Will Pattaya be a ghost town in ten years?

[Thunderbirds20]

People keep saying the number of Russians is down, but you would never know it where I live in Jomtien Beach. They are here in droves!!! Ten years from now, Pattaya will be a Russian colony. Every time a Thai business closes,..a Russian one opens in it's place

[jaywalker]

Hooters will do great. G rated sleaze. Family friendly!

A couple years ago my evil nephew (he was 15 then) talked my 76 year old Mother (his grandma) into stopping at a Hooters in Florida for lunch.

Mom is an EXTREMELY conservative Bible-thumper & goes to church about 6 times a week.

She was aghast!!!!

=========================

Back on topic, I first moved to Pattaya in early 2002 & rented a pool villa on Soi 15 across from the Cholchan hotel up in Banglamung. I only had two neighbors, and aside from the occasional rooster crowing it was pretty quiet. I had lived in BKK for almost two years, had recently married, and I have to say those were the happiest days of my life.

We left as I got transferred to Kuwait for 6 years in 2004, and Kuwait was actually not that bad.

We moved back to Pattaya in 2010, and rented a 3 bedroom, 3.5 bath house in Eakmongkol 4 housing estate off Soi Khaotalo......WHAT A NIGHTMARE!!!!

The house was quite decent, two pools within walking distance, but a GAZILLION nosey neighbors! Soi dogs everywhere!

Several clowns riding by with their loud speakers blaring every day. We moved to Jomtien eventually & it wasn't much better.

I got fed up with it & we moved to Florida, where I'm from.

It was about high time I got our daughter into a decent school anyhow.

Pattaya is a WONDERFUL place for a 3-4 week vacation, but that's about all of it I can take these days.

Edited August 3, 2015 by jaywalker

[Jingthing]

The location is very good for that new American place. There is a Chinese place above open for several years now ... specializing in tour groups. That is basically the same location, just one floor up. Any place there needs to do high volume as obviously it's a high rent location. I don't see why it's impossible for a American food place to work there just because the other place didn't for whatever specific reasons we don't really know. I'm looking forward to seeing their menu, prices, and their manner of doing business and then I'll have a better idea for my infamous predictions.

OK, sometimes locations seem crazy and definitely doomed but I don't see that in that place.

Edited August 3, 2015 by Jingthing

[rocketboybkk]

have you seen there is a new American restaurant opening soon at the front of " The Avenue " on second road directly above the pizza shop. It used to be an Irish pub. It will be called " the all-American restaurant " - chicken wings and other things. it will have a huge seating capacity but I have no idea if there will be enough people in their target audience.

Again, open a new business /bar where the last one failed

Great business sense

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You mean they should demolish the building when a business fails.

Great business sense.

No, but why would someone open the same business that's just failed?

Very risky indeed

There's a reason it's failed & it's due to lack of incoming money.

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Do you consider an Irish pub and an All American restaurant one and the same thing?

Not quite BUT anyone who knew the Irish pub, which moved from across the street, was a thriving business in the day.

The Avenue is a doomed location.

Look around it compared to other places?

It's never busy, footfall is rubbish although location is good

I'll place a bet & give it 1 year if that. Once the initial investment & contingency run out it'll be goodbye

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[rocketboybkk]

People keep saying the number of Russians is down, but you would never know it where I live in Jomtien Beach. They are here in droves!!! Ten years from now, Pattaya will be a Russian colony. Every time a Thai business closes,..a Russian one opens in it's place

If that happens I'll vote with my feet

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[rocketboybkk]

The location is very good for that new American place. There is a Chinese place above open for several years now ... specializing in tour groups. That is basically the same location, just one floor up. Any place there needs to do high volume as obviously it's a high rent location. I don't see why it's impossible for a American food place to work there just because the other place didn't for whatever specific reasons we don't really know. I'm looking forward to seeing their menu, prices, and their manner of doing business and then I'll have a better idea for my infamous predictions.

OK, sometimes locations seem crazy and definitely doomed but I don't see that in that place.

Fair comment, we'll see.

I reckon the prices will be above average but who know until it starts trading

IMO it better get some sexy ladies outside the doors to lure punters in to eat.

Only time will tell.

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[rocketboybkk]

Hooters will do great. G rated sleaze. Family friendly!

A couple years ago my evil nephew (he was 15 then) talked my 76 year old Mother (his grandma) into stopping at a Hooters in Florida for lunch.

Mom is an EXTREMELY conservative Bible-thumper & goes to church about 6 times a week.

She was aghast!!!!

=========================

Back on topic, I first moved to Pattaya in early 2002 & rented a pool villa on Soi 15 across from the Cholchan hotel up in Banglamung. I only had two neighbors, and aside from the occasional rooster crowing it was pretty quiet. I had lived in BKK for almost two years, had recently married, and I have to say those were the happiest days of my life.

