How Pattaya Has Changed

[thenervoussurgeon]

About 23 years ago i came to Pattaya for a holiday,then there were no tourist couples here ,no falang children on the beaches and you very rarely saw a white woman,there was no third road and you only went to the sukhumvit road if you wanted a day out at mini siam, Jomtien was a days outing and the bars were full of young girls , some so young that today you would be arrested .

still i loved the place even if there was only kfc and dunkin dougnuts .

what things have changed since you lot first arrived all wet behind the years?

[petercool]

When I first came to Pattaya, there was only one Hotel and one restaurant (Barbos) with a few open bars along Sukhumvit Road. Beach road was for some large mansions only and Jomtien was totally pristine and barren. I used to stay at "Rock Cottages" that was later bought over by someone. That was before you actually got to Pattaya itself. The only supermarket was in Naklua.

[CGW]

My first time in Pattaya was circa 1980, we stayed at Royal Garden cottages where the shopping center is now, memories of that time were lots of VD clinics just everywhere, BJ's bar, TQ bar and not much else, remember it being about a 3 hour drive to Bangkok and there were a lot of rice fields!

It was known & marketed as the "Pearl of Asia" in those days due to the pristine sea & beaches!

[Rimmer]

I remember when Jomtien beach road was a single dirt track along the top of the sand dunes and they were in the process of building Theppasit road, must have been 1979/1980 ish?

And the road down here from Bangkok was an single track nightmare

[Awohalitsiktoli]

I remember when Jomtien beach road was a single dirt track along the top of the sand dunes and they were in the process of building Theppasit road, must have been 1979/1980 ish?

And the road down here from Bangkok was an single track nightmare

I can go back 26 years. Like the OP, I certainly do not remember any foreign women and/or foreign couples with children in tow......also, no Russians and no Russian language signs all over....no traffic jams/crowds......police/immigration did not bother us...no real estate boom.....Pattaya had a bar scene that was FUN (the bar scene and girls much more fun back then).......the average expat was a lot nicer back then (no expats looking like they just escaped from prison or a mental institution)....I do not remember much in terms of Western food (do not remember KFC back then)....both Pattaya and particularly Jomtien were not crowded (there was a relaxed feel to the place...hard to imagine now)....almost nothing in Jomtien.....think I remember only one condo and one restaurant......you could walk for miles down the beach and not see any or many people and the beach was wide and lined with huge shade trees (most of which they cut down like idiots)...there was no Darkside that I recall.....living here was very inexpensive back then.

[CGW]

I remember when Jomtien beach road was a single dirt track along the top of the sand dunes and they were in the process of building Theppasit road, must have been 1979/1980 ish?

And the road down here from Bangkok was an single track nightmare

When they did eventually put hard topped road along Jomtien (early nineties?) huge sections would disappear in the rainy season, took years & years to get the road up to a "standard!

Probably 95% of the land in Jomtien back then was a huge swamp, sure a lot of people living in the new estate's don't realize they are built on swampland!

Edited March 15, 2012 by CGW

[NormanW]

I was 24 in 1995 for my first trip and I did all my shopping at Best supermarket at the bottom of Nua.

The local people were ever so nice (a lot still are) but I have found that they are now 'hardened' due to the shear numbers of non locals here.

Still better than England though.

Where did the pineapple Gatorade go??? Remember that? Oh it was tasty after a round of golf.

[thenervoussurgeon]

Yes i can remember the nightmare journey to the old airport,when you wanted to go home ,also the old "department store" up near where tuk com is now ,once off the beaten track soi bonkot ect was like being out in the wildes ,after my first trip i had met a girl and she wrote to me ,saying how she missed me ,a few weeks later i was on a plane back ,happy days ,funny thing is ,i still know her after all these years ,still looking good and married with kids.

[ARGUSEYE]

.... The fish pier off Walking Street (about where the Lobster Pot is now) was still used by fishing boats to land their catch and to bunker ice... What was a noisy affair, ten wheel trucks full of ice pulled in and the ice crushers were deafening.

Baht buses were 2 Baht everywhere and after midnight the only place open was the Marine Bar.

From around 1980 the Saudi invasion took place, remember?? Tough times for us Western Males!

Against that, today's Russian influx is a breath of fresh air!!

[thenervoussurgeon]

I remember taking a girlfriend and her mum and dad to the marine bar ,they used to have shows there comedy and singing ,do they still? havnt been inside it for about 20 years ,also simons ladyboy show in walking street ,free to get in and you ordered drinks while you sat in rows like at the cinema .

took a big fat falang woman there who was on holiday she fancied one of the dancing boys and wouldnt believe me when i said she could "hire" him for the night.

Edited March 15, 2012 by thenervoussurgeon

[Phil Conners]

I remember when Jomtien beach road was a single dirt track along the top of the sand dunes and they were in the process of building Theppasit road, must have been 1979/1980 ish?

And the road down here from Bangkok was an single track nightmare

They were building Thepprasit road when I was first here in the early nineties. Or maybe they were just broadening/concreting it.

[miksguevara]

gay

[PoodMaiDai]

I wasn't there when there were dirt roads, but I do remember back when Pattaya only had 2 or 3 ATMs and not a Russian or white woman to be found.

The place was always a little rough around the edges but of all my years of going there I don't ever recall it being as rough as it is now. The place (Pattaya proper) seems to be down right mercenary thee days. I could be wrong but contribute a lot of it to yaabaa. To me it seems when that took over, Pattaya changed for the worse in terms of violence and desperation. It went from not coming across anyone who smokes it to the majority of the people in the working zones smoking it. What a shame. I also never felt unsafe there until the past 4 - 5 years. That's also the period where I've seen the most violence happen.

