Pattaya 1984

[gk10002000]

 Pattaya 1984.  Pretty good trip down walking street

[KhunBENQ]

...

Only a few names that haven't changed.

"Swiss" and "German" were much more present on the beach than today.

 

Not different from today: awful traffic/noise/exhaust, baht buses blocking the streets, jet skis.

 

This pan-shot over the beach: no skyscraper city in the north (Naklua), no Royal Cliff/Pattaya sign to the south.

Tight shorts (gym trousers) for western men are a rare sight today

[thai3]

Horrible then as well

[KittenKong]

23 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

Not different from today: awful traffic/noise/exhaust, baht buses blocking the streets, jet skis.

 

I remember Pattaya in the 80s well. It was very different to today. 2nd Road was two-way and without pavements as shown in the video, and unlike today you could wait quite some time for a Baht-bus to come along. Soi Diana was a dirt track as was Soi Buakow. I dont think there was 20% of today's traffic or people back then, and there were certainly no big tour buses. Pratumnak was 95% scrubland and Jomtien also had very little development away from Beach Road.

[dabhand]

I believe that was the year that the Liner QE2 visited Thailand.

I recall that some of the QE2 guys challenged the local Muay Thai fighters to a boxing competition. It was held at the Marine Bar on WS and just happened to coincide with one of my many trips to Pattaya. Well, never was so much fun had by the Thais with their boys knocking over the sailors one after the other. I think the final score was 10-0 despite the sailor boys being, on average, at least 2 or 3 weight divisions heavier than the locals.

Got to the stage that the Thais were clearly holding back on their level of assault (unlike nowadays!!) and were even seen to be wincing when a punch they had thrown caused the sailors to collapse to the floor. Maybe they had been instructed to hold off, wanting to extend the entertainment time.

I recall that there was a 'Whicker's World' TV episode shown on UK TV with a few shots of the mayhem. 

Good times!!

[emilymat]

Not a single crash helmet on the video. How times have changed!. I liked the tree umberellas on the beach - much more natural.

[ThailandLOS]

1 hour ago, dabhand said:

. Well, never was so much fun had by the Thais with their boys knocking over the sailors one after the other. I think the final score was 10-0 despite the sailor boys being, on average, at least 2 or 3 weight divisions heavier than the locals.
 

 

Size is only an advantage with everything else equal. A well trained fighter with speed and reaction will always defeat a much larger non-trained/semi-trained opponent (especially beer bellied Saturday night fighters with fat arms which they confuse for muscle, of which there are so many )

 

Same phenomena can be seen today as in 1984.

 

 

[ThailandLOS]

25 minutes ago, emilymat said:

Not a single crash helmet on the video. How times have changed!. I liked the tree umberellas on the beach - much more natural.

 

Not a single police check-point either. Might have something to do with it.

 

Like the umbrellas too. This and the low rise buildings give a whole different atmosphere to the place.

[sgtsabai]

Looks like I would have liked to have been there. I'd be willing to bet the beer was cheaper, the women cheaper, bar fines cheaper, and the people including the ladies much nicer. I think some of those baht buses were still plying their trade when I finally made it back to SE Asia in early '02. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.

[Lamkyong]

hey i was on that baht bus

[KOZMO]

I remember Pattaya back in the early 70'S when it was a one lane street with a tree growing in the middle of it. Back then the water was blue and only 1 Hotel, the Pattaya Palace.  rest were guest houses. I was stationed at Ubon RTAFB  from 70-72. Twelve hours by train from Ubon to Bangkok. had a few European tourists, very gross men and women who did not use deoderant or shave. The women had more hair under there arms then me !!!! Some wore bikikis and all the gross pubes hung out as well as not shaving there legs. Gross !!!

 

[Skeptic7]

Awesome vid...Thanks! 

[HHTel]

I was there in 1964.  None of those buildings existed and there was only one road "beach road".  From memory, 1 bar, 2 Mom and Pop shops and a restaurant but the beach was completely empty.  I was in the navy and we anchored in the bay and got a liberty boat for a 'banyan' on the beach.  The Americans discovered it for their R & R after  doing their 1 month in Vietnam and 2 months in  a nice hotel in BKK.  Wish I could video my memory.

[Ooladolla]

The absence of black wires polluting the sky was what stood out to me

[MyFriend You]

The Walking Street did not exist then, the bars were there, but it was open to traffic for deliveries, baht busses etc etc  The Yamato Japanese Restaurant shown here was my former bar "The Copa"  original name was Copacabana, but a Typhoon blew the last half of the sign off and I never replaced it  -  I sold it in 1978, A distant relative of the Datsun family was buying up all the property they could in Pattaya.  I see the Swiss Chalet was still there in his video, interesting man, a Swiss Archetech (sp) designed a lot of buildings in Bangkok during the 50's 60's & 70's ...............that was his retirement home  -  I didn't see they went all the way down to the Dick's Sportsman's place, retired US Navy man, he did fishing charters out of Pattaya, back when there were fish to catch.   Not a Russian or Arab in sight and very few South Asians.   I spent most of my time teaching Brits & Aussies the correct pronounciation for Pattaya..........it was a lost cause.

[geriatrickid]

Ahh the good old days when;

- Lead was still in the gasoline and paint

- The raw sewage flowed unchecked innto the ocean

- Foreign sex tourists could have their way with anyone and not worry about getting caught.

