Moving a family to Pattaya from Bangkok thoughts?

[JimHuaHin]

Madness.

[hotsun]

Dont know why anyone would bring their kids there, but then again im not from the uk

[jacko45k]

1 minute ago, hotsun said:

Dont know why anyone would bring their kids there, but then again im not from the uk

There  is a huge number of Thai families bring their kids here at the weekends and holidays....and for the longer term stayers, well I just doubt they see a need to be on Soi 6, Buakhao or Walking St. It's like avoiding London because of Soho, or Amsterdam because of De Wallen

[newnative]

10 hours ago, DonniePeverley said:

Hi guys an update ...

 

unfortunately it looks like we may be swayed to stay in Bangkok. 

 

Budget was never an issue, so people who claim they enjoy Pattaya as it's cheaper is it not really a selling point. 

 

Some points ..

 

Just walking around Pattaya though, the people, the culture seems non exisitant. I love walking around Bangkok, Chiang Mai and seeing Thai culture at work away from the tourist zones. I love those walks (except when black smoke hits you in the face from a car exhaust). 

 

There is some grim awful visitors in Pattaya. The real pits. Some ultra lowlifes that seem attracted to that place. I have never seen people like this anywhere. 

 

You cannot ignore the Indian situation. That is horrific. Open soliciation everywhere is nothing like i've seen. My wife came out of Central on beach road to get some juice and was immediately approached by Indian men asking her 'discount baby boom boom'. Where else would something so disgusting happen? So am i to ask my wife and daughter never to walk alone anywhere incase indian men proposition them ?

 

I honestly feel we would be done with it after a year. 

 

The international schools like wonderful, but they are are so massive they remind me of state schools in the UK. I fail to see how the schools can monitor such large volume of children with a personal service. In Bangkok you can get smaller intimiate family schools. 

 

The airport whilst close, is not similar to Bangkok. You have two airports that are 30 minutes away. With Pattaya it's almost 2 hours isn't it? We love our weekend trips away. 

 

However, we still have doubts - namely we really dislike the accomdation in Bangkok. We are done with Condo life, but you are not going to get housing stock like we saw in Pattaya. 

 

Pollution and traffic is another. I simply cannot take the traffic in Bangkok anymore. 

 

Ahhhh ... decisions. 

      From your post, it seems you are still experiencing Pattaya as a tourist, rather than as someone who lives here year-round.   As residents living on the Darkside, spouse and I are living normal, non-tourist lives, doing normal, non-tourist everyday things.   Our resident lifestyle never brings us into much interaction with tourists, other than the ones we see walking around in the malls, big box stores, hospital, restaurants, etc.  

    Being residents, we go in our car to Terminal 21, Central Festival, Home Pro, Index, Boonthavorn, Bangkok Pattaya Hospital, Lotus's, Big C, car dealership, etc., as needed and we park in the parking garages, go into the mall, store, hospital, etc., do what we came for, get back in the car, and either go back home or go somewhere else and do the same thing--perhaps we'll stop at a freestanding restaurant, or so on.  We're not walking around outside of Festival or T21 in the heat gawking at the ocean and we're not interacting with the tourists hanging around outside those areas.

    This, I might add, is pretty much what we did in the US.  Get in the car, drive to the mall, do shopping, see a movie, eat at a restaurant, get back in the car, and go home.  This is also exactly what we did when we lived in town, whether it was at Lumpini Park Beach condo in  south Jomtien, Garden Cliff condo in Wongamat in the north,  or Northshore condo right on Pattaya Beach. 

   We did occasionally walk the beach promenade when we lived at Northshore and never had any problems with anyone--but the north part of the beach walking north is nicer than the part close to Festival and further south--at least it was when we lived there several years ago.  As a resident, you learn these things.   

    On the Darkside, we take walks around our housing project and there's the big trail around Mabprachan Lake, and also another park nearby for us to use.  Spouse goes to a local badminton facility.  We also have our home gym and pool to help us keep fit.  

     When we meet friends to socialize we'll meet at their house or ours or we'll arrange to meet at a restaurant somewhere, either at one of the malls or a freestanding restaurant like View Ang.   Again, not a lot of interaction with the tourists, other than those that might also be dining if we are at a restaurant.

     Checked my phone and from my house on the Darkside Google tells me it's 1 hour and 20 minutes to Suvarnabhumi at this time of the day.  Not bad, I think, and not a single traffic light along the way.

     You didn't mention what private schools you checked but I doubt all the 18 Pattaya has are massive, although we don't have kids and I admit I don't know that much about them.  I did check that Rugby has 1200 students--but that does cover kindergarten thru high school, so I don't think each grade would be super large.

