Is Pattaya A Safe Place To Live?

[MELATONIN]

Never been a crime victim here. I feel safer here than most US cities. Basic common sense prevents alot. For example, I wouldn't wander late at night on 3rd Road. I have seen some horrific Thai on Thai violence though.

Violent Thais? In the land of smiles? Do tell.

[ClaytonSeymour]

Never been the victim of a crime, or even in a threatening situation. I've walked along Beach Road at 3 am, so pissed I was almost seeing double,

Yes, it can be dangerous, but if you use a little common sense, the danger factor can be reduced significantly.

You call this using common sense? I would say you've been extremely lucky and you're living on borrowed time.

Even if you don't flaunt gold, how does a potential mugger know how much cash you are carrying around in your pockets?

Drunk foreigners staggering around late at night are in the highest risk.

And also the most likey to be the cause of their own problems. Seen a lot of drunks stagger up to "girls" along Beach Road and (for what ever reason) start sneering at them and calling them names and generally acting like asses. And then they wonder why some people want to rob them or beat them up ? Sheesh. I'll bet they wouldn't have the balls to walk into a biker bar in their home country and call the crowd a bunch of pansy-waisted pussies, yet they'll do it to the "girls" working in that area, as though being a drunk, arrogant, obnoxious @sshole tourist should shield them from harm ?

You've got to remember to that not all those people that get into trouble in that area are sweet innocent tourists that just happened to be out for a stroll at 3 am. They may try to sound like that when they are filing a complaint at the police station later on, but a lot of them know exactly what they are looking for and where to find it.

As for me, yeah, walking around that area pissed isn't the brightest idea, but I figured it was safer than trying to stay on the back of a moto taxi. And as I mentioned in that post, I don't wander around with oodles of gold flashing every where, I don't try to make time with "girls" in that area, or insult them in any way. If I'm approached, a polite "mai ow khrap" has always sufficed (except with the Indian tailors, but they are usually gone by then). If I think I can make it, I'll cross over to the shop-side of the road instead of the beach side.

I guess the big thing is, I don't make myself out to be a target. Then again, maybe I've just been lucky time and time and time again.

Any how. I found Amsterdam to be far more dangerous by day or night than Pattaya. In fact, most major cities I've been in are quite a bit worse (Cairo, Delhi, Hamburg, Vancouver, Seattle, Toronto, Budapest, Istanbul, Zagreb, LA, to name a few).

I don't know how you can put Cairo in that list, I've never found it dangerous nor anywhere else in Egypt. Discounting terrorist incidents, crimewise there's certainly seen more trouble in Pattaya, both from local Thais & the types of tourists which it attracts. I wouldn't say I dislike the place but, there are better resorts in Thailand by far.