Feed: Pattaya, Chonburi, Thailand - AggScore: 10.3

Pattaya, Chonburi, Thailand

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Pattaya is a city built for fun on the northeastern coast of the Gulf of Thailand. It is situated in Chonburi Province around 150 kilometres south of Bangkok. In the Sixties, Pattaya was hardly known, but the American soldiers fighting in Vietnam started using it for RampR and it started to boom. Pattaya is most famous for its entertainment and its nightlife, yet in fact it has a lot more than that to give.As far as merely sport goes, Pattaya offers horse riding, swimming, diving, wind surfing, golfing, tennis and jet skiing among others. However, not like most sporting towns or cities, it does not begin to go to sleep as the sun goes down.The bars, restaurants, discos and strip bars begin to open in abundance at about four oclock. The bars are of every persuasion to suit every niche market.There are Welsh bars, American bars, Irish bars, Lady Boy bars and every other sort of bar you can think of. Likewise with the restaurants, there are specialized restaurants for each country. There are bush game restaurants, Chinese, Japanese, American, French, German and fish restaurants. In fact there are thousands of restaurants and bars all trying to be unique.I am sure that you could stay in Pattaya for months without going the same bar or eating the same sort of food twice. This is just as well because there are representatives from each country in the world there as well. You will hear English, Russian and every European and Asian language spoken in Pattaya on an everyday basis.Pattaya gets more than one million visitors a year. Most of these visitors are men, but the local government is attempting to do more to attract women and families by moving the girlie bars back away from the beach.Despite it being quite large, you can stay in your favourite part of Pattaya yet find nearly everything you desire nearby. However, if you do have to get about, nothing could be simpler. Most individuals merely hop on a Baht Bus. These small openbacked pickups can be seen going around the city by quite predictable routes when you understand the layout of the city.The fixed fare is ten Baht for as far as you would like to go on the route, although some drivers will endeavor to trick more out of you if you go a long way. Thais pay five Baht. If you do not feel confident enough to forecast where the bus is going, you could get on one of the thousands of motorcycle taxis.They are dearer at around forty to sixty Baht, yet they will go anywhere you like. Ask for a quote before you leave to avoid disappointment on both sides. If you do not want to hire a car, there are other choices. You could hire a motorcycle or motorbike. A motorcycle costs around 100 Baht a day at the cheapest, but beware the traffic in Pattaya it can be pretty chaotic.Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on several subjects, but is now concerned with a targetblank hrefhttppackageholidaystothailand.orgsongkrantheoldthainewyear.htmlSongkran the old Thai New Yeara. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at a targetblank hrefhttppackageholidaystothailand.orgPackage Holidays to Thailanda.