Old photos of Pattaya show beach resort of a bygone era

[webfact]

Picture: Kapook

 

Thai media Kapook took their readers on a walk down memory lane as they published several pictures of Pattaya from a bygone era.

 

There was just a beach with the odd place to get a bit of shelter - with a foreigner in rather tight shorts!

 

Picture: Kapook

 

Beach road had no sidewalk and Penphat Bungalow was the accommodation, incorrectly spelled.

 

There was also a sign for US Magthai/JUSMAG beach Recreation Center Area Palm Grove. 

 

Picture: Kapook

 

This may refer to the Joint US Military Advisory Group Thailand that was established in Thailand in the 1950s. 

 

Kapook didn't say when the pictures were taken so readers on ASEAN NOW may like to clarify, perhaps adding some memories of their own.

 

Picture: Kapook

 

Kapook said this was a bygone era before hotels, resorts, clubs and bars and the big commercial sex industry so familiar to foreigners today. 

 

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[saakura]

Looks so beautiful. How they have destroyed it by encouraging mass tourism & group tours. 

Edited July 24, 2021 by saakura

[gk10012001]

43 minutes ago, saakura said:

Looks so beautiful. How they have destroyed it by encouraging mass tourism & group tours. 

Pattaya peaked around 2005 in my Opine.  That was all the development it needed or could sustain.  Jomtine Beach was still swimmable  most of the time.  No need for that monstrosity Festival mall.  If one wants malls, go to Bangkok or a big city.  Gardens Mall and the Big C down by the Dolphin Roundabout was enough.  Carre 4 was still around which I though was so much better than Big C.  All those high rise condos, just ruin the quiet (except at night) flavor of Pattaya.  Little sois to walk down.  One could cross second road without getting run over.  There was still a high and a low season which was a nice break.  As usual, Thais over did it, just like the ten 7-11s on the same street.  Foreign money came in, first the Russians and the visa things they negotiated with Thailand, then of course the Mass chinese hordes most of who stay in pre selected hotels, eat pre planned meals, rarely go to the local hotels or bars.  The old days will not come back.  No idea what will happen after this year. 

 

[NCC1701A]

many old photos of Thailand with old cars and fashions but one thing really stands out to me, no massive piles of cables on power poles.   

[impulse]

9 hours ago, saakura said:

Looks so beautiful. How they have destroyed it by encouraging mass tourism & group tours. 

All ya gotta do is find another Thai fishing village that hasn't been overdeveloped and you'll be in another backpacker paradise.  The problem isn't that it's so hard to find.  It's no harder than Pattaya was 40 years ago.  The problem is that they've made it so easy to follow the crowds.  And so many of us are addicted to A/C and bars.

 

 

[edwinchester]

Looks busier than it is now.

[Ireland32]

23 hours ago, saakura said:

Looks so beautiful. How they have destroyed it by encouraging mass tourism & group tours. 

Just go down the Coast Miles of beach after Trat 

[Mickeymaus]

19 minutes ago, Ireland32 said:

Just go down the Coast Miles of beach after Trat 

Yes, the coast line is so long with endless sand beaches. Pattaya is only special because it is famous for its huge red light districts. Hello sexy man... Everywhere - in bars, in shopping malls, on the Beach Road... But not everything is bad since there is no prostitution. 

[SOTIRIOS]

...one word.... g r e e d .........

[Pravda]

On 7/24/2021 at 1:17 PM, NCC1701A said:

many old photos of Thailand with old cars and fashions but one thing really stands out to me, no massive piles of cables on power poles.   

 

I'm not the first or last poster to call you out, but pics or it didn't happen. 

[thaibeachlovers]

I noticed they had those pestilential speedboats even then.

Up to me they'd all be burnt.

[thaibeachlovers]

10 minutes ago, Pravda said:

 

I'm not the first or last poster to call you out, but pics or it didn't happen. 

What have you been smokin'?

Did you not look at the photos?

[clivebaxter]

I was expecting it to look like this when I went in the pre internet days of 1994, it wasn't. Took them about 20 years to completely ruin and over develop it.

