Is Pattaya the real Thailand?

[theguyfromanotherforum]

I enjoy going to Pattaya once a month with my wife. I like  cheap hotels, dirty beaches, the scenery and food. 

 

Isn't Pattaya also the 5th largest city in Thailand?

 

So, why do some people insist Pattaya is not the "real Thailand"?

 

The same as some like to insist that only real Thai food is street food with its matching blue chairs.

 

 

So, is Pattaya the real Thailand or not?

[BestB]

Pattaya brings out real

 Thainess from Thai people .

 

Back in the village they can not show their true self, however once in Pattaya , no one to worry about and real self comes out .

 

One could say Pattaya attracts certain kind, which may well be true but there are too many of this kind and that kind seem to outweigh any other kind 

Edited June 18, 2018 by BestB
Spelling

[Anythingleft?]

Because Pattaya was created to cater for tourists.... those tourists also have a particular agenda for the most part, the town was created from a R&R pitstop. A winning formula that has lined the pockets of many many people.....

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

[petermik]

Pattaya is whatever you want to make of it....."real Thailand"..... what exactly is real Thailand ?

[55Jay]

I think the idea of "Real" Thailand is depicted in the carefully prepared tourism authority vids, and photo-shopped images of marginally desperate Thais wearing the famously deceptive smile whilst cultivating paddies using traditional methods from the Bronze Age. 

 

Pattaya is just a different kind of real.  If you get a burning sensation when you go pee a few days later, that's real too. ?

[champers]

Pattaya is as real as anywhere else. You can stay wherever suits your lifestyle in Thailand and you are free to defend your lifestyle choice and criticise others'.

[Jingthing]

Is Miami the real USA?

There is realness here aplenty. 

[LennyW]

Pattaya is certainly different but it is as real as anywhere else in Thailand,.

[simoh1490]

The thing I find interesting about expats in Thailand is that their views on any national issue are nearly always based solely on what they see around them. Ask any expat what's the state of the Thai economy or unemployment levels and the answers of say Pattaya man will probably be 180 degrees off those of Bangkok or Chiang Mai man. Ask about the nature of Thai people and rural Issan man will probably they are lazy and have no work ethic whilst Northern expat man will cite successful Chinese/Thai work ethics and say they are very industrious. 

 

So is Pattaya the real Thailand? For those expats that live there it is, although the locals know differently!

[grumbleweed]

Depends what you mean by "thing"

if your "thing" is world class tourist resort with pristine beaches, there's a slight chance a little disappointment is heading your way. On the other hand: if you're a whore mongering, obnoxious, grossly overweight lump of beer swilling lard who enjoys slobbering over girls a fraction of their weight and age, then you'll be right at home

Well you did ask?

[Thian]

Pattaya even has no metered taxi's, which is the law.

Also prostitution is illegal.

 

So nope, Pattaya is not Thailand.

[Boon Mee]

Is Pattaya the real Thailand? 

A better question is Pattaya a sustainable city in the direction it's going right now? 

[Emster23]

22 hours ago, BestB said:

Pattaya brings out real

 Thainess from Thai people .

 

Back in the village they can not show their true self, however once in Pattaya , no one to worry about and real self comes out .

 

One could say Pattaya attracts certain kind, which may well be true but there are too many of this kind and that kind seem to outweigh any other kind 

You could substitute many nationalities for Thai in this observation and would ring true.

Thailand is mostly Buddhist, and part of that is that this world is illusion, Maya. There is no real Thailand, UK, Russia, etc. It's what your mind makes it

[mstevens]

Perhaps phrase the question a little differently and you might get different answers.  How about, "Is Pattaya representative of Thailand as a whole?"  You might get different answers...  And what might be interesting is to ask that very question to Thai people and see what they have to say.

[lockyv7]

is that real 1920 Thailand or real 2018 Thailand or real 1750 Thailand, i dont think it matters what year life in the village will be different to life in the city. just my take on it. 

[simoh1490]

7 minutes ago, mstevens said:

Perhaps phrase the question a little differently and you might get different answers.  How about, "Is Pattaya representative of Thailand as a whole?"  You might get different answers...  And what might be interesting is to ask that very question to Thai people and see what they have to say.

Exactly. Which is why so few of us can ever agree on the state of national issues such as the economy, employment, attitudes etc because we all live in different Thailands which don't really relate to each other - Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Bangkok and rural Issan might just as well be different planets from a comparison standpoint.

[Cranky]

I think the question today should be "Is Thailand the real Pattaya?"

[Peterw42]

16 minutes ago, simoh1490 said:

Exactly. Which is why so few of us can ever agree on the state of national issues such as the economy, employment, attitudes etc because we all live in different Thailands which don't really relate to each other - Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Bangkok and rural Issan might just as well be different planets from a comparison standpoint.

Yes thats right, even within Pattaya perceptions and experiences can be vastly different.  I feel most of the time, I must be living in an alternate Thailand/Pattaya. Most of my lifestyle, perceptions, experiences etc, are a million miles away from the usual Thaivisa rhetoric. 

I cant recall the last time I woke up in bathtub full of ice with a kidney missing, saw naked pole dancing in 7/11 or I was drugged, beaten and left for dead because I didnt pay the sick buffalo sponsorship.

