economy is doing well in most sectors except Issan where prices of rubber and rice are flat and jobs of value scarce or non existent.

 

I do believe Walking Street will be gone within the next 10 years as eventually the illegal business on the seaside will get torn down and the powers that be force all the gogos and sex sites to either go out of business or relocate. Thailand doesn't care if the mongers leave and never come back-  Their replacements are already coming and craving more upscale entertainment.

 

Upscale entertainment..... hahahahahahaha..... 

 

Like Big Eye, 69 Show, Number One, Fantasy Show and the plethora of Body Massage venues.

 

As long as it makes good money for the people concerned, it will stay.

[starky]

8 minutes ago, simoh1490 said:

You're living proof that if you want something bad enough and are prepared to go looking for it, you'll find it. By the same token, others who didn't go looking for those things yet are still fairly observant, didn't see much of them at all and certainly not as primary attractions! Which is the whole point of all of this: ten-fifteen years ago it would have been impossible to miss such things, no matter where you went, today they are easily avoided and not seen. (BTW you over exaggerate the extent of the problem by citing the names of sois that contain some bars but are not dominated by them, as in the case of sois 6/7).

To be honest I thought I was pretty fair in only naming those sois. Would you say soi 8, pattayaland,  post office, LK, walking Street, soi Diana and buakhow only contain " some" bars? It is near impossible to have a reasonable debate with people that are so defensive and so in denial about the place in which you live. I am not making any judgement calls at all but at least be truthful to the realities. I always love the " oh yes I live in Pattaya, you really wouldn't even know there was a bar here" crowd.