I will be gaining a whole new reader base with this topic heading although I think they might be quickly disappointed once they get into the post! Sorry guys move on. For those of you who find this sentence mystifying the heading is based on the terminology used between a farang and a Thai bar girl, go go dancer or katoey (ladyboy) etc as to whether the pleasures of her/his company will be enjoyed for a short time or long time, the latter usually being overnight.
My contribution to the many articles on Pattaya has nothing on the walking street, the big girlie area, as we never made it there. Seen it all before in Phuket’s Patong and Nana Plaza in Bangkok and am well over it. For the two people left reading the post at this stage carry on for a more balanced review of Pattaya and some associated topics.
We have just flown back to Isaan from a “flying” visit to Bangkok and Pattaya as foreshadowed in my post Building Isaan Week 17 HERE. The Bangkok bit was to get some documents witnessed at the Australian embassy and the short-time overnighter in Pattaya to look at some windows and doors we have ordered for our new house from a company called DeKu German Windows. If you want to read more you can follow the weekly building reports HERE.
We flew into Bangkok with Lion Air, one of the many local regional airlines operating out of Udon Thai International airport, our closest large city about 80 km from us. Their website is HERE. The return flight Udon to Bangkok was 2,800 THB or A$110.00 for two people, which didn’t break the bank. I would pay more in petrol to drive there and back.
AirAsia and NokAir shown here at Don Mueang airport in Bangkok. Lion Air, Bangkok Air and Smile, the Thai Air domestic arm also service the local scene.
The Australian embassy was remarkably efficient, as it was last time I was there, and we were out of there in 10 minutes. If only the politicians could run the country as smoothly!
The nicest part of the time there are Thai security people on the front gate. They are really friendly and helpful to the extent that one of them flagged down taxis on the main road for us until he found one that could drive us to Pattaya for the 1,500 THB I had seen as the going rate on the internet. I tried to slip him a few baht but he wouldn’t accept. You can also get a bus or even a train from Bangkok to Pattaya, a trip of about 120 km or two hours driving, but I just wanted easy and A$55.00 + tolls was no big deal.
We had booked into a hotel in central Pattaya called Adelphi, and you can read the Booking.com reviews HERE.
The Adelphi.
It was all very comfortable, which you’d expect when paying the big money, 1,600 THB or close to A$60.00 a night. I know…..outrageous! An extensive buffet breakfast for two included and a great swimming pool on the roof.
The pool area.
A bar to help you maintain your liquid intake.
Just to prove I was there. A very pleasant way to spend time.
The view from the pool area over Pattaya looking towards the beach.
The bar on the ground floor.
Finding hotels in Thailand is always a challenge and you should do your homework via Google Earth/maps, in the unlikely event they have your accommodation correctly located. Be positive and try.
Just as a funny diversion to illustrate how useless Google Earth can be, try typing “Australian Embassy Bangkok” into the search function. Not a totally obscure request. This is what you’ll get:
I didn’t know Australia had reciprocal embassy arrangements with the United Mexican States! Thanks for the heads up Google.
Even if you Google “Australian Embassy Bangkok” this is what the return page looks like.
Really?????
There seems not to be hotel “areas” in Thailand from my limited experience. You will find them scattered anywhere. A five star might be hidden away down a local backwater street with washing drying on the roadside like ours:
The hotel’s street.
This place down one of the small back streets we came across.
And another down an even smaller road.
Once we had unpacked we hit the streets to explore a little of the local area, as neither of us had been to Pattaya before. We also hadn’t eaten that day as we left home at 5.30 am to drive to Udon airport for our 8.00 am flight. A beer was looking pretty attractive by 3.00 pm too.
Now I have to declare my prejudices up front and let you know that places like Pattaya and Patong, the party town equivalent in Phuket, just aren’t my idea of a good time any more. I spent around eight weeks in Phuket over two visits and I am really over the whole bar and farang tourist experience.
I too thoroughly enjoyed my first holiday in Phuket where I also met Gaun, my wife to be at that stage. It was so different, alive and engaging compared with Canberra, my home base at the time, a very staid city that would rate as a total opposite experience to Patong or Pattaya!
The beautiful, organised, clean capital of Australia.
Or Pattaya complete with tastefully dressed farang.
I suppose I am now at the living in Thailand phase of my life rather than party mode and the major holiday destinations just aren’t locations where I want to live day to day mixing with lots of farang like me. Walking the streets of Pattaya with a camera is fun though if you haven’t experienced the mix of beer, sex and beach in a Thai context before.
