This country is wonderful but if you have never been here before to see what Thailand has to offer it wouldn't surprise me if you had the impression that this country is a place for drunken degenerates to party like animals and get involved with many of the ladies of the night in places near the beach. The spots that are the most well-known for people turning up for a "sex holiday" are Samui, and Phuket, but nothing even comes close to the debauchery that is Pattaya.
Pattaya is NOT a beautiful place and exists primarily for one reason: Sex tourists. This area is a rather pathetic place to visit because you will always see fat, shirtless expats, wandering around with their rental girl and being horrendously drunk at all hours of the day. I am not attacking the girls for this, they are just seeking a new life and it becomes a bit sad when you think that these rather pretty and young girls don't have any other option in their lives but to sell their bodies to the worst common denominator that is visiting from overseas.
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Now there are some hotels here that are geared towards families and what not but you don't have to be there for very long (I have only been there a couple of days) to realize what this city is really all about. The nature there isn't anything special and the beach is a joke. Unlike other places in Thailand the water isn't even clear and aquamarine color, it's just the closest beach to Bangkok and while I cannot verify the authenticity of this claim, the word is that it was popularized in the 60's with American and other country's soldiers that were getting some time off from active duty.
Bad things happen here on a regular basis with embarrassing stories about foreigners behaving badly and treating the country as if it didn't have any rules. I know that when I was here it was very common to see men walking around that must be beyond the point of having any shame anymore because the person they were walking hand-in-hand with was clearly a bar girl. It is basically guaranteed if you see a foreigner with a Thai woman here that the girl is "working" because nobody travels to this part of the country with their girlfriend or wife due to the stigma associated with it. Other than drinking and f**king, there really isn't anything else to do here.
Well one story was so outrageous that it made nation and some international news. A British man feel naked from his balcony near one of the many red-light districts, covered in his own poo, and crashed through the ceiling of a nearby internet gaming cafe.
I guess I am pleased that the authorities concealed his identity because I am sure that he already is extremely embarrassed. According to reports there had been complaints about a resident being really loud in his room and the sounds of things being broken in the room were also reported. The thing is that in Pattaya, crazy things with foreigners happen so frequently that the hotel staff rarely ever do anything about it.
When he fell or jumped from his balcony and went through the roof of the neighboring gaming cafe that caters to local boys, it got the attention of everyone. A person falling I suppose would be understandable, but to fall and be naked and covered in your own excrement at the same time, is a level of crazy and low that I can't even fathom.
Personally, I found it a bit funny that he was staying at a hotel with this name because in case you don't know "Freelancer" is just some sort of slang for a prostitute that works on her own and doesn't have a pimp or an establishment that she (or I suppose he) is attached to. This hotel knows what sort of market they are catering to.
When the police arrived and sorted the situation out, I was kind of impressed to hear that they were kind to the man and even helped him cover up to help him maintain a little bit of dignity. I can't even imagine what was going through his head at the time. I am sure there is a ton of shame but the story isn't over for him, not by a long shot.
When the police took him back up to his room they were shocked by the state of it with bottles broken and thrown all over the place, discarded cigarette butts were littered all over the room and the smell of the place was horrendous. However, none of this is technically illegal so they didn't charge him with anything and left stating that "Whatever he was up to, it’s a matter between him and the hotel management now.”
I'm sure that is going to be a wonderful conversation that will end up costing him a ton of money in the end.
I don't understand people that behave like this in this country or elsewhere and when it happens it gives all of us foreigners that are trying to live normal lives here a bad name. This is one of the many reasons that I have only spent one night in Pattaya. I just wanted to see if it is as crazy as I have heard and guess what! It is.