So, What Would You Do To Improve Pattaya?

[thaibeachlovers]

Everyone ( justifiably ) complains about the negative side of Pattaya, but imagine if you had the chance to really change things to make Pattaya better. What would you do? ( We can dream, can't we? )

For myself, I'd close Beach Road from Central Road to South Road from 4pm everyday, to encourage bars and restaurants to put out tables and start a "cafe culture".

Build a proper "soundshell" entertainment complex with tiered seating, on the beach, near Central Road. Have free bands every Saturday evening.

I'd ban all parking on Beach Road and use the extra space to expand the land side pavement, plus put in a cycle path alongside the walkway ( then put in anti bike obstacles to prevent those dangerous cyclists on the walkway itself ).

Get rid of the sandbanks on the walkway, widen the path, put in drainage and install lots more decent seating.

Build some Public Toilets ( get the hotels to adopt them, to keep clean and maintained )

Widen Second Road to make it a proper 2 way road instead of the stupid one way system at present.

Either put in pedestrian crossings with working traffic lights, or build overhead pedestrian bridges.

Designate a zone for bars of all sorts, and then let them operate 24/7 ( as they decided for their own needs ), and provide adult entertainment for adults ( within the law ). I know that there is supposed to be zoning already, but it's a joke, at present.

Have a dedicated group of law enforcement officers ( tourist police? ) the only ones allowed to patrol within the entertainment area to prevent scams.

Relocate that awful stinking sewage plant next to the Walking Street entrance.

Really develop the promenade past the Bali Hai boat park.

Have a regular bus route to the top of the hill, so you could visit the temple and the lookout without being ripped off by the baht busses.

Ban all future large scale developments from Central Road to the hill, and from 3rd Road to the beach.

Cut baht bus numbers by 50%.

[Gary A]

I'd eliminate ALL the aggravating touts especially the tailor touts. I'd force all the car and motorcycle rental to be parked on their own lots and NOT on the streets. I'd also forbid tour or other buses from using Beach Road. Designated stopping points for baht buses is also a good idea. That already exists but is seldom enforced. Several controlled pedestrian cross walks on Second Road would also be appreciated.

[Sir Burr]

Build more bars.

Bring more women.

Close Sunee Plaza.

[Groongthep]

Build a pedestrian overpass over the "corner of death" from Beach Road to Walking Street.

[toptuan]

Bulldoze the city into the bay. (No problem. It's already polluted.)

[Naam]

-relocate all whining, bitching and whinging farangs to Nakhon Nowhere (optionally to their home countries),

-close all restaurants which serve farang food,

-make selling obsceneties such as burgers, licorice, vegemite, grape nut cereal, marmite, frappuccino, pizza and sausages which contain more soy flour than meat a criminal offence,

-replace indian tailors with tailors from Cambodia who are only able to speak khmer and french,

-change status of Pattaya into offshore haven and abolish luxury excise duty levied on wine,

-close down all thai banks and replace by foreign ones who issue cheque books to farangs,

-confiscate and destroy all motor cycles and baht buses,

-demolish 99% of all signs not fixed flat to building walls,

-stop all planned building projects and slap heavy fines on developers if their projects under construction are not finished by New Years Eve 2008,

-replace sea water (three mile zone) from Naklua to Jomtien with water piped from the Maledives.

[Richb2004v2]

The same things I would like to see throughout Thailand.

• Vastly improve the pavements.

• Enforce traffic laws.

• Reduce the level of noise pollution.

• Reduce the number of advertising boards.

I think Pattaya, and Thailand generally, would benefit hugely from input, help and suggestions from the ferrang community.

[PhilHarries]

You got my vote Naam.

You couldn't see your way to adding 7-11's and Starbucks to your closure list could you?

[wileycoyote]

ditto & demolish Subway sandwiches !

[lalana]

The same things I would like to see throughout Thailand.

• Vastly improve the pavements.

• Enforce traffic laws.

• Reduce the level of noise pollution.

• Reduce the number of advertising boards.

I think Pattaya, and Thailand generally, would benefit hugely from input, help and suggestions from the ferrang community.

