Updated October 12 (see footnote)
“Come on in. You will not regret it.” That was the greeting I got from Grace (pictured), the waitress at Kings Cafe not far along along Pattaya’s infamous Walking Street.
I didn’t. The pork ribs were delicious, and the beer was very refreshing.
You could be forgiven if you thought that story was going somewhere else, given the reputation of Pattaya, the former fishing village now mega beach resort about 90 minutes’ drive south of Bangkok.
I did not partake further of the nightlife in the Walking Street — in fact, I was home alone in my hotel by 8pm after a hard day of sorting out my visa status at the immigration office and at the tailor, being fitted for some new clothes.
Like other travellers, I have concerns about the seedy underbelly of tourism in Thailand, and it’s all there on display in Pattaya. There are go-go bars and strip clubs, and cheap beer barns with kickboxing displays and live music, and it’s all open until the small hours.
But in Pattaya there are also a lot of holidaying families and local people just going about their everyday business.
As for the sleazy side, my attitude is pretty much that it’s none of my business what consenting adults do as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody else.
I do, however, see areas where the government could take a firmer hand. And, like everybody else who knows the place, I had a good laugh reading this story quoting a local police chief saying there was “absolutely no evidence of prostitution” or any crime at all in the Walking Street. I’m still not convinced that it’s not a spoof.
The good news is that I have proven it entirely possible to visit for a couple of days, watch the sun sparkle over the beach and see more energetic folk do watersports, do some shopping, have a coffee, and enjoy a cheap beer or three, plus a few nice meals.
There are also cabaret shows, some of them slightly risque, a wax museum, a Hard Rock Cafe, 4-D cinema, themed restaurants and bars targeting various nationalities (Russians and Germans mostly), and other attractions you’d associate with a seaside getaway.
Getting around is easy once you work out how to catch a songtaew (basically a pick-up truck/ utility converted into a passenger vehicle) up Beach Road and back down parallel Second Street. That costs just 10 baht (about 30 cents) a trip. Proper taxis, however, will cost you an arm and a leg — and some songtaews will suddenly become cabs, and charge accordingly, if you ask to go to a specific destination.
Walking Street isn’t the only “sleazy” district, some of the side streets (sois) connecting the two main roads are a bit dodgy, too. My advice: do a reconnaissance mission in daylight to work out where you do, or don’t, want to go after dark.
As for that T-shirt Grace is wearing — and was happy for me to photograph — that’s just all part of a marketing campaign. She even offered to sell me one in my size.
But, by then I’d already blown my clothing budget for the year.
Footnote: A social-media follower has suggested that this article ignores the shocking reality of child sexual abuse in Thailand. I noted that I don’t have a problem with consensual, legal acts between adults. Of course, child abuse troubles me very deeply. The authorities in Thailand, in cooperation with international officials, are genuinely trying to eliminate child-sex tourism and sex trafficking. Promoting Thailand as a family-friendly destination is part of this strategy. Tourism creates jobs for Thai people and that can help protect children from the type of exploitation in which their parents are complicit through economic desperation. A healthy tourism industry, along with other economic initiatives, can be a force for good in the developing world.
