Frank Georgalis – Writer

Thailand—Culture from Faraway Places: Article IV

 

Pattaya, Thailand

 

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Rare scene of a lady of the  night

Common Scene of a Lady

Pattaya, Thailand

Love doesn’t live here anymore?

Pattaya, located off the Gulf of Thailand, is approximately 145 km south of the city of Bangkok, The city of Pattaya is a special municipal area which covers and occupies most of the coastline of Banglamung (one of the eleven districts that comprise Chonburi Province). It is divided into a larger northern section which spans the areas to the east of Naklua Beach (the most northern beach) and Pattaya Beach (the main beach) plus the Buddha Hill headland (immediately south of Pattaya Beach), and a smaller southern section covering the area to the east of Jomtien Beach (which lies directly south of ( Buddha Hill).

Administration

Pattaya city has been administered under a special autonomous system since 1978. It has a status comparable to a municipality and is separately administered by the mayor of Pattaya city who is responsible for making policies, organizing public services and supervising all employees of Pattaya city administration.

The Pattaya Bay Area is one of Asia’s largest beach resorts and the most visited city in Thailand

Pattaya was a small fishing village. But a change occurred on April 26, 1961, when the first group of about 100 American servicemen who were fighting in the Vietnam War arrived in Pattaya for relaxation. From this beginning Pattaya became a popular beach resort which now attracts over 4 million visitors a year. Those days the beach was covered by fisherman’s huts, but now Fishermen’s huts along the beach were replaced by resort hotels and retail stores, including Asia’s largest beachfront shopping mall, ^[4] the Central Festival Pattaya Beach Mall.

The main sweep of the bay area is divided into two principal beachfronts. Pattaya Beach is parallel to city centre, and runs from Pattaya Nuea south of Walking Street. Along Beach Road are restaurants, shopping areas, and night attractions.

Jomtien Beach in the southern part of the bay area is divided from Pattaya beach by the promontory of Pratumnak Hill. It consists of high-rise condominiums, beachside hotels, bungalow complexes, shops, bars, and restaurants. On weekends, it becomes increasingly crowded, with many Thai visitors coming from Bangkok. It offers of water sport activities such as jet skis parasailing and small sail boats for hire.

Offshore islands include the “Near Islands”, 7 km from the western shores of Pattaya  Ko Larn, or “Coral Island”, For some of the islands in the group there is accessible speedboat in less than 15 minutes and by ferry taking about 45 minutes. The names “Near Islands”, “Far Islands” and “Coral Island” are used for touristic purposes only and do not correspond to any naming conventions of the island groups and are not shown on maritime charts published by the Hydrographic Service of the Royal Navy.

It is not necessary for you to know small details of the structure of the city, unless you want to be cabdriver which I doubt. I have traveled around the world and have spoken to a great number of people. Speaking with people, I hear some things that make me angry. One of them is the mixing up the structure of the land and its people. In the course of a discussion, once it’s discovered that I am an American and the discussion takes place in one of the European countries the people I am speaking with, having nothing good to say about America, they say that America has no history. I return rather angrily and I go on mentioning  to them that it may be true that thousands of acres of corn fields, tobacco field, soybean farms, the orange trees the vineyards and many other things that make America “The land of the good and plenty” but, I go to indicate to them, that the people who put them there are people who have come to this country loaded with history from their ancestors. That is why America is great and has made, not only history, but more and bigger progress the last two hundred years, than any other nation in the world. As I have mentioned in the beginning of this paragraph that there is not necessary for you to know anymore about the structure of Pattaya, because the people make the country.

Many authors write about Pattaya  and say that the bad name of the city has derived part of its reputation as a tourist destination due to the sex industry and the resulting nightlife, and in many ways the city has become what it is now  “The city of prostitution”.

These authors write what they see and hear. They may be authors of some writings, even a letter to their mother, grammatically speaking, would make them authors, but they are not writers. Good writers will write what they see hear feel and what others feel with their heart. You want to read the truth about Pattaya, you may  stay around and you will read the truth, nothing but the truth, as they say in court “So help me God”. I am the artist of my writings and normally artists perform to please themselves. They only hope, for the sake of money, other people will enjoy what the artists have written. Therefore, all my articles about the country and its cities will be about its people.

From this point on I shall do my best to separate the word prostitution and the city of Pattaya, Thailand. Bear in mind that subject is people. Writing about people I tend to go deep, and at times I even have to come up for a breath of fresh air. I’ll do my best to keep it shallow, just remember that my training is public speaking and a lot of speakers become long winded. The best line I heard from a speaker at the beginning of his speech was: “Ladies and gentlemen, my job up here is to speak and yours down there is to listen, I hope we all finish the same time.”

When it comes to ladies of the night here in Pattaya are far different than the ladies of the night elsewhere. That I shall explain  in my future  articles.

Prostitution in Thailand .is technically illegal but reality shows that it is tolerated as is the case for Pattaya. I do not like to associate the word prostitute with Thailand and more particularly Pattaya. I found out in certain areas is vast numbers of, GO _GO Bars, Saunas, and hourly hotels, serving foreign tourists as well as locals. This is prevalent in the Walking Street the old red light district as well as other areas around the city. Efforts have all ready started to clean up the city’s image The only efforts that can have any effect will be to get rid of the ladies who hang around looking to make enough for soup and shelter and they no other place. The question before the house: is where are these ladies are going to go to get a job to make enough money for bread and shelter for themselves if they are chased out of their place of work? I, Being in the business of writing and publishing and having a front row seat, I watched and monitored the activities of many ladies of the night and tourists or potential customers. Incidentally, they would like to be referred as “Working Ladies” I personally  see nothing wrong with that.

Most ladies are friendly towards me and have began to trust me to a great extend. They have become my friends and they revealed their feelings. They all have a story to tell of their lives back home away from Pattaya which may be over 800 miles. Most of them are between the ages 20 to 32. The biggest percentage of them arrived here from Isan, one of the poorest states. They are smart and beautiful but not educated. Most of them have beautiful bodies with long legs, wearing short denim shorts with the upper part of their body completely covered, walking down the street, makes one-eye  man to see from the bad eye. Nobody knows the number, but it’s up there into thousands. When I ask them to give the reason that they are there and doing the kind of work that they are doing, do tell me it’s money. There is not a lot of money to be made, they are lucky if they make more than $300 per month. Getting to know them I discovered deep in there is a burning desire to fall in love and be loved. Behind their beautiful breast, right in the heart of the passion of the breast there lies a secret. The secret is love. They all want to be loved and return the love. They are actually looking for a sail boat to take them away, not from Thailand, but from poverty and disappointment. Thailand is and will always be their beloved country.

In my next article, I will write about the 4 million tourists and their culture.

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