Enjoying that beer and the wide diversity of passing tourists and residents.
One ladyboy off to work early or maybe back from work late!
When in Thailand dress as you wouldn’t at home. Absolutely acceptable in a place like Pattaya even though most Thais don’t dress like this.
What really gets me is where I see this ignorance extending into real Thai situations. My village has a couple of foreigners living in it who are drunk a lot/most of the time and often walk around the streets just in shorts. Now Thais are very conservative on the whole and it is unlikely you will see them other than covered up especially out in public. It just isn’t part of their way of life so why impose our standards on them and expect it to be OK? A suburban village in rural Isaan isn’t the new Pattaya so don’t treat it like that.
The locals are too polite to say anything but it is a poor reflection on the rest of us farang who want to fit in as much as possible as we are only the incredibly lucky guests in their country. I watched one of these guys, pissed out of his brain, bottle of beer in hand, acting a total fool at the local festival that I wrote about HERE in a crowd of fully dressed Thai villagers, the ladies performing a traditional dance routine.
Not an occasion to disrespect the local people. This is their festival not a Pattaya dance party.
He compounded the situation by patting a young Down Syndrome child on the head, which upset him. If you have done ANY reading on the country, touching anybody on the top of the head, especially a child, is a total no no.
There are many, many good quality expats living in Thailand who make the effort to fit in or at least not upset the locals. There are also many people who one suspects are rejects from their home countries and who should have never been given a visa. It’s a subject I feel very strongly about as you can tell – sorry to get off track and all serious. Back to Pattaya.
Our wandering post-beer took us down to the beach just to say we had done it. For those of you who have seen Manly beach in Sydney, this could almost be a replica except there’s no surf. It had that city beach feel, not surprisingly as it is a city beach, with a road at the back with bars, shops and other retail outlets behind that again.
Pattaya beach.
This is Gaun at the back of Manly beach in 2014.
I don’t know what it was like pre-coup but I know in Phuket the army has cleared the beach of chairs, massage services and makeshift bars and food places in an effort to clean up the image of Thailand. I suspect the same may have happened here because it was all very “un-Thai” looking.
Gaun in 2015.
Wherever you go in the world there is always someone feeding pigeons.
Sunset on Pattaya. The real action starts after dark.
Away from the beachside it is easy to spend as much time as you like until you drop exploring the area. There is so much to see.
A typical Pattaya street scene. Heaps of bars to sit and watch the passing traffic. Not much in the way of a sidewalk.
It’s not pretty but then much of Thailand isn’t.
Good quality places mixed in with lots of pretty shabby development. This was a bakery offering home baked products.
The Aussies side by side with the Americans. I was tempted to make a political comment as Australia is about to send 300 soldiers back into Iraq but I will refrain 🙂
Another side of togetherness.
Heaps of massage places of course. Close to the beach an oil massage will cost you 300 THB an hour, a couple of roads back it seems to fall to 200 THB and then further back again 250 THB for some reason. Gaun thinks the 200 THB is a “loss leader” in advertising terminology. It will cost you a further 1,000 THB inside, if you see what I mean!
Cheap if legit. Oil is normally double a Thai massage so something is happening to make up the difference.
Verity is the spice of life.
The attraction of Pattaya is the huge choice of bars and eating places catering specifically to farang. For those people who want to go on holiday and eat as they would at home, watch the same sport and even get a Fosters beer in the right place, then Pattaya is for you. It’s like being at home but warmer. I am not knocking it. After a week of eating Thai I get real pangs for a steak and some chips. A bit harder to achieve in Si Bun Ruang.
A little bit of Australia.
And another.
And another. Aussie steak here.
For the English.
Or this.
It’s not all beer, eating and massage though. There are plenty of other ways to spend money.
Some quality French imports to make your skin smile.
A no AIDS option to your dental work.
Implants were being advertised for 35,000 THB or A$1,380.00. This place 45,000 THB. I don’t know how that compares with your home country but I suspect cheaply.
Having written in a previous post just how thrifty Gaun was she got caught up in the excitement of Pattaya and bought two scarves for 200 THB, some place-mats for 220 THB and these sunglasses for 100 THB.
Building the house is now on hold.
Or stay permanently:
Get the house with pool for A$178,000. It’s owned by a horse. Expensive rental by Thai standards. A farang price.
