RIP Pattaya

[ianezy0]

How many times have we heard this RIP Pattaya.

It will still be here where you are a mere memory.

But keep complaining. it is entertaining.

[jacko45k]

On 4/29/2020 at 8:09 AM, thaibeachlovers said:

Far as I remember there was only one low rise resort type place there. Don't remember the name.

Avenues failed because it wasn't AC. People that paid for it must be the most stupid mall owners in LOS ever.

My first thought when it opened, despite the hype from a media mogul. Too hot to wander around shopping there with Royal Garden across the road, then along came the Central Festival Beach Rd and it went into the doldrums completely. 

[pineapple01]

Big C or Tesco Lotus wasn't even built when i retired here.  Big difference now are those bad ideas like Avenues have popped up..

[Don Mega]

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Have you even been in Pattaya?

Not since the lockdown.

 

Was hoping it lifts soon as my freezer is running low on meat.

[thaibeachlovers]

5 hours ago, HashBrownHarry said:

I've been in it a few times many years ago, never had a problem.

 

Word is that some of the guys we ex-soccer hooligans from the UK ( london club ) and were also into some shenanigans in Thailand too.

 

As mentioned they were always polite enough to me on the few occasions i stopped by.

 

Also note, i never saw any trouble there.

 

Maybe the man that mentioned this place just did n't like the look of them instead of engaging?

I was staying in the hotel across the road. Thugs, no doubt of it. Who else would go in a place with that name? Their actions proved it.

[thaibeachlovers]

4 hours ago, pineapple01 said:

Big C or Tesco Lotus wasn't even built when i retired here.  Big difference now are those bad ideas like Avenues have popped up..

The one on Central Rd or the one up near Dolphin roundabout?

Big C on Central wasn't called Big C- it was Carrefour till they left and sold it to Big C.

[BigStar]

17 hours ago, Leaver said:

And.......that means we could all be living in a crime ridden slum in the future. 

Well, wrong again. Knowledgeable posters, who know the true situation, realize that we've always been living in a crime-ridden slum, targeted by thugs & police. That fact was pointed out 22 years ago by Lawrence Neal. All the Golden Egg Layers were already fleeing to the paradise of Cambodia, so ending all hope of Pattaya's prosperity:

 

There are two types of articles appearing in the Pattaya Mail with regularity: those where business and political leaders decry the decline in tourism and propose ways to improve the situation; and a steadily increasing number of reports of tourists being insulted, assaulted, drugged, robbed and extorted. All the good intentions and empty proposals by community leaders are not going to change the behavior of the people at street level, and it is they who are driving away the life blood of the city.

 

. . . It doesn’t matter if the streets are cleared of garbage, no one is going to walk down them if doing so leaves them open to being insulted and assaulted. Having a beach promenade doesn’t matter if strolling along it means taking the risk of being knocked down and robbed. No one is going to participate in the vibrant night-life if there is a good chance that they will wake up three days later in the hospital with all their possessions gone, or in some cases, not wake up at all. No one is going to seek an exotic experience if it means they might be set up by girls with both a legal age and under age ID, and then extorted for immense sums by the police.

Pattaya is being inundated with rude obnoxious thugs who do not care about the city or its visitors. They do not listen to the community leaders, and the police do not have the budget or manpower to control them. They are driving away the tourists and the income and jobs that they bring. Inevitably, this rabble will win as they reduce everyone to their level of poverty.

Meanwhile, tourism to Cambodia is increasing by 50% every six months...

     --Lawrence Neal, "Down On Pattaya, Pattaya Mail, Vol. V No.5, Friday 31 January 1997 - 6 February 1997

 

So, as pointed out in countless threads over the years, the rabble won long ago and now merely fight for scraps among the ruins of the Fixed Pie left by the great Golden Egg Layers.

 

A virus can't kill what's already been dead. Now, it's just ghoulish to keep resurrecting that old corpse for further autopsies, innit?

 

Perhaps some are just unable to comprehend the true horror of the economic apocalypse decades ago. Can't accept it, too mind-boggling.

