Pattaya now verses Pattaya before.

[VBF]

56 minutes ago, Kim J said:

Yes indeed the variety of restaurants and foods now available has to be one of the things you can add to the positive side of the discussion.

Myself and Mrs Kim love the cakes they sell at La Baguette on Thapraya Road, but unfortunately have recently had a couple of questionable experiences in there.

And it's those questionable experiences that remind one where one is!

[VBF]

1 minute ago, Kim J said:

Yes indeed, but in such places that now charge first world prices. Would one not think that standards should also have moved along accordingly?

I would say that is a slooooowwwwww process! It is happening though - check out Jasmine on 3rd Road - delicious Thai and Farang food, great service, super clean and definite VFM

[newnative]

6 minutes ago, Kim J said:

Yes that maybe the case however this discussion is not a comparison to Pattaya as it is now and todays Europe. It is a discussion of how today's Pattaya compares to how it was here in 2000 and I stand by what I said.

Your comment is utterly futile, and I was referring to life in general, not just bar girls.

In general prices here are now much greater, and in many cases standards of quality and service have diminished. Such things as Restaurant's, hotels, food in shops and markets, general household goods, clothes etc etc. And since you mention it, yes it also applies to the Bar girls and everything else to do with the establishments where they work.

Everything the World over gradually increases in price, but generally in the civilised world, with progression standards also improve over time. But I feel here in Thailand that has not been the case.

    Yes I know what the discussion is about, thank you.  It is about Pattaya, then and now.  You brought up prices being so much higher and I was merely pointing out that Thailand is cheaper than some other places, in the here and now. 

     I disagree with you, by the way, regarding prices being so much higher now in Pattaya--although my 'then' only goes back to 2010.  I don't see a big change in the everyday things I buy except liquor--that indeed is much higher and I wince every time I buy wine.  Other prices have gone up some but it's been 9 years--they are likely somewhat higher most other places, too.  Some items, such as electronics, have gone down in price or stayed about the same.  Every time I buy a tv for a condo flip it seems cheaper than the time before. 

     Renting a condo, a big monthly budget item for some, has likely gone down or not increased much.  Sticking with Pattaya, 9 years ago my partner and I rented a studio at View Talay 3 when we first came to town.  We paid 20,000 baht a month, I think about average for then.  Hipflat shows a studio on floor 17 at VT3 for 15,000 now.  If you rent, that savings of 5,000 baht a month will help offset some of the price increases.  Can't see a big difference in my utility bill in 9 years for water and electric.  I've also not noticed any difference in service--although I don't use the bar girls so I can't speak to that.

[allanos]

A lot of folk here taking a walk down memory lane at the Pattaya of 20 or 30 years ago are fondly remembering their pleasant experiences of that time and forgetting any bad ones they had.  Myopically viewing it through those rose coloured spectacles that one hears about.

 

Bar girls now, viewed through the haze of a skinful of beer, mostly look pretty good to me.  Who am I to complain, I'm nothing special, even if they call me hansum! They also may not have been skinny and pretty back in the day, either.  Alcohol then, and fading memories now, are casting them in a better light, that's all.

[OneEyedPie]

22 minutes ago, newnative said:

Hipflat shows a studio on floor 17 at VT3 for 15,000 now.

For arguments sake the exchange rate hovered between about 50-55 baht per 1 GBP nine years ago so 15k per month is about the same as 20k nine years ago for a UK expat / tourist?

[newnative]

2 hours ago, soistalker said:

Great. You sell your condos to the Chinese. Your neighbors probably love you for that.

   I sell to anyone showing up with cash in hand.  Lately, that has been Chinese buyers.  I have also sold to buyers from Russia, Sweden, America, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, and probably other countries I have forgotten.  It's Thailand's job to screen people, not mine.  Whether the buyers of my condos will be good neighbors is anyone's guess--as is true with absolutely all condo buyers, whatever nationality.  Obviously, if you are having a problem with a neighbor, again whatever nationality, take up the problem with your condo management, not me.  

