Any sign that high season may be retreating, or do they hang around until after Songkran ? I can live with crowds, but I like to be able to weave past the gawkers when moving from A to B - I guess I'm weird like that. Happy to give Songkran a miss - just hoping for some room on the footpath by late April.

Thanks,

MrWW

I walk along Beach Rd most mornings between 7:00 and 9:00 and lately the busloads of Indian. Chinese and Thai visitors seem fewer than usual. Although "usual" is a little difficult to use as a benchmark. The troubles in Bangkok probably sent more tourists to Pattaya the past few months, but those hauled in by bus and dumped on the beach for a trip to the islands still appear to be fewer than I recall in previous years.

On the other hand, foot traffic on Pattaya Tai around midday, especially on market days, is still fairly heavy. Second Road hasn't been too bad.

I'd say generally it's getting better.

but I like to be able to weave past the gawkers when moving from A to B - I guess I'm weird like that.

No, when Beach Rd is chock-a-block with tight formations of the aforementioned tourists who are oblivious to people trying to walk along the path my joie de vivre index plummets and I've been known to "acidentally" bang into one or two of the annoyingly ovine gawkers. Those who cause road diversions away from the beach tend to be broad-bottomed Europeans, often in pairs, who weave unpredictably from left to right effectively preventing any chance of passing them other than by taking to the street. At times like that I wonder where cattle prods are sold.

Thanks for the feedback, suradit69 - appreciated. The photo could easily be from almost any Australian city or town that I've lived in - granted, I havent been to Perth so things might be different over there !

I do realize that tourists like to wander around and gawp at things that are comonplace to us ,but what pisses me off are the motorcyclists who drive side by side chatting to each other and trying to decide where to go ,