The land of smiles.

Pattaya is a resort city located in Thailand and is located on the Gulf of Thailand which is a low risk area in terms of future tsunamis. Pattaya is located in the province of Chonburi and unfortunately mostly known for its extremely extensive prostitution, which is a pity when the city of course has so much more to offer.

Pattaya resort was really popular during the Vietnam War when American soldiers used the city as a destination when they had their perm. Fertile ground for widespread prostitution was thus present and this is occurring with Pattaya today. Before that point Pattaya was a small fishing village that rich Thais began to use as holiday destination in the 1960 's but as mentioned the city grew very fast during the Vietnam War.

Pattaya is called Funtown because of its extremely hot nightlife with extensive prostitution and so called Beer bars or Go-Go bars where prostitution is poorly disguised. If you want to have one of the girls in this with you to your room  you  have to pay so-called "bar fine" the bar because of the inconvenience it causes the bar that an employee suddenly leaves their jobs. Obviously, this is only thinly disguised pimping when the intention is that the ladies are for sale, albeit at a somewhat more sophisticated means a so-called freelances that hangs down at the seafront. Now, however, this is the way it works in Pattaya like in many other typical resort towns in Thailand like Patong and Bangkok to name a few.

The Walking Street is a long pedestrian street that is just inside the city close to the beach and serves as Pattaya's red light district at night when the street closes for traffic and all the multiple variants of brothels , go- go bars and Beer bars are open. Here you overwhelmed by offers from women of all ages and varieties and not at least the ladyboys, the ladyboys are the trademark for Thailand's red light district where these transvestites abound and they are normally very beautiful and difficult to separate away from the women. A good tip is if you meet a woman that is unusually high compared to the low Thai women and at the same time is very beautiful then you have most likely hit a ladyboy. Ladyboys meets general highly respected in Thailand where they are almost like a culture on their own and not close to the western prejudice view of transvestites.

Although Pattaya and Thailand is so much more than nightlife and prostitution even this has great significance for Pattaya 's tourism. Many of the tourists travel to Pattaya as sex tourists and because of this it is therefore natural to discuss this in the article. We recommend not to buy any sexual services in Pattaya or Thailand in general but the prostitute are numerous and very aggressive, moreover, it is a culture in Pattaya with great acceptance for this and it abound of older obese men who hires a beautiful young Thai woman in reality prostitute. It is thus easy to be influenced by this and if you are unable to resist the temptations it is at least important to remember to use a condom as this is high-risk area for STDs with HIV / AIDS as the most serious threat. If you want to find a Thai girlfriend you should instead take look at a serious dating site like thailand-dating.org or the adult dating site for Pattaya, PattayaDating.org. Be aware that these sites probably also have some Thai girls that are only after your money. So you should always use common sense when you are dating in Thailand.

Fortunately , Pattaya has much more to offer the tourists. Pattaya has a great beach that stretches all the way from the north to the south end of town with a relatively great but busy promenade along the beach. Here you can experience the most in beach and you can rent equipment or buy trips with banana boats or try paragliding to name a few. The options are really everything you can imagine and then some more. However, you should avoid renting jet ski because it is a very well known scam method that the customer is accused of having destroyed the jet ski when they deliver it back, usually by referring to damage/ scratches underwater of the jet ski. The problem is that these injuries often existed at the  jet ski a long time before you rented it and the owner was very aware of this. When you refuse to pay you will be subject of an intense pressure from people who flock to and it is not unusual that the police show up and say you have to pay. It all felt so uncomfortable that tourists feel pressured to pay a significant amount with the police officers "help" to negotiate. Common to all is that they all are involved in this scam and the easiest way is not to rent jet skis in the first place. If you anyway take the chance to rent a jet ski you should document the state well when you purchase it by taking lots of pictures with your camera, preferably while the owner looks at, so hopefully the owner is not just trying to scam you when they know you have documented condition in advance.

If you get stuck in Pattaya you should be aware that Pattaya has a special tourist police that consists of English speaking people who are not from Thailand. If you get into trouble then it may be wise to contact those above the ordinary police because this police are much easier to communicate with and are more tourist friendly than the local police.

Pattaya is a paradise for golf lovers and a dozen golf courses of high international standard. There are also a lot of other activities you can do in Pattaya. These include paintball , carting , motorcycle court, bowling, cable water skiing path  underwater world, zoo, floating market, water park and much more. In summary, you will find what you would expect to find in such a place and then some more.

Of course there are temples , museums , botanical gardens and other more traditional cultural offerings to tourists in Pattaya as elsewhere in Thailand. However, it is inevitable that the city is characterized by being a party place with a lot of prostitution. For those seeking a quieter holiday, maybe with the family, then Jomtien located just south of Pattaya is probably a much better option than in the central of Pattaya.