    Just my take as a resident on some of your observations.  And now on to my day.  Good luck wherever you end up. 

     

    

[newnative]

11 hours ago, Mark1969 said:

I have another thread going where everyone says the Indian problem is nothing. Thanks for your input. 🤷🏻‍♂️

     Everyone says the Indian problem is nothing because the Indian problem is nothing, at least for year-round residents here living their normal lives.  As I said in another post, a resident year-round lifestyle is normally quite different from what a short-time visiting tourist would be doing--and where. 

     The last time I can remember my spouse and I having any interaction with any Indian was when we bought fabric maybe 6 or 8 months ago at the fabric store near Tukcom, run by Indians.

     Sure, you see them, and lots of other nationalities, when you're walking around the mall or at one of the big grocery stores near the tourist areas but that's to be expected when you live in a city popular with tourists.  Yes, we see them out on the streets doing their 3 and 4 abreast walking if we are driving in the south Pattaya area.  No big deal--we're in a tourist area. 

    We also see them, and tourists from other countries, when we are out and about in Bangkok when we are at our Bangkok condo, and also have no interaction with them there, either.  Again, no big deal.  Ditto for Russians, Chinese, and the occasional blue Martian.    

[Mark1969]

10 minutes ago, newnative said:

     Everyone says the Indian problem is nothing because the Indian problem is nothing, at least for year-round residents here living their normal lives.  As I said in another post, a resident year-round lifestyle is normally quite different from what a short-time visiting tourist would be doing--and where. 

     The last time I can remember my spouse and I having any interaction with any Indian was when we bought fabric maybe 6 or 8 months ago at the fabric store near Tukcom, run by Indians.

     Sure, you see them, and lots of other nationalities, when you're walking around the mall or at one of the big grocery stores near the tourist areas but that's to be expected when you live in a city popular with tourists.  Yes, we see them out on the streets doing their 3 and 4 abreast walking if we are driving in the south Pattaya area.  No big deal--we're in a tourist area. 

    We also see them, and tourists from other countries, when we are out and about in Bangkok when we are at our Bangkok condo, and also have no interaction with them there, either.  Again, no big deal.  Ditto for Russians, Chinese, and the occasional blue Martian.    

I think the Op wants to walk around and be part of the city more and not just drive in from a remote housing estate. They seem to like Central Bangkok, but don't like Central Pattaya.

[newnative]

2 hours ago, jacko45k said:

There  is a huge number of Thai families bring their kids here at the weekends and holidays....and for the longer term stayers, well I just doubt they see a need to be on Soi 6, Buakhao or Walking St. It's like avoiding London because of Soho, or Amsterdam because of De Wallen

    Nailed it.  You can easily live a very good life in Pattaya without ever setting foot on any of the streets you mentioned, which are also such a small part of greater Pattaya.   In 15 years, I walked on Walking Street once, never on Soi 6--although we did cut through it a few times by car to get to Beach Road when we lived at Centric Sea.   Went to Soi Buakhao a few times years ago to go to the Canterbury used book store, now I download all the books I want to read for free so no need to ever go back to that street.   

  

[newnative]

6 minutes ago, Mark1969 said:

I think the Op wants to walk around and be part of the city more and not just drive in from a remote housing estate. They seem to like Central Bangkok, but don't like Central Pattaya.

     Right, and walkable streets with lots of interesting shops along the street is not one of Pattaya's strong points.   Spouse and I could have done more walking than we did when we lived at Centric Sea and Northshore--but we ended up driving most of the time when we were going somewhere as we were usually buying stuff--and it's hot!   Let's not forget that!   We did  walk to Festival and T21 a number of times, and sometimes we'd walk the promenade in the evening around sunset, but we do like our comfortable car with AC.  

[quake]

The people that slag Pattaya off. are most likely the ones that have been burned here.

or  have just experience pattaya through the bottom of a beer bottle.

Pattaya is ok. 

[Mark1969]

5 hours ago, newnative said:

     Right, and walkable streets with lots of interesting shops along the street is not one of Pattaya's strong points.   Spouse and I could have done more walking than we did when we lived at Centric Sea and Northshore--but we ended up driving most of the time when we were going somewhere as we were usually buying stuff--and it's hot!   Let's not forget that!   We did  walk to Festival and T21 a number of times, and sometimes we'd walk the promenade in the evening around sunset, but we do like our comfortable car with AC.  

I don't. I prefer walking everywhere and hate a/c and being driven around. I won't take a taxi unless it's absolutely necessary.