We left as I got transferred to Kuwait for 6 years in 2004, and Kuwait was actually not that bad.

We moved back to Pattaya in 2010, and rented a 3 bedroom, 3.5 bath house in Eakmongkol 4 housing estate off Soi Khaotalo......WHAT A NIGHTMARE!!!!

The house was quite decent, two pools within walking distance, but a GAZILLION nosey neighbors! Soi dogs everywhere!

Several clowns riding by with their loud speakers blaring every day. We moved to Jomtien eventually & it wasn't much better.

I got fed up with it & we moved to Florida, where I'm from.

It was about high time I got our daughter into a decent school anyhow.

Pattaya is a WONDERFUL place for a 3-4 week vacation, but that's about all of it I can take these days.

Exactly the reason I sold my pool villa 4 years ago, could never see myself living there for more than 2/3 weeks

No, I'd go to a hooters if the chicks were American.

Thai chicks in a hooters? I don't see the point as the prices will reflect its a hooters & you'll get better & cheaper in a decent ago go

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[jaywalker]

The location is very good for that new American place. There is a Chinese place above open for several years now ... specializing in tour groups. That is basically the same location, just one floor up. Any place there needs to do high volume as obviously it's a high rent location. I don't see why it's impossible for a American food place to work there just because the other place didn't for whatever specific reasons we don't really know. I'm looking forward to seeing their menu, prices, and their manner of doing business and then I'll have a better idea for my infamous predictions.

OK, sometimes locations seem crazy and definitely doomed but I don't see that in that place.

I'm pretty sure Hooters is a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ if I'm not mistaken.

Anyhow, a company like that can afford to test the waters for 5 - 10 years to see if it will be profitable.

[rocketboybkk]

Yeah, but a Hooooters in Thai is the same as the US

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[jaywalker]

High season low season c'mon I sometimes go weeks without a decent cashflow input then bingo, it takes patience and a well charged mobile to whilst away the hours in-between.

You are 't the girl i met i the bar last night are you that moaned about how long it was since she had a customer then ignored me to play cookie run are you?

I first visited Pattaya in 1999 with a barfine out of the Tilac bar on Soi Cowboy. She fleeced me quite good, but have to say she earned every satang pretty good. Checked into the Montien Hotel, had a nice executive suite at 5,000 baht/night on the 15th floor or so. I was HOOKED on Thailand, and Pattaya in particular, as, being from Florida, I grew up near Daytona Beach & LOVE the beach.

10 years later............

I walked into the New Inn pub on Soi Khaotalo one evening to speak with the British owner, as I had shot a video for him that I was going to put on Youtube, to try & help him, as I lived nearby and sometimes stopped in there.

He didn't allow smoking inside, but was sitting there smoking a cigarette. The place was empty except for him and his wife, so I fired up a smoke & ordered a nam soda. The guy wanted to fight because I was smoking and hadn't even ordered a beer.

Some Aussie across the street had a hovel called the Pioneer bar (I guess the Pioneers are some kind of Aussie Special Forces - GROAN).

I stopped in there a grand total of three times. 1st time...friendly guy, nice wife, near my house - OK.

2nd time I went there was OK, as I stopped at about 2:00 PM & my 6 year old daughter and I played a game of pool. The owner's wife & a couple server girls were doting all over her.

The the last time I had my wife & daughter with me and some CRAZY, sweaty Norweigian drunk with no shirt was doing his best to sing whatever song was playing to the top of his lungs.

I could barely hear myself think due to all the Soi Khaotalo traffic and the drunk was scaring my daughter. Never went back.

=========================================

FUNNY STORY.... My neighbor (Bob) was a fat 65 year old retired lawyer from California. He had moved to Pattaya after his wife lost their house in Udon Thani playing cards.

We were at one of those Soi Khaotalo pubs one evening. I was being a good boy... I'm simply smart enough to keep any hanky-panky confined to waaaaay the hell away from where I (and SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED) live.

Not Bob. He was quite drunk and groping all over this really ugly bar girl, when his wife drove by and spotted him. Aww HELL!

She stormed in and grabbed him by the ear and carried him out to the car just like that.

It takes some longer than others, but the allure of Pattaya eventually fades.

Edited August 3, 2015 by jaywalker

[jaywalker]

I find it hard to believe that Hooters will be a success in Pattaya.

I mean Pattaya is quite price sensitive and Hooters wont be cheap so for a start that will wipe out a lot of customers.

And the girl attraction can be had all over town and in much sexier outfits or no outfits as the case may be.

It beats me to where they are going to get "The Hooters" from......

Silicon (silicone) Valley most likely.