Rich,

Just looking at your Avatar picture...and am not sure ,but looks to me like the Humanist "Richard Dawkins"???

If indeed you are a fan of the man and his reasoning...then hats off to you for it says something about your own

powers of reasoning.By the way,you probably know already,but another great figure in the world of Humanism is

"Christopher Hitchens" and it is an absolute pleasure to listen to his debating skills.....great wit and humour to boot!!!

A real free-thinking Agnostic par-excellance .

Oscar Wilde- "When I think of all the harm the bible has done I despair of ever writing anything to equal it"

Edited August 16, 2008 by lalana

[moo9]

Build more bars.

Bring more women.

Close Sunee Plaza.

[Jingthing]

Build more bars.

Bring more women.

Close Sunee Plaza.

Is this a veiled anti-gay message? Bring more women. So do you mean you think there are too many gays in Pattaya?

Also, the not so subtle implication is that only gays are involved in yaba use and underage violations which are indeed the scourge of Sunnee Plaza, but if you check the local press, there are plenty of heteros involved in underage crimes here as well as gays. You thought you could just unfairly trash gays without anyone commenting?

Edited August 16, 2008 by Jingthing

[sotsira]

Take away half of the baht taxis, and implement strict exhaust emission control to the remaining ones to cut pollution and traffic.

[Sir Burr]

Build more bars.

Bring more women.

Close Sunee Plaza.

Is this a veiled anti-gay message? Bring more women. So do you mean you think there are too many gays in Pattaya?

Also, the not so subtle implication is that only gays are involved in yaba use and underage violations which are indeed the scourge of Sunnee Plaza, but if you check the local press, there are plenty of heteros involved in underage crimes here as well as gays. You thought you could just unfairly trash gays without anyone commenting?

Sheesh! Amazing how you make a complete house out of a single brick.

Sunee Plaza is well known amongst foreign men as the place to go "if you like them young". Both genders.

[Jingthing]

Sunee Plaza is well known amongst foreign men as the place to go "if you like them young". Both genders.

That is BS. It is a totally gay nightlife district. It certainly does require constant cleanup (gangs, drugs, underage) but it also a place for law abiding expats to just hang out at an open air bar and watch the world go by and avoid the more tourist trap venues near the water.

On this subject, I would like to see all bar owners required under law to verify legal age status of all their staff and be subject to mandatory prison terms if not. This would solve this problem overnight, at least for the commercial venues.

Edited August 16, 2008 by Jingthing

[Naam]

You got my vote Naam. You couldn't see your way to adding 7-11's and Starbucks to your closure list could you?

no mentioning of 7-11, Starbucks and Subways = slowed down efficiency of ageing brain

[Pdaz]

Close all the ''Indian'' tailor shops

Close all the Real Estate agents (apart from the two or three that were sufficiant 10 years ago)

Ban motorcycle rental guys from displaying more than one bike

Reduce the ammount of songtaews (baht buses) by 75%

Return beer bar ''bar fine'' to 100 baht

Make max 'bar fine' in GoGo 500 baht and make ST rooms compulsory

Ban the 20 baht ping pong balls in GoGo's

Ban flower/watch/wooden junk sellers from town

Oh and most important...

Ban shi*e HIP HOP/TECHNO/RAP music and anybody who wears a baseball cap backwards...

Did I mention the Russians/Eastern Europeans ?.... you guessed it ban them too

Oh... and soi dogs should be rounded up and sent to Korea...

[Jingthing]

I really like the idea of banning the tailor touts. All touts actually, including the time share survey people.

[Turnkey]

To improve Pattaya would include getting rid some of the people that stay here long time. So make it more stringent in Thai law say for instance get a 1 year(retirement) visa. Measures could include increasing the sum in the bank to a million baht or more, plus all applicants to provide a certificate of clear record(no criminal convictions) from their home country and so on.

[Sir Burr]

Seems like most people would like to turn Pattaya into Clacton-on-Sea

[Jingthing]

I had a college professor once in San Francisco who said that the great earthquake of 1906 which destroyed the entire city was the best thing that ever happened to San Francisco.

