Just like the Gold Coast in Australia, which has the wide roads, the perfect beaches, great weather the whingers found heaven 20 years ago and don't want to share it with anyone. Every new building, every new inovation is whinged about by locals and regular visitors. If you live in a tourist centre in any country you must be prepared for change, and if you are not prepared to embrace it you should move on. If their own cities or places they live in were that good why not holiday at home.

I live in Chiang Mai, so my attitude is: Who cares?

You have my condolences.

From 1986 to now there has been insane development in Pattaya In 1986 the population was 10,000 swelling to 15,000 in the season with much of that from Scandinavian countries. The year-round residents contained quite a few Americans who stayed on after Viet Nam - they have mostly passed on by now. I also have a house in Bangkok that i've owned since 1992. That area is pretty much the same now as then. According to one market reseach study there are 2,000,000 people in Pattaya on any given day now. The housing market on the higher end (8 million baht up) is amazingly strong. Many of the buyers seem to be German.

Off topic post removed

So my question is: why bother to respond?

I live in Chiang Mai, so my attitude is: Who cares?

I'll hazard a guess, since I also moved from Pattaya to Chiang Mai. It's a far better place to live for any number of reasons that blight Pattaya every day. But don't come in March, when the air pollution owing to burning fields in other provinces is a health risk to Chiang Mai.

Oh yes, Imm service in Pattaya is far better. That's about it - most places in Thailand have their pros and cons. If you're happy in Pattaya, stay there. An influx of Pattaya tattooed sex-pats and violent drunks (and I'm sure none are posters on this forum) wouldn't be welcome.

Edited November 29, 201510 yr by stephenterry

l like Pattaya.

As one poster said on here, it has some great restaurants.

to akentryan- "according to one market research study there are 2,000,000 people in Pattaya on any given day " sorry to correct you, its 1 zero less, 200.000,
simply from the land area that would be absolutely impossible.
53,4 km² area pattaya , 100.000 +inhabitants, officially,
1565,2 km² area bangkok, 8 million
to stephenterry- "moved from Pattaya to Chiang Mai. It's a far better place to live"
maybe for you, but a beach is a beach , many clean beaches within 1 hour of pattaya but chiang mai has zoos with pandabears, i have heard, maybe i move very quickly to chm.

Yes, tourist towns, especially seaside resorts started growing rapidly when mass tourism took off in and 80s, and 90s, every man could afford to fly, flying was no longer exclusive for wealthy classes.

Every fishing village in Mexico, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Barbados to Pattaya is no longer a village, they are all mass tourism towns now. And just like old timers in Capri expat forum complain how things are not the same, so do we in Pattaya forum lol.

We are getting old! 25 year old guy arriving to Pattaya today is blown away by our town, he loves it, you know why? Cos he is 25, just like you used to be, when you loved it here!

Pattaya hasn't changed that much, more condos, more people, but I doubt it is unrecognizable, like many say. It was party town then, aand it very much still is.

People who remember Pattaya from 70s have themselves changed much more than the city.

I am a Johhny-come-lately; to me, Pattaya is at a coal face and more quickly shows the changing fortunes of locals and visitors (tourists) throughout Thailand ...when things are booming, they are, downturns in tourists $ is immediately felt

A lot of Farangs seem to have a very low opinion of Pattaya, many of those people used to either go there a lot or even lived there, I have a theory as to why they find Pattaya distasteful now.

They now live up-country or overseas with a woman they met in a bar in Pattaya and want to erase from their memory where they met and the circumstances of their meeting.

For those still living in Thailand slagging Pattaya off somehow makes them feel better about living in a dusty Isaan field where it hit's 42c in April and May, and they try to convince themselves that they made the right choices in life and the single guys living in a sea front condo in Wong Amat Beach are doing it all wrong.

Just my theory of the many Pattaya bashing posts by Farangs who used to frequent the place. ( But now can't )

Edited November 30, 201510 yr by Broken Record

Pattaya is a great place............I met my wife there.........been happy so far but wish her brother would go home

A vulgar off topic post and the replies to it have been removed

Also more off topic Pattaya bashing posts by the same poster have been removed.

The topic is about:

Has Pattaya changed faster than the rest of Thailand?

Probably, but unless you've been to the rest of Thailand it's merely speculating. So a pretty pointless topic.