 

We should bring peace at last to these deluded sufferers. Here's Pattaya in 1995 at the zenith of the prosperity conferred by the benevolent Golden Egg Layers (GEL), showering free Golden Eggs on all the poor grateful Thais:

 

 

See that incredible wealth? Beer bars crowded at all hours every day. Thais had everything then. Just a couple of satang flipped their way meant smiles all the time and fitting servility towards the superior GEL. Barked orders were instantly obeyed.

 

There were NO closed shops, empty malls, empty luxury hotels and condos. no traffic, cracked pavements, overhanging signs, or potholes. Crime didn’t exist because the GEL ensured a high standard of living for all—or what they considered high enough for Thais anyway. No thefts, scams, corruption, or pollution. Correct change always given with a charming wai. Haircuts always perfect, no farang noggin skint on the sides with a bowl on top, so common nowadays. Fried eggs served well done, never runny. French fries always proper homemade chips with gravy and vinegar, “nice, crispy and most important HOT”-- not thin, cold, and soggy as all of them are now, disgustingly. Branston Pickle, Coleman’s Mustard, Lee and Perrins, Marmite, pickled beetroot, and proper pork scratchings all were displayed prominently in every shop.

 

Most importantly, with such a plentiful money supply, nothing ever cost more than 100 baht, the max it ever should in Thailand. In all benevolence, to be sure, the GELs, most of whom hailed from nanny states, did permit a 5% profit for deserving vendors.

 

Yep, the Golden Egg Layers created a paradise the likes of which the world will never see again. Absolute perfection.

 

Then, DISASTER. The GELS were forced to head for the exits by thuggery, scams, pollution, corruption, and the INSANE rise in visa fees in 2003. All the Thais once basking in all the beneficence left to go work in rice fields!

 

As a result, with no more Golden Eggs, we have only only these bleached ruins left:

 

 

Now that may look like an economy, oh, 5 times wealthier with large shopping malls, large discount stores, expensive hotels, luxury condo buildings, and thousands more Thais employed in actual jobs, but don't be fooled: shrewd posters know it's merely a Potemkin village. No shopper has ever been seen any o' them fake malls. All the indicators of TVF Econometrics have LONG been flashing doom: the lights-on-at-night count, the red-plates-on-cars count, the lines-at-the-bank count, and the shopping bag count.

 

Hence our Economists have sounded the alarm bells for decades. In vain. But somehow, for some unfathomable reason, the Thais didn't look at the 1995 economy with same nostalgia as our TVF posters. The few left seem to prefer scavenging in the rubble and look to continue doing more of the same. 

 

Conclusion: if this state of DEATH could just be reversed, we could go back to the greater Golden Egg Laying prosperity shown so dramatically in the 1995 picture. So our focus should be on how to tear down all this fake stuff, kick out the Thais doing real work, and bring back the old prosperity.

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by BigStar

[Silent Tiger]

6 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Only if talking about Naklua. Been thug bars in Pattaya since at least 30 years. Do you forget the Dog's ( impolite word for testicles ) bar?

Yes i remember Dogs bar soi Yamoto i think 1 off now a sea of them soi Buakow 1 every 9 yrds ????

[Silent Tiger]

I know somebody with a bar on 2nd road they have said if Pattaya not open by october they will call it a day & close the bar also said by a number of other bar owners RIP as stated !!!

[BigStar]

32 minutes ago, Silent Tiger said:

I know somebody with a bar on 2nd road they have said if Pattaya not open by october they will call it a day & close the bar also said by a number of other bar owners RIP as stated !!!

You’ve misinterpreted what you thought you heard. That is a hopeful sign of the return to the Golden Era of 1995, when we had relatively few beer bars on 2nd Road, a few more on Beach Road, and a lot on Sois 7-8. Walking St., of course, others here & there.

 

But you see, beginning in the 2000s the number of beer bars in Pattaya exploded all over 2nd Rd stretching up to North Pattaya Rd. As well the huge development took place on and around Soi Buakhao, including LK Metro. It was far more than the market could have born before or since.

So to get back to Golden Egg Layer prosperity, all that new stuff needs to be shut down. Then the bars on Sois 7-8 may well look crowded again and you may feel the economy is much more successful.

 

So, just another sign of Pattaya’s coming revival. ????

 

[Leaver]

11 hours ago, Don Mega said:

Yeah cause it aint already a crime ridden slum !!

