Is High season a thing of the past?

[Somsrisonphimai]

Pattaya may very well be the next Patpong, it is slowly faded away, but not too worry, the next up coming naughty street is in the air.

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[smooth expat]

I see a lot more 'tourist' but they are the cheap charlie kind you see on ws. Seems tot values quantity more than quality these days.

[JSixpack]

Time to to deflate some of the hot air previously posted. I love this forum!

We got to have proof to contradict the lies.

So I took a few pics yesterday in the heat of the day about 3 PM--but just w/ my poor mobile phone camera, as this was a spontaneous impulse. I'll have to try remember to take a real camera along sometime.

First, the beach. Lots of tourists on the beach, most sitting under umbrellas (which you can't see well in the distance). Before you Russian haters spew your usual vitriol, check out the two hotties ALONE in the foreground waiting for you:

That's why I love the Russian invasion.

Plenty of tourists walking on the promenade in the middle of the day (many more in background), contrary to all the prophecies that NO ONE would ever walk on it: it would impossible during the day, too narrow, too close to the road, and other complete nonsense:

Note that there IS shade. Nobody looks miserable and suffering. One member of MENSA has had the sense to bring his own chair. Maybe later there will be seats: the promenade isn't finished, a point our doomsayers always ignore.

So that disposes of this nonsense:

If any one has not taken a long walk on the new promenade during the day time I will tell

you what it is like it is HOT BLOODY HOT..I will go so far as to say it is almost not

usable during daylight hours..This has to be killing business big time in the shops along

the beach during the day...The fun factor is about zero walking beach road during the day now.

And it turns out all the beer bars AREN'T deserted as maintained by our DYING PATTAYA brigade:

It's packed out! And NO, it looked nothing like this a month or so ago during the low season. Similarly, Soi 6: fact, just pass by on 2nd Rd and look at the mob in the corner beer bar. (I haven't even started on the Soi Buakhow area, but it was doing great a couple weeks ago.)

Traffic was much, much worse on 2nd Rd than a month ago. Need pics of the traffic now in the afternoons?

So, yes, we ARE having a high season and it's doing pretty well just as I said previously.

And some of the pedestrian crossing lights have been turned on again and ARE working, contrary to the lies told here:

I've put a red arrow pointing to the light so you old geezers not wearing your reading glasses and see where it is clearly.

And yes, the traffic DID stop for the light. I know I have to give evidence, so here's a pic I took in the middle of street while crossing:

That said, the traffic doesn't want to stop, so you have to get out in the street cautiously and show you're in fact wanting to cross. I found out a part of the reason: pedestrians who have no intention of crossing enjoy hitting the buttons as they walk by. As a driver, you never know whether it's real or not.

I've stopped at several of the lights recently for pedestrians crossing.

Re: the speed bumps. The fact that these have been decided necessary is a testament to much faster moving traffic on Beach Rd DURING THE HIGH SEASON, contrary to several doomsayers such as thaibeachlovers and Langsuan Man trying to claim traffic was only faster during LOW season. Never understood that "math."

So good-bye this illogical nonsense:

Were not even in the real high season yet so let's wait a few weeks before we start crowing about the increased traffic flow

Funny how the blockage of the new lane while they're putting up the speed bumps caused traffic jams as drivers had to use 2 lanes again. That's how it'd be again without the new lane.

Too bad about the speed bumps. I confess I was one of the bike drivers driving like a bat out hell on the lane, though. I probably needed to be slowed down for my own good--at the least.

[balo]

a refreshing look are the Russians in Pattaya. none of them tattooed unshaved sexpats wearing wife-beaters and drinking their fifth Chang at 10.30 in the morning.

You haven't been much out lately have you ?

[UncleJ]

High season in Jomtien it seems.

Guess it's the regulars from Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Russia etc.

Practically a ghost town in summer.

[Naam]

a refreshing look are the Russians in Pattaya. none of them tattooed unshaved sexpats wearing wife-beaters and drinking their fifth Chang at 10.30 in the morning.