    I would happily live next to the Chinese I have sold condos to--young, married professionals, well-educated, with good jobs.  I might mention that I am currently living next door to a nice, middle-aged Chinese couple.  They paid 12.5MB cash for their condo and have been lovely neighbors--no loud parties and no dragging home noisy bar girls at 2am.  I certainly prefer these Chinese neighbors to ill-behaved, noisy, holiday-goers here for a few days and too cheap to rent a hotel.   

 

[newnative]

7 minutes ago, OneEyedPie said:

For arguments sake the exchange rate hovered between about 50-55 baht per 1 GBP nine years ago so 15k per month is about the same as 20k nine years ago for a UK expat / tourist?

I'm American.

[OneEyedPie]

Just now, newnative said:

I'm American.

I would imagine the calculations are roughly parallel with the continuing strength of the baht.

[newnative]

2 hours ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

If you had a condo you would sell it to the highest bidder as well no doubt. 

 

Indeed.

[newnative]

4 minutes ago, OneEyedPie said:

I would imagine the calculations are roughly parallel with the continuing strength of the baht.

In 2010, the year I arrived, it looks like the baht ranged from around 30 to 33 to the US dollar over the year.  Today it is 31.91 to the dollar.  Maybe I am missing something but I don't see as big a deal as the change in the pound vs. the baht.  

[marcusarelus]

5 minutes ago, newnative said:

In 2010, the year I arrived, it looks like the baht ranged from around 30 to 33 to the US dollar over the year.  Today it is 31.91 to the dollar.  Maybe I am missing something but I don't see as big a deal as the change in the pound vs. the baht.  

Try from 2005

[newnative]

10 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

Try from 2005

     I imagine the dollar was stronger.   And, I was younger.

[Denim]

46 minutes ago, allanos said:

A lot of folk here taking a walk down memory lane at the Pattaya of 20 or 30 years ago are fondly remembering their pleasant experiences of that time and forgetting any bad ones they had.  Myopically viewing it through those rose coloured spectacles that one hears about.

 

Bar girls now, viewed through the haze of a skinful of beer, mostly look pretty good to me.  Who am I to complain, I'm nothing special, even if they call me hansum! They also may not have been skinny and pretty back in the day, either.  Alcohol then, and fading memories now, are casting them in a better light, that's all.

 

Nope. It really was better then.

 

Unless of course you like traffic, pollution , hussle and bussle , crowds of people etc. In 1980 it was paradise lost.

Now its a lost paradise .

 

As Ian Dury put it :

 

" You went and missed the ending mate , you never quite caught the bus "

[OneEyedPie]

29 minutes ago, newnative said:

In 2010, the year I arrived, it looks like the baht ranged from around 30 to 33 to the US dollar over the year.  Today it is 31.91 to the dollar.  Maybe I am missing something but I don't see as big a deal as the change in the pound vs. the baht.  

Thanks for doing the math and as you were then.  

 

Indeed, the exchange rate is nearer 40 baht to 1 GBP now so an expensive time for us Pommies.

[AtoZ]

3 hours ago, newnative said:

Lately, that has been Chinese buyers.  I have also sold to buyers from Russia, Sweden, America, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, and probably other countries I have forgotten.

So you sold 9+ condos recently?

 

Nice

[Pique Dard]

i visited bkk and pattaya for the first time in 1987. when i see  to-day's pattaya i've got to check the stamps in my old passport or read the old leaflets (i've kept some) praising pattaya's charms to make sure i'm not fooling myself... pattaya has become a concrete jungle, but worse, the petite, gracil and slender thai girl is nowhere to be seen anymore...she has gone with the wind,  replaced by obesity.

[RobMuir]

7 hours ago, tifino said:

I just like to see the old comparison photos that people drag out of their drawers!

 

the more modern (recent by the calendar) versions could well end up in the '...decaying places...' threads

The Walking street tree. It has seen it all.

