A Family Home

[Sakeopete]

Hi All,

Our family is thinking about moving to Pattaya from Sakeao. Some of the reasons include: better schools for our 3 boys, more places to take the kids (zoo etc), not far from nice beaches down the coast, nice golf courses near by, not as smoggy or hard to get around in as Bangkok, houses built to suit farang.

I have little experiance with Pattaya so I'm asking TV members if I am off the mark? If not what area would be best to get a house for a quiet family that isn't too far from reasonably good schools? I have no problems buying as second hand house if its in a good estate and is well built.

If anyone has a better suggestion of where to settle with a family with the above criteria plz share it.

[patsfangr]

Hi All,

Our family is thinking about moving to Pattaya from Sakeao. Some of the reasons include: better schools for our 3 boys, more places to take the kids (zoo etc), not far from nice beaches down the coast, nice golf courses near by, not as smoggy or hard to get around in as Bangkok, houses built to suit farang.

I have little experiance with Pattaya so I'm asking TV members if I am off the mark? If not what area would be best to get a house for a quiet family that isn't too far from reasonably good schools? I have no problems buying as second hand house if its in a good estate and is well built.

If anyone has a better suggestion of where to settle with a family with the above criteria plz share it.

I don't have kids, Pete, so I can't help on that specific criteria. However, I can tell you that, if I had it to do over again, I'd purchase a house in either Rayong or Sri Racha. I have lived here since April of 2006; moving with my Thai wife from Southern California following my retirement. I am not at all happy with life in Pattaya. Great place for single guys who want to spend a lot of time enjoying the downtown ... umm ... "nightlife". But, for a family, it's not a good place to live for several reasons. Here a few that I can name for you:

1. The infrastructure here is horrific! The roads are constantly chewed up. You may have a very long wait for a telephone line. You may have an even longer wait for high speed internet, if you can get it at all. (Depends upon the location of your house, since cable lines and/or transmitters are not within range of all locations.) Power outages and water service interruption for repairs happen much too frequently.

2. TRAFFIC! If you drive much, this is both infuriating and unsafe. The place is overrun with motorbikes, the majority of which are driven by idiots who have no knowledge of the law, or simply choose to ignore it. The majority of them do not wear helmets, despite the "law" requiring them to do so. Children, including infants are carried, helmetless, by their "very intelligent" parents. The bikes come from all directions, very rarely checking on-coming traffic before entering an intersection. They scoot beside cars on either side, without regard to directional lights, signalling the auto driver's intent to turn. I could go on, but I think you get the picture. Driving is an absolute nightmare due this motorbike situation, and the almost total lack of effort by the police to do anything about it.

3. The aforementioned "nightlife" of the notorious downtown area leads to a large population of both Thai and Falang riff raff in this area. The likelihood of encountering some type of crime in the Pattaya area is much greater than it would be in either Rayong or Sri Racha. As a generalization (all of which have exceptions, of course), I'd have to classify Pattaya as a "low class" town.

4. Most businesses in the area feed off of the tourist trade. They are certainly not all dishonest, but it is very difficult to avoid at least an attempt to take advantage of you, as a Falang, in any sale.

Again, if I had it to do over again, knowing what I know now, and having visited both Rayong and Sri Racha, I'd choose to buy a home in one of those cities. Both have plenty of shopping available. Sri Racha is, obviously, much closer to BKK, if you need to shop for major items, or take care of official government business. Sri Racha is only about 30 minutes from Pattaya, if you have some reason to come here. Rayong is about 45 miinutes away on one of the best roads in Chonburi Province, Route 36.

That's my input. Others may disagree. But those are my honest opinions of Pattaya.

[dickie58]

Hi All,

Our family is thinking about moving to Pattaya from Sakeao. Some of the reasons include: better schools for our 3 boys, more places to take the kids (zoo etc), not far from nice beaches down the coast, nice golf courses near by, not as smoggy or hard to get around in as Bangkok, houses built to suit farang.

I have little experiance with Pattaya so I'm asking TV members if I am off the mark? If not what area would be best to get a house for a quiet family that isn't too far from reasonably good schools? I have no problems buying as second hand house if its in a good estate and is well built.

If anyone has a better suggestion of where to settle with a family with the above criteria plz share it.

The areas what are up & coming around Pattaya is Hua Yai & Bang Saray only 15 mins drive from central pattaya, but far enough away from the seedy side of Pattaya,, those areas are only 20 mins drive from decent schools as well, It seems your looking for quite a large property with your 3 lads, I know of agents & builders in both areas if you pm me I can tell you more?

[bowthai]

phuket

[EmCross]

The area around the Regents international school is really great and very family friendly! We have lived here for 2 years now with our two children and love it! There are some really lovely family houses at very reasonable prices (built to European standards) and you are very near the route 36 highway which is a very good road in to Pattaya (only 20 minutes drive to the center of Pattaya). We think this area is just about perfect for family living and very near one of the best international schools in Thailand. Easy access to all the golf courses in the area and straight on the the motorway to Bangkok and the airport; really ideal.