Maybe I need to get out more.

[AlQaholic]

Nothing is ever what you expect, or want it to be, I suppose. It's like that silly chocolate bar add with coconut in it, the ad shows an idyllic waterfall with crystal clear water and a bunch of beautiful, scantily clad girls flocking around a guy with a chocolate bar, all the while the cooling mist from the waterfall settles like crystal drops on the beautiful surrounding leafy and flowery vegetation. There is no mention of the <deleted> flies, mosquitos and other myriads of bugs, the 40 degr. C. heat and 80% humidity, walking on sand catching cigarette buts between your toenails, occasionally stepping on a piece of a crushed glass bottle and feeling lucky it's been eroded by the sand over the years....bla bla bla bla...

[1FinickyOne]

Pattaya is barely the real Pattaya,... It is an oddly concocted Disneyworld ---

 

It's a resort city and just by definition is going to be different from the small traditional cities and villages of most of Agrarian Thailand... 

 

my village does not have waterslides..

Edited June 19, 2018 by kenk24

[jgarbo]

21 hours ago, Anythingleft? said:

Because Pattaya was created to cater for tourists.... those tourists also have a particular agenda for the most part, the town was created from a R&R pitstop. A winning formula that has lined the pockets of many many people.....

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
 

Pattaya went from fishing village to R&R hangout during the Vietnam war, since it was close to U-Tapao air base from where the US B 52s bombed Vietnam and later Laos. With that genesis, it could go only one way. It is now a cesspool and so is very popular with stressed-out loons and wannabe crazies. I edited a tourist magazine there in the 1980s and drove down every week to pick up material. What a relief to get back to "un-Thai" Bangkok, a pretty good town if you speak the language and know the right spots. As to the question - there's is no "Real Thailand" because it's so diverse. 

[Peterw42]

50 minutes ago, kenk24 said:

Pattaya is barely the real Pattaya,... It is an oddly concocted Disneyworld ---

 

It's a resort city and just by definition is going to be different from the small traditional cities and villages of most of Agrarian Thailand... 

 

my village does not have waterslides..

I would agree with your observations. I live in essentially a village, just around the corner from my condo there is a little self contained village, wet market, 7/11, hardware, bike repair, phone shop, doctor, restaurants etc. I dont often need to step outside the village for anything. Village life, yesterday we went to get some groceries and ended up babysitting for one of the market vendors.

 

This village is in the middle of Pattaya, a kilometre from Jomtien beach, 4-5  kilometres from walking St and a couple of kilometres from the water-slides you mention. Our day to day lives are probably very similar.

Edited June 19, 2018 by Peterw42

[JayBird]

Pattaya is huge. Central Pattaya is like a busy core shopping / night life area. The rest is full of sleepy residential areas and minor markets and shops that remind me of small towns in the rest of Thailand.

 

When you look at Pattaya as a whole and not just it's central entertainment district, yes, it's real.

[theguyfromanotherforum]

2 hours ago, grumbleweed said:

Depends what you mean by "thing"

if your "thing" is 

 

Yes, what do you mean by "thing"? I never mentioned any"thing" in my post.

[jkcjag]

No one city or town represents the reality of any country, and so it depends on what you define as the real Thailand. Pattaya is unique terms of the majority of its' activity, and there are areas in Bangkok and other towns that have similar activity to that, but most of the hundreds of villages and towns in Thailand are clearly not similar to Pattaya, but they are similar to each other. Therefore you could say that most towns represent the real Thailand, and Pattaya is not one of them.

[poanoi]

its the only part of thailand i want to live in:

#easy to navigate, my biggest deficit is i get lost so easily 

#lots of western food choice

#sea climate, the sea takes the spikes out of temperatures

#plenty of go-go bars, even if i now have too much pain to visit

 

phuket might tick all those boxes also,

i got too much pain to find out tho,

and in any case i dont think its going to be much of an upgrade,
i got too much pain to lay on the beach,

even if there was a skin protection up to the task

[Ridler]

Pattaya is Thailand, people talk about the ‘real Thailand’, their romantic version of Village life. The reality in many rural villages is poverty, alcohol and drug abuse and child neglect. The schools are sub standard as are the hospitals. 

Now i expect replies from people telling me that heir wife’s village is different, but they show foreigners what they want them to see  

[Dap]

Wherever you are, it's as real as it's gonna' get 

[NoshowJones]

21 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Is Miami the real USA?

There is realness here aplenty. 

Nashville is the real US to me JT, and I have traveled all over and love America and the people. But their tipping system badly needs looked at.

Sorry for going off topic, but I did want to answer JTs post.

Edited June 19, 2018 by possum1931

[Stupooey]

"If you don't like Thailand, there's always Pattaya" (or vice-versa).

Previous posters have mused whether Pattaya or rural villages are the "real Thailand", but I believe they are two sides of the same coin. There appears to be a Pattaya/Isaan village loop, which operates independently from the rest of Thailand, with its own micro economy fuelled by the pension schemes of Westerners.

A sub-branch exists in the Sukhumwit area of Bangkok, but as the saying goes:

"If you don't like Bangkok, there's always Sukhumwit" (or vice-versa).