Pattaya, Chonburi, Thailand

Pattaya is a city built for fun on the northeastern coast of the Gulf of Thailand. It is located in Chonburi Province about 150 kilometres south of Bangkok. In the Sixties, Pattaya was hardly known, but the American soldiers fighting in Vietnam began using it for R&R and it started to boom. Pattaya is most well-known for its entertainment and its nightlife, yet in fact it has a lot more than that to offer.
As far as only sport goes, Pattaya offers horse riding, swimming, diving, wind surfing, golf, tennis and jet skiing among others. However, not like most sporting towns or cities, it does not begin to go to sleep as the sun goes down.
The bars, restaurants, discos and strip bars start to open in abundance at around four o'clock. The bars are of every persuasion to suit every niche market.



There are Welsh bars, American bars, Irish bars, Lady Boy bars and each other sort of bar you can think of. Similarly with the restaurants, there are specialized restaurants for each country. There are bush game restaurants, Chinese, Japanese, American, French, German and fish restaurants. In fact there are thousands of restaurants and bars all attempting to be unique.
I am sure that you could remain in Pattaya for months without going the same bar or eating the same sort of food twice. This is just as well because there are representatives from each country in the world there as well. You will hear English, Russian and every European and Asian language spoken in Pattaya on a regular basis.



Pattaya gets more than one million visitors a year. Most of these visitors are men, yet the local government is attempting to do more to attract women and families by relocating the girlie bars back away from the beach.
Despite it being fairly big, you can stay in your favourite part of Pattaya yet find nearly everything you desire near-by. However, if you do want to get around, nothing could be easier. Most people merely hop on a 'Baht Bus'. These small open-backed pick-ups can be seen going about the city by fairly predictable routes when you understand the design of the city.



The 'fixed fare' is ten Baht for as far as you would like to go on the route, even though some drivers will attempt to trick more out of you if you go a long way. Thais pay five Baht. If you do not feel confident enough to forecast where the bus is going, you could get on one of the thousands of motorcycle taxis.
They are dearer at around forty to sixty Baht, yet they will go anywhere you like. Ask for a quote before you leave to avoid disappointment on both sides. If you do not want to rent a car, there are other choices. You could hire a motorcycle or motorbike. A motorcycle costs about 100 Baht a day at the cheapest, but beware the traffic in Pattaya it can be fairly chaotic.