From the Buzz of Bangkok to the Peace of Pattaya

Following on from my story a few days ago about my life in Bangkok [@stbangkok/an-expat-life-in-the] I would like to share with you some of the early days experiences we had after our move from the big city of Bangkok, down to the relatively small sea-side town of Pattaya.

In fact, way back in 1998 and again in 2003 I spent about 6 months living in this well known ‘Party’ town. In between 2003 and now, 2021, I have spent some holiday time here also. So, I was fairly familiar with it all. This time though, we knew we were here to stay for at least a couple of years with business, and knew we had to truly settle in.

We found an amazing condo, if not a little small, with amazing views directly over the main Pattaya Bay. We had two swimming pools, two roof top garden areas, a gym, onsite grocery style mini-mart and a fabulous lobby area it has to be said. Note: I also managed to find quite a few expat food shops that sold a lot of comfort food and goods. Check out the Yorkshire Tea!

The first weeks were all about finding our feet, trying new places to eat, checking out the nightlife, which is very different to Bangkok in many ways. Open air beer bars are much more the norm here in Pattaya, as opposed to the more indoor theme of Bangkok, or so it seems to me anyway. It was nice to get back in to Surf Kitchen, on the main Jomtien Beach Road, a place I used to eat at when I first ever lived here in 1998.

Within a month or so of being in our new home, we had the best ever view of the Pattaya International Fireworks show. I could post dozens of pictures, but they all look much the same really. But how lucky were we to have this view. Also within the first month we had the Pattaya Music Festival.

The hardest part though was finding decent street vendors as we did not know any of them of course, and thus had no idea which ones were good and which ones, not quite so good. As luck would have it, literally 10 minutes walk from Unixx Condo was one of the best Isaan style eateries I have ever had the pleasure of trying. Superb Somtam, Namtok, Dab Wan and much much more. Always less than £10 no matter how much we tried to order to bust a gut.

Unixx Condo was built on the base of quite a steep hill and at the top of this hill was a lovely little exercise path and park, that sits just under the very large Buddha on the mountain, Pattaya is famed for. Not to be confused with the Buddha carved in the mountain side, which is a way out of Pattaya somewhat and quite close to some other site seeing places like Upside-down Pattaya.

It is often quite hard to write articles like this as in fact there is so much to tell and so much to see, I could likely have stretched it out over 3 or 4 articles. That said, we have very recently moved again, just a little around the bay to Jomtien itself, where we are now about 50 meters walk from Dongtan Beach, with some of the best sea views I have ever had. I may well write a part 3 of this. Meanwhile, a few more pictures, and one for classic car enthusiasts!