Pattaya Beach on the Eastern Seaboard of Thailand, only one and half hour drive from Bangkok, has developed from a small sleeping fishing village into one of Asia's biggest seaside resorts with the roots of this transformation dating back to the Vietnam War era , when US soldiers seeking R&R (Rest and Recreation) discovered the bay of Pattaya.
Formerly Pattaya was only known to the outside world as the place to go for beer bars, massage parlors and strip clubs and it was not uncommon that Pattaya City was only associated with sex tourism in Thailand. But those days have long gone and despites that the girly beer bars and a-go-go clubs are still there, nowadays they are only a ingredient of the many attractions that Pattaya Beach has to offer, as Pattaya has transformed itself into a global International tourist destination of very high standard.
More and more families are taking advantage of the huge range of holiday activities that Pattaya has to offer such as: More than 200 Pattaya hotels and resorts, 18 International golf-courses, offshore fishing, some of the best cultural shows in Thailand, mega hyper markets and boutique shopping malls, International music festival, Pattaya film festival, horse riding, 5-star restaurants, diving excursions or simply hanging out on the many beaches in and around Pattaya.
The business world has also re-discovered Pattaya which today offers one of the biggest conference and exhibition facilities in South East Asia with the 6,000 person capable "PEACH exhibition center" next to the five-star "Royal Cliff Pattaya Hotel"
Because of the new 6-lane express way, connecting Pattaya to Bangkok, many Bangkok city dwellers have changed their weekend habit from the beach resort of Hua Hin to the resort town of Pattaya for their weekly getaway, resulting in the construction of more high class beach condominiums and modern gigantic shopping malls such as the British owned Tesco-Lotus, the French owned Carrefour Hyper-market and the Thai owned Big-C Hyper market..
There's also a very sizable foreign community living in Pattaya, many of them working in the very close-by industrial estate of Map-Ta-Phut and the Industrial estates around the new deep-sea port of Laem-Chabang, only fifteen minutes drive from Pattaya. Expatriate's children have a choice of more than ten top-class accredited International schools and the local English language newspaper needs a whole page to print the weekly social activities from all the foreign social clubs and Service clubs that excistt in the City, such as: The International Lady Club, Lions and Rotary clubs, Wine society, Expat clubs, Chaine Des Rotisseur, Skal International, International Ladies Circle, Welsh Society, Y.W.C.A. and many more.
The beaches just outside Pattaya are known for jet-skiing, kite-surfing and wind-surfing and kite-surfing. Many Pattaya hotels and resorts have private beaches where you can enjoy banana boat rides, jet ski, parasailing or simply relax while enjoying a Thai traditional massage at 200 Baht (US$ 5) an hour on the beach. Fishing boats for rent are available nearly everywhere.
Just offshore in the bay of Pattaya lays Koh Larn island (Coral Island), 40 minute ferry boat transfers at 30 Baht (US 75 cents) to Koh Larn start at 7.00 PM with departures every 20 minutes, or you can buy a seat on the many speedboats that do the trip in less than 10 minutes. Beach seafood restaurants, sunbathing and snorkeling in the crystal-clear sea are the main pastimes on Koh Larn island.
But this could very fast change, plans are on the drawing-board to build a huge entertainment complex and casino on Koh Larn island, modeled on the Las Vegas Mega complexes, complete with 5-star hotels, entertainment shows and a deluxe spa and health center. The Thai government is ready to approve this but still have to overcome the Thai clergy as Thai Buddhist see any kind of playing for stakes as evil and oppose the building of Casino's in the Thai Kingdom. In the meanwhile the government of Thailand sees daily many million Baht flow out of the country to the many Casinos on Cambodian soil, just on the Thai-Cambodian border.
Strolling along Beach-Road in Pattaya, one can shop for he usual T-shirts, tourist souvenirs, leather purses and handbags, fake and real jewelry, pirated DVDs and CDs, gadgets and electronics. But for those who prefer more comfortable shopping, Pattaya Beach Road has modern air-conditioned shopping malls with Brand-Name boutiques, cinema-complexes, banks, camera computer and electronic shops, Warner Bross shops, Starbuck coffee shops, Mac Donald outlets, Pizza Hut restaurants and Au Bon Pain (oven-fresh French bread) bakeries. No, you are not in one of the world's main capitals, you are in Pattaya.
As for the night life in Pattaya, or you can simply ignore it as Pattaya has so much to offer, or you can stroll along the open-air beer-bars of which many offer live music, with some beer-bars centered around Kickboxing stages where Muay Thai boxers make their debut before succeeding to the National Muay Thau Statiums in Bangkok.
Opposite to what many believe, the beer-bar scene in Pattaya is all fun and friendliness. Bring your wife and kids, nothing raunchy is going on, the Thai girls working in the bar will chat with you and your wife, take care of your children and explain all about Thai kickboxing or any other topic about Pattaya or Thailand. If at the end of the evening, you see some single male tourists walk out of the beer-bar with the girl they been chatting with, then up to you what to think about this.
Apart from the beer-bars with hostesses, Pattaya is home to many excellent Irish Pubs, German Micro Brewery Pubs, French Wine Bars, English Pubs and other International Pubs, where you will feel like walking into you favorite pub in your Home-town. It's all on offer here, from Pints of Guinness, Kilkenny and Black & Tan draught beer to Strongbow Cider; from Erdinger and Warsteiner German premium beers to locally brewed Wheat Beers in the Brauhaus on Beach road.
Restaurants range from street-side noodle and Pad-Thai shops to 5-star International restaurants, with all cuisine present, such as: Italian, French, Indian, German, Swiss, Japanese, Middle Eastern, Scandinavian and of course Thai.
Seafood restaurants along Beach Road feature huge glass tanks with live shellfish and fish, allowing customers to select their coming diner out of the tank, then choosing their preferred cooking style as well.
For your next holiday trip, come and have a look at the fascinating world of Pattaya Beach, called the Queen of Asia's beach resorts, you will truly be amazed what Pattaya has to offer.
