Pattaya boomtown! Tourists throng Walking Street! But where are the farangs?

[impulse]

18 minutes ago, Inn Between said:

More likely the average price they pay in China to come for a 3 or 4 day junket with flight, shared room and food all included. A typical zero-baht tour with nothing more spent in Thailand.   

 

Have a look at the departure area in BKK and you'll see the Chinese with suitcases stuffed full of goodies they've bought in Thailand to take back home.  Spend, they do.  Just not on the stupid things westerners fritter away their holiday money on.

 

[Mrfox]

Could be deceiving, inside the bars, quite a few chinese and Japanese the... some of them are not tourists but here on work

[Jane Dough]

2 hours ago, ianezy0 said:

Wrong??? lol. I have been here the last 384 nights. I live here. Short time tourists only get a snapshot.

Is it really true that you have been in Thailand 384 days? That's amazing. By my reckoning that is over a year. You should write a book about your experiences. 

 

Rooster

[Isaan sailor]

Good luck, Pattaya.  They’ve decimated western currencies—in favor of the new masters, the ChiComs.

[ianezy0]

3 minutes ago, Jane Dough said:

Is it really true that you have been in Thailand 384 days? That's amazing. By my reckoning that is over a year. You should write a book about your experiences. 

 

Rooster

Unfortunately it wouldn’t sell very well.
Man takes early retirement, obtains a long stay visa and moves to Pattaya.
The End. ????

[Jane Dough]

1 minute ago, ianezy0 said:

Unfortunately it wouldn’t sell very well.
Man takes early retirement, obtains a long stay visa and moves to Pattaya.
The End. ????

Oh I don't know.

 

Incidentally why did you choose Pattaya - there are many alternatives in Thailand and with your long experience of the kingdom you must have come up against some other ideas?

 

Rooster

[Beggar]

56 minutes ago, Matzzon said:

By the way, it´s by no means illegal. You pay the bar for the girl get off from work. After that it´s consensual things that happens between two adults. If you after that wish to give the girl a tip for her time spent with you, or have agreed about that at start is nothing illegal.

A strange legal situation could start when the girl contacts the police because you didn't give her the expected tip.

[ianezy0]

1 minute ago, Jane Dough said:

Oh I don't know.

 

Incidentally why did you choose Pattaya - there are many alternatives in Thailand and with your long experience of the kingdom you must have come up against some other ideas?

 

Rooster

Worked at Sattahip on and off for 5 years, then lived here 4/4 on/off for a couple of years. So I guess I know a few people here. But, funny you should mention, I will be moving in Dec once my lease expires. Cheers

[mok199]

10 hours ago, webfact said:

where are the farangs

Windmill and Diamond A gogo

[champers]

9 hours ago, Kaoboi Bebobp said:

 

Seems that way. I shop in Villa and Emporium sometimes, after coming in from Phra Khanong. There seems to be quite an uptick in the number of tourist faces on Suk from Asok to Phrom Pong. Lots more of those faces on the BTS, particularly families. Also, an English bar and an Aussie bar on Pridi 2, near where I live, have livened up considerably just in the last week.

 

I posted in another thread after a recent week spent in Pattaya how much more lively it was in certain bars on LK and Buakhao. I do think some month-long visitors are back. But I also think it will be a short burst. 

 

 

It will last in Pattaya till Songkram ends on 19th April 2020 with spikes at Christmas and New Year. 

[atyclb]

Popular Thai Beaches Pricier Than European Resorts: It’s Not Just About the Higher Baht

 

https://skift.com/2019/11/13/popular-thai-beaches-pricier-than-european-resorts-its-not-just-about-the-higher-baht/

[tabarin]

9 minutes ago, atyclb said:

Popular Thai Beaches Pricier Than European Resorts: It’s Not Just About the Higher Baht

 

Kind of conflicting statement, as it is pricier due to the higher baht. If it wasn't higher, it still be cheaper too.