You haven't been much out lately have you ?

i am out every tuesday and friday for a foot massage. after that a leisure cruise around downtown (Sukhumvit, Pattaya Thai, Second Road till Dolphin Circle and all of Beach Road, then Jomtien, Second Road again and then Pattaya Klang to Sukhumvit plus once in a while Soi Buakaow). then i've seen all what there is to see.

[Naam]

High season in Jomtien it seems.

Guess it's the regulars from Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Russia etc.

Practically a ghost town in summer.

that's what people think who live in Manchester or Duluth, Minnesota.

[Bender]

And it turns out all the beer bars AREN'T deserted as maintained by our DYING PATTAYA brigade:

beerbar.jpg

It's packed out! And NO, it looked nothing like this a month or so ago during the low season. Similarly, Soi 6: fact, just pass by on 2nd Rd and look at the mob in the corner beer bar. (I haven't even started on the Soi Buakhow area, but it was doing great a couple weeks ago.)

Is this a gay bar, because except one girl in blue shirt (maybe a ladyboy), there is only foreign males inside?

yes, hardly no girls!

[MrWorldwide]

A message to the doomsayers - come get some.

2010-2011, 2011-2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Tourism_rankings#Asia_and_the_Pacific

Thailand 22.3 million 19.2 million +16.2% +20.7%

Older data for comparison:

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ST.INT.ARVL

Consistent, year on year increases in tourist numbers - if it wasn't for Suthep, they would almost certainly have eclipsed Malaysia this year as the top tourist destination in SEA. Convert those numbers to a 'per capita' figure and China has nowhere near the pulling power of Malaysia and Thailand, despite having a massive diaspora of overseas Chinese spread throughout the region and a slew of well-publicised tourist attractions. Australian tourist officials would kill their grandmothers for consistent ~20% increases in tourist numbers - the difference here is that we have to wait 5 years *after* things take off for any new developments to meet demand for accommodation.

I have no idea how many of the 22+ million who visited Thailand last year made their way to Patts, but all this talk of 'game over' seems awfully premature for mine. Whether Patts will fall out of favor with the Russians is beyond the capabilities of my crystal ball, but the Chinese and Korean tour groups have been going there for decades. Farang tourists ? Beats me, but JSixpack's photo looks pretty much as I would expect a Pattaya bar to look during the day, and those guys look very much like the usual suspects. I'm not immune to wishful thinking - I've yet to stand in a queue at Swampy or KlIA and think 'Wow, its great that there are so many people here today !' .....

Floods, protests, an apparent increase in crime against foreigners yada yada - and still they come in their millions. Those 2013 figures will be interesting.

Naam and JSixpack - thanks for attempting to add some sanity to this thread. High season, low season or no season - I know it will be %$#! hot and relatively quiet when I finally drag my bags into a Patts hotel room next year, but I'm counting the days and I've set aside funds to buy you both one (1) Beer Lao each ! Feet, stop dancing

[ThaiBob]

And it turns out all the beer bars AREN'T deserted as maintained by our DYING PATTAYA brigade:

beerbar.jpg

It's packed out! And NO, it looked nothing like this a month or so ago during the low season. Similarly, Soi 6: fact, just pass by on 2nd Rd and look at the mob in the corner beer bar. (I haven't even started on the Soi Buakhow area, but it was doing great a couple weeks ago.)

Is this a gay bar, because except one girl in blue shirt (maybe a ladyboy), there is only foreign males inside?

yes, hardly no girls!

Not a gay bar, it's just a dim picture. There are plenty of girls inside.

[morrobay]

I remember visiting start of December 2011 and people where talking then about the numbers dropping considerably for high season. And when I compare it now to just back to 2011 there is a big big difference in the volume of people IMO.

I walk the streets of central Pattaya almost every day with my camera and the building projects: hotels,condos, shophouses and apartments keep going up year after year. And they seem to fill them up somehow.

