Pattaya could be arguably be called one of the oldest resort towns in the world. According to the legend, as far back as the eighteenth century, the army of the warlord Taksin would stop here to rest before setting out on its next campaign. I imagine that, at that time, it truly was a paradise: two picturesque bays with long, sandy beaches, and tiny fishing villages scattered along their shores. And jungle all around.
The next mention of Pattaya also comes from the military – this time American, or more precisely, from soldiers on leave.
Forty kilometres south of Pattaya lies the small town of Sattahip. If you start googling it, chances are you’ll find information about a military base. And indeed it is there – or rather, Sattahip itself is something of a garrison town, built around the base of the same name. Nearby, other bases exist to this day, or once did.
The bases were founded as early as the 1920s, though it was during the Vietnam War that they saw their most rapid development. Sattahip is a highly strategic location, since the nearest land border lies some 300 kilometres away. And the base itself was home to the navy.
Despite the fact that the Vietnamese fought like tigers, giving the enemy hell at every turn, American soldiers still linger to relax and have fun during their leaves and furloughs. But this wasn’t something they could do on base, so they went looking for a suitable places nearby.
And then, one fine day in 1959, they found a truly beautiful beach beside the small Thai village of Thap Phraya. Its long shoreline was covered in white sand, stretching as much as thirty metres inland. And it was washed by the clear blue waters of the Gulf of Siam. The soldiers were struct by its beauty, spent their leave there, and later told their fellow servicemen about it. And soon soldiers began coming to the beach near Thap Phraya.
Before that, the villagers had lived a quiet and modest life, fishing and growing coconuts. Occasionally, wealthy visitors from Bangkok would come here to relax, but nobody caused anybody any trouble.
The arrival of the American soldiers changed everything. Enterprising residents of the capital realised there was good money to be made from them, and began developing the village and the beach with hotels, bars, and restaurants. But the entertainment didn’t stop there – the sex industry began to take hold. The place became the seediest spot in Thailand and today it ranks among the most notorious in the world – this is Walking Streets, in the heart of Pattaya.
The small village Thap Phraya is still remembered today throughout the streets that bear its name, east of Pratumnak Hill. Today, noting about the place gives away its fishing-village past – just ordinary houses, small guesthouses, shops, cafés: nothing remarkable.
American soldiers kept arriving in ever greater numbers, tourism grew, and Pattaya expanded. In the 1980s, the Americans, apparently tired of the noisy nightlife, moved on to Samui and Phuket. At the some point, Pattaya began to fade, but the Russians were quick to take up the baton. And for the past thirty years, Pattaya has been considering a Russian city. Although people from all over the world live here.
It’s lovely that Pattaya has become a favourite with families, so a quiet life goes on in the north of the city and in the area south of Pratumnak Hill – unlike Walking Street and Beach Road, Which are considered the centre and lie between these calmer districts.
Today Pattaya is expanding and striving for active development, building affordable housing. And it’s working. The city authorities also have plans to reverse this trend and shed the image of being one of the seediest cities in the world. The Thais are deeply conservative, and this ambition is driven by a desire to preserve their values.
