Thailand is now in the midst of a tourism industry recovery. Visitors with vaccinations can now enter the country without need for quarantine, and more are expected. After what seemed like a death blow to the industry, businesses are slowly bubbling back into life.
A classic BMW 3 series (E30) on the evening streets of Pattaya
Environment / Reputation of Pattaya
Nightlife and bars constitute a large portion of businesses in the town, and with it comes a reputation for 'seediness' that is well documented, if not as deserved as it should be as I'll discuss in a moment and future posts. Not the topic of today's post, and although it all certainly still exists - the bars, the women looking for foreigners to exchange their company and time for money etc, in many ways became an undeserved 'stereotype', as Pattaya has grown and evolved into a small city with lots to do for families over the years. Seediness is concentrated in a few small areas and streets, which can be easily avoided - and there is a LOT more going on than just lonely single guys looking for female companionship (or worst, so called 'sex tourists'). I aim to show more of the family and incredible tourism experiences of modern Pattaya City in my posts, there is a vast amount of things to do in and around the area.
I choose to live away from this place all the same, in a much smaller town out from all the wrong 'distractions'. For starters, it's cheaper, and where I live I can get to know many more locals easily, consequently they also treat me more like a local. It can become tiring to be propositioned for t-shirts and fake tattoo sleeves, taxi rides, tours and massages every time you leave the house, although it's entertaining whilst on holiday, it gets annoying quickly when you live there and just want to pop out for something at the 7-Eleven! As such I'm not alone in this, many expats choose to stay outside of such areas. That's a topic for another time. However, of course I do like to venture into the big tourism areas on occasion, to see what's happening, to people watch, meet friends, or just have fun for a day night or a the weekend - become a tourist for a day. That's what this trip was about, to see how things are coming along, enjoy some live music, see the people, and just hang out in general in a different environment to being at my usual 'home'.
So on a bored Saturday afternoon, last Saturday with a modest budget I managed to scrape together just about $80, and the following is a few of the things I managed to see and enjoy on this modest budget. I forgot to take a picture of my dinner, as it was just a McDonalds ... and I'll be back to create more content around the area soon.
Early Evening
This time of night is ideal to watch the sunset and take in the views along the big main beach road. The Thai sunsets can be really colorful. The temperature drops and the breeze picks up to become the most comfortable time of day. The sunsets contrast beautifully with the palm trees becoming silhouettes as night begins to fall. It's about this time I'll just grab a small can of beer from 7-Eleven or even better support a street vendor for about 40bht / $1.10 USD, which can be a lot cheaper than in the bar, and take in the sights.
Pattaya beach sunset
Being the huge gear-head I am, I always like to spot any nice cars and bikes around and if I can find the owner nearby, I'll always ask permission to take some photos and ask is it ok for me to post on my Instagram? Sometimes I'll find new mutual followers. Soon I want to get some small business cards made up just for this social purpose, to also promote my profiles, this website, and if the conversation goes well I'll of course try to tell people about this blockchain that rewards you for your content - HIVE.blog :)
Car spotting in Pattaya can be fun - here, a Cambodian registered Mazda MX-5
Panoramic shot of Pattaya Beach at sunset. The structure on the left is a 'baywatch' style lifeguard tower.
There are a lot of retirees and self-made people living around here, and inevitably they want to enjoy their money and this means I'm rarely short of some cool bikes or cars to take photos of. Most owners are flattered when I do so, and I try to share at least my Instagram profile with them, and if I can, talk to them and find out what they think about blockchain technology - I consider it a big win if they are curious and can lead to be able to tell them about BitShares and Hive.blog also.
You'll find some cool rides around the streets of Pattaya.
Ok, not a car, not a bird, not a bike, not superman, but an entire Jumbo Jet 747!!! Parked on a great big empty plot of land. This wasn't here last time I came by! You just don't know what stuff you might see. Turns out, this is a work in progress and an international street food market is planned to be built around it soon. Placed on hold, for obvious reasons - perhaps it will get going soon now the 'situation' appears to be easing. How did they get the plane into this spot? That's something I'm very curious to know myself. One can only assume it was dissected and moved piece by piece .... which still seems like quite a feat of engineering and logistics.
I didn't expect to see that! Was actually getting dark here, I over-exposed this photo so we can the actual plane.
There is no escaping your bar bill by swimming out to sea in Pattaya, the police have thought of everything!
Time to head to the party zone - Welcome to Muzzik Cafe!
Now we're done with our little walkabout, it's time to hit the town. I picked the main 'walking street' area, as it's known for the best clubs and live bands. I wanted to hear live professional musicians banging out some pop, disco, funk, rock, and I got exactly what I came for! Muzzik Cafe is recently reopened and I didn't leave until closing time. The band were fantastic, really excellent drummer, keyboardist, guitar and 2 vocalists, and the songs they performed were real disco funk classics from all the decades. Just so amazing after all this 'situation' to actually sit in an open bar again and lose myself to the talented live music and the people watching. I even got slightly tearful at one point, realizing I'd been almost 3 years waiting just to do something like this again!
After a beer or 2, I become friendly with an adjacent group of people. Something I always love in South East Asia, it's so much more friendly than back in the UK. Being alone, you just have to make a gentle approach at first, and groups will often quickly warm to you joining their table. We all had a great time just dancing to the band, chatting a little, and forgetting the worries of the world for a few hours ... instant one off friends are never hard to come by, just normal people also having a nice night out. I enjoy the freedom of being alone - I can walk away if I don't like anyone, I can make friends without any pressure, be myself and go with the flow. It's often very difficult to do that when out with a group of friends who all want different things. Seemed like everyone in the club was in that mood to just smile, have a drink, have a dance, being friendly and enjoying the band. (sorry however, no crowd shots to respect privacy, the band being fair game ... the place was packed even though you can't tell from the photo!).
international musicians at work
Muzzik Cafe house band belt out disco and funk classics into the night
Other sights of the evening!
it's Bumblebee! In Pattaya! You never know who you might meet! Hi dude! oh ... it's actually a model made out of old car and bike parts ... of course. These are made in Pattaya and other parts of Thailand, I'll find a workshop for a story one day.
Sleep Cheap, Never Drink and Drive ...
As I wanted to drink a little, the sensible option is to get a cheap bed for the night. I simply jumped onto Booking.com and found this very comfortable and spacious room - $14 USD for the night!!! There are so many good budget or last minute options. I recommend especially anywhere you go in the world, if you know not every place will be full, just open Booking.com around 6pm -7pm when many hotels will automatically drop the price of room inventory by up-to 50% or more for a single nights stay.
I saw this totally crazy chopped roof American car. It seems to belong around here and I plan to go back and get some details more about it soon if possible. Support81 seems (from Google) to be something to do with Hells' Angels, and sells fashion clothing, I need to go back to find out more about it though, and this crazy looking car!
A creative piece of graffiti, no idea how they did it as it's all like a dot-matrix print - probably with a stencil - I thought it looked incredible against the decrepit patina of this wall.
'DOTMASTERS'
Thanks for reading!
That's all for now! I've barely scratched the surface of all the things around to see and enjoy in Pattaya ... I must return soon for more! There's just an endless lot of things and now I realize I shouldn't be so shy to go to the place just because of an age-old 'reputation' it has. There is so much life and cool stuff to see, and much of it is for free, so long as your eyes heart and mind are open. Hope you got some idea of that from this post, and if I can inspire others to look beyond 'just the bars and the drinking', that would give me great satisfaction.
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