Good Guys go to Heaven, Bad Guys go to Pattaya

Now I'm not going to do an individual story for each day, telling about my time in Pattaya, it'd take too long and might offend.

It's an interesting place, firstly you need to know, the town doesn't sleep. As soon as you enter the borders of Pattaya your body clock automatically adjusts itself without you knowing. Next thing you know it'll be 6am in the morning and your on the beach with god knows what! In my case it was always just friends (Brits, Europeans, travellers and such) but in most cases people here end up with a different Thai girl every night of their 'package holiday to Thailand'.

Now I won't judge, or form an opinion, of whether it's right or wrong, but it's a major serious factor that plays a part in this place. Firstly there's not to many foreign tourists here as couples, they're all groups of lads, mostly 40+, and all these men have Thai girls with them. The girls line up along the street enticing you to spend time with them, and take them out. It's all quite sad (sorry.....I judged). I mean literally it's pub, next door to pub/bar, and in all of these places they'll be 10-15 girls outside dressed up waiting for patrons.

Ok, so I've got that of my chest, you now know the 'seedy' side of it, now for the other. I'm staying in a nice hotel! Yes, that's right, it's Christmas and accordingly I've decided to stay somewhere a bit fancy and enjoying the luxuries of a flushing toilet, soft pillow/mattress and a tv with a controller. It also has a swimming pool here.

And now for some other info/stories of Pattaya....

*The prices here are generally 2 or 3 times more than anywhere else in Thailand (maybe excluding Bangkok), there's a lack of vendors as well, just Western food and, dumbed down, Thai dishes. I had a curry this morning (boxing day, 26/12/2008) and it was so bland and lacked any spice, if I told a Thai chef up north about this, I'm sure he would be ashamed of it!

*The beach is relatively nice, it's normally busy, but you can sit and relax in the sun. They also have Jet Ski's at £15 a go, for 15 minutes. That was damn good fun!

*The night life.... well I don't need to answer that one, Pattaya is built on tourism and alcohol. Met some decent people here as well. Met two nice guys from Manchester who I chilled out with and stayed out late with on Christmas Eve, till they 'boxed of' ( I won't explain the expression, it's a Northern thing, just think about where we are and then think why you might choose to stop hanging out with mates and focus on something else). I also met Kevin and Em, Kev met Em in Thailand and now they have a house out here, so he was here on holiday.

All in all, I think/know I would never come back to Pattaya, it's not because I'm anti-it. It amused me and was nice to just relax by the sea. It provides a service and does a good job of it, it's just that, in my opinion, Thailand is a beautiful country and after backpacking most of it for nearly two months, to then see Pattaya was a great shame. The thought then crossed my head that this is what people, then think about, when they come to Thailand, that package holiday brings them straight here, they spend a week or two and then go to the UK and have 'informed' opinions of Thailand. Which they don't! There is little, to no, Thai culture in central Pattaya and I hope I never meet someone that tells me they've been and know about Thailand, when they've just done a trip to Pattaya.