Places change, but at night it's still safer than Rio where I used to live. You don't go outside at night there unless you're in a car. But in Pattaya I've seen much more violence in the day time. Only difference is in Brazil everyone has guns. In Pattaya they just gang jump people with sticks, stones, bottles, and knives. Not a lot of gun violence, yet. But at the rate it's going, I'm afraid it's coming.

[PoodMaiDai]

From around 1980 the Saudi invasion took place, remember?? Tough times for us Western Males!

Against that, today's Russian influx is a breath of fresh air!!

Remember the signs that were a somewhat common sight around town regarding the Arabs? I've heard they are slowly making a comeback and a few places are hanging them again.

[NormanW]

And another thing - two Shell petrol stations are not enough in Pattaya.

Remember the Caltex petrol station next door to the F&B hotel on the 2nd road?

And another one where Tops is now on the corner of Klang and 2nd road?

That is where I remember filling my bike for 40 baht - 150 now!!

I think it was 7 or 9 baht per litre then.

[ChangFai]

I first came here in 1988, and it always makes me laugh when people say there was no tourist families in Pattaya back then.

Nonsense !

[Ulysses G.]

I first came here in 1988, and it always makes me laugh when people say there was no tourist families in Pattaya back then.

Nonsense !

That is what I was thinking.

[thenervoussurgeon]

I first came here in 1988, and it always makes me laugh when people say there was no tourist families in Pattaya back then.

Nonsense !

If there were they were few and far between,also as someone else said it was really safe here then ,never ever saw any trouble .

[TexasRanger]

I first came here in 1988, and it always makes me laugh when people say there was no tourist families in Pattaya back then.

Nonsense !

Yeah, utter crap, maybe the people who say that were too busy concentrating on other things to notice.

[TexasRanger]

I can expect a barrage for this, but have bar girls got uglier or have I just become desensitised to their beauty?

[CGW]

You have NOT become "desensitised"

[Awohalitsiktoli]

I first came here in 1988, and it always makes me laugh when people say there was no tourist families in Pattaya back then.

Nonsense !

Yeah, utter crap, maybe the people who say that were too busy concentrating on other things to notice.

Not utter crap at all.......right on target. From 1986 to 2001 or so, I do not remember seeing Western women (and Western families). You are giving people the wrong impression that nothing has changed with regard to this issue. The change has, in fact, been massive. No doubt there were SOME Western women SOMEWHERE in Pattaya (Nuns?), but they were surely few and far between as one poster stated.

[Ulysses G.]

I first came here in 1988, and it always makes me laugh when people say there was no tourist families in Pattaya back then.

Nonsense !

If there were they were few and far between,also as someone else said it was really safe here then ,never ever saw any trouble .

I remember walking down Walking Street (before it was Walking Street) and being offered heroin repeatedly.

[PattayaPhom]

Progress.............I think look at any town/city worldwide and of course they would have changed immensley in 30 years....maybe a lot of nostaglia here

[thenervoussurgeon]

I first came here in 1988, and it always makes me laugh when people say there was no tourist families in Pattaya back then.

Nonsense !

If there were they were few and far between,also as someone else said it was really safe here then ,never ever saw any trouble .

I remember walking down Walking Street (before it was Walking Street) and being offered heroin repeatedly.

Yes but they pretended they were selling you cigaretes, and as for the people who say there were lots of tourist famillys here ,i dont know what town they were in but it wasnt Pattaya ,i lived in Naklua at the time and the only people who came here were guys and a few tourist groups but they were not famillies.,the change is massive since then.

[Penkoprod]

You would get one or two frosty faced cows with scowls on their faces, walking in front of their husbands, whose faces were anything BUT scowls.

More a mix of lust and passion towards the indigenous females, and "<deleted> did i marry YOU for?" towards the wife !!!

But there were ONLY a few about the place until recently

[petercool]

I guess it depends what you call tourists, but way back in the late 1960's onwards couples and families would come down for the weekend from Bangkok - Thai and foreign. That continued with the growth of hotels along Beach Road until it was no longer a very nice place to walk around with children and Hua Hin became more attractive.

[morphic]

first trip was 1998...i was 30...i remember being dropped off from a mini bus on "beach road" and within an hour or so of checking into a guest house i think id fallen in love with the place.

all i can really say is, it was much better then as far as i am concerend and that is not just because i was younger. it was sexier, more fun, cheaper, safer and far more laid back.

i hardly visit at all these days, stopped a couple of years ago, other countries in the region seem far better to me now.

having come from cold and inhospitable england, pattaya girls seemed great at that time...pennies from heaven. but over the years and especially these days, especially the last time i visited, the women strike me as largely unattractive. in fact, seems easier and more fun to just meet "normal" women rather than visit thailand/pattaya and waste days searching for a needle in a haystack...i.e., one that i actually like the look of AND who is fun to be with.

[ChangFai]

I first came here in 1988, and it always makes me laugh when people say there was no tourist families in Pattaya back then.

Nonsense !

Yeah, utter crap, maybe the people who say that were too busy concentrating on other things to notice.

Not utter crap at all.......right on target. From 1986 to 2001 or so, I do not remember seeing Western women (and Western families). You are giving people the wrong impression that nothing has changed with regard to this issue. The change has, in fact, been massive. No doubt there were SOME Western women SOMEWHERE in Pattaya (Nuns?), but they were surely few and far between as one poster stated.

The only thing that has changed about Pattaya is ....... it is bigger.

[ChangFai]

I can expect a barrage for this, but have bar girls got uglier or have I just become desensitised to their beauty?

Larger population means more ugly girls, and more pretty ones also.

Nothing has changed !