How can Patong reinvent itself?

[sekmet]

Public transportation, obviously would be a good start, along with limiting tuk-tuks and where they can park. I know that will never happen.

 

What would Patong need to do to become a world class destination?

 

To be sure, this i just idle chit-chat among travellers and ex-pats.

 

A small list for starters (and this is mostly things I don't like about Patong).

 

1. Public transport looping around Rat-u-Thit and Beach Road

 

2. sweep vendor off the sidewalks so people can actually walk

 

3. replace some of the empty side soi beer comlexes off of Bangla with entertainment venues along the likes of cirque de soleil

 

4. bury cables underground

 

5. build higher multi use structures, i.e., condo/hotel/convention/retail

 

Thoughts?

 

[schlog]

Limit the number of chinese on 500 per day. To understand what i mean go to Big C and if falls like scales from your eyes.

[Lamkyong]

27 minutes ago, schlog said:

Limit the number of chinese on 500 per day. To understand what i mean go to Big C and if falls like scales from your eyes.

falls like scales from your eyes.     ???

[schlog]

25 minutes ago, Lamkyong said:

falls like scales from your eyes.     ???

Typo

[phuketrichard]

as we go to junk ceylon for lunch on sundays and than shopping at Big C, I have learned NEVER get in the check out line behind a Chinese person. Loud, obnoxious, arrogant people who always seem to have trouble paying.

 

I think a Songthaew like pattaya that circles Patong would be great but there is ZERO chance it will ever happen;

 

Bury the cables?? they had the chance after the tsunami... Failed

 

Get rid of 75% of the tuk tuk and rent a bikes on the beach road...  again wont ever happen

 

 

[Lamkyong]

13 minutes ago, schlog said:

Typo

 their is an edit feature if needed

[NamKangMan]

 

"Public transportation, obviously would be a good start" - since when is supplying this essential service classified as a "reinvention?" 

 

"I know that will never happen." - you have answered your own thread title's question.  There will be no "reinvention" of Phuket.

 

Positive change to Phuket after the tsunami - zero.

 

Positive change to Phuket after three years military rule - insignificant.

 

There is no hope for a "reinvented" Phuket now.  The Phuket we have now is the Phuket it's always going to be, and that is, a Phuket run by criminals, for the benefit of criminals. 

 

All that will change here is the demographics of the victims.

 

 

[Ron19]

Locked topic here : https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/985052-what-is-the-future-of-patong/?do=findComment&comment=11925275

 

[Deli]

turn back the clock at least 20 years and don't let the same people run the island, will not happen...

[LivinginKata]

1 hour ago, Deli said:

turn back the clock at least 20 years and don't let the same people run the island, will not happen...

 

People who run the island have been here for generations.  That's why they own/run much of Patong.

[geisha]

This is a subject that comes up often. Phuket is ruined, spoilt, plundered.

The authorities who ran/ run it, should be deported, or in prison. Once a beautiful island , there's no going back now.

[KarenBravo]

Still is a beautiful island. Don't confuse Patong with the rest of Phuket.

[Jai Dee]

Several off-topic grammar police comments have been removed from this thread,

[Tofer]

2 hours ago, KarenBravo said:

Still is a beautiful island. Don't confuse Patong with the rest of Phuket.

I must be going to the wrong place.... and only when I really really really have to. ALL of Phuket is overpriced, overdeveloped, congested, polluted and mafia controlled. What's to like?

 

It was paradise, 30 years ago.

[sekmet]

ALL of Phuket is overpriced, overdeveloped, congested, polluted and mafia controlled.

The Pier Road area of Chalong is nice.


Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk

[KarenBravo]

1 hour ago, Tofer said:

I must be going to the wrong place.... and only when I really really really have to. ALL of Phuket is overpriced, overdeveloped, congested, polluted and mafia controlled. What's to like?

 

It was paradise, 30 years ago.

