Family friendly resort? (Part 2)

[BigStar]

1 minute ago, radiochaser said:

Personal experience of guys telling me or I overhearing them talking about going to Pattya.   Fishing

 

So there you are. That's not formal R&R leave. Spending your precious R&R fishing in a quiet fishing village wasn't on any grunt's list of desirable ways to spend R&R. Pattaya as we know it (still lost in the 80s and 90s) took off after the war. 

[radiochaser]

2 minutes ago, BigStar said:

 

So there you are. That's not formal R&R leave. Spending your precious R&R fishing in a quiet fishing village wasn't on any grunt's list of desirable ways to spend R&R. Pattaya as we know it (still lost in the 80s and 90s) took off after the war. 

They were not on R&R.  Almost all the personnel assigned to the 7th at Ramuson station were on permanent assignment with some there on TDY.  At the time I was there, we had RDF sites at other places in Thailand as well and they may have also traveled to different places in Thailand, as I did.     All personnel that went to Pattaya were on regular leave as I was when I traveled to Khan Kean (sp?).   

R&R in Thailand was for those military personnel that were assigned permanent stations in Vietnam.   Like I was and later PCSed to Thailand. 

[BigStar]

3 minutes ago, radiochaser said:

All personnel that went to Pattaya were on regular leave as I was when I traveled to Khan Kean (sp?).   

R&R in Thailand was for those military personnel that were assigned permanent stations in Vietnam.   Like I was and later PCSed to Thailand. 

 

Right. The point under discussion comes from the erroneous claim from a Daily Mail writer quoted by @HauptmannUK

 

17 hours ago, HauptmannUK said:

"Former fishing village Pattaya became popular with American troops on 'rest and relaxation' breaks in the 1960s when the U.S. military had bases in Thailand.

 

It's a common myth sometimes repeated here by those who don't know any better and who'll quote "sources."

 

[radiochaser]

1 minute ago, BigStar said:

 

Right. The point under discussion comes from the erroneous claim from a Daily Mail writer quoted by @HauptmannUK

 

 

It's a common myth sometimes repeated here by those who don't know any better and who'll quote "sources."

 

I tried to edit my post with the following but was unable to. 

Edited: having re read your post I will partially agree.  Most R&R folks probably would not go to Pattaya on R&R.  I know that There were some who had been assigned to the 7th, PCS'ed to Vietnam and went on R&R back to Thailand to visit their friends at the 7th and in Udon Thanii.   I don't know if any went down to Pattya during R&R.   We had personnel TDY back and forth from Vietnam and Thailand, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Europe, etc as some MOS's had a small number of personnel in them.   I was a 05D and there were only about 550 of us stationed in various countries.  During my time at the 8th RRFS at Phu Bai, VN, we were supposed to have 24 personnel working rotating 8 hour shifts.  At one point in time, the day shift (12 noon to 12 midnight) had 3!  A SP4 who was assigned to the RDF site at Chiang Mai was TDY'ed to work on my shift for a couple of months.   

[BigStar]

4 minutes ago, radiochaser said:

  Most R&R folks probably would not go to Pattaya on R&R.

 

Wouldn't, didn't, and as you say you have no reason to think they did. Are we done with this red herring?

[radiochaser]

Just now, BigStar said:

 

Wouldn't, didn't, and as you say you have no reason to think they did. Are we done with this red herring?

We can't fish a little more?

[radiochaser]

3 minutes ago, BigStar said:

 

Wouldn't, didn't, and as you say you have no reason to think they did. Are we done with this red herring?

I just found this on wikipedia..   But, it is wikipedia!

Pattaya Beach in Thailand was a fishing village until the 1960s when thousands of U.S. troops from Vietnam showed up for R&R, leading to the creation of one of the largest red light districts in the world. The heart of its economy remains sex tourism. Soldiers sometimes called the breaks "I&I" for "intoxication and intercourse".^[8] The 1973 novel Saint Jack and its 1979 film adaptation revolve around the American GIs who came to Singapore during the Vietnam War on R&R for the prostitution that was prevalent in the city-state at the time.<sup>[9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%26R_(military)</sup>

[radiochaser]

5 minutes ago, radiochaser said:

We can't fish a little more?

