:)

Its great here good size town without it being to big, have Makro, Big C, Tesco, Pizza Company, KFC, of cause a bunch of 7-11s and 2 Farangs restaurants I can get most I need here.
100km from Cambodia and Laos. 1 hour to the Airport in Ubon and then 1 hour to Bangkok and Air Asia is opening a route to Phuket from Ubon as well and there are rumors about a route to Chiang Mai also.

I love it here my house is on a street that a lot of students use to get to school/university so always plenty of eye candy :D

more than 2 weeks in Pattaya and you'll be sick of Thailand for life lol

Go to phuket instead

another vote for phuket

Yes Phuket is way better at my opinion :)

Phuket is better, but definitely still in the lower rankings of places in Thailand. If you absolutely must do the whoring thing, then i would recommend Koh Samui. if not, head to koh tarutao national park (if you are into untouched beaches, chilled out atmosphere, WAY less tourists, and lots of heat). Or if you are more of a hiking type of guy (again not much whoring going on), head to chiang mai if you're not stoked on the heat of the south.

Is there a large mafia presence Pattaya? not sure if i've watched to many movies but it seems like a lot of tattooed Russians around.

Mafia of all types in Pattaya, with the police being at the top of the food chain. It's so bad they are opening an INTERPOL office in Pattaya to cut down on the foreign criminals.

Sounds like you found a little slice of heaven. Last time I was in your neck of the woods it only had one or two 7-11s only a KFC for falang food.

Hows your Thai coming along?


:2 cents: Both the Thais and many of the foreigners who come here are the worst of the worst. While I generally don't hate Thai people, I HATE Pattaya Thais with a passion and the majority of the foreigners here as well. They both give "low life" a new meaning. I live on the far outskirts of town, close to Bang Saray, and cringe when I have to go into Pattaya city. Rude Russians, drunken Brits, cheap whore mongering Indians, dirty whore mongering Arabs and now the drug dealing, scamming Africans are moving in... Pattaya is fucking litter box. A fun litter box that is a non-stop party, but a litter box none the less.

Pattaya is for you if you are a: Drunk, drug addict, pornographer, sex addict, pedophile, party maniac, criminal or businessman.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

:1orglaugh ...

where michael is sounds perfect. how is the internet in more remote areas?

1.5 megabits down, 256K up works pretty stable where I am but others have problems.
$20 a month.

1.5 down isn't bad considering you're in the sticks. On my best day I only get 2 down and I'm close to the city. Consider yourself VERY lucky. A lot of cats I know live in internet hell.

Who's the provider up there?

I'd recommend it. Good place here.

Nah, Vancouver is an awesome city. I've lived in almost every major city in Canada now, and if & when I ever live in Canada again, it'll definitely be Vancouver. No question.

I just like the lifestyle Issan provides, that's all. It's good out here. No worries about running around like a chicken with your head cut off, or trying to be "cool", or keeping up with the Jones'. People out here don't have the first clue about any of that, which is why I love it. :)

But no, Vancouver is an excellent city, especially if you live in West Van. Expensive, but excellent. That's why it's rated the world's most livable city though.

The Best
 

Thailand is the best! We stay in Bangkok in the winter and are considering moving there full time soon. The food is great and the people are outstanding. As long as you're not in the tourist part of Pattaya you should be ok. But I agree that Pattaya is a shithole in general.

I want to go where Michael O is.

Really? You pay 600 baht/month for that? That sucks.

600/month here gets you 6 MB down, 512 up. I got pissed one day while working, so now we're at $80/month, which gives us 16MB down, and 1MB up. Works good now. :)

Use TOT 640 baht a month, I live in the city as soon as you get outside the city its not possible to get but True I think have a mobile solution that gives you about 1-1.5 down as well and it works very well here I am told, its 8k for the device and then about 6-800 a month.

Well the Thai is not easy but I am picking it up slowly.

Fastest I can get through TOT
Who are you using?

1 MB, 2MB even 8 MB they are domestic speeds, unfortunately makes little difference international. I have two lines here, one is a 4 MB down the other is 1 MB, on international I am lucky if I top 512 k with either.

