Well just been there earlier this week and it was indeed much more quiet in many areas. I personally enjoyed it more, less crowd and easier to get to places, walk around.

Also noticed a lot of good offers in terms of food and drinks, get rid of the poor preforming places and keep the good ones open.
I would actually not mind it to stay like this, would make me visit more often. At least money I spent is appreciated again.

Walking Street was <deleted> tho, super annoying with those Chinese tour groups as well.

2 hours ago, mikebell said:

I'm 77 and never been turned down - of course I am a hansum man.

Good Lord , and I thought I was the oldest on TV at 72.  How about another poll. ' What age bracket is one in innit '

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

... choose to stay away from the nightlife venues...

 

Who wouldn't, with all the scams, overpricing and lawlessness going on? Then again, fret not. Your tourism boss Khun Yuthasak expects a seven percent rise in foreign visitors during the five day New Year period. Plus, the Chinese are coming back, and will double over the next decade.

 

So sit tight, hang in there, do nothing and wait for the money to roll right in.

 

Like you've always done.

 

9 minutes ago, Kaoboi Bebobp said:

August and facing being hit with the sham insurance on my next extension, I'm considering moving back here and leaving behind the constant immigration and police hassles. Retirement is supposed to be a low-stress lifestyle.

your not going to find it very relaxing when you need medical and your uninsured in vietnam

Hmmm... Som nom na?

25 minutes ago, fhickson said:

your not going to find it very relaxing when you need medical and your uninsured in vietnam

 

Pacific Cross operates in Vietnam and I can get very affordable extensive medical care package from the JCI-accredited French Vietnam Hospital in District 7, an hour away, for a fraction of the Thai ripoff policies.

 

I've done my research, as one should.

2 minutes ago, fhickson said:

your not going to find it very relaxing when you need medical and your uninsured in vietnam

Stop with that nonsense, you can simply fly to Thailand for getting some medical too.
And I guarantee you, within a few years, Vietnam will have as many good hospitals too. They are behind but developing 10x faster.

Jomtien down 60%...

Well this is my first time in 11 years not spending my 6 months off there..I don't like it anymore because of overpriced everything.my Thai wife wants to stay here in the stateside this year also..Next year we are going to spend the majority of time in Vietnam rather then her place in buriram 

No problem, more ladies for us. 

This must be wrong according to stats From TAT numbers are well up from last year I think I read was going to be a better year than Last Year and Year before and Year before that and year before that and that and so on 

4 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

On behalf of residents of Pattaya, TVF members should all pitch in to help @NCC1701A move to Pattaya and rescue the working girls...

my reputation on this forum is in the toilet. i don't know why. 

 

anyway, i was in Pattaya for a month in November on my Thai Friendly Top 20 List Tour. Thai Friendly and Tinder have become  like the Grab app for, well anyway, I rented a condo for a month, so no hotel rental, hardly stepped into a bar or gogo, because crazy stupid expensive now, and i don't mind spending money, but the girls are just grinding you 24/7 for drinks. and i just looked for good restaurants which I found because we are sorely lacking in Hua Hin. All the restaurants I went to were packed with locals. Not tourists. 

 

you know once people found out Jesus could heal the sick, he was swarmed everywhere he went. It was sort of like that walking past bars. I'm going to be cast into the lake of fire for all eternity for that comment.

 

Every time I make an appointment with my urologist at Bumrungrad Hospital I walk into his office and he says "You are still alive? Tell me what you have been doing."

     

Big surprise.  Pattaya is filthy, with insane traffic, ridiculous ever changing visa requirements for Farangs, and it is no longer cheap.  The incredibly stupid tariffs on liquor would be a good place to start changing things, but LOS is now overcrowded, overpriced, and did I mention dirty?  Farangs can save themselves the price of a plane ticket and go out eating and drinking at home for the same price as Bangkok or Pattaya, unless you can eat Sum Tom and Khao Suay all the time.  Oh, and it's not 'fun' anymore, kind of a big factor for holiday takers.

a thinning down of the bars wouldn't be too bad a thing, Pattaya is a lot more spread out now than it used to be, so even with a decent amount of visitors it gives the appearance of being even more quiet than it actually is because people aren't concentrated in just a couple of areas any more.

 

Also means on my next trip I won't encounter as many people crying about when 'it used to be 75 baht to the pound and girls were nicer then yawn blah blah"

 

Prices over there haven't risen in a long time, so the less curmudgeons there thinking prices should drop everywhere when it's their own currency thats weak then the better for me - I can adapt by buying less Lady drinks which are a waste of money anyway. Ex pats can always move to Vietnam, you managed to leave your drab country so I'm not too sympathetic

4 hours ago, bluesofa said:

Not sure about pristine. That must just leave the temples for the tourists - they've gone from preying to praying.

both paying

14 minutes ago, SolarJim said:

Big surprise.  Pattaya is filthy, with insane traffic, ridiculous ever changing visa requirements for Farangs, and it is no longer cheap. 