Pattaya is an eyesore.

Any chance of a great earthquake here?

Edited August 16, 2008 by Jingthing

[Sir Burr]

I had a college professor once in San Francisco who said that the great earthquake of 1906 which destroyed the entire city was the best thing that ever happened to San Francisco.

Pattaya is an eyesore.

Any chance of a great earthquake here?

Does that include the destruction of Sunee Plaza?

[JetSetWilly]

Let bars & clubs stay open later

[Crow Boy]

The funny thing about Pattaya is that when I was coming back down here from Chiang Mai I thought, oh no I hate the place, full of sex tourists and other assorted dodgy types. In the two or so months since arriving I have found some great restaurants, bars, good music venues and a social group of interesting people with a variety of backgrounds and experiences. Pattaya will always be different to most of Thailand and that is not a bad thing.

Back to the OP I would like to see some of the changes that have been suggested re infrastructure but I think it unlikely to happen in the near future. Perhaps the realistic situation will be that some people will loathe Pattaya for what it is and others will love it for the same reasons. They then make their own decision to come or go based upon that.

CB

[sweetchariot]

Seems like most people would like to turn Pattaya into Clacton-on-Sea

Exactly. Part of what drives some of us mental now, was part of the initial attraction.

I love the fact that it's not Clacton on Sea, and hopefully will not be in my lifetime.

My suggestion would be to deport all the expats who would like to westernise the place. You can't have your cake and eat it.

Edited August 16, 2008 by sweetchariot

[innovator]

The best way to improve Pattaya is to leave and find another city. Let Pattaya rot.

[Jingthing]

I had a college professor once in San Francisco who said that the great earthquake of 1906 which destroyed the entire city was the best thing that ever happened to San Francisco.

Pattaya is an eyesore.

Any chance of a great earthquake here?

Does that include the destruction of Sunee Plaza?

All or nothing.

[sweetchariot]

The best way to improve Pattaya is to leave and find another city. Let Pattaya rot.

Flames deleted by me.

Go and do something useful you %^**

Edited August 16, 2008 by sweetchariot

[Cuban]

Not too bad a basic frame work - only a few issues that need to be addressed to turn Pattaya into a top rank holiday beach resort....

Clean the seawater and beach areas.

Allow people to move freely on sidewalks (at least twice the current size) remove all 'mobile' stalls and other street litter. (Including drainage and cabling.)

Force Baht Buses to service routes around the whole city, and respond to all compaints of overcharging from published rates.

Get the many farang tourist police doing something positive to address overcharging and crime against the tourist that support this place rather than 'sitting by the van'.

.......what's that noise - oh my alarm clock - I must have been dreaming.

[Kerryd]

If you run out of ideas, this thread on the same subject (more or less) should help out: If I Was The New Pattaya Mayor, I would...

I find it kind of funny that (most) people came to Pattaya while it was very similar to what it is like now, and want to change it into something else.

Kind of like those people that buy properties (usually cheaply) near airports, then try to get the airports shut down (or get compensation for the noise, knowing full well beforehand that they were going to be living next to an airport fer christsakes !).

Or buy homes (cheaply) near a shooting range and then try to get the range closed (which would probably/possibly raise their property values of course).

In Canada, a lot of the "hippy" generation took up residence in the Gulf Islands between the mainland and Vancouver Island. Now they have nice homes worth a lot of money, and want to prevent any other development as they fear their property values will go down (funny how that wasn't a concern when they were doing their own developing of course).

Yes, there are things that could be done to improve the city, but to try and change everything so it's more "like home" ? Sheesh, if I wanted to live in a boring "Blighty by the Sea" kind of city, I would have moved to one.

A lot of people forget though, that to live in a nice, clean ("family-friendly") city with decent services, working infrastructure and

everything that they're used to "back home" costs money !

That means taxes (on everyone, not just the locals). Higher prices. More restrictions (can't have all that without some properly enforced standards and regulations).

Suddenly, everything starts looking just like the place you left, which begs one to consider, if everything back there was so great.......(you know the rest).