Pattaya, Thailand 22-28 December, 2006
The last you read we were on a bus from Bangkok to Pattaya on the coast in eastern Thailand. The bus was an express with a travel time of just over two hours. We arrived in Pattaya in the early afternoon, and were immediately surrounded by taxi drivers and touts wanting to take us somewhere, anywhere. On one hand our lack of advance planning and flexibility is a positive aspect, but on the other it left us wondering where we would spend the night. Our plan was to simply catch a ride to the beach area, and then walk into a few hotels until we found one that agreed with us. We should have stuck with that plan, but instead we saw a travel agent and asked what they had for local hotels.
To make a long story short, we spent the first night in a dump that was way overpriced even for Pattaya in holiday season. The good news however is that it was very close to an excellent hotel we saw while walking by, and checked into that one the next day. The moral of the story is it is best to have a place booked when you arrive into a new town simply to have a base to look around for something better if it doesn’t appeal to you.
Where to start to begin to describe Pattaya? First off, it was a Rest and Recreation (R&R) stop for American servicemen during the Vietnam War. After the Americans left, the town languished until the sex industry took off there. That is what it is still famous for despite the long but narrow stretch of beach on the Gulf of Thailand. It is now being promoted as a family resort, but there were few families in sight except for the locals. That being said, we really enjoyed our stay, thanks in part to having an excellent hotel only a very short walk to the beach where we could rent a sun chair and umbrella for 30 TB or less than $1 per day.
We spent the next few days visiting the limited number of sights around Pattaya such as the Big Buddha and the Overlook, and relaxing either on the beach or beside the pool. Pattaya has three main areas, Pattaya North and Central which contains the main areas of bars and clubs lining the road along the entire length of the beach and another block inland. Jomtien Beach is at the southern end of town and separated from the other beaches by a point. While we never made it around Jomtien Beach, we are told this is a much quieter area with some excellent hotels.
The bars and clubs in the northern area where we were staying were hopping until early in the morning, although we were never up late enough to see the action, we could hear it in the distance if we woke in the middle of the night. It was interesting enough during the day as we walked past bar after bar and were propositioned by both the ladies and “lady-boys”.
On Christmas Eve, we were debating on stopping in a nearby place to have a holiday drink, when we came upon two guys dressed up as Santa Claus, and sweating profusely in the heat. It turns out they were two Frenchmen who were stopping for a drink at every bar from one end of the town to the other. They had started long before we saw them, and it did not appear they would make it to the end. It turns out they had a third member of their party as well. Instead of a Santa suit, the third guy had on a Ms. Santa miniskirt and was pole dancing on the bar. Unfortunately we didn’t get a picture of that one!
On Christmas day we decided to attend the Alcazar Cabaret Show. This is one of a couple transvestite cabarets in town, and the size of the crowds for each show is unbelievable. They perform three shows every evening, and seemed to fill every one to capacity. We went Christmas morning to buy tickets, and the first show was already sold out. Our impression of the show is that while the sets and costumes are fantastic, the lip synching and dancing suck! It is well worth it however simply for the entertainment value. D was arguing that most of the performers were women as they looked too good. She was later shocked to learn they were all men of one form or another!
Alas, all too soon it was to depart on the next leg of our ever changing plans. At this point our plan was to work our way from Pattaya to Trat, then from Trat to Hat Lek on the Thailand/Cambodian border, then cross the border to Krong Koh Kong, then catch a speedboat ferry from Koh Kong to Sihanoukville, yet another beach resort town on the Gulf of Thailand.
Next stop Cambodia.