[White Christmas13]

And to top it all up, Pattaya beach has been named one of the world worst beach"s.

[gk10002000]

So they don't consider Indian or Chinese tourists as Farangs?  Is Farang now to supposed to mean only those of Western countries like Europe or the USA, or South America, Canada, ?

[gk10002000]

14 hours ago, petermik said:

They walk up and down...usually following someone with toy on the end of a stick...they do not spend anything in the bars/entertainment venues..then back to their chinese owned hotels 

Pretty much yes.  Go into any of the bars and you wont see lots of them in there.  Sure some groups of Japanese or Koreans seem to sit and drink, but you won't see a lot of Indians or Chinese.   I think I saw a few Indian type places that had signs about traditional Indian dancing, and there probably are other places around that cater to Indians.  But not on the traditional north end of Walking Street

[gk10002000]

7 hours ago, impulse said:

 

Have a look at the departure area in BKK and you'll see the Chinese with suitcases stuffed full of goodies they've bought in Thailand to take back home.  Spend, they do.  Just not on the stupid things westerners fritter away their holiday money on.

 

I think you have a valid observation.  The Chinese definitely have a custom of bringing things back from a trip to give to friends or relatives, or may be a way of showing off, I'm not sure of the roots of the custom

[gk10002000]

11 hours ago, Xaos said:

This are buses dropping chinese to go follow flag go through WS then back to 2nd rd. hoop on bus go to prepaid resteurant. Heres thier other photo. 

Yes.  Just like at the BKK airport.  While sitting there this July and waiting for the bus to Pattaya, in about 1/2 hour I saw well over one dozen of the groups blindly following their little flag bearer/tour group leader.  And on arrival and later in August at departure, just a casual glance shows groups and groups of them.  As you said, organized pre paid tours, in and out.  I so miss Pattaya of say 2004 or 2005.  An actual low season, a fun high season. 

[RickoMortis]

14 years ago the standard price for any bar girl in Pattaya was 500 baht £8, for that she would stay all night long for adult fun between the sheets. These days the Bar girls are demanding 4,000 Baht, plus a Bar fine for 4 hours of, adult, fun between the sheets (£96) due the the very strong Baht and the weak Pound. Greed has ruined what was a very cheap place now every thing is over priced not just Bargirls, but beer prices and hotels. Most of us old timers now find our adult, entertainment in the Philippines where the Bargirls and the beer prices are very cheap still. Much more for your money and often its a buyers market even when just renting. Ive allways spent money on Women and Beer then would waste the rest. 

[sanemax]

10 minutes ago, RickoMortis said:

14 years ago the standard price for any bar girl in Pattaya was 500 baht £8, for that she would stay all night long for adult fun between the sheets. These days the Bar girls are demanding 4,000 Baht, plus a Bar fine for 4 hours of, adult, fun between the sheets (£96) due the the very strong Baht and the weak Pound. Greed has ruined what was a very cheap place now every thing is over priced not just Bargirls, but beer prices and hotels. Most of us old timers now find our adult, entertainment in the Philippines where the Bargirls and the beer prices are very cheap still. Much more for your money and often its a buyers market even when just renting. Ive allways spent money on Women and Beer then would waste the rest. 

Cheap prostitutes and cheap beer 

Where to go to next ?

[GoodieAfterDark]

2 hours ago, atyclb said:

 

thai alphabet definitely has "l" sound consonants, two as i recall. reason most thais pronounce farang as falang is laziness/shortcut pronouncing the "r" consonant in farang

 

the same with . aroy .   usually spoken .   aloy

I seem to hear the opposite. For example, I have heard Thais saying "shopping morr", instead of "shopping mall". For some reason they seem to have a hard time to pronounce syllables with "L".