[newnative]

13 hours ago, AtoZ said:

So you sold 9+ condos recently?

 

Nice

15 in Pattaya since 2010 but only a couple the past few years. This year only 1 condo under contract and that is in Bangkok.  

[elgenon]

With the internet the farm girls are more aware of the world. And they probably have a bit more choice. A lot of the girls are there because a Thai boy got to them and then left for virgin pastures. It takes a bit more observation but there still are some wonderful ones.

 

I don't miss the clown makeup and the ugly dresses. 

 

The future is murky since the number of customers is way down. 

[NanLaew]

On 5/7/2019 at 2:01 AM, soistalker said:

In response to your questions: ever meet someone who looks better than they did 20 years ago? That's me. 

And two: I did grab a stunner or three back then. They got their 45 minutes and 500 baht. Thai women are meant to rent, not buy.

Unless you're a Sean Connery clone from 40 years back, saying one looks better than they did when they were 20 years younger is the universal claim of someone gripped in a rather aggressive mid-life crisis.

 

Ah yes... hah-loy baht or as we called it, 'the purple fun ticket'.

[NanLaew]

On 5/7/2019 at 3:34 AM, Tony125 said:

Hey if  you are  satisfied with the shielas of today good for you, those of us who came years  ago know the quality of girls that were here then Girls were not pigging out at Burger King and Pizza Company, didn't like Farang food and didn't just shuffle at the dance poles.  All shy ,covered up before sex but under the covers a tornado. had one go back and tell her GF"s  "he asleep, I knock him out"  Didn't have cell phones stuck to their face all day and night.

Holy scatological exclamations there Tony, exactly how bloody old are you?!

[VBF]

1 hour ago, NanLaew said:

On 5/7/2019 at 3:34 AM, Tony125 said:

Hey if  you are  satisfied with the shielas of today good for you, those of us who came years  ago know the quality of girls that were here then Girls were not pigging out at Burger King and Pizza Company, didn't like Farang food and didn't just shuffle at the dance poles.  All shy ,covered up before sex but under the covers a tornado. had one go back and tell her GF"s  "he asleep, I knock him out"  Didn't have cell phones stuck to their face all day and night.

Holy scatological exclamations there Tony, exactly how bloody old are you?!

Well I can remember when what   @Tony125 said was true - I first visited Patts in 1985 and I'm now 64

Despite remembering "then", I still enjoy "now" 

Same-Same but different ????

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎5‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 6:46 AM, NanLaew said:

While I'm gathering my thoughts, does anyone who considers how the girls looked ~20 years ago compared to now have any mirrors handy?

 

OK, thoughts gathered. Why didn't the OP (and others lamenting the glacial slide of the nubile Thai beauty) grab themselves a "stunner" way back then when they were still two (or three)-a-penny and they were truly still hunsum men? All a bit too late to start lamenting the higher costs and fewer choices when it comes to getting some quality rumpy-pumpy.

???????

The girls from 20 years ago have left. How I look is irrelevant. It's my money and I don't want a 40 year old porker with stretch marks. You do realise they are doing it for money and not because we look hansum?

Why didn't I get a stunner back then? Because I had no desire to get married back then.

BTW, it wasn't that they were "stunners" back then, as many weren't. What they were, was slim and trim, and not more interested in their phone than their customers.

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎5‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 3:28 PM, elgenon said:

With the internet the farm girls are more aware of the world. And they probably have a bit more choice. A lot of the girls are there because a Thai boy got to them and then left for virgin pastures. It takes a bit more observation but there still are some wonderful ones.

 

I don't miss the clown makeup and the ugly dresses. 

 

The future is murky since the number of customers is way down. 

Ugly dresses. Yes, they were pretty awful back in the 90s, plus their idea of what was sexy was at odds with reality.

Remember the 6 inch soles on the shoes?

Least attractive item had to be the horrid knee high boots gogo girls all wore for a while. One fashion I was happy to see gone.

I gave up on gogos though, when the djs all started playing that revolting noise way too loud.