 

6 minutes ago, BigStar said:

 

Wouldn't, didn't, and as you say you have no reason to think they did. Are we done with this red herring?

This bing dot com search did fine more references to Vietnam military going to Pattya in the 1960's

https://www.bing.com/search?q=Vietnam+troops+R%26R+in+Pattya+Thailand&form=QBLH&sp=-1&ghc=1&lq=0&pq=vietnam+troops+r%26r+in+pattya+thailand&sc=11-37&qs=n&sk=&cvid=7D78EECED23443E2ACCC2A3DAFC04E6F&ghsh=0&ghacc=0&ghpl=

[kingstonkid]

I know a lot of Thais in BKK who travel to Pats and have good holidays.  They enjoy the beach and things during the day.  They have a late dinner and enjoy staying at nice hotels near Jomtien.

 

Then there is the nightlife that is single couples no kids focussed.  

 

The issue is with the after-hours idiots (both Thai and tourists)

 

It boggles my mind, be it Pats Puket or NANA, the families that walk around and look at things with their kids in tow.  

 

There are 2 different Pattayas.  Just as there used to be 2 different Yonge Streets in Toronto.  Two different Byward markets in Ottawa.  

[kinyara]

A lot of the adverse news stories here, isolated as they are in the proportional grand scheme of things, are more like personal nominations for a Darwin Award as opposed to being events materially affecting other tourists. Judging by the continued/renewed popularity of Pattaya it would seem the hundreds of thousands of visitors who have trouble free enjoyable trips are capable of making that distinction.

[NanLaew]

8 hours ago, radiochaser said:

22 hours ago, BigStar said:

 

False history endlessly repeated to confirm bias. Fishing village, true. Popular with troops, nonsense.

Then why did soldiers from the 7th RRFS outside of Udon Thanii like to go down there for in country leave?

 

As you say, it was in-country leave but most stopped in Bangkok, same can be said for those on R&R from out-country.

 

I agree that small numbers did venture to Pattaya over the years, which greatly disturbed the nomadic Germans who had been occupying the place for years before it was 'discovered' by the soldiers.

[NanLaew]

4 hours ago, kingstonkid said:

It boggles my mind, be it Pats Puket or NANA, the families that walk around and look at things with their kids in tow.  

 

Can't say I've seen any "families that walk around and look at things with their kids in tow" in either Pattaya's sweaty underparts or in Nana.

 

Why does a sighting of a single family suddenly morph into multiple families? It's like that picture of the Chinese kid taking a dump on the Pattaya Beach road side walk. The pages here were full of comments from people, most who either don't live in Pattaya, don't like Pattaya or have never been to Pattaya, suggesting that loads of Chinese kids were dumping all over the place every day.

 

Curb your enthusiasm.

[BigStar]

6 hours ago, radiochaser said:

I just found this on wikipedia..   But, it is wikipedia!

Pattaya Beach in Thailand was a fishing village until the 1960s when thousands of U.S. troops from Vietnam showed up for R&R, leading to the creation of one of the largest red light districts in the world. The heart of its economy remains sex tourism. Soldiers sometimes called the breaks "I&I" for "intoxication and intercourse".^[8] The 1973 novel Saint Jack and its 1979 film adaptation revolve around the American GIs who came to Singapore during the Vietnam War on R&R for the prostitution that was prevalent in the city-state at the time.<sup>[9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%26R_(military)</sup>

 

The part about Pattaya is nonsense, as noted. You can look up previous discussions rather than wasting time here.