The only way I know to get great speeds is to go directly to CAT telecom, the company who owns the network and sells to TOT. When I lived further south I convinced them to pull a fiber optic cable strait to my house. Incredible speeds (had a recorded 4MB UP on speed test), and no filter whatsoever. I miss my CAT connection, can't get it in Bangkok :(

3BB. That, and I'm in KK, which is a central hub for Issan, plus is a huge university town. So infrastructure here is naturally probably a little better.

so true to that can not be more true

Pattaya is the shit hole of the world, I'd avoid it!

russian won't bother you if you don't step on their business. Russian are much more reliable in dark side business than Thai!

Just don't swim in that sea!

I live there and I love it
Pattaya have it all

i will at stay at pattaya at this time. can go out for beer sometimes.

Everybody find what him want to find, and see what him want to see. yes, in pattaya most of peoples for it - but not all. If you staying for long time Pattaya can be nice place because international (easy to find friends from your country), international (your country) food, sea & islands (just go sattahip for 40km at you will see nicest and clean military beaches), not far huahin & chantaburi - very nice places and islands, cheap (phuket/samui near 50% more expensive), etc. But if you see pattaya only via walking street glasses and living near it - you will see that peoples you have speaking about.
I stayed everywhere in thailand, samui, phuket, isaan (udon, nongbualamphu), chiang mai, etc. But pattaya is not bad place if you know real about this place, have friends, go here not only for walking street and prefferable have a car.

Who are you, Buddha? :winkwink:

Pattaya in all her glory is the #1 in all of Thailand for all the following:

- Pedophiles
- Child Prostitution
- Child Pornography (openly sells on the streets in some areas)
- Violent Crime
- Thai On Foreigner Crime
- Foreigner On Foreigner Crime
- Police Corruption (Pattaya even had an armed fake SWAT Team - how does that happen?)
- Theft
- Murder
- Drug Abuse
- Foreigners Wanted By Other Countries
- Gang Activity (local and foreign)

INTEPOL is putting an office in Pattaya (may already be finished), they said it was because of so many foreign wanted criminals. Literally every square inch of the beach along Beach Road is now under CCTV surveillance because of the drug deals and robberies there. CCTV cams have been put EVERYWHERE in the city to *try* to cut down on the crime (they are failing). The problem with the CCTVs is, a lot of the serious crime has police ties or is at least protected by them so the cameras are conveniently turned off when serious crimes are committed or when they can fault a foreigner instead.

But... maybe they are just looking at it all wrong and that stuff doesn't really exist.

Those places are nice I will agree, but not one of them is part of Pattaya.

Pattaya is Pattaya. Not the surrounding areas.

i mean only just not everybody who in pattaya at this list. It not hard to stay at pattaya border area to just be able to sometimes visit boystown for few beers, go dongstan beach to meet peoples around the world, etc. And to see friends. But if you coming pattaya for first time you will don;t know anything - I sure it can be crazy and horrible place and with full list of peoples/items you has described here. Just need to try to stay away from all this things.
East Pattaya or Pratumnak road or na jomtien can be nice place to stay, if you have car - no limits what you want to visit today.

+ Suicides.... usually by elderly farangs from hi-rise condos... and often survived by one poor grieving thai widow :1orglaugh

This new office already opened at Pattaya. Reasons I stay sometimes at Pattaya because of some my friends staying here, I know places where I want to go on the car, have international food stores, normal internet, have islands near, not far from bkk and have sea, and can see all this funny show. :kisskiss

If you not go drink everyday in the central pattaya or walking street/jomtien (or at the beach at evening) and not take whores, know common cheat here, know little bit of thai mentality, it can help you to stay out of troubles. But of course like everywhere it also up to your luck.

Of course man, I do not mean every person in Pattaya is a bad person. Not at all, there are some very good people here. I'm speaking generally.

Sounds like you have never been to Laos or Cambodia.

some pretty good advices in this thread
especially from zoddy