[jaywalker]

The demographics may change, will change, over the years but it's not likely Pattaya is going to dry up and disappear anytime in the foreseeable future.

Businesses come, businesses go, businesses change business and businesses change names/owners but business itself isn't disappearing so much as it is morphing. As has been noted the bigger places are going strong for a few reasons. They've done their homework to begin with. They either have a strong, recognizable brand name or they've built one based on quality service and product. As always in almost any business, location is key. It may actually be the most important aspect. If you have a prime location you can survive poor quality service and product by having high customer turn-over (with short or no memory at all). If you have a mediocre or poor location, you'd better have excellent service/product otherwise you won't survive.

If you have a service-related business (restaurant/bar/repair shop) that is dependant on walk-in business you had better be providing excellent service, especially if you are relying on "local" traffic more than "tourist" traffic. I know one place where customers come in to browse and the owner won't even get out of his chair to say hi or ask if he can help them with anything. Little wonder that they finally turn around and walk out (and what do you think they'll say to their friends if anyone asks them about that place). I mean crap - if you don't even have prices on the things you're selling and aren't willing to deal with customers, why do you even have a business at all ?

Another problem that is prevalent here is the practise of "business is slow so lets jack the prices up to make as much as we can off the little business we are still getting". I was trying to explain that to a friend the other day (he and his family own a number of businesses in Pattaya). I told him that in the west when things are slow businesses will offer deals/gimmicks to draw customers in. Like 2 for 1 deals, extended "Happy Hour" deals, free pool, free snacks. In Thailand they just raise the prices and then wonder why business gets even worse.

As I mentioned in another thread quite recently, too many businesses also open with the expectation that they will be turning a profit from the minute they open their doors until the end of times. They do not plan on "low seasons", poor product/service, low business volumes and as a result a few months after opening with high hopes, they are closing with dashed dreams.

Like that time tested and true saying goes, If you want to make a small fortune in Thailand, start with a large one !

You ommited official harassment from your list. Once was a Brit had a restaurant near Walking St and it was great, but the requirement to use a certain company to install unnecessary CCTV and other such like made him close in protest.

Also the threat of owners being arrested for so much as handing a customer a drink ( for working ) is a big turn off.

Yes and YES on the "Official" harassment.

I mentioned in an earlier post there were two pools nearby where I lived in the Eakmongkol 4 concentration camp on Soi Khaotalo.

One was right at the western entrance to the concentration camp & "owned" by a real nice Dutch guy (and his wife). Their daughter was about the same age as my daughter and they both could swim like otters, so she loved going there to play with her friend. They even went to the same school so they were really close friends.

The Dutch guy refused to pay tea money to the cops. Yes he'd sell me a beer, but mostly he sold food and ice cream to families. He had a nice 8 or so seat bar & about 6 or 8 tables. It was restaurant with a pool, not some go-go or beer bar with wenches.

The pool was quite large and nice and packed on the weekends with Thai and Farang families.

I loved playing with the kids. I'd launch my daughter for a jump by getting her little feet in my hands in about 4 feet of water so she'd fly about 2 feet in the air and come splashing down, and then I'd have 4 or 5 kids saying "Me next!".

He played really nice classic rock (satellite radio) on a nice sound system....speakers all around the pool, which was just one more reason I like the place so much. Food was fantastic, service was quite efficient.

He had a nice family oriented business, but the cops ran him off.

The cops raided him because he had satellite radio playing and confiscated all his sound equipment. He told me "That's 40,000 baht gone. I'm selling this place. I'll NEVER try to do business in this country ever again".

The last time I saw the place the pool was empty and the whole place was shut down.

====================

The other pool was inside the concentration camp, and run by Thai's. They kept a soidog around that snapped at me a couple times. He'd lay in front of the bar or inside the toilet (that didn't flush) so it was nearly impossible to order a beer or use the hong nam.

The food was OK I suppose, but the staff would leave the dirty dishes where they were for HOURS after someone had finished them = lots of flies everywhere & you had to almost beg them to pay you any attention.

Oh yeah, it had a ladder on the deep end with no rungs on it, and the two poles were wobbly as hell. Little Thai kids would try to stand on them to jump in the pool. I can't believe I never saw a cracked skull there.

Edited August 3, 2015 by jaywalker

[mrfaroukh]

Pattaya is not going to die but hopefully will be better to live with more security, decent bars and entertainment venue. Well there had been over building of flats and houses and now they can not sell them any more. I noticed a flat which was worth almost 7 million just near one year ago, now being sold for 5,3 million and even someone was ready to sell the same for 3,6 million for quick sale.

Many Foreigners bough many flats for rental income. Now not many Western tourist are coming and their flats stay empty and therefore the prices are coming down and hopefully the rentals as well. In airport I seen 90% of tourists were from Asia mainly Chinese, and as we know they do not spend huge money in restaurants and bar.

