Pattaya – Mostly Harmless

I last visited Pattaya in 2008 or 2009, and at the time I felt it was mostly a dump, and had no plans of ever visiting it again. But after a few of my colleagues had told me that it was quite nice nowadays and with a lot of things to do for kids, I thought I would give it another shot, and also have a look at it for a possible vacation spot with my kids?

• Introduction – A sudden Trip to Pattaya, Thailand.
• Review, Cathay Pacific Airbus A359 Hong Kong – Bangkok economy
• Review, Discovery Beach Hotel, Pattaya, Thailand
• Re-discovering Pattaya
• Review, Oman Air Business and First Class lounge, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi
• Review, Cathay Pacific Airbus A330-300 Bangkok – Hong Kong economy

The main nightlife/tourist area in Pattaya is the infamous Walking Street, which is located at the south end of the beach. Because I knew I would probably be quite loud and noisy around this area, I had booked a hotel towards the north end of the street, and a friend of mine had told me this would be a much more quiet area. I also enjoy walking a lot, so this location would give me some good daily exercise walking down the beach to the more lively area of town. Little did I know that my hotel was next to the maybe even more infamous Soi 6 and Soi 6/1…. More about that later.

The beach in Pattaya was very different from when I was there last – 10 years ago the beach was quite narrow, and there were deckchairs all the way down to the water edge. Now the beach was at least 100 meters wide, and the deckchairs were limited to the first 15 or so meters from the beach promenade, making the rest of the beach open and nice for everyone.

Even I was there in the middle of the high season, the beaches were not too crowded, lots of space for anyone who wanted to tan, play games or build sandcastles.

The beach promenade separates the beach from the main road all along the beach, reducing the noise level from the traffic that reaches the beach, and the entire beach is smoke free, which I think is great. There are also floodlights all along the beach, so even at night it seems like a nice, quiet and safe area to hang out for those who wants that.

Getting around Pattaya is very easy, the town isn’t too large, so you can easily walk from one end to the other in about 90 minutes I would guess. There are also lots of tuktuks (called songthaew in Pattaya) driving south along the beach road and north along 2nd street. You can wave those down anywhere, and there is a flat fare of 10 bath per person, no matter how far you ride them. To make the driver stop, either press the button, hit a coin on the metal railing or just wave your hands. You pay when you exit the car. Be careful though, most of those rides are shared between other customers, but if you approach one that is parked along the road, you might be charged a much higher amount, as the driver thinks you want to charter him to bring you direct to your destination like a taxi.

The convenience of Pattaya is amazing, many restaurants, bars, massage parlours and convenience stores are open 24 hours a day, so no matter where you are traveling from or if you are jetlagged, there is always something open to fulfill your needs.

Food in the restaurants is really good from my experience, slightly more expensive than other places in Thailand, but still within the acceptable range. A lunch of mango juice, fried rice with chicken and some marinated pork neck set me back about 250 bath.

The presentation of the food is always nice in Thailand, and they make everything look delicious. Pattaya, being a beachfront city, has a majority of seafood restaurants, but for those of us who are tending more in the carnivore direction, there are some really nice steakhouses around as well.

Pictures above are from Longhorn Steakhouse, and the food was excellent! Total price was around 700 pesos I believe.

The demographics of the tourists in Pattaya was a bit surprising to me. Pattaya is know to be one of the sex capitals of the world, so I expected there to be a majority of male tourists there, but that was not the case. Most of the tourists seemed to be Russian, and mostly relatively young couples or groups of friends. There were also quite a lot of families with smaller children, and surprisingly many older, European couples.

Nightlife in Pattaya has also changed a lot since last time I was there. Before the prostitution was very much in your face, and you almost couldn’t walk anywhere without being grabbed by some lady(boy) or similar. Nowadays it is much more withdrawn, there are more ‘normal’ bars than there is gogo- or beer bars, at least in Walking Street. Earlier there used to be around 60-70 gogobars there, now I believe the number has been reduces to around 25-30. Also the girls working the doors in those establishments are now wearing nice dresses or similar, whereas before they would be just wearing bikinis, if even that…

In Walking Street there are of course still some Gogobars, but there is also a lot of normal bars, restaurants, nightclubs, Russian clubs and Indian clubs, Turkish Icecream vendors, street artists etc. In addition, the gogobars didn’t seem to open until 9pm at the earliest, making Walking Street a fun and family friendly place to go in the evenings, something that was not the case before!

I heard somewhere that one of the bars in Walking Street had a Norwegian owner, so of course I needed to check that out. The place is called Atlantis A Gogo, and the owner turned out to be a really nice and friendly guy, and we quickly discovered we even have a few friends in common – I guess Norway really is so small that everyone knows everyone 😀

What was ever better, Kenneth, the owner, also makes his own homemade Tyrkershots, which I haven’t had for many many years, and he was more than happy to share a few free rounds of that, which turned into very late nights and even later mornings…

The other happening nightlife spot in Pattaya is Soi 6, which was only around the corner of my hotel. This area is much more in your face, and not family friendly at all. It is basically a 350 meters long sidestreet up from the beach with around 150 or so beer bars or girlbars. With names as Quicky Bar, Route 69 bar, Horny Bar, Sexy in the city and so on you don’t need much imagination to figure out what is going on here. Drinks are cheaper than Walking Street, but it is also a lot more loud, and most of the costumers seems to be expats in their retirement age – and most of the girls working there seemed to be around that age as well 😀

In other words it is a bit of an acquired taste for the attractions here, but maybe not mas much as the next street down, Soi6/1, which is similar to Soi 6, only that almost all the establishments there are ladyboy bars…

I spent a lot of time on food while I was in Pattaya, trying to explore a bit and get more a feel of the city. It has changed a lot since I was there last time, it is much more mainstream than what it was before. There are things to do for everyone, if you’re young and single, couples, families or retirees. Things are not as much in your face as it used to be, and everything is available 24 hours a day. Being a main tourist destination everyone speaks very good English, signs are in many languages, people are friendly, it feels very safe, and most things are just convenient.

If you’re a family with kids, there are many attractions for them as well, there is a ‘Rippleys – believe it or not’, water parks, temples, large malls, Tiger Park, Dolphinarium, night markets and so on. Would I go there with my own kids? Not sure. I do think there are better places to go, but not many places that can compete when it comes to convenience and safety….

Having spent 6 days in Pattaya, I think I will sum it up the same way Douglas Adams describes Earth in The Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy – Mostly Harmless.