Pattaya – Hell on Earth

It wasn’t like I hadn’t been warned about Pattaya but I am not a person who takes someone else’s word as gospel, so I allocated 2 days of my recent round trip of the country to gather my own opinion. Historically Pattaya was once a sleepy fishing town, it is based on the North Gulf coast of eastern Thailand approximately 150 km south-east of Bangkok. Pattaya first flourished as a tourist destination during the Vietnam War and today annually attracts more than a million tourists. 

From my hotel balcony I was instantly depressed by the view, Pattaya looked like an over developed version of Blackpool and a familiar ‘Morrissey’ lyric immediately ran through my head; ‘this is the coastal town that they forgot to close down’. Except they didn’t forget to close Pattaya down, even though they darn well should, it is in fact consistently busy even during the now period of low season. Prior to my trip many Thai people looked at me awkwardly when I mentioned I was visiting Pattaya and on arrival I immediately knew why.

Central Pattaya can only be described as the most depraved, dirty and seedy place on earth. The streets are lined with huge amounts of Go-Go and Lady Bars, with hoards of aging foreign men trawling the streets leering at ladies half their age. Due to the highly competitive environment women desperately offer their services far more openly and cheaply than anywhere else in Thailand, it really has to be seen to be believed. 

Despite this Pattaya has a booming property market with many elder men choosing to spend their retirement funds on a place in this hellhole. One of my friends once said to me that Pattaya is a place that steals people’s souls; weekly Thai news reports confirm this statement. Pattaya has a very high suicide rate, not a week seems to go by without a media report that another ‘farrang’ (foreigner) has thrown himself off the balcony of a condominium. Shooting range suicides have also become quite trendy in Pattaya due to the hardship involved for foreigners obtaining guns, I guess it’s also cheaper just to pop down to the local shooting range rather than purchase a gun yourself.

One stroll through the infamous ‘Walking Street’ and you can see how many physically challenged older men get caught up in a midlife crisis of booze and sleeping with prostitutes. For many this clearly leads down a negative pathway and like my friend told me, a loss of ones soul. Unfortunately I cannot feel sorry for anyone who decides to live here, I feel sorry for the countless women who make the choice to working in the sex industry in order to provide a better income for their families.

Don’t get me wrong Pattaya has its fair share of daytime activities. It has good shopping facilities, a lovely beach at Jomtiem, Golf course, Scuba Diving and Go Karting track, however, its clearly obvious by the clientele that this is not what people come here for. There are places all over the world that have sex for sale but it is the sheer concentration and 24 hour availability that makes Pattaya uniquely disgraceful. Needless to say I didn’t like the place, I am not a prude and I am not adverse to drinking in a ‘lady bar’ or being dragged along to a Go-Go bar for a stag doo, but I am 30 years old not 55, and even at this age I don’t want my life surrounded and consumed by such activities. The last thing I want to see is unkempt drunken men, older than my father, slobbering over women half their age.
It is no wonder Thai people frown upon Pattaya, it troubles me to think that as a foreign man living in Thailand I might be tarnished with the same brush as the awful Pattaya fraternity.