And they (so far) seem to fill them somehow. Just in North Pattaya between Soi 6 and Soi 1 there has been a major increase in hotel accomodation supply. In the past 6 months several large

hotels have opened. And just in the last few weeks about six hotels have just opened in this area. Then there are some mega hotels like Siam Siam that is opening now , as well as another mega

hotel under construction in same area, Soi 1, soi 2. Sure if the touring business stays on the same trajectory they will fill them. If not then there is going to be alot less profit to go around.

In the case of hotels the "lights on or lights off " will be an indicator of a hotel bubble.

[A1Str8]

No. It's a thing of every year.

[OMGImInPattaya]

Time to to deflate some of the hot air previously posted. I love this forum!

We got to have proof to contradict the lies.

So I took a few pics yesterday in the heat of the day about 3 PM--but just w/ my poor mobile phone camera, as this was a spontaneous impulse. I'll have to try remember to take a real camera along sometime.

First, the beach. Lots of tourists on the beach, most sitting under umbrellas (which you can't see well in the distance). Before you Russian haters spew your usual vitriol, check out the two hotties ALONE in the foreground waiting for you:

beach_cr_cr.jpg

That's why I love the Russian invasion.

Plenty of tourists walking on the promenade in the middle of the day (many more in background), contrary to all the prophecies that NO ONE would ever walk on it: it would impossible during the day, too narrow, too close to the road, and other complete nonsense:

promenadejpg.jpg

Note that there IS shade. Nobody looks miserable and suffering. One member of MENSA has had the sense to bring his own chair. Maybe later there will be seats: the promenade isn't finished, a point our doomsayers always ignore.

So that disposes of this nonsense:

If any one has not taken a long walk on the new promenade during the day time I will tell

you what it is like it is HOT BLOODY HOT..I will go so far as to say it is almost not

usable during daylight hours..This has to be killing business big time in the shops along

the beach during the day...The fun factor is about zero walking beach road during the day now.

And it turns out all the beer bars AREN'T deserted as maintained by our DYING PATTAYA brigade:

beerbar.jpg

It's packed out! And NO, it looked nothing like this a month or so ago during the low season. Similarly, Soi 6: fact, just pass by on 2nd Rd and look at the mob in the corner beer bar. (I haven't even started on the Soi Buakhow area, but it was doing great a couple weeks ago.)

Traffic was much, much worse on 2nd Rd than a month ago. Need pics of the traffic now in the afternoons?

So, yes, we ARE having a high season and it's doing pretty well just as I said previously.

And some of the pedestrian crossing lights have been turned on again and ARE working, contrary to the lies told here:

light2.jpg

I've put a red arrow pointing to the light so you old geezers not wearing your reading glasses and see where it is clearly.

And yes, the traffic DID stop for the light. I know I have to give evidence, so here's a pic I took in the middle of street while crossing:

carsstopped.jpg

That said, the traffic doesn't want to stop, so you have to get out in the street cautiously and show you're in fact wanting to cross. I found out a part of the reason: pedestrians who have no intention of crossing enjoy hitting the buttons as they walk by. As a driver, you never know whether it's real or not.

I've stopped at several of the lights recently for pedestrians crossing.

Re: the speed bumps. The fact that these have been decided necessary is a testament to much faster moving traffic on Beach Rd DURING THE HIGH SEASON, contrary to several doomsayers such as thaibeachlovers and Langsuan Man trying to claim traffic was only faster during LOW season. Never understood that "math."

So good-bye this illogical nonsense:

Were not even in the real high season yet so let's wait a few weeks before we start crowing about the increased traffic flow

Funny how the blockage of the new lane while they're putting up the speed bumps caused traffic jams as drivers had to use 2 lanes again. That's how it'd be again without the new lane.

Too bad about the speed bumps. I confess I was one of the bike drivers driving like a bat out hell on the lane, though. I probably needed to be slowed down for my own good--at the least.