On the whole the problem is not only Thailand, a bad economy everywhere in the world is the main cause. So hopefully when people feel more safe to come to Thailand after later problems and the economy get better then Pattaya will see better days to come.

[onemorechang]

Having lived and worked legally in Thailand for nearly ten years (ago) and now working in China, for the last nine years, I find it sad that those who do not know China or the Chinese, racialistly put them down. Which is sad as it shows ignorance.

China is a hugely diverse country, because of a number of reasons, the so called Peasants now have money and they are prepared to travel. The issue is, they are insecure, these so called Peasants because they have been cut off from the rest of the world, prefer to travel in tour groups, groups that are CONTROLLED by the Thai tour lleaders, taking bus loads to certain outlets where they get huge commissions.

Chinese shout all the time,agreed, but only because there village neighbour is not in close proximity to them , insecurity sets in again.why is it that Isaan girls mainly mix with their own ?

There are so many on here who cannot and don't even bother to learn Thai, even though it's their adopted country, albeit rather shakily. Chinese won't mix. Ha I was In Hua Hin quite recently, I had a meal and there were loads of Chinese stunners in the restaurant. The usual groups who seemed not to want to be seen. I engaged them in Chinese ( yup language abilities again) and before I knew it calls were being made and a lot more Chinese girls came in and quite a party ensued. WHY ? Because they forgot their instability and relaxed. Mind you, I was not to popular with the Thai tour leader, who ended up taking an almost empty bus back to the groups hotel.

I would suggest that those who live in glass houses should........ Well you know what.

If you say so,

Yes indeed I did say so, NOW have you got the intelligence, intellect and experience to discuss, or are you another know all, with not one iota of language skills to back your stupidity. I rest my case.

5 posts joined 2 days ago, insulting people already. great language skills you have.

I just don't believe your last paragraph, bit of an exaggeration I think.

At present the Chinese don't have much money in there pockets to spend ,

in pattaya and judging by the events of the last few weeks that may well be even less next year, china is getting an adjustment that's long over due.

maybe the jobs for expats will dry up, you may find yourself becoming an English teacher or tour guide in Thailand, your language skills can then be put to good use.

BTW using caps is like shouting,

if you shout at people you never get a good response

great language skills again, good job,

Also many Expats can speak Thai

I don't usually judge a book by the cover but for you , we can do that

Trolling is that what your up to. name Dipstick !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enjoy your tour bus full of stunners .

Edited August 3, 2015 by onemorechang

[jaywalker]

Having lived and worked legally in Thailand for nearly ten years (ago) and now working in China, for the last nine years, I find it sad that those who do not know China or the Chinese, racialistly put them down. Which is sad as it shows ignorance.

China is a hugely diverse country, because of a number of reasons, the so called Peasants now have money and they are prepared to travel. The issue is, they are insecure, these so called Peasants because they have been cut off from the rest of the world, prefer to travel in tour groups, groups that are CONTROLLED by the Thai tour lleaders, taking bus loads to certain outlets where they get huge commissions.

Chinese shout all the time,agreed, but only because there village neighbour is not in close proximity to them , insecurity sets in again.why is it that Isaan girls mainly mix with their own ?

There are so many on here who cannot and don't even bother to learn Thai, even though it's their adopted country, albeit rather shakily. Chinese won't mix. Ha I was In Hua Hin quite recently, I had a meal and there were loads of Chinese stunners in the restaurant. The usual groups who seemed not to want to be seen. I engaged them in Chinese ( yup language abilities again) and before I knew it calls were being made and a lot more Chinese girls came in and quite a party ensued. WHY ? Because they forgot their instability and relaxed. Mind you, I was not to popular with the Thai tour leader, who ended up taking an almost empty bus back to the groups hotel.

I would suggest that those who live in glass houses should........ Well you know what.

If you say so,

Yes indeed I did say so, NOW have you got the intelligence, intellect and experience to discuss, or are you another know all, with not one iota of language skills to back your stupidity. I rest my case.

5 posts joined 2 days ago, insulting people already. great language skills you have.

I just don't believe your last paragraph, bit of an exaggeration I think.

I don't usually judge a book by the cover but for you , we can do that

Trolling that what your up to. name Dipstick !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At present the Chinese don't have much money in there pockets to spend ,

in pattaya and judging by the events of the last few weeks that may well be even less next year, china is getting an adjustment that's long over due.

maybe the jobs for expats will dry up, you may find yourself becoming an English teacher or tour guide in Thailand, your language skills can then be put to good use.

BTW using caps is like shouting,

if you shout at people you never get a good response

great language skills again, good job,

Also many Expats can speak Thai

Enjoy your tour bus full of stunners .