I enjoyed my time in Pattaya and I can see why it is so popular with those people who like a particular type of holiday. I doubt I will visit it again but it is good to cross it off the to do in Thailand list.
Just for your information the taxi ride back to Bangkok, or Don Mueang airport in our case, is cheaper at 1,200 THB plus tolls. Your hotel will organise or there are plenty of taxi places on the street.
Thanks for reading.
Have been reading all your posts with great interest. Your Photographs brought back memories for me, especially the photos of Soi Bakhauo and 3rd Road Boxing Roo bar which was one of my locals when I stayed in there coming up 10 years ago now. My wife (Thai) and I along with the kids are going back to Thailand in two weeks time and will be looking at 2 rai of land that the wife is looking at buying in Sa Kaeo, so starting on the same journey that you have been through regarding purchase of land and house construction. Keep up the posts, they are very informative and interesting.
Thanks Mike.
Great to hear you are on the path back to Thailand. A couple of rai is a good size. I wish we had more land to keep the neighbours away but I bought in a residential environment, which has its benefits, but being close to Thai village architecture isn’t one of them!
Thanks for your positive feedback. Always very welcome. I average around 200 visitors a day but so few make their presence known. Thanks for being an exception.
All the very best with your future and the build once the time comes. If there is anything I can help with please let me know.
Cheers Tony
Hi Tony,
I was quoted $6000 for an implant 24 February – may have to come for a visit!!!!
Wow. I know my brother and wife paid for their Thai trip with dental savings. I also have another couple visiting us in May, who are stopping off in Chiang Mai for follow-up dental work to fund the trip. I had three implants, eight crowns and a root canal done in Chiang Mai for around A$11,000, although the exchange rate was A$1/28 THB then not the 25 THB it is now. Come on over – free accommodation to recover afterwards!
Ah, Pattaya.
Haven’t been there for a while. So that’s what the beach looks like. Never saw OT before, too many chairs and umbrellas.
Now if only they’d do that in Chaam.
Now the question I have is did you actually find a good steak?
I tried and even the expensive places were terrible. I remember taking my (future) wife out for a steak and when they put a knife and fork in front of her she looked at me all mystified. But she caught on and now eats British style without changes hands as the Americans do, since that was how I grew up and subsequently taught her. And she loves a good steak.
We buy in Macro. Not often, but a special treat about once a month. Aussie strip loin, mashed potatoes and veggies with mushroom/onion gravy and a nice red wine.
After describing that, I guess we’re doing it tomorrow.
I agree about not being into the whole Pattaya scene anymore. On the other hand, I suppose it was nice to step away from your house build and what I expect is a very hot Issan.
Any time line on moving in Tony?
I’m not sure what you intend to do for furnishings but a friend (who also lives in UT) went to Chiang Mai and had his order delivered which he says got him better quality for about 40% less.
But, of course, you lived there so I should probably be asking you where would be a good place to buy.
Ok thanks again for the posts. Always good to read.
Chris.
It is an improvement then. I must say the European wall to wall deckchairs theme always looked strange especially coming from a country where, in a non-city beach environment, if you saw two other people on your beach you moved on as it was getting crowded!
No we didn’t get a good steak. Like so often when visiting a new location you grab the first place that looks promising and nine out of ten are disappointed. Overpriced and poor quality. We are available to pop by your place for dinner tomorrow.
I bought a NZ lamb roast from Macro but haven’t tried it yet. I will try the loin next time as the roast was for a small group meal that didn’t work out and it’s too much for two of us. The family have tried lamb and nod politely but they really can’t move outside their food comfort zone. Gaun, like your wife, is very happy in either camp and tucks into farang food with enthusiasm.
It was good to have a short break from routine, something we will do more often once the house is finished and the bank balance looking more healthy. I love Isaan but there is a big world outside.
We aren’t buying a lot in the way of furniture. Some of it is coming from Global House, which has a nice range of solid timber furniture – not too expensive. Two bed bases and mattresses, bedside tables, a display case and an outside dining set are coming from there. The lounge is yet to be discovered but will come from maybe Living Index in Udon. The internal dining suite is being made for us at a place in Udon I covered in one of my more recent posts. I have a couple of small pieces I brought out from Australia and that will be about it.
Baan Tawai Village South of Chiang Mai is the place to buy great quality things for your home at very good prices. Plenty of shipping places mixed in with the shops so I presume easy to get here.
Cheers Tony