[GoodieAfterDark]

21 minutes ago, RickoMortis said:

14 years ago the standard price for any bar girl in Pattaya was 500 baht £8, for that she would stay all night long for adult fun between the sheets. These days the Bar girls are demanding 4,000 Baht, plus a Bar fine for 4 hours of, adult, fun between the sheets (£96) due the the very strong Baht and the weak Pound. Greed has ruined what was a very cheap place now every thing is over priced not just Bargirls, but beer prices and hotels. Most of us old timers now find our adult, entertainment in the Philippines where the Bargirls and the beer prices are very cheap still. Much more for your money and often its a buyers market even when just renting. Ive allways spent money on Women and Beer then would waste the rest. 

Before Internet, Thailand and specially Pattaya was a little secret. 

[adammike]

11 hours ago, Ricky J said:

Too expensive, girls getting fat, security getting nasty, too many bar bins being ripped off, girls putting a way TOO high a price on themselves, and the attitudes getting really horrible, the racism is becoming obvious,,,, did I forget something ???

Soi dog's.

[adammike]

45 minutes ago, gk10002000 said:

I think you have a valid observation.  The Chinese definitely have a custom of bringing things back from a trip to give to friends or relatives, or may be a way of showing off, I'm not sure of the roots of the custom

I see Chinese tourists buying clothes in Primark and C&A on the Damrak in Amsterdam,I always wonder what percentage of the clothes are made in china,keeps the economy ticking over I guess.

[adammike]

10 hours ago, kingofthemountain said:

20 years ago there was much more bars than now (Probably 50% more)

for example all the zone beetwen second road and beach road, from walking street

to Naklua (Including this 2 locations) was almost bars areas, where you have now mostly

hotels, condos, and mails or small streets dying (From soi 13\1 to soi 13\4).

What went wrong? It's easy to understand for all the one coming from the euro zone

https://fxtop.com/fr/loupe-graphique-historique-taux-change.php?C1=EUR&C2=THB&A=1&DD1=01&MM1=01&YYYY1=2005&DD2=13&MM2=11&YYYY2=2019&LARGE=1&LANG=fr&CJ=0&MM1Y=0&TR=

15 years ago you had more 50 bahts for 1 euro, today it's 33 bahts

and in the same time the prices have doubled for the 2 things most of the

men come in Pattaya for (The booze and the girls, nobody come in Pattaya for the beach or the sea)

I remember it was a dead zone after you crossed central road till you got to soi6.

[kevmin13]

The dollar is still 30 baht to the dollar so it's still not bad for Americans.  However Indians and Chinese cause the others to not wanting to be there.  Most thai ladies shun the Indians and say they are dirty and will never go with them.  I never will forget I heard 5 Indian guys haggling a streetwalker on the beach one night.  They were trying to get her to go back with all 5 of them for a total of 2000 baht and all 5 get a chance with her.  If they had offered her 1500 baht each I bet she would've said yes.  Those guys must've had one desperate lady accept that deal before so they figured to try again.  

[Kadilo]

19 minutes ago, kevmin13 said:

Most thai ladies shun the Indians and say they are dirty and will never go with them.

Yeah righto 
That’s what they tell the white knights in shining armour.

One of the many TV Turban myths.  

[DougM]

It used to be a value for money destination. It's a dirty smelly place with poor service but it was cheap enough to keep punters coming back for more.

 

Now they expect us to pay too much for everything and it's still a dump. They have priced themselves out of the market. 

[Skallywag]

18 hours ago, webfact said:

But many Thai posters on the Facebook site asked - Where are the farangs? 

 

They noted that most of those in the pictures were Indian and Chinese; the few Westerners in sight were probably Russian, they reckoned. 

All these Thais have not read the news for the last year or so?  TAT has been in the news many times talking about the huge number of Chinese and India tourists.  Nothing newsworthy here

[Skallywag]

27 minutes ago, craigieboy1973 said:

... junkies 

I could do for snorting some China white.  can you hook me up - just PM me

[chainarong]

Silly me , here I was thinking they were all down in Singapore, Chinese I mean.