Hey OneMoreChang, I LOVE Chang beer!

More bang for your buck!

"Tour bus full of stunners!" HA! I love it!

I started to call the guy out on that one, but I've only been to Beijing once for a week, and was NOT impressed.

I have, however spent a LOT of time in Taiwan. I don't recall ever seeing a stunner in either place.

Don't get me started on Chinese food...

I'm a slender guy, and my wife wants me to look like Buddha for some reason. Every time I'd come back to Pattaya after a month in Taiwan she'd be happy because I had gained 10 lbs, which was due to me eating at McDonald's & KFC 3 times a day.

[jacko45k]

Absolutely not, some of your points are already wrong.

The baht is losing strength, Russians replaced by Chinese.

Vicinity to Bangkok, they just want to get out of that sweaty place for the weekend or any holiday.

Pattaya was busy last weekend despite the bar closures and rain.

Change of demographics.

[Friendly Stranger]

Asiacat, you're entitled to your opinion, but the examples you gave are silly. It whethered the financial crisis and it will come out on others too. It just means they'll be other opportunities for other investors. Only if they change some laws and get really tough with the nitelife scene then maybe. If anything, it's over saturated in some areas.

Now phuket, that's a place that has really changed in the last 10 yrs, with Patong being terrible and Karon and others are following.

[AlQaholic]

I sure hope so....

[micmichd]

Guess Pattaya will get larger, and some business will move away from Pattaya Beach.

With the decline of the European middle class, there might be less tourists and pensioners from Europe. But the pensioners that are already in Thailand will get older than ever before, and they will require more nursing and medical care. Nursing within families, and medical care ideally paid by European Health Insurances or NHS.

At the same time, there will be an emerging Thai middle class, they will have their own hotels, restaurants and bars. Not necessarily in Pattaya Beach but rather on "the dark side" of Pattaya, maybe around Pattaya City.

[loppylugs1]

Guess Pattaya will get larger, and some business will move away from Pattaya Beach.

With the decline of the European middle class, there might be less tourists and pensioners from Europe. But the pensioners that are already in Thailand will get older than ever before, and they will require more nursing and medical care. Nursing within families, and medical care ideally paid by European Health Insurances or NHS.

At the same time, there will be an emerging Thai middle class, they will have their own hotels, restaurants and bars. Not necessarily in Pattaya Beach but rather on "the dark side" of Pattaya, maybe around Pattaya City.

Pattaya may well get larger,but emptier too,swathes of houses ,shophouses,business premises empty

Older pensioners will leave,not stay,medical care is atrocious and expensive. To be honest it ain't just Pattaya but Thailand generally,surrounding countries will leave Thailand in its wake

[thaibeachlovers]

That statement still doesnt answer the earlier question where exactly are the jobs going to come from ? In the past 8 year cycles you refered to there used to be smokestack industries that would readily offer employment . but even in China a factory recently replaced 90% of its human workers with robots and by doing so then achieved 162% increase in productivity. Look around this trend is everywhere from factories to fast food restaurants. And without salaries people cant afford travel.[/size][/font]

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/chinese-factory-replaces-90-of-humans-with-robots-production-soars/

OP is NOT about how world economies will recover. I also did not put a time frame on when.

However it will recover one way or another .

If you like to believe it's the end of days , might as well throw yourself off the balcony now or invest in a gun and shoot yourself

We are at interesting point in history with globalisation really gathering pace and automation/technologies et starting to replace traditional jobs both for white collar workers and blue collar workers.

At the same time we have huge swathes of job seekers searching for fewer and fewer well paid jobs and with porous borders and quick overseas travel available it means a huge global workforce which will continue to push wages lower and lower for most people.

None of the western economies is ever going to recover sufficiently to restore previous standards of livings. Rather we will have a polarisation of wealth at the upper end with more and more people on struggle street battling to survive. That is the harsh new reality for most westerners.

Maybe 20percent at the top creaming it and the gradual shrinking of the middle classes with more and more people pushed into lower and lower standards of living.

That theme has been covered many times in science fiction and movies. I don't doubt it will happen. Only the highly educated in technology will get high paying jobs as robots can do everything currently done by uneducated people. However, if the 1% think that the masses are going to go off and quietly die, they are going to be shocked.

[thaibeachlovers]

I hope it does revert to being a normal Thai provincial town rather than a hangout for £"£$!"£$.

Do you now, or ever, live in a "normal provincial Thai town? Sooooooooooooo boring. You are welcome to the corruption and the broken infrastructure- I'll take Pattaya as it is anytime.