 

 

[champers]

As the old Country song says:

"I've never gone to bed with an ugly woman,

But I've sure woke up with a few".

[NanLaew]

9 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

???????

The girls from 20 years ago have left. How I look is irrelevant. It's my money and I don't want a 40 year old porker with stretch marks. You do realise they are doing it for money and not because we look hansum?

Why didn't I get a stunner back then? Because I had no desire to get married back then.

BTW, it wasn't that they were "stunners" back then, as many weren't. What they were, was slim and trim, and not more interested in their phone than their customers.

The reason they are playing with their phones these days is to avoid having to play games with seriously over-the-hill, bargain-hunting, latter-day, 'luu-mahk', Lotharios, waffling in pidgin 'Lao' and clinging to memories of their faded youth with the help of OTC ED medications and still reckon they're God's gift to women (of all nationalities) but are still unable to form any sort of relationship beyond negotiating an agreeable (to them) price to make they're once-nightly deposit of bodily fluid after they've wrestled with the perpetual indecision of where exactly to make that preciously enervating deposit. If they can manage to get off twice, then that intense, pre-ejaculatory stress is somewhat diminished.

 

9 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Ugly dresses. Yes, they were pretty awful back in the 90s, plus their idea of what was sexy was at odds with reality.

Remember the 6 inch soles on the shoes?

Least attractive item had to be the horrid knee high boots gogo girls all wore for a while. One fashion I was happy to see gone.

I gave up on gogos though, when the djs all started playing that revolting noise way too loud.

 

Yes, they are all to blame for following a flawed interpretation of the global dictates of haute couture in the P4P business.

 

And yes, thankfully someone decided that it was half-past time to put CCR, Boney M and The Eagles to bed.

 

As The Rolling Stones suggested way, way back in our never-ending youth, "What a drag it is getting old..."

[swissie]

Like all Threads, this one too is starting to "fade". A good time to take "inventory".
Most posters agree, that Pattaya is not the same as before.

- But still a unique place IMHO. I will keep visiting until the day comes when every GoGo and Massage Parlor has been converted into a "masturbation-chamber" and Pattaya has definitely ended up as a Family/Sports Resort. Then, I will stop  visiting Pattaya. Not before.

- Another poster asked if there would be an alternative to Pattaya? I clearly say NO. Not in this universe!

If I had any say in this, I would suggest that certain areas of Pattaya should be added to the UNESCO "Word Inheritance Fund". (Walking Street, Soi 13, Soi 6, for example), instead of some decayed castles somewhere in Transilvania.

PS: Post #81. Oh boy, if that old Walking Street Tree could talk, he would have a few tales to tell.

[lamyai3]

On 5/7/2019 at 5:56 PM, newnative said:

     I imagine the dollar was stronger.   And, I was younger.

The pound certainly was 75% stronger. Prices locally (regardless of the foreign currency) were half as much. Visa issues were non-existent, traffic cops thought 100 baht was a satisfactory payoff, I was younger too and looked it. It was a golden era... 

[lamyai3]

On 5/8/2019 at 1:34 PM, NanLaew said:

Unless you're a Sean Connery clone from 40 years back

With his yellowface disguise in You Only Live Twice, he could have been a stunt double for the PM... 

[lamyai3]

On 5/7/2019 at 5:04 PM, OneEyedPie said:

For arguments sake the exchange rate hovered between about 50-55 baht per 1 GBP nine years ago so 15k per month is about the same as 20k nine years ago for a UK expat / tourist?

None of this stuff goes in a straight line. The 2008 financial crisis devastated the pound, though in subsequent years it slowly rose, and prior to the Brexit referendum the rate was back at 53++ again. After mid 2016 it plummeted again to around 40 (lowest rate since the mid 90s) but meanwhile Thai prices in baht have risen higher than ever. It's plausible that for a tourist exchanging sterling, Thailand would have been as cheap or even cheaper in 2004 than it was in 1994...