You ain't seen nothing yet.  

[Leaver]

2 hours ago, BigStar said:

Well, wrong again. Knowledgeable posters, who know the true situation, realize that we've always been living in a crime-ridden slum, targeted by thugs & police. That fact was pointed out 22 years ago by Lawrence Neal. All the Golden Egg Layers were already fleeing to the paradise of Cambodia, so ending all hope of Pattaya's prosperity:

 

There are two types of articles appearing in the Pattaya Mail with regularity: those where business and political leaders decry the decline in tourism and propose ways to improve the situation; and a steadily increasing number of reports of tourists being insulted, assaulted, drugged, robbed and extorted. All the good intentions and empty proposals by community leaders are not going to change the behavior of the people at street level, and it is they who are driving away the life blood of the city.

 

. . . It doesn’t matter if the streets are cleared of garbage, no one is going to walk down them if doing so leaves them open to being insulted and assaulted. Having a beach promenade doesn’t matter if strolling along it means taking the risk of being knocked down and robbed. No one is going to participate in the vibrant night-life if there is a good chance that they will wake up three days later in the hospital with all their possessions gone, or in some cases, not wake up at all. No one is going to seek an exotic experience if it means they might be set up by girls with both a legal age and under age ID, and then extorted for immense sums by the police.

Pattaya is being inundated with rude obnoxious thugs who do not care about the city or its visitors. They do not listen to the community leaders, and the police do not have the budget or manpower to control them. They are driving away the tourists and the income and jobs that they bring. Inevitably, this rabble will win as they reduce everyone to their level of poverty.

Meanwhile, tourism to Cambodia is increasing by 50% every six months...

     --Lawrence Neal, "Down On Pattaya, Pattaya Mail, Vol. V No.5, Friday 31 January 1997 - 6 February 1997

 

So, as pointed out in countless threads over the years, the rabble won long ago and now merely fight for scraps among the ruins of the Fixed Pie left by the great Golden Egg Layers.

 

A virus can't kill what's already been dead. Now, it's just ghoulish to keep resurrecting that old corpse for further autopsies, innit?

 

Perhaps some are just unable to comprehend the true horror of the economic apocalypse decades ago. Can't accept it, too mind-boggling.

 

We should bring peace at last to these deluded sufferers. Here's Pattaya in 1995 at the zenith of the prosperity conferred by the benevolent Golden Egg Layers (GEL), showering free Golden Eggs on all the poor grateful Thais:

 

 

See that incredible wealth? Beer bars crowded at all hours every day. Thais had everything then. Just a couple of satang flipped their way meant smiles all the time and fitting servility towards the superior GEL. Barked orders were instantly obeyed.

 

There were NO closed shops, empty malls, empty luxury hotels and condos. no traffic, cracked pavements, overhanging signs, or potholes. Crime didn’t exist because the GEL ensured a high standard of living for all—or what they considered high enough for Thais anyway. No thefts, scams, corruption, or pollution. Correct change always given with a charming wai. Haircuts always perfect, no farang noggin skint on the sides with a bowl on top, so common nowadays. Fried eggs served well done, never runny. French fries always proper homemade chips with gravy and vinegar, “nice, crispy and most important HOT”-- not thin, cold, and soggy as all of them are now, disgustingly. Branston Pickle, Coleman’s Mustard, Lee and Perrins, Marmite, pickled beetroot, and proper pork scratchings all were displayed prominently in every shop.

 

Most importantly, with such a plentiful money supply, nothing ever cost more than 100 baht, the max it ever should in Thailand. In all benevolence, to be sure, the GELs, most of whom hailed from nanny states, did permit a 5% profit for deserving vendors.

 

Yep, the Golden Egg Layers created a paradise the likes of which the world will never see again. Absolute perfection.

 

Then, DISASTER. The GELS were forced to head for the exits by thuggery, scams, pollution, corruption, and the INSANE rise in visa fees in 2003. All the Thais once basking in all the beneficence left to go work in rice fields!

