Pattaya Is Thailand’s Role Model

[Tanaka]

No moral judgement on Pattaya, but it msut be a bit difficult for executives to stand up and explain at a shareholders' meeting why they held their work outing in Pattaya? Or tell all their executives they have to go and tell their wives that they're going to Pattaya for a company function.

At least Bangkok or Phuket the stigma and associations in people's minds isn't as bad.

I'm too old to care, but in the past I would actually lie to people who asked me where I was going to spend the winter....I would say, Paris or Seville or some place in Mexico....simply because Thailand (not just Pattaya) is so strongly associated with Sex with a capital ess. It's interesting to be on a dating site in the west and to tell some woman who has approached one that one is living in Thailand.

The reply is polite and refers to all that "amazing Thailand BS", but you will never again (thank God and the Mayor of Pattaya) hear from these shocked Western oldies.

3 things I do not understand. If opera is your main issue, why did you come to live in Tthailand?

Why would you chose your holiday country after what other people think? And instead of lying why did you not try and explain what Thailand is and what it has to offer? Or maybe you do not know anything here apart from Pattaya?

And why do you go on dating sites talking to western women when you live in Thailand?

This makes no sense to me at all.

[arrowsdawdle]

What is it with people bashing the "seedy" side of Pattaya? Is it some form of self-loathing? Perhaps it is an attempt to project some type of moral superiority? I happen to like sex. I think it is an important part of the attraction for business tourists. If I were traveling on business, I would much rather go to Pattaya than Salt Lake City, Utah. The hotels and food may be nicer in Salt Lake and the infrastructure may be vastly superior. The softer side of things, however, leaves much to be desired.

Obviously not a business traveler or you'd understand that business travelers don't pick places out of the sky to go visit. They go where they have customers, branches, or factories.

[arrowsdawdle]

5555555 and 55555555 5555555 and 55555555 5555555 and 55555555 5555555 and 55555555 5555555and 55555555 "incentives" 5555555 and 55555555 5555555 and 55555555 5555555 and 55555555 5555555 and " "Adventure Tourism" 55555555 5555555 and 55555555 5555555 and 55555555 5555555 and 55555555 5555555 and 55555555 "Exhibitions"(ists)5555555 and 55555555 5555555 and 55555555 Too much! You can't make this stuff up.

[arrowsdawdle]

Pli

did you miss the keywords? well known

No I didn't miss your keywords because they are all very well known worldwide with world class artists and musicians. Perhaps not so well known in Walking St, Pattaya though!

Don't be so sure, they had that conductor over there, remember?

[DrTuner]

What is it with people bashing the "seedy" side of Pattaya? Is it some form of self-loathing? Perhaps it is an attempt to project some type of moral superiority? I happen to like sex. I think it is an important part of the attraction for business tourists. If I were traveling on business, I would much rather go to Pattaya than Salt Lake City, Utah. The hotels and food may be nicer in Salt Lake and the infrastructure may be vastly superior. The softer side of things, however, leaves much to be desired.

Obviously not a business traveler or you'd understand that business travelers don't pick places out of the sky to go visit. They go where they have customers, branches, or factories.

Or trade conventions, which I believe were mentioned in the OP. Or more than two parties having a meeting, such as the ASEAN meetings. Salesmen and politicians are known for their appetite for women, think BungaBunga.

When deciding what to do those lonely nights after the speeches have been made, between a night at opera or a whoremongering session in Sin City .. well I guess in both cases the fat lady sings, but only in one case are you allowed to make any sounds yourself. Opera is so limited.

Edited May 3, 2012 by DrTuner

[dekbahnnok]

So does this mean that all other resorts will be issued with a precisely calibrated complement of "resting" Russian gangsters, elderly British failures with advanced liver disease, and nasty restaurants serving nastier German sausages?

Pattaya is the perfect "hole model"........all kinds of real holes

[blazes]

http://www.thailandl...ng/wonders.html

I'll let this do my talking for me. Perhaps it will explain why most of my friends who live here feel that living anywhere else in the world is boring in comparison.

Indeed, it does do your talking for you. I thought at first your list was a joke, but it became clear as the eyes moved, depressingly, down the page that you were serious.

Well, bully for you....if that's what makes a great city for you, stay there by all means.

[blazes]

No moral judgement on Pattaya, but it msut be a bit difficult for executives to stand up and explain at a shareholders' meeting why they held their work outing in Pattaya? Or tell all their executives they have to go and tell their wives that they're going to Pattaya for a company function.

At least Bangkok or Phuket the stigma and associations in people's minds isn't as bad.

I'm too old to care, but in the past I would actually lie to people who asked me where I was going to spend the winter....I would say, Paris or Seville or some place in Mexico....simply because Thailand (not just Pattaya) is so strongly associated with Sex with a capital ess. It's interesting to be on a dating site in the west and to tell some woman who has approached one that one is living in Thailand.