[thaibeachlovers]

Just now, clivebaxter said:

I was expecting it to look like this when I went in the pre internet days of 1994, it wasn't. Took them about 20 years to completely ruin and over develop it.

Didn't look like that in 1993, but it was as good as it gets back then. Not too busy and fun, fun, fun.

[OneMoreFarang]

On 7/24/2021 at 1:17 PM, NCC1701A said:

many old photos of Thailand with old cars and fashions but one thing really stands out to me, no massive piles of cables on power poles.   

Another thing stands out to me: No fat Thai girls!

I am surprised you didn't notice this rather important difference. 

[jacko45k]

2 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Didn't look like that in 1993, but it was as good as it gets back then. Not too busy and fun, fun, fun.

Yes, it is a faint memory but those early days were great... my  first visit was 80s.

[thaibeachlovers]

1 minute ago, jacko45k said:

Yes, it is a faint memory but those early days were great... my  first visit was 80s.

You were lucky. I spent my first visits in Bkk, Patong, Phi Phi or Chaweng.

 

Unfortunately I was persuaded by a western woman not to go to Pattaya. More fool me for believing a woman. When I finally got there in '93 I loved everything about it. I still remember riding in the back of the baht bus from the bus station ( 20 baht to the hotel door back then ) down Beach Rd. To the left, bars full of happy guys and pretty girls, to the right the sun sparkled on the sea.

It looked like paradise, and it was.

[OneMoreFarang]

One important picture was obviously missing.

I am sure some of you will have some older picture of that place.

 

[unblocktheplanet]

On 7/24/2021 at 1:17 PM, NCC1701A said:

many old photos of Thailand with old cars and fashions but one thing really stands out to me, no massive piles of cables on power poles.   

They just kept adding cables when nobody could figure out where they went!

[rcuthbert]

Uncle Rick on leave in 1972.

 

[flexomike]

I Worked for JUSMAGTHAI/THAILAND from 1968 to 1970 first visited there in late 1968, water skied in the ocean rode horses on the beach, completely different world back then, loved the peace and quiet

[DefaultName]

Bars.  I remember bars.  ????

[bangkok19]

I first went there at Xmas 1983...  stayed at the Pattaya 11 Hotel, just near the Pitstop Bar.

Biggest and best venue in town was the Marine Bar for the nightlife, and we often frequented B.J.'s Bar of a late afternoon to watch music video's on VHS tapes and drink Kloster  or Amarit beer.

I did the Pattaya Hash runs regularly but after about 8 years I grew tired of the "excesses" of everything!

Noise pollution, water pollution and dirty beach. My last visit there was 1991!  

Judging by the supplied old photographs from the 60's/70's (??) ...  so-called 'progress' was already alive and living when I was there in 1983.

My alternative beach choice in the 90's was Phuket (Patong) then Post-Tsunami,   Koh Chang.

We stopped visiting Koh Chang several years ago after a landslide from the mountain opposite our hotel took down the room/building we used to stay in.  Now...  instead of beaches I prefer drinks by the pool. 

[khaowong1]

13 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Didn't look like that in 1993, but it was as good as it gets back then. Not too busy and fun, fun, fun.

I first got there in 1985.  then it was just a little beach town, with some bars from Vietnam days. 

[Hanuman2547]

5 hours ago, bangkok19 said:

I first went there at Xmas 1983...  stayed at the Pattaya 11 Hotel, just near the Pitstop Bar.

Biggest and best venue in town was the Marine Bar for the nightlife, and we often frequented B.J.'s Bar of a late afternoon to watch music video's on VHS tapes and drink Kloster  or Amarit beer.

I did the Pattaya Hash runs regularly but after about 8 years I grew tired of the "excesses" of everything!

Noise pollution, water pollution and dirty beach. My last visit there was 1991!  

Judging by the supplied old photographs from the 60's/70's (??) ...  so-called 'progress' was already alive and living when I was there in 1983.

My alternative beach choice in the 90's was Phuket (Patong) then Post-Tsunami,   Koh Chang.

We stopped visiting Koh Chang several years ago after a landslide from the mountain opposite our hotel took down the room/building we used to stay in.  Now...  instead of beaches I prefer drinks by the pool. 