Our house is for sale on a really nice estate with other families and kids that go to regents school if you want to have a look at the area and our house PM me we would be please to show you around!

Em

[Ground Engineer]

We live in a lovely gated communnity in east Pattaya. For a family you cant ask for much more. Theres plenty for the kids to all the time. Parties nearly every week, they will never get bored. Our kids have just started at the Regents school which is essential as they have come from the UK education system. 80 % of the teachers are from the UK, its very good. Weve got the best of both worlds here. Only 15 minutes from the town centre and surrounded by the beautifull country side. I would defo recomend it for a family.

[dickie58]

We live in a lovely gated communnity in east Pattaya. For a family you cant ask for much more. Theres plenty for the kids to all the time. Parties nearly every week, they will never get bored. Our kids have just started at the Regents school which is essential as they have come from the UK education system. 80 % of the teachers are from the UK, its very good. Weve got the best of both worlds here. Only 15 minutes from the town centre and surrounded by the beautifull country side. I would defo recomend it for a family.

No one will doubt that the Regents International School is one of the best International schools around Pattaya, but there school fees are also pretty high

[Sakeopete]

We live in a lovely gated communnity in east Pattaya. For a family you cant ask for much more. Theres plenty for the kids to all the time. Parties nearly every week, they will never get bored. Our kids have just started at the Regents school which is essential as they have come from the UK education system. 80 % of the teachers are from the UK, its very good. Weve got the best of both worlds here. Only 15 minutes from the town centre and surrounded by the beautifull country side. I would defo recomend it for a family.

No one will doubt that the Regents International School is one of the best International schools around Pattaya, but there school fees are also pretty high

Yes the fees are a bit too much for me to send 3 boys. TBH 2 of our boy would not fit in well as they are my wifes from a previous marriage and speak little english despite trying everything under the sun to get them to learn. Also starting off in rural Thai government school didn't help. My wife suggests that we send only the baby when he is old enough. Since being luk krung already closes many doors of opportunity for him if he wants to stay in this country.

Can anyone suggest some good private Thai schools in the area? Also some good english school that caters to kids.

[EmCross]

We live in a lovely gated communnity in east Pattaya. For a family you cant ask for much more. Theres plenty for the kids to all the time. Parties nearly every week, they will never get bored. Our kids have just started at the Regents school which is essential as they have come from the UK education system. 80 % of the teachers are from the UK, its very good. Weve got the best of both worlds here. Only 15 minutes from the town centre and surrounded by the beautifull country side. I would defo recomend it for a family.

No one will doubt that the Regents International School is one of the best International schools around Pattaya, but there school fees are also pretty high

Yes the fees are a bit too much for me to send 3 boys. TBH 2 of our boy would not fit in well as they are my wifes from a previous marriage and speak little english despite trying everything under the sun to get them to learn. Also starting off in rural Thai government school didn't help. My wife suggests that we send only the baby when he is old enough. Since being luk krung already closes many doors of opportunity for him if he wants to stay in this country.

Can anyone suggest some good private Thai schools in the area? Also some good english school that caters to kids.

Now you're asking the big question!!

We could not afford the Regents school either so our 2 kids went to BEST (Burupa English Programme School) in Pattaya which was OK for the money to start with 2 years ago but it is getting worse by the day and I can not say I would recommend it now. It is dirty, the facilities are crap, the food and canteen services are really terrible and the teaching has gone from OK to bad to non-existent, the turnover of staff is unbelievable and they are employing more and more teachers from the Philippines as native English speakers to teach the English classes and quite frankly I do not think they have the qualifications required or the experience (they are very young) to do a good enough job. We are sending our kids to the REPS (Rayong English Programme school) school near Rayong as where we live it is as easy to get our kids to this school as to BEST and it is a much better school altogether. Our two kids are totally farang so we are at a disadvantage as a Thai school is really out of the question but in your situation Pete I would suggest Satit school as I have heard very good things about this school for Thai children (or predominantly Thai) but it is not a bilingual school and the English taught there is very limited (1 or 2 hours per week I believe).

[thebounder]

Hi All,

Our family is thinking about moving to Pattaya from Sakeao. Some of the reasons include: better schools for our 3 boys, more places to take the kids (zoo etc), not far from nice beaches down the coast, nice golf courses near by, not as smoggy or hard to get around in as Bangkok, houses built to suit farang.

I have little experiance with Pattaya so I'm asking TV members if I am off the mark? If not what area would be best to get a house for a quiet family that isn't too far from reasonably good schools? I have no problems buying as second hand house if its in a good estate and is well built.

If anyone has a better suggestion of where to settle with a family with the above criteria plz share it.

It is a good time to be buying here. Only this morning, I was told of a house very close to Mabprachan Lake in a high end gated community that is for sale for 10m Baht. The owner paid 16m for it only a year ago and it is now also fully furnished to a very good standard. One of the benefits of a buyer's market. For the time being, if you want to sell a quality house quickly you have to drop your price very significantly below its market value.