[BigStar]

6 hours ago, radiochaser said:

 

This bing dot com search did fine more references to Vietnam military going to Pattya in the 1960's

https://www.bing.com/search?q=Vietnam+troops+R%26R+in+Pattya+Thailand&form=QBLH&sp=-1&ghc=1&lq=0&pq=vietnam+troops+r%26r+in+pattya+thailand&sc=11-37&qs=n&sk=&cvid=7D78EECED23443E2ACCC2A3DAFC04E6F&ghsh=0&ghacc=0&ghpl=

 

Endlessly repeated myth, as I've noted. No evidence ever given, 'cause there is none.

[georgegeorgia]

6 hours ago, kinyara said:

A lot of the adverse news stories here, isolated as they are in the proportional grand scheme of things, are more like personal nominations for a Darwin Award as opposed to being events materially affecting other tourists. Judging by the continued/renewed popularity of Pattaya it would seem the hundreds of thousands of visitors who have trouble free enjoyable trips are capable of making that distinction.

Laser clinics for red nose are abundant 

[NanLaew]

2 hours ago, georgegeorgia said:

Laser clinics for red nose are abundant 

 

Really? Maybe only folks with red nose would notice that.

[still kicking]

There is nothing wrong with Pattaya if you don't like the red lights districts just stay out of it. I have been to Pattaya many times and never been to a bar or paid for a lady drink. I always stay at nice hotels and if I like a drink, I just go to the hotel bar and for food to my favourite's restaurants.

[jacko45k]

21 hours ago, JimTripper said:

It's easy, just use your brain.

I did, that is why I live in Pattaya rather than that boring place Penang!

[GypsyT]

I came to Pattaya first time in 1974 or 1975.

 

Bus from Bangkok took 3-4 hours... Last part were dirt road through thick forest where elephants were pulling big logs.

 

I didn't see or meet any US soldiers. Not in uniform at least. Mostly pack packer types and Thai families from Bangkok.

 

There were only one modern hotel, full of British Airways personnel. Big fat women had one or two scared looking Thai boys in tow on the way to her room...

 

That was only "sex tourist" type action I ever saw. I had my sweet Thai baby from Bangkok as guide but that doesn't count since I was in LOVE.

 

[radiochaser]

17 hours ago, BigStar said:

 

Endlessly repeated myth, as I've noted. No evidence ever given, 'cause there is none.

I am curious.  Were you there back then? 

[couchpotato]

5 hours ago, GypsyT said:

I came to Pattaya first time in 1974 or 1975.

 

Bus from Bangkok took 3-4 hours... Last part were dirt road through thick forest where elephants were pulling big logs.

 

I didn't see or meet any US soldiers. Not in uniform at least. Mostly pack packer types and Thai families from Bangkok.

 

There were only one modern hotel, full of British Airways personnel. Big fat women had one or two scared looking Thai boys in tow on the way to her room...

 

That was only "sex tourist" type action I ever saw. I had my sweet Thai baby from Bangkok as guide but that doesn't count since I was in LOVE.

 

On your bus trip did you take the ferry across the Chonburi River, or was the bridge in place then?

[NanLaew]

5 hours ago, radiochaser said:

22 hours ago, BigStar said:

 

Endlessly repeated myth, as I've noted. No evidence ever given, 'cause there is none.

I am curious.  Were you there back then?

 

I think you chaps are conflating the semantics and sentiments of the quoted newspaper article with the reality of the 1960's.

 

The linked article suggests that 1) The US military discovered Pattaya, 2) that all the guys on R&R from Vietnam went there, and 3) they created the whole girly bar thing and somehow initiated or pre-empted the whole sexpat scene. All this while 4) being an unwanted foreign aggressor in a foreign land.

 

I think I'm safe in saying that NONE of the above is anywhere close to the truth, and it's nothing more than a hackneyed and biased narrative that some new, young and totally inexperienced 'journalist' has hijacked. It's a crock, OK?

 

Now, American servicemen did visit Pattaya, mostly the guys who were based in-country but also some of those from out-country who were 'in-the-know', weren't interested or were otherwise fed up with Bangkok's hedonistic offerings. Americans did go to Pattaya in notable but not significant numbers, OK?