[CapeThai]

One of my hobbies here when I see restaurants opening is guessing when they will close. That's pretty naughty, I know. Sometimes I think places will work and then they still don't though. I couldn't have predicted all the Russian places closing before the Ruble crashed.

have you seen there is a new American restaurant opening soon at the front of " The Avenue " on second road directly above the pizza shop. It used to be an Irish pub. It will be called " the all-American restaurant " - chicken wings and other things. it will have a huge seating capacity but I have no idea if there will be enough people in their target audience.

Again, open a new business /bar where the last one failed

Great business sense

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You mean they should demolish the building when a business fails.

Great business sense.

It's all about giving your customers what they need and want at an affordable price. If you don't have it, you cannot sell it.

[hugh2121]

I think it could well go that way.

There are always a lot of people around if you look for them but it is much much quieter. Westerners numbers are certainly in great decline. There are many Chinese tourists (often blocking footpaths on Beach Road) and we all know they are not great spenders. On Thai holidays, there are also many Thai tourists. They bring their own food, drinks and beach mats; they check into a cheap hostel type of large room with mattresses on the floor and the whole family shares one room. Thai style. That's ok but doesn't help the local economy a great deal. Businesses big and small are suffering, staff in even the biggest stores are idle as there are so few spending customers. Locals are still rude to visitors and very bad mannered.

I foresee many more bars, restaurants, small hotels and other businesses closing down due to lack of spending tourists. This could easily deteriorate to the state where even the Chinese stop coming as Pattaya will no longer be attractive to tourists of any nationality. I can also imagine many building sites with part built condos that nobody is buying....Lovely!

[jaywalker]

I hope it does revert to being a normal Thai provincial town rather than a hangout for £"£$!"£$.

Do you now, or ever, live in a "normal provincial Thai town? Sooooooooooooo boring. You are welcome to the corruption and the broken infrastructure- I'll take Pattaya as it is anytime.

You make two very valid points. The Prasat rice fields in Surin where my wife is from is either the epitomy of boring or, like the last time I was there, my wife's Aunt had died & 30 foot/10 meter tall speakers were trucked in, to about 20 feet from my bedroom window, and played as loud as they possibly could, for about 5 days straight, for 20 hours a day.

They kept playing the same thing, over and over and over too.

We had no sooner weathered that storm than they moved the speakers a few yards up the road & did the same thing for a wedding. I haven't been back.

I got stuck up there for 10 days with no internet & not even a good book to read in 2005 as my daughter was due any day.

I was ready to shoot myself out of boredom.

I never had any trouble with thugs nor ladyboys in Pattaya, but I have half a brain.

It's the gridlock traffic and overall poor infrastructure that got to me. City Hall is full of corrupt buffoons. The streets are full of lazy cops & crazy drivers.

I was forced to return to the USA & it slowly dawned upon me.

HMMM.........I've been married to a really pretty lady for over a decade, have a gorgeous hah-sip/hah-sip strawberry blonde daughter that I'll be beating the boys off of soon enough (she's almost 10 now).....Do I want them to be Thai punks with a gang behind them or farang American pimply faced punks that I can put the fear of God into? No-brainer there.

The traffic is SO civilized here too comparatively.

=============

My Canadian buddy has a house in East Pattaya near what used to be the Black Pearl bar....that place is S-E-E-D-Y!

Some guy pulled up in his driveway one day, saw his wife & 17 year old daughter & asked "Is this the Black Pearl?"...All this in a 'secure" housing estate.

I love Pattaya for a visit. Always will, but it's no country for my daughter.

I guess it's that "Country For Old Men" that Tommy Lee Jones couldn't seem to find.

I'm 48. Wifey is 41. Daughter will be 10 soon.

I've read a gazillion horror stories about Thai wives, and do not doubt any of them. I got lucky, lucky, lucky with mine!

14 years & not too many complaints.

=============

Just my opinion here, but Pattaya will GRIND YOU DOWN in one way or another.

Example: Some maniac was in the wrong lane on Threppasit road, passing a courteous big truck on the right, (at high speed, with no license & no insurance). The truck courteous truck driver had left enough room for my wife to turn right, so she pulled out right in front of the maniac in the Toyota Tiger truck I insisted she drive as it was as big of a car as I could get.

Wonder of wonders, he had a helmet on, and hit her driver's door at about 60 kph. We had insurance to take care of the retard.

Being the idiot I was back in 2001 when we got married, I had her change her surname to mine.

The cop smelled blood. "You have farang name. All farang have big money. 10,000 baht".

It was a 1,000 baht fine I think for "violation of right-of-way", PLUS the 10,000 baht......no account was taken of the license-less, no-insurance idiot in the wrong lane, that had crossed a double yellow line to pass the stopped truck....NOPE.

You have farang name. All Farangs have big money.