 

As a result, with no more Golden Eggs, we have only only these bleached ruins left:

 

 

Now that may look like an economy, oh, 5 times wealthier with large shopping malls, large discount stores, expensive hotels, luxury condo buildings, and thousands more Thais employed in actual jobs, but don't be fooled: shrewd posters know it's merely a Potemkin village. No shopper has ever been seen any o' them fake malls. All the indicators of TVF Econometrics have LONG been flashing doom: the lights-on-at-night count, the red-plates-on-cars count, the lines-at-the-bank count, and the shopping bag count.

 

Hence our Economists have sounded the alarm bells for decades. In vain. But somehow, for some unfathomable reason, the Thais didn't look at the 1995 economy with same nostalgia as our TVF posters. The few left seem to prefer scavenging in the rubble and look to continue doing more of the same. 

 

Conclusion: if this state of DEATH could just be reversed, we could go back to the greater Golden Egg Laying prosperity shown so dramatically in the 1995 picture. So our focus should be on how to tear down all this fake stuff, kick out the Thais doing real work, and bring back the old prosperity.

 

If you think Pattaya is currently a crime ridden slum, like I said, "you ain't seen nothing yet."

 

A couple of articles on TV recently involved domestic violence because hubby wanted money for alcohol.  Wait until hubby needs money for food.    

[Leaver]

9 hours ago, HashBrownHarry said:

I've been in it a few times many years ago, never had a problem.

 

Word is that some of the guys we ex-soccer hooligans from the UK ( london club ) and were also into some shenanigans in Thailand too.

 

As mentioned they were always polite enough to me on the few occasions i stopped by.

 

Also note, i never saw any trouble there.

 

Maybe the man that mentioned this place just did n't like the look of them instead of engaging?

I was in a nearby bar some years ago, and I saw the owner of that bar abuse everyone that walked past, giving them the one finger salute, even old Thai men and women pushing food carts.  The owner of the bar I was in told me it was a regular occurrence.   

 

Some time later, he was arrested, and I never saw him in the bar again.  

[Don Mega]

1 hour ago, Leaver said:

You ain't seen nothing yet.  

Yeah I don't see it getting worse.

[Leaver]

1 minute ago, Don Mega said:

Yeah I don't see it getting worse.

Early days.  

[Don Mega]

1 minute ago, Leaver said:

Early days.  

You should rent out that crystal ball.

[kingdong]

3 hours ago, Leaver said:

I was in a nearby bar some years ago, and I saw the owner of that bar abuse everyone that walked past, giving them the one finger salute, even old Thai men and women pushing food carts.  The owner of the bar I was in told me it was a regular occurrence.   

 

Some time later, he was arrested, and I never saw him in the bar again.  

how long ago are you talking?I used to use it over the years,a few years ago it was turned into a scooter bar,haven,t been in there since Chris Henderson ( rip) died,

[kingdong]

14 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Have you even been in Pattaya?

Have you?

[thaibeachlovers]

17 hours ago, BigStar said:

Conclusion: if this state of DEATH could just be reversed, we could go back to the greater Golden Egg Laying prosperity shown so dramatically in the 1995 picture. So our focus should be on how to tear down all this fake stuff, kick out the Thais doing real work, and bring back the old prosperity.

All in all, I'll take the '95 version over the pre Corona version. It really was better for us farangs back then.

 

Welcome back, you've been away a long time.

[thaibeachlovers]

10 hours ago, kingdong said:

Have you?

Many, many times over decades. I even lived there for a long while. Nice place off Buakhao.

Edited May 1, 2020 by thaibeachlovers

[thaibeachlovers]

17 hours ago, BigStar said:

the Golden Era of 1995, when we had relatively few beer bars on 2nd Road, a few more on Beach Road, and a lot on Sois 7-8. Walking St., of course, others here & there.

Are you sure about that?

There were loads of bar beers along Beach Rd, mainly in clusters, like Best Friends complex but plenty of beach Road bar beers around Soi 8 entrance, heaps of them on Second opposite Big C and on Naklua Rd not far past Dolphin roundabout. Soi 7 hardly figured back then- Soi 8 was THE place to go.

I may be wrong, but I remember Walking Street opening in '96, not '95. Before that there were plenty of bar beers on it anyway.

Yes, it WAS the golden era. Started to go wrong after they built version 2 of the beach walkway ( not the present abomination )

[pineapple01]

Tahiti Queen Beach Road It was new then,. My Second Home. !.