Yes, I was here then. The only thing that doesn't change is change.

What's to like? 80 Bt gin and tonics with a sea view of six islands. Or, how about the unspoilt north. You need to get out more.

[LivinginKata]

1 hour ago, Tofer said:

I must be going to the wrong place.... and only when I really really really have to. ALL of Phuket is overpriced, overdeveloped, congested, polluted and mafia controlled. What's to like?

 

It was paradise, 30 years ago.

 

You sure are going to the wrong places. Phuket island still has plenty plenty beauty if you know where to look.  Prices can cheap to expensive. .. up to you. Sure traffic is a problem like every where else in the world. Mafia controlled ... maybe if you take a tuk tub but Grab Taxi is here. I like it here.

[Ulic]

Clean up the litter/garbage, have a proper sewage treatment facility. Clean the beaches and water entering the sea.

[Destiny1990]

Trams instead of tuk tuks

[Mysterion]

5 hours ago, Ulic said:

Clean up the litter/garbage, have a proper sewage treatment facility. Clean the beaches and water entering the sea.

Bingo.

 

Continued draining of untreated sewage into west coast beaches will eventually result in the end of the tourist trade.

 

 

[paahlman]

Patong Richard...

 

As a friend of tourism minister in bangkok I know something...

 

First of all they will build the cables underground starting in two years....

 

They have already done that in Phuket town on two sois....

 

Number two..... Thailand is in 1950... Either accept that or at least live with it...

 

Sincerely

 

Chris

[me313]

Exchange all the McDonalds franchises with Burger King!!!!! 

[steven100]

I think they need more massage shops and go go bars ...

[Tofer]

13 hours ago, KarenBravo said:

Yes, I was here then. The only thing that doesn't change is change.

What's to like? 80 Bt gin and tonics with a sea view of six islands. Or, how about the unspoilt north. You need to get out more.

I know, sorry knew, Phuket like the back of my hand, having lived there 6 years in late 80's. I scoured the island on a trails bike when there were no roads through forests and to beaches only accessible by foot or boat, where now there are dual carriageways, traffic lights and Mc Donald's. I had to cross a 6" wide wooden plank to get over the hill from Patong to Karen, bit different now.

 

So please excuse me if I don't have the same rosy view of Phuket now. I fully appreciate change happens everywhere, a lot of places I've never been back to for fear of spoiling my memories of when they were natural.

 

A few years ago I went looking for Bangtao beach, couldn't find it at first, had to ask directions. Then down a tiny alley I spotted the yellow stuff, asked a beach vendor what happened to the beachfront road, 'they moved it' to facilitate beachfront development....

 

I get fantastic views from an aeroplane, wouldn't want to live on one!

 

[KarenBravo]

1 minute ago, Tofer said:

So please excuse me if I don't have the same rosy view of Phuket now. I fully appreciate change happens everywhere, a lot of places I've never been back to for fear of spoiling my memories of when they were natural.

 

That's why I haven't been back to Koh Pi-Pi and the Similan islands since the 80's.

[Tofer]

2 hours ago, paahlman said:

Patong Richard...

 

As a friend of tourism minister in bangkok I know something...

 

First of all they will build the cables underground starting in two years....

 

They have already done that in Phuket town on two sois....

 

Number two..... Thailand is in 1950... Either accept that or at least live with it...

 

Sincerely

 

Chris

Please ask your friend where I can get 'condo tours' from. Tourists just love that!

I can't find them all now they've built on mountains behind mountains behind other mountains. 

 

The concept of quality over quantity springs to mind...

 

Please also ask him where he holidays with his family?

[Tofer]

39 minutes ago, KarenBravo said:

That's why I haven't been back to Koh Pi-Pi and the Similan islands since the 80's.

We're not so different are we.