The only saving grace was that the moto driver broke his leg. If it had been his neck it would have cost me a lot more, but I'm quite happy the idiot broke something besides my wife's door and the dent in my wallet. His helmet left a big ding in the pillar right behind the driver's door.

I stayed well out of sight of the cops on that one. I wasn't there, so just paid up from the background.

The cop told my wife she would "have big problem" if she didn't pay the cops off for their trouble of filing the insurance paperwork & "police" report.

Edited August 4, 2015 by jaywalker

[onemorechang]

I think it could well go that way.

There are always a lot of people around if you look for them but it is much much quieter. Westerners numbers are certainly in great decline. There are many Chinese tourists (often blocking footpaths on Beach Road) and we all know they are not great spenders. On Thai holidays, there are also many Thai tourists. They bring their own food, drinks and beach mats; they check into a cheap hostel type of large room with mattresses on the floor and the whole family shares one room. Thai style. That's ok but doesn't help the local economy a great deal. Businesses big and small are suffering, staff in even the biggest stores are idle as there are so few spending customers. Locals are still rude to visitors and very bad mannered.

I foresee many more bars, restaurants, small hotels and other businesses closing down due to lack of spending tourists. This could easily deteriorate to the state where even the Chinese stop coming as Pattaya will no longer be attractive to tourists of any nationality. I can also imagine many building sites with part built condos that nobody is buying....Lovely!

I think your spot on with all that.

[loppylugs1]

I hope it does revert to being a normal Thai provincial town rather than a hangout for £"£$!"£$.

Do you now, or ever, live in a "normal provincial Thai town? Sooooooooooooo boring. You are welcome to the corruption and the broken infrastructure- I'll take Pattaya as it is anytime.

You make two very valid points. The Prasat rice fields in Surin where my wife is from is either the epitomy of boring or, like the last time I was there, my wife's Aunt had died & 30 foot/10 meter tall speakers were trucked in, to about 20 feet from my bedroom window, and played as loud as they possibly could, for about 5 days straight, for 20 hours a day.

They kept playing the same thing, over and over and over too.

We had no sooner weathered that storm than they moved the speakers a few yards up the road & did the same thing for a wedding. I haven't been back.

I got stuck up there for 10 days with no internet & not even a good book to read in 2005 as my daughter was due any day.

I was ready to shoot myself out of boredom.

I never had any trouble with thugs nor ladyboys in Pattaya, but I have half a brain.

It's the gridlock traffic and overall poor infrastructure that got to me. City Hall is full of corrupt buffoons. The streets are full of lazy cops & crazy drivers.

I was forced to return to the USA & it slowly dawned upon me.

HMMM.........I've been married to a really pretty lady for over a decade, have a gorgeous hah-sip/hah-sip strawberry blonde daughter that I'll be beating the boys off of soon enough (she's almost 10 now).....Do I want them to be Thai punks with a gang behind them or farang American pimply faced punks that I can put the fear of God into? No-brainer there.

The traffic is SO civilized here too comparatively.

=============

My Canadian buddy has a house in East Pattaya near what used to be the Black Pearl bar....that place is S-E-E-D-Y!

Some guy pulled up in his driveway one day, saw his wife & 17 year old daughter & asked "Is this the Black Pearl?"...All this in a 'secure" housing estate.

I love Pattaya for a visit. Always will, but it's no country for my daughter.

I guess it's that "Country For Old Men" that Tommy Lee Jones couldn't seem to find.

I'm 48. Wifey is 41. Daughter will be 10 soon.

I've read a gazillion horror stories about Thai wives, and do not doubt any of them. I got lucky, lucky, lucky with mine!

14 years & not too many complaints.

=============

Just my opinion here, but Pattaya will GRIND YOU DOWN in one way or another.

Example: Some maniac was in the wrong lane on Threppasit road, passing a courteous big truck on the right, (at high speed, with no license & no insurance). The truck courteous truck driver had left enough room for my wife to turn right, so she pulled out right in front of the maniac in the Toyota Tiger truck I insisted she drive as it was as big of a car as I could get.

Wonder of wonders, he had a helmet on, and hit her driver's door at about 60 kph. We had insurance to take care of the retard.

Being the idiot I was back in 2001 when we got married, I had her change her surname to mine.

The cop smelled blood. "You have farang name. All farang have big money. 10,000 baht".

It was a 1,000 baht fine I think for "violation of right-of-way", PLUS the 10,000 baht......no account was taken of the license-less, no-insurance idiot in the wrong lane, that had crossed a double yellow line to pass the stopped truck....NOPE.

You have farang name. All Farangs have big money.

The only saving grace was that the moto driver broke his leg. If it had been his neck it would have cost me a lot more, but I'm quite happy the idiot broke something besides my wife's door and the dent in my wallet. His helmet left a big ding in the pillar right behind the driver's door.