A lot of good times back then.  BJ's bar is gone now but he's still around at the northern end of the beach.  Kloster and Amarit were fun beers to drink back then, especially after a long hot day out on the hash.

On-On!

[Kerryd]

19 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Didn't look like that in 1993, but it was as good as it gets back then. Not too busy and fun, fun, fun.

My first trip was in Feb '93.

Started off in a hotel on the north end of Pattaya Beach (around soi 2).
First night I walked all the way down to the Marine Bar on Walking Street. There was some shops and restaurants past the "Big Buddha Tree" but not much for "entertainment" so I went back to the Marine Bar.
Ended up changing hotels and going to the brand new "DayNight 2" hotel which was much cheaper (further from the beach though which wasn't an issue for me) and quieter.

I'd gone to one go-go bar in Bangkok on the first night of my trip. It was boring so I never even looked at the (one or two) that were on Walking Street at the time. I think there was Happy's (on soi Happy) and the Electric Blue on Walking Street.

Next trip was in '98 and I think they were only up to about a dozen a-go-gos by then, maybe 20 by the time I came back in 2000, all on Walking Street. 

Then it started to explode. In 2004 there were a couple dozen. By 2006 there was probably 3 dozen plus. I remember calculating that if you spent 1 hour per club from 8pm to 3 am, it would take one full week to hit every go-go bar on Walking Street.

2006-2010 was boom time. I think the total number of go-gos in Pattaya went up to around 75. They were popping up on Soi 7 and soi Bhukhao for the first time as well as in Jomtien. I remember going to the first one that opened off of Walking Street (I think it was "We are the World" and was at the bottom of Soi 7, just before Beach Rd.)
The little side sois off of Walking Street were hosting a lot of go-gos as well. They were springing up everywhere !
 

17 hours ago, rcuthbert said:

Uncle Rick on leave in 1972.

 

Walking Street - 1979                                                            (Taken by someone coming down "Big Buddha Hill")
 


                  Pattaya Bay - 1970                                                                   Pattaya Bay 2017
                       


Pattaya Bar Girls (circa late 1960s)

Edited July 26, 2021 by Kerryd
frakken post is a different size than the "composing" window so everything has to be resized to fit because having the 2 be the same size apparently doesn't make sense to whoever designed this program !

[thaibeachlovers]

3 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

My first trip was in Feb '93.

Started off in a hotel on the north end of Pattaya Beach (around soi 2).
First night I walked all the way down to the Marine Bar on Walking Street. There was some shops and restaurants past the "Big Buddha Tree" but not much for "entertainment" so I went back to the Marine Bar.
Ended up changing hotels and going to the brand new "DayNight 2" hotel which was much cheaper (further from the beach though which wasn't an issue for me) and quieter.

I'd gone to one go-go bar in Bangkok on the first night of my trip. It was boring so I never even looked at the (one or two) that were on Walking Street at the time. I think there was Happy's (on soi Happy) and the Electric Blue on Walking Street.

Next trip was in '98 and I think they were only up to about a dozen a-go-gos by then, maybe 20 by the time I came back in 2000, all on Walking Street. 

Then it started to explode. In 2004 there were a couple dozen. By 2006 there was probably 3 dozen plus. I remember calculating that if you spent 1 hour per club from 8pm to 3 am, it would take one full week to hit every go-go bar on Walking Street.

2006-2010 was boom time. I think the total number of go-gos in Pattaya went up to around 75. They were popping up on Soi 7 and soi Bhukhao for the first time as well as in Jomtien. I remember going to the first one that opened off of Walking Street (I think it was "We are the World" and was at the bottom of Soi 7, just before Beach Rd.)
The little side sois off of Walking Street were hosting a lot of go-gos as well. They were springing up everywhere !
 

Walking Street - 1979                                                                                 (Taken by someone coming down "Big Buddha Hill")
    


                                    Pattaya Bay - 1970                                                                                                      Pattaya Bay 2017
   


Pattaya Bar Girls (circa late 1960s)

Good report.

 

I was recommended the Mike Hotel near Royal Garden Mall and stayed there for years. Good hotel in it's day, but fallen on hard times last time I went to Pattaya.

I eventually moved to the Sawasdee hotels, as cheaper, 300 baht, but no lift.