The reply is polite and refers to all that "amazing Thailand BS", but you will never again (thank God and the Mayor of Pattaya) hear from these shocked Western oldies.

3 things I do not understand. If opera is your main issue, why did you come to live in Tthailand?

Why would you chose your holiday country after what other people think? And instead of lying why did you not try and explain what Thailand is and what it has to offer? Or maybe you do not know anything here apart from Pattaya?

And why do you go on dating sites talking to western women when you live in Thailand?

This makes no sense to me at all.

My dear Tanaka (at the risk of boring others with our private conversation)

1. I was jokingly referring to the early assertion that Pattaya has "everything for everyone"....and then you start imagining a few things that make for a great city (like art galleries, football teams, pristine beaches, and so on. (Choose your own issue...)

2. I don't choose holiday locations according to others' opinions. I choose Thailand cos it has a temperature (between 70 and 90 F) that is better than what the northern hemisphere offers in November to February.

3. If you are on a dating site, whether based in Australia (as ThaiLovelinks is) or Canada (as Plenty of Fish is) you can be accessed by anyone anywhere on the globe.

4. Finally, I have never visited Pattaya, but have been through most of the country, and I find it difficult to "explain what Thailand has to offer" other than sunshine and cheap food. Unless of course your "thing" is riding elephants and gawping at hill tribes. Some excellent medical facilities, great hotels almost everywhere, but how do I begin to explain that Thailand is a feudal country, living almost exactly the same kind of life as Europe did round about 1400 AD, with the church in firm control and.

...but here I obviously must shut the fk up......

[cdnvic]

I removed one post that was way over the top. If you don't like the place that's fine, and you are welcome to say so, but moderate your language please.

[hawker9000]

Why a joke ? ...what is being praised is the infrastructure and facilities put in place by the pros that bring in MICE visitors...

Yes it is a complete joke. I will admit one thing…someone really does know how to bring all types of events to this town. It seems there is an event every other weekend. For instance we just had a “Music Festival” and it brought the entire road system infrastructure (haha) to a complete halt.

Some idiot came up with the idea to turn major streets into one-way streets to the point that it caused people to stay on the road 5 times longer just to figure out how to get to where they were going. This city is a living hell when events come to town and even worse when that idiot jumps up and decides to close down Pattaya Tai to be one-way probably because Beach Road has been closed.

My friend was trying to go back to his hotel and must have tried 3-4 different ways to get there only to find out every single way was blocked. He had to end up running a blockade on Soi 8 because it only had 3 useless police instead of the 8 useless bodies that were on Soi 7. Are you telling me they couldn’t block all the side sois at a point much closer to Beach Raod instead of right at 2^nd road…come on.

The city holds all these events, IMO, to bring in money so they can spend millions and millions of baht on useless projects like high-tech crosswalks that very few people use and even fewer drivers pay attention to or the old standby...to line official’s pockets with tea money or both.

There are better solutions out there, but the idiots in this town are incapable of an original thought that actually works. One solution is to actually enforce traffic laws I believe must be on the books, but are completely ignored such as double-parking on major thoroughfares or worse yet on streets barely wide enough for two small cars… thanks goodness for the motorbike.

…and on and on and on…

Reminds me of the escalators at Suvarnabhumi...

[tropo]

I'm too old to care, but in the past I would actually lie to people who asked me where I was going to spend the winter....I would say, Paris or Seville or some place in Mexico....simply because Thailand (not just Pattaya) is so strongly associated with Sex with a capital ess. It's interesting to be on a dating site in the west and to tell some woman who has approached one that one is living in Thailand.

The reply is polite and refers to all that "amazing Thailand BS", but you will never again (thank God and the Mayor of Pattaya) hear from these shocked Western oldies.

You were on a dating site in search of an older Western woman while living in Pattaya? Were you tired of dating younger Thai women and decided you needed a change?... or were you forced to live in Thailand through some business commitments?

[jalansanitwong]

Funny thing is Pattaya always gets bashed, yet its jammed packed every weekend.

Pattaya in fact does have more to offer if one bothers to look.

Of course if you travel here and stay near Walking St or Soi Buakhao, all you see is the red light district, HOWEVER

Pattaya DOES have everything for everyone, just need to open your eyes and move away from the certain areas

Such as ?

I went down there a few weeks back and left the same evening. Pattaya today is nothing more than a cattle pen housing thousands of Isan prostitutes for 'instant visa ' marriage to old British goats . The beach has almost disappeared due to soil erosion. Pattaya supplies sex services and nothing more. I dont know why the authorities always try to make it out to be something it clearly isnt.

[Markaew]

Funny thing is Pattaya always gets bashed, yet its jammed packed every weekend.