- No issues with visa rules

- One could easily hide out from the law

 

 

[godblessemall]

Remember at the end of the '80's when the Fleet would visit and hoards of US sailors came ashore on the beach.

The Marine bar had a boxing ring, IIRC.

I had a shock one day after visiting the beach at Jomtien. On my own without a lady friend, and getting on a baht bus to go back to my hotel, was asked by several boys who helped with parking  there, to go back with me. I later learned that one part of the beach was for gays, I didn't have a clue then, and lots of kids hung about there.

It was certainly very relaxed there then. I used to stay at the Midtown hotel for about 200 baht I think.

 

[globalhouse]

Thanks for sharing the memory lane video. I was but a baby back then. Pattaya has come along way. Can only imagine what the next 30 years will bring. 

[MyFriend You]

On 9/10/2016 at 10:38 AM, sgtsabai said:

Looks like I would have liked to have been there. I'd be willing to bet the beer was cheaper, the women cheaper, bar fines cheaper, and the people including the ladies much nicer. I think some of those baht buses were still plying their trade when I finally made it back to SE Asia in early '02. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.

We never had Bar Fines until the German invasion, they introduced 'bar fines' as a way for the Bar to make money, not the girls,   before bar fines, all transactions were handled with the Mamasan, at the Bar,  you would tip the girls as you seen fit  -  needless to say, they liked the Ameicans more, as we were taught to 'Tip' generously............those were the days my friend, no muss, no fuss, no jealousy.        

[kannot]

On 10/24/2016 at 1:04 AM, geriatrickid said:

Ahh the good old days when;

- Lead was still in the gasoline and paint

- The raw sewage flowed unchecked innto the ocean

- Foreign sex tourists could have their way with anyone and not worry about getting caught.

- No issues with visa rules

- One could easily hide out from the law

 

 

almost no  change  then

[gk10002000]

On ‎1‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 3:07 PM, kannot said:

almost no  change  then

I understand from some of the older timers that those little depressions on the sides of Soi 7 and Soi 8 is where the sewage and not just rainwater ran down.  Now the sewage is more underground!

[kevkev1888]

I see Lam Morrison was playing at the Saloon Bar :)

[Skeptic7]

On 12/1/2016 at 1:16 AM, globalhouse said:

Thanks for sharing the memory lane video. I was but a baby back then. Pattaya has come along way. Can only imagine what the next 30 years will bring. 

More changes...most not good

[Aforek]

I like to read old remembrances  of Pattaya; I was there in 75, not many girls, who spoke good american english because the GI's where here the years before; I came back in 1977 , many changes already, and now Pattaya is not for me, it was much better before

[Bassosa]

Wow, Pattaya was a dump even then!

 

On a serious note, each time I watch old Thailand videos it strikes me how little has changed.

[Aforek]

On 16/02/2017 at 10:55 AM, Bassosa said:

Wow, Pattaya was a dump even then!

 

On a serious note, each time I watch old Thailand videos it strikes me how little has changed.

For Pataya, the changes occur in 1976, before, when there were GI , no tourists, it was certainly nice; as I told, in 1975 it was still a sort of village

many things changed in Thailand! you have not seen videos of 1957 ? there are some on the Internet ; at that time , very few ( and rich ) people could travel around the world , no tourists yet

[smotherb]

On 9/6/2016 at 11:48 AM, KhunBENQ said:

...

Only a few names that haven't changed.

"Swiss" and "German" were much more present on the beach than today.

 

Not different from today: awful traffic/noise/exhaust, baht buses blocking the streets, jet skis.

 

This pan-shot over the beach: no skyscraper city in the north (Naklua), no Royal Cliff/Pattaya sign to the south.

Tight shorts (gym trousers) for western men are a rare sight today

Don't really take note of tight shorts on men, but the street sights shown are familiar. I first went to Pattaya in 1967. To my best recollection, at that time there was only one road from the main road to the beach. At the end of that one road was a place out over the water called the Wagon Wheel; owned by an American named Bill Wheeler, I believe. There were only a fraction of the bars that are there today, most on the water side, and a few hotels. I visited a few times until '69, but did not go back until the late 70's--early 80's. Definitely some changes.  Last year, I was sitting in the Papagayo when a dancer came up to me and greeted me by name. It seems she remembered me from 20 years before that and had the stories of people, places and events to back it up. She was 45 and still dancing in the Pattaya bars--still looked pretty good too; will wonders never cease.  

[LC 100]

Good to see the TQ's on Beach Road, many a good memory from there....

[llttf]

On 9/10/2016 at 3:00 PM, dabhand said:

I believe that was the year that the Liner QE2 visited Thailand.

I recall that some of the QE2 guys challenged the local Muay Thai fighters to a boxing competition. It was held at the Marine Bar on WS and just happened to coincide with one of my many trips to Pattaya. Well, never was so much fun had by the Thais with their boys knocking over the sailors one after the other. I think the final score was 10-0 despite the sailor boys being, on average, at least 2 or 3 weight divisions heavier than the locals.

Got to the stage that the Thais were clearly holding back on their level of assault (unlike nowadays!!) and were even seen to be wincing when a punch they had thrown caused the sailors to collapse to the floor. Maybe they had been instructed to hold off, wanting to extend the entertainment time.

I recall that there was a 'Whicker's World' TV episode shown on UK TV with a few shots of the mayhem. 

Good times!!

 

[how241]

Good video --thanks for sharing.