[anotheruser]

I booked a room on Phi Phi for 4 nights around 15 years ago. I got off the boat checked in and had a quick look around. After seeing the  beautiful cliffs I walked the trails. Shops on both sides and only a path through them. I felt so trapped. I left the next day with no refund on the remaining nights. Went to Lanta and that was still okay at least back then.

 

How to reinvent Patong? You simply can't. The entire place is a lesson in what not to do. It would be easier and cheaper to demolish the entire place and start from scratch than attempt patch the rotten mess back together.

 

As others have said the time to do it was when the tsunami hit. The problem is Thais have no taste or terrible taste. They don't know what nice is. The old style Thai stuff is nice enough but modern Thailand is a pretty ugly mish mash.

 

Reinvent Patong.... take a 100 bulldozers in a line and start from there.

[madmitch]

38 minutes ago, anotheruser said:

I booked a room on Phi Phi for 4 nights around 15 years ago. I got off the boat checked in and had a quick look around. After seeing the  beautiful cliffs I walked the trails. Shops on both sides and only a path through them. I felt so trapped. I left the next day with no refund on the remaining nights. Went to Lanta and that was still okay at least back then.

 

How to reinvent Patong? You simply can't. The entire place is a lesson in what not to do. It would be easier and cheaper to demolish the entire place and start from scratch than attempt patch the rotten mess back together.

 

As others have said the time to do it was when the tsunami hit. The problem is Thais have no taste or terrible taste. They don't know what nice is. The old style Thai stuff is nice enough but modern Thailand is a pretty ugly mish mash.

 

Reinvent Patong.... take a 100 bulldozers in a line and start from there.

In your second paragraph you start by stating you can't reinvent Patong and then proceed to give the best answer yet on how to do it! 

 

I mentioned the Costa Del Sol in the "other" thread and they have succeeded in a reinvention: tidy beaches, pedestrianised areas everywhere all around the beach areas, smart restaurant areas, tastefully renovating the old Spanish areas that were practically ignored by the typical tourist of 1980. Admittedly I didn't visit Torremelinos so perhaps this is still full of bars catering to the British package tourists. I don't know.

 

Huge highways have taken the traffic away from the resort centres and this is a problem with Phuket being a hilly island; that just couldn't happen here. But representatives of the Phuket Government should go on a useful "jolly" and see what could be done and what should have been done after the tsunami.

[anotheruser]

A moratorium any any new developments on Phuket needed to happen yesterday. I just can't see a very bright future for the island in terms of atmosphere and the environment with out this. 

 

People who are saying it isn't that bad and there are still out of the way places won't be saying that in 10 years. So take the energy they are putting into destroying the island and completely redo Patong beach instead. 

 

I wasn't joking about bulldozing the place. Some of Nanai road could stay in place to house workers. This area could also house the night club beer bar gogo bar zone. There is no need for those to be on prime real estate next to the beach. 

 

Everything below the hill to Karoen and the way to Kamala and the entry from the big hill would have to go. 

 

Make the entire beach road and square that includes Bangla and I forget the other streets but it is a square pedestrian only.  Make the center a park and dig the beach road up completely leaving only foot and bicycle paths and trees. 

 

Let a handful of higher end properties operate on each edge of the new park and make them maintain the park as part of their operating license. Before anybody cries about it being only for the rich, the park is open to anybody. 

 

Jets skis motor boats and all other motors are banned on the beach and near waters. Chairs are provided free of charge for everybody by the hotels licensed to operate in or near the green zone. Each chair is equipped with an electronic button to summon a vendor from a handful of stations nearby to summon a beer or food should they want one.

 

Vendors would not be allowed to walk the beach and pester people but would be allowed to come out when somebody pushes the button. 

 

I would also take the opportunity to rename the city itself. Not sure my idea would make anybody enough money. It would be easy as pie to make the area nice again but it would be hard to make it nice and feed the greed that thrives there. 

 

The list of things to improve Patong goes on and on but none of it will ever happen.

 

I forgot to add once they do all of this repeat the same thing in Pattaya.