 

Just to be correct, Walking Street wasn't Walking Street in the early 90s, and it was just a street. I think it became Walking Street in '96. Whenever it was, I was at the opening. More like a beer garden to start and none of those farang wannabe cops. In fact no cops at all. The street didn't even go all the way to Bali Hi, and the restaurants at that end lost out badly.

 

The Marine Disco was the place from when it opened till sometime after midnight, and then I'd go to another disco behind the Lucky Star bars which was open till well after dawn. I never managed to stay there till it closed, and I had to run the katoey gauntlet at the Beach road entrance to go back to my hotel.

Back then, there was always a bar open somewhere, and not unusual to see farangs drinking early morning.

That happy situation continued till Thaksin's evil henchman did his best to destroy the Pattaya farang scene. He even sent cops from Bkk to destroy it. I saw them assembled as I was leaving to go to the islands. I'm happy I missed the disaster that was to be visited on Pattaya by that man. IMO it's never recovered to what it was before. Sad.

 

The best street back then of course was Soi 8. Never even heard of Buakhao or Soi 6 back then. The sois by the Boy Town ( not sure if that's the correct name ) were also popular.

Plenty of small gogos to be found around town, but not like the big ones to come on Walking Street. Tahitian Queen was probably the best known. I never bothered with them though, as the Bkk ones had spoiled me.

 

Beach Road had a lot more bars along it than now. It would have been hard to walk far without a bar complex.

Naklua had a good collection of bars not far up from the Dolphin.

 

Only 3 malls then The Big C one near the Dolphin, the Mike and the Royal Garden. They were plenty enough though. The Mike was where all the tour buses went in the evening, and the car park on Second was full of buses.

 

It wasn't as easy to get to Pattaya back then. 4 hours from Ekamai, and longer while they were building the overhead expressway. One needed a Walkman to while away the time in the horrendeous traffic jams.

 

No farang with sense swam in Pattaya Bay, but apparently it was better than in the 80s. Jomptien was the beach for swimming.

Every morning dozens of speedboats came down Beach road to be launched, and the bay was full of big boats. We went out to them on a small boat for trips. Loads of ?Japanese tour groups walking down to the beach all with the same regulation hotel towels to go out on the big boats.

 

For those that remember the Malibu Show, that was a big deal back then and always packed with customers. The 2 big lady boy shows, Alcazar and Tiffanies were very popular with Asian tourists. I suppose they are closed at the moment.

 

Since those happy days, the nice beach promenade has been destroyed, the walkway around the headland to Naklua beach collapsed, the derelict marina was built, the ghastly Waterfront monstrocity was erected, the promenade to the Lighthouse was turned into a speedboat park, and the nice grassy park at Bali Hi had a stupid carpark built on it. Seems the leaders are only good at bad constructions. They couldn't even make 3rd road wide enough for increased traffic in later years, despite it going through empty fields.

Pitiful.

[gk10012001]

On 7/25/2021 at 12:31 AM, Mickeymaus said:

Yes, the coast line is so long with endless sand beaches. Pattaya is only special because it is famous for its huge red light districts. Hello sexy man... Everywhere - in bars, in shopping malls, on the Beach Road... But not everything is bad since there is no prostitution. 

I think Pattaya is special because of the Baht bus.  To me, they were the greatest.  Hop on, hop off.  Costs fractions of a dollar.  So convenient to get around.  Sure the other stuff is nice and great.  But if you ever go to Phuket and stay at Karon Beach, well your are hostage to get North around the point up to Patong and back.  Same for most other Thai cities. Some of limited baht bus service. Some have motorbike taxis, but none are as easy to get around as in Pattaya.

[Mr Meeseeks]

On 7/24/2021 at 11:22 AM, saakura said:

Looks so beautiful. How they have destroyed it by encouraging mass tourism & group tours. 

Same as everywhere I have been early, before the crowds. 

 

Sihanoukville in the late 90's, early 00's was a similar paradise. Now completely ruined by the Chinese.

[jacko45k]

3 hours ago, gk10012001 said:

But if you ever go to Phuket and stay at Karon Beach, well your are hostage

Been there done that and agree.......