Please try to get some pics of any hot Russian ladyboys too...must be some mixed in there somewhere.

[bender92]

I live here and while I was out this afternoon trying to walk on Soi Bhuakow I had just the opposite impression as the OP. The foot & vehicular traffic was considerably greater than just a week ago.

High season seems to be getting shorter and shorter each year IMO, but all this doom and gloom about crime is not apparent to me (no need to be posting multiple news articles please; I read the local and national news). The tourists will be here as usual, but the bad political press will likely scare off a considerable number of East Asian tourists who seem sensitive to news of unrest in the nation. That has been the case based on arrivals at Swampy in the recent past (2008, 2010 come to mind).

Friday is market day, Soi Buakhow is always crowded then.

[JSixpack]

I'm feeling pity for our poor true believers in the DYING PATTAYA myth. Learning that this year isn't THE year, as prophesied (well, every year), their hopes all dashed for The Rapture and their Ascension (to Cambodia). It's like all those poor believers in the Mayan Doomsday or those few disillusioned survivors of the Jonestown Massacre.

So now our doomsayers are just sitting around bleary eyed and dejected, piles of dead Chang cans growing over in the corners of their shoeboxes, hardly able to finish a plate of *kao pat, trying to find reason to hold on until NEXT year . . . .

OK, as compensation I offer some heartwarming news until the cycle restarts. This just in, hot off the press:

Collapse of the universe is closer than ever before

[JSixpack]

I live here and while I was out this afternoon trying to walk on Soi Bhuakow I had just the opposite impression as the OP. The foot & vehicular traffic was considerably greater than just a week ago.

High season seems to be getting shorter and shorter each year IMO, but all this doom and gloom about crime is not apparent to me (no need to be posting multiple news articles please; I read the local and national news). The tourists will be here as usual, but the bad political press will likely scare off a considerable number of East Asian tourists who seem sensitive to news of unrest in the nation. That has been the case based on arrivals at Swampy in the recent past (2008, 2010 come to mind).

Friday is market day, Soi Buakhow is always crowded then.

And the last Friday, a week ago, it was less crowded.

[siberianwarcat]

I flew on Thai from the UK and arrived here on Thursday. On the plane including first and business, I counted 37 passengers. I was the last to board.

Seemed pretty empty.

Spoke to my hotels GM who informed me in his 200+ room hotel he has suffered over 2000 room bookings being cancelled over the last three weeks.

This is striking if a proportion of this effect has been felt by the 500+ hotels, big and small, in town.

He suggests it's not crime etc in Pattaya keeping the hordes at bay, but rather the events in BKK.

I am not a doom and gloom harbinger, but I am interested in what the actual tourist figures are if ever they are released.

[UncleJ]

TAT is predicting 6 billion arrivals this year.

[mancub]

Was almost prepared to give poster #33 MrJsixpack some credibility ...until he claimed that Pattaya has a beach !

[JSixpack]

I am interested in what the actual tourist figures are if ever they are released.

Releases of actual figures are always greeted by a loud cries of trickery and fraud from our resident cynics and know-it-alls, cries that take up several pages of the announcing thread. That's because those figures almost always show an utterly impossible increase in the tourist arrivals over the past year--the entire increase, and indeed most of the entire number, being easily explained by Cambodian and Burmese laborers and shoppers coming and going. Yep, our cynics got it ALL figured out! SO wise to all them Thai tricks, heh, heh! BURP!

It's source of perpetual mystery (but never mentioned) as to why Don Muang had to reopen and a US$ 2 Bil airport expansion is needed to handle more traffic.

So you don't wanna let on that you give any credence to any official figures, even when they're lent support by the IATA numbers. The IATA--well, they've all been bribed.

Though the BKK disturbances have been discouraging for international tourists, other factors have been favorable, notably exchange rates and recovering economies.

BTW, just for the record, Pattaya tourists also include Thai tourists. Would the BKK disturbance tend to increase that number or not?