 

I was introduced to an American Vietnam vet in Korat way back when I was quite new here. Nice chap, if rather rag tag and barely surviving on his disability pension or whatever. He had one arm and after a few beers and getting to know each other, I asked what battle or theater of war he'd lost his arm. He laughed and regaled me with a story of him and his buddies paying some Patpong tuk-tuk drivers to be their "pilots" in alcohol-fueled drag races on Silom. He lost his arm when, with it hanging outside the tuk-tuk passenger cage, it got ripped off on a passing power pole.

 

Unlike me, he'd never been to Pattaya either.

[GypsyT]

2 hours ago, couchpotato said:

On your bus trip did you take the ferry across the Chonburi River, or was the bridge in place then?

Honestly don't remember. I was in love.... Thai baby got my attention.

I guess if there were ferry and we had to unload I'd remember that.

 

[BigStar]

1 hour ago, NanLaew said:

I think you chaps are conflating the semantics and sentiments of the quoted newspaper article with the reality of the 1960's.

 

No.

 

1 hour ago, NanLaew said:

I think I'm safe in saying that NONE of the above is anywhere close to the truth, and it's nothing more than a hackneyed and biased narrative that some new, young and totally inexperienced 'journalist' has hijacked. It's a crock, OK?

 

What I said. @radiochaser(only, surprisingly enough) got all confused and seems to want to believe the common myth about a big R&R girlie bar/prostitution scene in Pattaya during the VN war years. His original question to hijack this topic was

 

On 1/31/2024 at 6:49 AM, radiochaser said:

Then why did soldiers from the 7th RRFS outside of Udon Thanii like to go down there for in country leave?  

 

Which he later answered for himself with the reason he knew all along:

 

On 1/31/2024 at 9:22 AM, radiochaser said:

Fishing and being on the beach I believe were the primary reason.   Some of them went down there with their tilaks.  

 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

On 1/31/2024 at 9:43 PM, NanLaew said:

Can't say I've seen any "families that walk around and look at things with their kids in tow" in either Pattaya's sweaty underparts or in Nana.

When the Russians were in numbers in Pattaya I saw loads of Russian families with young children on Walking Street. It's not as though there was any reason not to take them there. Seems some posters are just too precious to understand that no one was having public sex in Pattaya. I gather that is a British thing.

 

There was no possible reason to expect Russian families to visit Nana, IMO

[thaibeachlovers]

On 2/1/2024 at 2:21 PM, GypsyT said:

I came to Pattaya first time in 1974 or 1975.

 

Bus from Bangkok took 3-4 hours... Last part were dirt road through thick forest where elephants were pulling big logs.

 

I didn't see or meet any US soldiers. Not in uniform at least. Mostly pack packer types and Thai families from Bangkok.

 

There were only one modern hotel, full of British Airways personnel. Big fat women had one or two scared looking Thai boys in tow on the way to her room...

 

That was only "sex tourist" type action I ever saw. I had my sweet Thai baby from Bangkok as guide but that doesn't count since I was in LOVE.

 

I visited Thailand at that time on a bus tour from Singapore. Unfortunately the bus driver  got me to visit some ghastly GI place where they had sex in curtained booths and the floor show was a Thai couple having sex in a box. The guys that didn't go there went to Patpong and reported having an excellent time.

Before we left Thailand, a pimp was providing girls for the guys on the tour. The only time I ever encountered a pimp in Thailand.

[jacko45k]

16 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I gather that is a British thing.

You gather poorly.... the Russians were rutting all over the place!

[sambum]

On 1/30/2024 at 5:34 PM, bbko said:

Why do people that detest Pattaya so much choose to read about it?  

There's cities in the USA that I have no interest in or desire to visit, would it make sense if I followed those cities local news outlets and then went on their local forums and complained?  Wouldn't that make a masochist?

 

"Why do people that detest Pattaya so much choose to read about it?"

 

Probably because it's headline news almost every day on AseaNow, which is supposed to cover all of Thailand?     P.S. Sorry for the late reply - just seen your post now - I don't seem to be getting notified of replies to my posts!