Pattaya in fact does have more to offer if one bothers to look.

Of course if you travel here and stay near Walking St or Soi Buakhao, all you see is the red light district, HOWEVER

Pattaya DOES have everything for everyone, just need to open your eyes and move away from the certain areas

Of course it's packed every weekend but not for the reasons they are stating!

[Markaew]

"...Pattaya now is interested in attracting more business travelers, especially as their spending profile tended to be about 25 percent higher."

Weren't they targeting Asians only just a few months ago? Specifically the Chinese.They were to be a higher quality customer? Maybe they haven't figured out who is actually showing up in Pattaya and they are just guessing.

[Markaew]

"Does it have an opera house or a symphony orchestra?" - put that on my list of ludicrous criteria.

Have to admit that I have never seen this as part of Thai culture. But hey, if someone wants to listen to that kind of stuff, get your MP3/I-Pod on, dark room, door closed and chill out.

Best place for some people......................

Actually, occasionally they have a nice orchestra that plays in Lumpini Park. Far better than I expected and it was free.

Edited May 4, 2012 by Markaew

[kerryk]

Does this mean that the rest of Thailand will become as much of a "rip-off" community as Pattaya?

I live in Bangkok, speak Thai and travel to Pattaya (at most) once a year.

All I see and hear from many Thais that live/work there is ways to get more money

out of the farangs. Over the decades, I have seen Thai society grow progressively

"money-centered" and noticeably "less friendly" towards farangs. I hope the rest of Thailand doesn't follow Pattaya's example and become a destination to go to just scam international guests.

Never more true words spoken

Pattaya has all the single male tourists because they don't want to get ripped off in BKK. It has been this way for years. Depends on what a person is looking for. Although I will admit the 3 female posters on TV out of 10,000 may have different ideas.

[kerryk]

I feel sorry if that is the rolemodle for the other communities in Thialnd to follow. Very sad. Very sad indeed.

Pattaya has good food, good sex and good weather. What else ya want?

[kerryk]

I was saying this all along, where else can rent a jet-ski and a trannie in the same afternoon! Role model for the world!

And get robbed by both

Phuket

[kerryk]

Maybe they want to attract more US Secret Service guys?

Good one. Made me laugh.

Why are you a South American hooker?

[kerryk]

Funny thing is Pattaya always gets bashed, yet its jammed packed every weekend.

Pattaya in fact does have more to offer if one bothers to look.

Of course if you travel here and stay near Walking St or Soi Buakhao, all you see is the red light district, HOWEVER

Pattaya DOES have everything for everyone, just need to open your eyes and move away from the certain areas

Such as ?

Elephant farm, crocodile farm, million year stone park, flooding marked, Golf, Nong Nuch Tropical gardens, island trip to name a few

5 cheap French restaurants, bed seating in the movies, opera with dinner and fresh made wheat beer.

[kerryk]

pattaya, land of prostitution, russian maffia, etc... real good example for the country indeed

How many hookers in Pattaya as opposed to the rest of Thailand? 10%? Russian mob is OK. They don't have any jet skis yet.

[kerryk]

Does this mean that the rest of Thailand will become as much of a "rip-off" community as Pattaya?

I live in Bangkok, speak Thai and travel to Pattaya (at most) once a year.

All I see and hear from many Thais that live/work there is ways to get more money

out of the farangs. Over the decades, I have seen Thai society grow progressively

"money-centered" and noticeably "less friendly" towards farangs. I hope the rest of Thailand doesn't follow Pattaya's example and become a destination to go to just scam international guests.

All true, but I find things as bad in Bangkok.

Worse if you add the smoke.

[kerryk]

Pattaya is of course seriously ideal as a business centre. In my lifetime experiences I can say honestly that most business folk DO truly very much want the availability of the sex industry for their chill out time after a day of heavy meetings and business seminars, and indeed WHY NOT? Surely this is a bloody no brainer and completely obvious to most sensible folk. Indeed this makes Pattaya completely ideal as a business meeting centre. So <deleted> why do not some of these nose in the air holier than thou sexually hung up prigs just get real and live and let live. Most ordinary decent folk seem to have no problem in open mindedly seeing the truth in this fact of life.

If the sex industry is not for your leisure time pursuit then that is rightly your choice and not up for debate but it is clearly NOT your choice to stop others from freely participating in such activities of course, so Pattaya surely ideally gives folk the wide and open choice of evening leisure time pursuits including fun and enjoyable sex based activities, and all as a release from your days of meetings and seminars etc. The fun of freely or commercially given and taken open sex, both for men AND women, is clearly part of our what should be harmless leisure time activities and quite obviously not just for marital procreation !!!!!!!!! This has been the case for many generations if we will all tell the truth.

Totally agree. In 10 years of running a hotel (Hilt**) in the heartland of the American Midwest the only time a group asked me to kick the hookers out of the bar was the University of Nebraska football coaching staff.