Well, you can't judge anything by one plane being less than filled or poor mouthing by business owners. The owners are all notorious for that every year. Friend of mine, more than a month ago, tried to make a reservation at several beachfront hotels and found them all booked for the dates he wanted.

[anon8]

TAT is predicting 6 billion arrivals this year.

TAT should just go ahead and make it a trillion.

I am sitting on the steps on Beach rd, it is Sunday night 6 pm. Street is very quiete. It has been quiete for few weeks, and its only 1 week to Chrstmas.

Weekends are busy here, and traffic is horrible, but its weekenders from bkk.

Jsixpack posts are very, very fun to read, but it really is very quiete this year. No doom tho, we will survive somehow

:-)

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[OMGImInPattaya]

Was almost prepared to give poster #33 MrJsixpack some credibility ...until he claimed that Pattaya has a beach !

That's the local water treatment plant!

[Bikkii]

Phuket is packed, maybe they've all gone there. Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Where do you get this from? Most of the hoteliers I speak to say quite the opposite?

[UncleJ]

I was on Soi Diana this morning at 9am and there was not a single car driving on the entire Soi. I noticed how quiet it was and looked to see if the road was barricaded or something. Eerily quiet.

Maybe its like that every Sunday AM. I don't know.

[JSixpack]

I was on Soi Diana this morning at 9am and there was not a single car driving on the entire Soi. I noticed how quiet it was and looked to see if the road was barricaded or something. Eerily quiet.

Maybe its like that every Sunday AM. I don't know.

It is. You see, we don't get up early and go to no Sunday School here in PTY.

No, after Sat night's drinkin', daincin', bein' hansum, charming countless young ladies, and usin' up all our Viagra, ciggies and condoms, we just don't drag our butts out o' bed until 11 or 12 at the earliest.

[NanLaew]

TAT is predicting 6 billion arrivals this year.

...

I am sitting on the steps on Beach rd, it is Sunday night 6 pm. Street is very quiet ...

Sunday night and the roads out of Pattaya are very busy.

Sit on the steps on Beach Road on Friday or Saturday night instead and tell us it's quiet. 3 lanes of gridlock usually!

[NanLaew]

I was on Soi Diana this morning at 9am and there was not a single car driving on the entire Soi. I noticed how quiet it was and looked to see if the road was barricaded or something. Eerily quiet.

Maybe its like that every Sunday AM. I don't know.

Considering that the 'thundering herd' are still asleep and Central isn't open yet... Oh, never mind.

[MrWorldwide]

Yup - Central World opens and they come out of the woodwork. Like termites.

[MrWorldwide]

TAT is predicting 6 billion arrivals this year.

...

I am sitting on the steps on Beach rd, it is Sunday night 6 pm. Street is very quiet ...

Sunday night and the roads out of Pattaya are very busy.

Sit on the steps on Beach Road on Friday or Saturday night instead and tell us it's quiet. 3 lanes of gridlock usually!

I've never been to Patts when Beach Road wasnt a nightmare from 10am till at least 2am the following morning. I'm convinced that there are Thai guys who ride their bikes around the 'circuit' purely for want of something to do while they wait for their girlfriends to finish work in a bar and/or their Yaba dealer to make his rounds. I love Patts, but that is one aspect of the town that really annoys the hell out of me - the tourist coaches and baht buses *have* to be out there, but many of the tools on bikes appear to be nothing more than riding around for the sheer hell of it. I guess it helps if your GF is footing the bill for your gas. And food/rent/pharamaceuticals.

If Beach Road and Walking St were magically erased overnight, I doubt that I would miss the zoo at all - sadly, Patts' tourism industry would suffer heinously. The Russian, Chinese and Korean tourists seem to adore all that purty neon, Ma

[OMGImInPattaya]

Yup - Central World opens and they come out of the woodwork. Like termites.

Don't you mean Mike's Mall?