Pattaya, Thailand: My Experience
From early 2015 to late 2020, I was living quite an unconventional life, hopping from country to country. I’d been living in New Zealand and had never intended to settle down in one place, least of all in Thailand. I’d wanted to visit Thailand, sure, but I’d never dreamt of living there. The plan was always to travel the typical tourist routes, and visit other countries within South East Asia, but I never intended to stay.
Yep, that’s me when I first arrived in Bangkok
Ok, let me give you a quick breakdown of how I ended up in Pattaya.
In October 2018, I finally said goodbye to New Zealand for good and was on a one-way flight to Bangkok, Thailand. I was set to stay there for a few days before heading down to visit my friend in Pattaya. In all honesty, I’d never even heard of Pattaya but then again there were many parts of Thailand I hadn’t heard of.
After a few days in Bangkok by myself, I met my friend at the airport and we travelled down to her home, in Pattaya, together. When I first arrived, my friend and her husband showed me around a little bit and let me take full advantage of their home facilities. They had both decided to try teaching abroad in Thailand and had landed a 2-year contract with an international school in Pattaya. They were due to go away on holiday over the Christmas period and had asked me to look after their house and their cat whilst they were away.
I said yes.
I arrived at the end of October, which meant I had the whole of November to travel.
I had intended to visit a few countries within that period, make it back in time to house-sit, and then maybe spend a few more weeks travelling before finally returning to the U.K.
Things didn’t quite pan out the way I thought they would though, and although I did manage to visit north Thailand, Laos and Cambodia during November/December, something happened that changed the course of events.
I went scuba diving in Pattaya and it was there that I met someone. My instructor. I can literally feel your eyes rolling.
A relationship really wasn’t on the cards for me at that point. I wanted to be as free as I could be, see the rest of South East Asia and go home before moving on to somewhere new. I basically just didn’t want the hassle and heartbreak of getting into something that may not have worked. I’m not a holiday romance kinda girl!
Yet once I left for Vietnam, it was becoming quite apparent that this connection was beginning to develop into something more. We stayed in touch and I returned from Vietnam to see them again, then decided to travel to Malaysia in between scuba diving courses, before returning to them for good.
And that’s how it stayed until 2020.
This leads me to now, telling you about Pattaya and what to expect. As I said before, I hadn’t heard of Pattaya prior to visiting and definitely no backpackers that I’d met in Thailand had talked about it. It isn’t a city that appeals to a lot of tourists, at least not tourists like myself, who focus more on island life, rather than city lights. However, when I mentioned it to a guy I’d met in Laos, he just gave me a funny look. As if to say, why would you want to go there?
You see, Pattaya has a somewhat bad reputation. On first look, it’s labelled as a tourist city laden with bars, clubs and whatever else the average single male tourist is looking for. I don’t think I need to write about it for you to visualise the complete picture here. The history of Pattaya is quite simple really, it used to be a quiet authentic Thai fishing village but in the 1960s, it soon started to change. American soldiers would flock to Pattaya for R&R during the Vietnam War and as you can imagine, word of mouth spread, which is when the tourism truly began.
I don’t know what life in Pattaya was like back then, but these days, it’s seen as ‘the party city’. Tourists regularly visit purely for the nightlife, it’s your typical ‘lad’s holiday’ if you will. There are bars upon bars right near the beach, there are plenty of women and ladyboys, but most of all, there’s cheap alcohol. All in all, it’s geared towards and catered to the single (and often not so single) Western male (and his wallet). It’s not just the young singletons that visit though, there’s also a growing number of foreign retirees who have chosen Pattaya as their ideal city to settle down in. And lastly, there are the ex-pats.
Walking Street, Pattaya. My idea of hell on earth.
There is a different side to Pattaya though, an idyllic side. The quiet and peaceful side that’s full of spiritualism and nature which simply isn’t talked about enough. I do understand how Pattaya got its reputation, I don’t think it’ll ever shake it, but that's only one part. There’s more to the city and although I left, I do believe it was headed in a more positive direction.
Would I go back? Absolutely not. But not entirely for the reasons you may think. I had never been a city girl to begin with, my heart was always craving tranquillity, clean beaches and serene escapes. But the countryside was too far without transport and the beaches were never quiet. Regardless, Pattaya will forever be tarnished in my mind, but hey, that is a story for another day. And my experience will never be yours. For example, my friend and her husband adored their Pattaya lifestyle.
There are always two sides to everything in life, everywhere you go, and in Pattaya, I experienced both.
I didn’t quite get the Thailand experience I wanted, but that wasn’t Pattaya’s fault, and I do believe that in a few years, the city could be vastly improved. Whilst I was living there, and even for a few months after I left, I could never fully understand Pattaya. But now, being years away from the place, I’m starting to see it for what it truly is: a city suffering from stigma but doing nothing to change it. Then again, maybe it doesn’t want to change. Like anything though, it is what you make it.
And what have I learnt? That there are good people and bad people everywhere. That one decision can completely change the course of your life and it’s up to you, and to me, to change it back again.
For me, Pattaya is now a distant memory. And for now, I intend to keep it that way.
