.There is a now closed Pattaya topic on which someone asked what Pattaya beach was looked like before.

I remember it well. Halcyon days when Thailand was one of the mysteries of the Orient. Now sometimes it can be one of the miseries of the Orient. But I love it and after 34 years I'm getting used to it.????

Certainly mass travel, tourism and the Internet have taken away much of the allure of the mysterious Orient for Europeans, but for Thais and other Asians, perhaps the opportunity to visit the West for the first time is now the equivalent for them.

Do you mean the freelancers weren't always on the beach?

First went to Pattaya in 1983.  What a place!

27 minutes ago, AAArdvark said:

Do you mean the freelancers weren't always on the beach?

No, they were either in Simon disco or the Sandbox.

Marine disco

Marine was the Disco with the girls, Simon was the Cabaret with the boys ????

Fantasy was a good place in 1982 - on the right before Simon Cabaret. Also, the Bangkok-Pattaya bus used to drop off on Beach Rd, where a heap of hotel guys were waiting to whisk you away. Jomtien had no high rise back then either.

I wasn't born yet, these posts are interesting.

????????????

On 10/18/2019 at 1:36 PM, CH1961 said:

Marine was the Disco with the girls, Simon was the Cabaret with the boys ????

I was talking long before Simon Cabaret. Simon Disco predated the Marine Disco. Sandbox had a sand (beach) floor.

Nice to hear all these, thanks.

My first time in Thailand has been Bangkok + North and Samui, in '86.

Around Nana to Asok, the tallest building was the hotel where the agency did put me in (Ambassador) overall only 2 night. Super traffic jam, no BTS, no airport in Samui and only a couple of resorts, rest were kind of fishermen's families bungalows. Opted for Samui and Chiang Mai vs Pattaya.

Pattaya was more beautiful than before

My dad visited Pattaya in 1979, he took some pictures of him parasailing in Pattaya beach.  And a few pictures from the city, unfortunately I could not find the pictures , he passed away some years ago. 

Pattaya was just a very exotic place back then, he never told me he met Thai women. Maybe he did, who knows.