[kerryk]

Yes the city that money can buy anything from transgender sex, to meth, murder, corrupt moyorcycle taxis, sin city at it's finest, quit a model city for sure, showing how a place can get totally gone to s_hit

I can also get all of those things in NYC, London, Paris and Rome. Don't tell anyone. Cause I am the only one who knows.

[morphious]

Words fail me!!!

[kerryk]

Seriously, though, I'd hate to see KPG, Ko Tao or Ko Lanta fall to this ugly, concrete Butlins vision of tourism colonies and you can bet that Hua Hin won't: Pattaya is strictly for the proletariat. Is there a single place in Pattaya where you actually feel as though you're in Thailand? It feels more like a green zone controlled by Russia, Israel and the US.

Still, it's not as bad as Patong. It's hard even to get Thai food in Patong.

Pattaya Memorial Hospital early mornings when the hookers are getting patched up after fighting with each other over their Thai boyfriends. Looks pretty Thai centric.

[kerryk]

Role model? For what? Last place I would like to live is Pattaya. Beautiful nature? No ! Beautiful girls? Hell no !!. The only girls go to Pattaya is the ones left over from Thai man ended up desperate farangs.

Right...I have always longed for hanging out on a polluted beach front with street urchins begging me to buy some useless piece of nothing...No thanks. For all of you that live there and think it's so wonderful...please stay there.

I lived on an island off the coast of Florida in the winter and another one off the coast of Canada in the summer. No, I would not go to the beach in Pattaya. Anyone who goes to the beach in Pattaya is a dweeb. Shopping is great. Food is great. Weather is not smoky. I like to watch people. Pattaya has the most interesting (to me) parade of people in the world.

Does Pattaya have beautiful women? Sure. Every place in Thailand has beautiful women.

That you don't know where to find them sounds more like a personal problem or you go to tourist places late in the day or evening. You know what they say about the early bird. It is like the guys without the gold chains and tattoos; they go quick.

[ableguy]

Why a joke ? I worked on communication strategies for Singapore Convention Bureau for some time and for many hotels in Thailand and what is being praised is the infrastructure and facilities put in place by the pros that bring in MICE visitors. That you might see any of that from your perspective does not negate its reality.

what a crock, Pattaya is the largest brothel in the world and attracts perverts of every ilk, scam artists, russian mafia, jet ski operaters and the last I heard the beach has almost disapeared and what there is is polluted with sewage, Only in Thailand.

[Gary A]

After reading rants from the prudes and guys whose wives won't permit them to visit Pattaya, I am a firm believer that there is something there for everyone. If you want a certain resturant, there are places from evey country and culture. There are many stores that cater to people who refuse to give up western food and other goods. As far as scams, a little research will reveal the many farangs who prey on other farangs. Most of the scams from Thai people are much more obvious than the farang scams. The Internet is your friend and has all the information you will ever need. Freedom of choice is a great thing and there are many people who would choose for one reason or another to deprive you of that freedom.

[TeddyFlyfisherDavis]

Role model? For what? Last place I would like to live is Pattaya. Beautiful nature? No ! Beautiful girls? Hell no !!. The only girls go to Pattaya is the ones left over from Thai man ended up desperate farangs.

Right...I have always longed for hanging out on a polluted beach front with street urchins begging me to buy some useless piece of nothing...No thanks. For all of you that live there and think it's so wonderful...please stay there.

I lived on an island off the coast of Florida in the winter and another one off the coast of Canada in the summer. No, I would not go to the beach in Pattaya. Anyone who goes to the beach in Pattaya is a dweeb. Shopping is great. Food is great. Weather is not smoky. I like to watch people. Pattaya has the most interesting (to me) parade of people in the world.

Does Pattaya have beautiful women? Sure. Every place in Thailand has beautiful women.

That you don't know where to find them sounds more like a personal problem or you go to tourist places late in the day or evening. You know what they say about the early bird. It is like the guys without the gold chains and tattoos; they go quick.

I agree on several points...I too, love watching people...But I can do that in Naples Italy too if I want. The shopping is pretty good, especially if one is looking for tools, fiber glass cloth, wood working machines, etc...(why I was there). Thailand has the most beautiful women in the world, (my opinion), and the weather here in Chiang Rai has finally cleared of garbage smoke and smog. I did enjoy the food, but I can do that anywhere. I lived in Palm Beach for several years and spent my time between Jupiter Beach and Key West. I lived aboard my 36' Columbia sloop, in Lantana and had more fake friends than I knew what to do with. So goes for Pattaya...Fake friends, polluted beaches and well...questionable women that I would not do with your dck...even if I triple wrapped it...and what is up with the "gold chains" thing... Edited May 4, 2012 by TeddyFlyfisherDavis