Honestly I love so many different parts of Thailand.
But I never thought I would come here.
Putting it mildly, Pattaya has a reputation.
And every single stereotype about Thai nightlife can be found here under the neon lights of
the walking street.
An estimated 16 million foreigners come to Pattaya every single year with many of those
choosing to stay long term or even for life.
So that got me thinking surely there must be more to this city than just the excess.
So on our way back to Bangkok from Koh Chang we spent a week in Pattaya to see what it’s
really like.
And in the cold light of day it is definitely not what I expected.
My name is Ryan and I am currently in the 4th month of full time travel with my girlfriend
Emma.
We both do a little bit of work as we move around from place to place so I was very interested
in Pattaya’s liveability.
And when we researched the best place to stay, one area kept coming up.
We are staying in the Jomtien beach area which is a little way out of the centre of the city
but it is very well known for having a good expat scene.
It’s easy to see why it’s so popular here.
A neighbourhood right on the coast with all of the conveniences you could possibly need.
Many people come here on a retirement visa but there’s one demographic that really
stands out.
One thing I’ve found very interesting about this area of Pattaya is that it’s extremely
popular with Russian tourists to the point where most restaurant signs, shop signs, menus
are all in Russian.
Which I think is really interesting.
You can even go to the local markets and buy Soviet food.
There are a lot of different accommodation options in Jomtien from short term guesthouse
rentals to long term apartments and it’s all very affordable even by Thai standards.
The guesthouse we are staying in is really affordable and the room has a lot of natural
light.
There’s a swimming pool of sorts.
It’s a bit cruel that next door has a nicer pool just over the fence though.
Our place was only a 5 minute walk from the beach which if I’m being totally honest
wasn’t the nicest in the world.
It was pretty dirty and it gets very overcrowded.
There’s so many sunchairs and umbrellas along the beach that you can barely see the
sand.
But as with most of Thailand the sunsets were incredibly beautiful here and the good things
definitely didn’t end there.
In fact a lot of the fun in Pattaya can be found in the little things like how we got
around the city.
By far the best and definitely cheapest way to get around Pattaya is by Baht Bus.
The buses got their name because they used to only cost as single baht for a journey.
These days it costs 10 but it’s still very affordable.
Usually we’re a big fan of the Grab taxi app in Thailand but its actually pretty expensive
in Pattaya.
The buses run up and down the road from early in the morning to late at night so all you
need to do is flag one down, jump on board and then ring the buzzer when you want to
get off.
During peak times they do tend to get quite crowded with people so you may find yourself
hanging off the back of one of them.
Which is actually a pretty fun experience.
One night we saw a guy on a skateboard who just Marty Mcfly’d off the back of one of
them which I thought was brilliant.
Another thing I really
enjoyed about Jomtien is the markets.
The Jomtien night market is open every evening and it’s a great place to grab some affordable
street food and there’s some other stalls there with mainly clothes and souvenirs.
But the best of all of the markets that we visited was the weekend market on Sukumvit
road.
Which covers the majority of a multi story car park.
And there’s every there from clothes to gadgets and of course more food options.
One of the most important things to find when you are working remotely is a good environment
to get your head down and be super productive.
We’re quite lucky in that our guesthouse is very nice to work from.
Was it believable?
But Jomtien Beach is also home to one of Pattaya’s best known co-working spaces: Anchor.
Anchor offers various levels of paid memberships from a shared hot desk to your own private
office.
We tended to just use the free cafe area which serves great coffee, good food and it’s
generally just really nice and homey.
But if I’m honest there’s actually a couple of other cafes in the Jomtien Beach area that
I prefer to work from.
The first one being Redhill.
Redhill also offers a nice homey atmosphere and it didn’t tend to get very busy when
we were there.
Now this next one is my absolute favourite the really cool and quirky sketchbook cafe.
Just sitting inside this place gets your creative juices flowing.
They have a good extensive food menu but its the secret garden environment that really
sells it.
I love this place, there’s so many different parts of it to work from that you will never
get bored of your surroundings.
Honestly I left Pattaya feeling pleasantly surprised.
It is far from the most beautiful place in Thailand and it is crazily overly westernised.
It still sits behind Chiang Mai and Bangkok in my mind in terms of the lifestyle you can
lead here.
But I’ve got to say I’m really glad I gave it a go because Pattaya is definitely
more than it's sleazy reputation suggests.
Just stay away from the walking street yeah?
Now are heading into month 4 of our travels and it’s time for a brand new country.
Welcome to Vietnam.