I stayed well out of sight of the cops on that one. I wasn't there, so just paid up from the background.

The cop told my wife she would "have big problem" if she didn't pay the cops off for their trouble of filing the insurance paperwork & "police" report.

Those dash cams are a survival tool 650 baht I paid

[Heng]

Much much harder to make a ghost town anywhere nowadays without war or 'outbreak' type diseases. Best hope would be some kind of Rayong chemical spill that permanently damaged the water supply maybe. The disappearance of one type of tourist or the other is about on par with Sunrise Tacos shutting down. Mildly negative but hardly the end of the world.

Edited August 4, 2015 by Heng

[jaywalker]

I hope it does revert to being a normal Thai provincial town rather than a hangout for £"£$!"£$.

Do you now, or ever, live in a "normal provincial Thai town? Sooooooooooooo boring. You are welcome to the corruption and the broken infrastructure- I'll take Pattaya as it is anytime.

You make two very valid points. The Prasat rice fields in Surin where my wife is from is either the epitomy of boring or, like the last time I was there, my wife's Aunt had died & 30 foot/10 meter tall speakers were trucked in, to about 20 feet from my bedroom window, and played as loud as they possibly could, for about 5 days straight, for 20 hours a day.

They kept playing the same thing, over and over and over too.

We had no sooner weathered that storm than they moved the speakers a few yards up the road & did the same thing for a wedding. I haven't been back.

I got stuck up there for 10 days with no internet & not even a good book to read in 2005 as my daughter was due any day.

I was ready to shoot myself out of boredom.

I never had any trouble with thugs nor ladyboys in Pattaya, but I have half a brain.

It's the gridlock traffic and overall poor infrastructure that got to me. City Hall is full of corrupt buffoons. The streets are full of lazy cops & crazy drivers.

I was forced to return to the USA & it slowly dawned upon me.

HMMM.........I've been married to a really pretty lady for over a decade, have a gorgeous hah-sip/hah-sip strawberry blonde daughter that I'll be beating the boys off of soon enough (she's almost 10 now).....Do I want them to be Thai punks with a gang behind them or farang American pimply faced punks that I can put the fear of God into? No-brainer there.

The traffic is SO civilized here too comparatively.

=============

My Canadian buddy has a house in East Pattaya near what used to be the Black Pearl bar....that place is S-E-E-D-Y!

Some guy pulled up in his driveway one day, saw his wife & 17 year old daughter & asked "Is this the Black Pearl?"...All this in a 'secure" housing estate.

I love Pattaya for a visit. Always will, but it's no country for my daughter.

I guess it's that "Country For Old Men" that Tommy Lee Jones couldn't seem to find.

I'm 48. Wifey is 41. Daughter will be 10 soon.

I've read a gazillion horror stories about Thai wives, and do not doubt any of them. I got lucky, lucky, lucky with mine!

14 years & not too many complaints.

=============

Just my opinion here, but Pattaya will GRIND YOU DOWN in one way or another.

Example: Some maniac was in the wrong lane on Threppasit road, passing a courteous big truck on the right, (at high speed, with no license & no insurance). The truck courteous truck driver had left enough room for my wife to turn right, so she pulled out right in front of the maniac in the Toyota Tiger truck I insisted she drive as it was as big of a car as I could get.

Wonder of wonders, he had a helmet on, and hit her driver's door at about 60 kph. We had insurance to take care of the retard.

Being the idiot I was back in 2001 when we got married, I had her change her surname to mine.

The cop smelled blood. "You have farang name. All farang have big money. 10,000 baht".

It was a 1,000 baht fine I think for "violation of right-of-way", PLUS the 10,000 baht......no account was taken of the license-less, no-insurance idiot in the wrong lane, that had crossed a double yellow line to pass the stopped truck....NOPE.

You have farang name. All Farangs have big money.

The only saving grace was that the moto driver broke his leg. If it had been his neck it would have cost me a lot more, but I'm quite happy the idiot broke something besides my wife's door and the dent in my wallet. His helmet left a big ding in the pillar right behind the driver's door.

I stayed well out of sight of the cops on that one. I wasn't there, so just paid up from the background.

The cop told my wife she would "have big problem" if she didn't pay the cops off for their trouble of filing the insurance paperwork & "police" report.

Those dash cams are a survival tool 650 baht I paid

Yes.

I'll never drive in Thailand again without a dash camera.

Unfortunately they weren't widely available at the time of this incident.

It wasn't an accident.

It was a maniac on a motorbike, speeding, in the wrong lane.

I normally do not get a thrill out of anybody's pain, but I was SO, SO, happy that he at least broke his leg and totaled his uninsured motor-scooter.

[Rimmer]

Posts in weird fonts removed