[pineapple01]

15 hours ago, Leaver said:

I was in a nearby bar some years ago, and I saw the owner of that bar abuse everyone that walked past, giving them the one finger salute, even old Thai men and women pushing food carts.  The owner of the bar I was in told me it was a regular occurrence.   

 

Some time later, he was arrested, and I never saw him in the bar again.  

Could have been anybody sitting there doing that, Hicy was around when i was living in Pats. bit of a Wimp on his own i recall. Some Inter City Firm Boys barged in and walked of with the Till one Night. No Fight, they just put it down outside. A bet no doubt that fell flat. Headhunters just put it back.  

[kingdong]

1 hour ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Many, many times over decades. I even lived there for a long while. Nice place off Buakhao.

You surprise me.

[smedly]

16 hours ago, Leaver said:

Some time later, he was arrested, and I never saw him in the bar again.

ha ha, sounds like someone I know - blames everyone but himself as to why he has no customers - the only positive in his favour is he only spends 2 months a year here and during that time still manages to have fights with whatever little customers have built up during his absence - I actually think there's a screw loose in his head 

[smedly]

1 hour ago, pineapple01 said:

Tahiti Queen Beach Road It was new then,. My Second Home. !.

got too greedy and expensive - used to be great

[jimmybcool]

1 hour ago, pineapple01 said:

Tahiti Queen Beach Road It was new then,. My Second Home. !.

I thought TQ was started way back in the 70s.  Served the Vietnam boys.  Could be wrong.  A mentioned above kinda expensive now but a great place to go otherwise.

 

[jacko45k]

9 minutes ago, jimmybcool said:

I thought TQ was started way back in the 70s.  Served the Vietnam boys.  Could be wrong.  A mentioned above kinda expensive now but a great place to go otherwise.

 

1978

Edited May 1, 2020 by jacko45k

[pineapple01]

18 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

1978

Thats what i said, new when Woody owned it. Why do kids today allways bicker with us Crumblies that lived it and now wish we still could. Is Woody still around.?.

[BigStar]

4 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Are you sure about that?

There were loads of bar beers along Beach Rd, mainly in clusters, like Best Friends complex but plenty of beach Road bar beers around Soi 8 entrance, heaps of them on Second opposite Big C and on Naklua Rd not far past Dolphin roundabout. Soi 7 hardly figured back then- Soi 8 was THE place to go.

I may be wrong, but I remember Walking Street opening in '96, not '95. Before that there were plenty of bar beers on it anyway.

Yes, it WAS the golden era. Started to go wrong after they built version 2 of the beach walkway ( not the present abomination )

The beer bars along Beach Rd., including those at Soi 8, mostly survived except those displaced by CentralFestival. Not many were displaced then, but a number bitterly exaggerated into myth by TVF Bar Scene Analysts. Some of those moved to 2nd Rd., and those displaced on the mall side moved across the street as part of the vast expansion. All things are relative, but I'd say at the end we had 2 - 3 times more beer bars than before. Many of those excess bars, such as near the Grand Sole, closed some time ago, and that area of the street now awaits . . . something, hopefully another shopping mall. (Just thought I'd throw that in to p**s off our mall haters. ????) A large area formerly occupied by bars on Naklua Rd has been redeveloped, partly owing to the T21 impetus.

 

Pattaya's always been "changing." Naklua once had a go-go bar and so did the Best Friend complex, at the back. Not many remember those.

 

The "newer" bar scene on and around Soi Buakhao remains pretty strong, however--the location near the fleabag hotels is so convenient--and the impact of that scene on Sois 7 and 8, and on Walking Street, needs to be recognized. If our mongers, who like so many rely exclusively on their Eyeballs, see 5000 customers spread out over 3000 beer bars, Pattaya's DEAD. If they see the same 5000 spread out over 500 beer bars, then Pattaya's hoppin'.

 

So, though sanity is being restored in the market, we still have far to go to 1995, so closings are just part of the return to the downsized Golden Era some remember with such nostalgia. ????

 

I referred to the section of Beach Rd. that later became Walking Street, of course.

Edited May 1, 2020 by BigStar