Soi Welcome Town - The modern Pattaya

[slafriphos]

On Pattaya klang between Big C extra and soi Town in Town is a newly developed soi that looks extremely modern. It does not look like any other soi in Pattaya. The shops are all geared for westerners and there is a security guard at the foot of the soi. You have to see it to believe it.

Cat Cafe (where you can play with cats), Party shop, bakeries, cafes, etc.

[giddyup]

Looks like a ghost town.

[Rimmer]

Troll post removed

[balo]

I have been driving up that soi a couple of times, it does look like a ghost town, maybe 2-3 customers were inside the shops.

[moonseeker]

True. Looks great. Unfortunately out of the way and will never make money for most of the businesses there. At least not the next 5-10 years. MS>

[KittenKong]

Loaf has (or had) a branch in there. It's a good bakery. But it's true that every time I drive past the soi looks deserted.

I've been trying to work out whether trade in Welcome Town will improve or decrease when they open the new Harbor Mall nearby.

[dotpoom]

Never noticed it and pass it about once a week, must check it out, might be a good location for the now re-vitalized "Thunderbirds"..... There you go, a nice piece of information for all you Thunderbirds groupies out there...it's being brought back to life using all the original puppets.

[DrTuner]

Give it a few months and it'll deteriorate into normal jungle.

[fred Kubasa]

How Many SOI's East of Big C ? Walking distance ?

[LALes]

Not on a baht bus line. Business will be iffy.

[Gandtee]

Perhaps it they changed the cafe name to Pussy Cafe it might draw a few more customers

[newnative]

We've been down this soi several times on the way to Index--you can get to the back entrance to Index using this soi. The shops look great but, like the other posters, we've noticed almost zero customers. Hard to see how the shops can stay in business--at this point they are too out-of-the-way and unknown.

[1FinickyOne]

A quiet soi in Pattaya? - Sounds like it might be a nice place to reside...

[Keesters]

Modern? Electric cables strung up in the air. Footpaths blocked with trees and signs. Car parked on wrong side of street. Electric cable run over the footpath. Thailand: Still in the dark ages...Wouldn't know modern if it hit them in the face.

[juliusk]

I have eaten a few times at Loaf inthere, there is that Siam Secure company also there and a lot of restaurants. Every time when I go there its quite busy actually. Even difficult to park my car sometimes,its not focussed on farang though but more to the Thai in my opinion...

[Berty100]

I have eaten a few times at Loaf inthere, there is that Siam Secure company also there and a lot of restaurants. Every time when I go there its quite busy actually. Even difficult to park my car sometimes,its not focussed on farang though but more to the Thai in my opinion...

No surprise it is difficult to park when there is no parking space provided.

[digbeth]

It's a good shortcut to get out from Klang to Sukhumvit when the junction is busy, drive to the end and through Index's carpark and you're out on Sukhumvit road pass the Klang junction where parked coaches and minivans slows down the already slow traffic from the construction.

A couple of months ago they had a sign up advertising the shortcut, which probably drives a lot of traffic pass the shops that otherwise don't get exposure, but the sign is gone now, maybe passing traffic doesn't have the desired effect.

The problem with the place is that while there are empty land out the back that can be used for carparking, looks like as more tenants move in and the land get built up, there will be less and less parking space. During the busy hours, there is already not enough parking space there

[champers]

Focussed on coach parties in high season? A few thousand Chinese & Koreans every day?

[Krataiboy]

There are new developments like this all over Thailand - garish concrete-and-plastic ghost towns with overpriced "designer" shops and expensive amusements for overgrown hi-so kids with more money than taste.

Western visitors tend to take one quick look and hurry back to the tour bus or grunt machine. But Thais just can't get enough of ersatz Venetian shopping piazzas, Swiss (sic) sheep farms, camel oases and mock Greek villages. Weird.

Pity more of them can't afford to venture out of their back yards to discover the real thing.

Edited November 19, 2015 by Krataiboy

[KittenKong]

How Many SOI's East of Big C ? Walking distance ?

For farangs or Thais? I walk the entire length of Klang without any trouble at all so for me the distance between BigC and Welcome Town is just spitting distance.

Most Thais would recoil in horror if asked to walk 10 yards.

[bapoboy]

Modern? Electric cables strung up in the air. Footpaths blocked with trees and signs. Car parked on wrong side of street. Electric cable run over the footpath. Thailand: Still in the dark ages...Wouldn't know modern if it hit them in the face.

many western countries have eletric cables in the air, trees and sign also on the footpaths have you forge that?.... what planet are you from, the Perfect planet?

[JHolmesJr]

I like it a lot…wish the rest of pattaya could look like this….then I wouldn't feel so squalid…..lurching from one seedy establishment to the next.

[champers]

Reminds me of Bicester in England; near Oxford; which has a cut-price designer mall that is the 2nd most popular destination for Chinese tourists to the UK. Not much of a resemblance to reality.

[gk10002000]

Modern? Electric cables strung up in the air. Footpaths blocked with trees and signs. Car parked on wrong side of street. Electric cable run over the footpath. Thailand: Still in the dark ages...Wouldn't know modern if it hit them in the face.

many western countries have eletric cables in the air, trees and sign also on the footpaths have you forge that?.... what planet are you from, the Perfect planet?

Most of the USA has electric cables in the air. the notable exception is southern California, aka many areas of San Diego, Los Angeles. I grew up in the Northeast and it took a while before I noticed the lack of the wires and "telephone poles".

[OMGImInPattaya]

The branch of Loaf Bakery and Cafe is a much expanded and hipster design version of the original on Soi Diana. It's a very pleasant place for couples and families as you don't have the tourist crowd and their rented girlfriends as company at the adjacent tables. They're open from 9 a.m. for breakfast till 9 or 10 at nite I believe.

[DeeMak9]

I have eaten a few times at Loaf inthere, there is that Siam Secure company also there and a lot of restaurants. Every time when I go there its quite busy actually. Even difficult to park my car sometimes,its not focussed on farang though but more to the Thai in my opinion...

No surprise it is difficult to park when there is no parking space provided.

Actually there is, around 8 spaces between every 4 or 5 shops. Which is of course not enough. I come here often because I make use of the safe deposit box rental facility Siam Secure (which seems to have almost as much customers as Loaf lol). The main problem with parking in my opinion is that both the bank an clinic in front don't have parking spaces. Both staff and clients park on the road, which makes it busy with cars during opining times of these places, but when they close it's almost deserted.

Also noticed an under construction pizza place next door Siam Secure. They must have a revolutionary concept to survive at that location... Theres also a (i think upper-class) noodle shop under construction.

It would do them good to turn the empty land between de gym and shops into a car park. Perhaps (party) roofed. And if you hire a guard already, why not buy a golf cart to drive the customers to their desired place. Then forbid parking cars on the main road. It would look so much better.

Edited November 20, 2015 by DeeMak9

[manarak]

Looks like a ghost town.

exactly like western city streets when compared to Thailand...

[giddyup]

Looks like a ghost town.

exactly like western city streets when compared to Thailand...

Yeah, western city shopping centre at 5 am.

[OMGImInPattaya]

I imagine business will pickup quite a bit once the new Harbor Mall opens up, which looks to be very soon. Plenty of parking, at least when I go...breakfast and lunch times.

[manarak]

I have eaten a few times at Loaf inthere, there is that Siam Secure company also there and a lot of restaurants. Every time when I go there its quite busy actually. Even difficult to park my car sometimes,its not focussed on farang though but more to the Thai in my opinion...

No surprise it is difficult to park when there is no parking space provided.

resembles a western street even more then :-)