I am always confused when people say that. Pattaya is the cheapest, easiest for transport (10 baht bus), easiest for visa (20-30K and you are sorted for a year).
It is elsewhere, that things became too expensive. In PTY you can still get 50-60B beers, 110 baht spirits and 1000 baht girls. Also cheaper for foreign food.

You can't complain about those prices, even with today's exchange rates.

Why is it that every time TAT reports new record arrivals some <deleted> throws a spanner in the works?

4 hours ago, xtof2 said:

Easy. 
Increase prices by 40% !
 

Sir, that is a Top comment ???? But I do hope this will not happen, 

Cheers from Perth Australia ????????

31 minutes ago, tabarin said:

Stop with that nonsense, you can simply fly to Thailand for getting some medical too.
And I guarantee you, within a few years, Vietnam will have as many good hospitals too. They are behind but developing 10x faster.

 

Indeed. JCI-accredited Vinmec has built three state of the art hospitals in Nha Trang, Da Nang and HCMC. More to come.

4 hours ago, notasmartassknowitallfarag said:

“You reap what you sow”

 

All those western tourists you took for granted with shocking service, hand out expectations, price increases, assults, greediness, infatuation with Chinese tourists and your governments decision to not devalue the baht have lead to this. 

Totally agree........blame silly Immigration Laws that are 19 th Century

Just now, Kaoboi Bebobp said:

Indeed. JCI-accredited Vinmec has built three state of the art hospitals in Nha Trang, Da Nang and HCMC. More to come.

Add the big investments coming from EU soon on top of all this and they will be leading SE Asia in a few years.

2 hours ago, baansgr said:

 6 or 7 drinks,  and all night company with a burger after in Philippines can be had for less than 1.500  baht,  triple that here

Not sure I want to spend a night with a burger.

They don't seem to get it.

Customers are down but the prices go up.

Thai logic I will never understand...

 

They buy a new car and when they sell it they want the same price as they paid, maybe 2 years ago. 

 

If it doesn't sell, it just sits there gathering cobwebs. 

 

Talking of which. 

A few cobwebs gathering on Walking Street too.

2 hours ago, sfokevin said:

If the bars are empty I’m surprised that the bar girls haven’t tried selling their wares thru Grab?... 

It's already happened, but I like the Grab connection. I vote to call it Snatch 'n Grab! ????

 

I have friends who visit regular, stay in 5* hotels, spend money, have sex with anything from 1 to a dozen women on a 2-3 week stay covering a range of age and socio economic levels all without ever once going near a bar. I think they are just a bit 20th century.

 

There are now so many ways to meet Thai women that the whole rational for bars is much reduced. It's a business area as disruptive as any other.

 

Who want to pi.. into a cup on the middle of walking street or who want to end up at police station for not carrying a passport.Who want to watch the bar girls playing with their phones.Who want to pay for 7-8000 Baht for short time if you can have that cheaper in a Thai brothel in your home country.Besides that flight and hotel is not really cheap.20 years ago i came 4-5 times per year to Thailand for a week or two.If I do that today Immigration will not let me in after 2nd or 3rd time or is telling me I work here(total stupidity,why Europeans,Americans,Australians,etc,) should come to work here.The whole atmosphere changed from fun and easy city to restricted police state.On top of that the Chinese and Indians.MY friends telling me they don't want to come anymore,to dirty,to expensive,to many scams,to far away,etc.

1 minute ago, bobnuts said:

I think they are just a bit 20th century.

I prefer to not have my photos in apps, data sold on, to later be blackmailed (I am in IT and know where that data goes, it doesn't ever go away).
That aside, I prefer a bar as there is less time wasted + no drama. I know what I get and how she really looks like, not some edited photo, pay up, and leave after.

That´s great! Then all the looser punters that are left, ain´t gonna have any problems finding a nice time with some farm girls.

 

5 hours ago, Fancyzancy said:

Any discounts on hotel rooms ? NO!!!

They should start there.

As well as the pretties shouldn't turn down older Farang.  Were the bread and butter!!!

We´re the bread and butter???? Really, I think you give yourself a far higher value than reality does.

3 minutes ago, Matzzon said:

That´s great! Then all the looser punters that are left, ain´t gonna have any problems finding a nice time with some farm girls.

 

We´re the bread and butter???? Really, I think you give yourself a far higher value than reality does.

First sentence is absolutely true, trust me. 555

 

And yes, we are their bread and butter, in my case, with jam on it. Try it sometime, works for me.

 

Edit: The girls prefer strawberry above any other flavour.

 

 

Talk about over the hill hookers, I was looking for a farm supply shop off the main street in Muang Phitsanulok the other day and Low and behold there they were.....both must have worked the Coconut when Rama 5 ruled Siam!  No I didn't ask prices. 

Not Pattaya but Bangkok yesterday.  Sitting in traffic 13:00 on Sukhumvit with Soi 22 on my left hand side.

I witnessed 2 police stop a tourist walking down the sidewalk to check his passport.  finished with him, they turned around and stop 2 tourist on a scooter and frisked them down.

I not know if pattaya is the same but if I go on vacation to a country and they want to arbitrarily stop & frisk me, I will never return.

Thats not the vibe I want when I go on vacation.