Destinations -> The Best Places to Visit in Thailand -> Pattaya- the center of sex tourism in Thailand

Some call the country's most famous resort Pattaya the Thai Riviera (Riviera of the Middle Ages was called the Italian coast of Liguria, at the present time, the term refers to any area of sea off the coast, popular with tourists). For others, it is a city of shame. "Pattaya is to attract the most depraved western tourists" - says the online edition of Lonely Planet, meaning single men walking down the bars, brothels and massage parlors, which are too many in this city.

Riviera of Thailand? Not at all. Pattaya is the Sin City, the center of sex tourism in Thailand, the sea of Sodom, Gomorrah future (Sodom and Gomorrah, the two ancient biblical city, which, according to the Bible, were destroyed by God for the sins of the inhabitants). So why tourists visit it? Referr to three main reasons: 1) sex 2) attractions and entertainment , and 3) Golf - in the city and its environs there are 21 golf courses. Pattaya was founded by sex and war. For centuries it was a small, obscure fishing village.

The turning point came on April 26, 1961, when here came to rest the first group of about 100 American servicemen who fought in Vietnam. Here, U.S. soldiers discovered the beautiful Gulf beaches with coconut trees growing on them. The sea was clean, with a rich world of corals, schools of dolphins leaping out over the beautiful bay. The fate of the village was sealed for the construction of the military airbase U-Tapao, where American B-52 bombers struck airstrikes on Vietnam. At that time it was the largest air base outside the United States. Bombers taking off every 15 minutes or so, with such a noise that "all around roared and shook." Thousands of U.S. troops, "armed" with dollars, found a temporary rest from the war in a small village at the time, who later was to become a center for sex tourism.

Thailand was a very poor country, with corrupt law enforcement and historically tolerant attitude towards prostitution. The result was predictable. As facilitators for the U.S. Air Force the personnel stated, "Living in Thailand has always been pleasant," ... Thais are hospitable people who share our desire for peace and freedom. "In other parts of the U.S. desires, namely, sex and booze - Thais were no less accommodating. Marine Bar, which opened in the southern tip of the Gulf, has become the center quarter of the brothels, whose rapid growth mirrored the increasing presence of U.S. troops in the city. In Pattaya, the room in those days cost 50 ¢, a woman does not get along much more expensive. With the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, the U.S. military presence in Thailand was curtailed, left the country 40 000 troops. Pattaya for some time went through hard times, but the city managed to overcome all difficulties through the development of sex tourism, which has become a good source of income. Visitors arriving in Thailand in the 1970s, at the Bangkok airport handed out leaflets with pictures prostitutes. The kiosk at the airport no longer exists, but this business was thriving, at least the last ten years the number of male tourists in Thailand greatly exceeded the number of female tourists. Males constitute 60% of foreign tourists in Thailand, compared with 52% interest in the neighboring, law-abiding Singapore.

In 1978, Pattaya has officially received the status of the city and, like all cities of Thailand entered in a period of rapid economic development, which lasted continuously until the Asian financial crisis of 1997. The more affluent Thais, who traditionally bought the beach houses in the royal resort town of Hua Hin, Pattaya started to have an advantage. The city developed rapidly, and with it the crime. The war for influence between different gang factions did not stop in the city. There was a heavy criminal situation, many murders committed and dozens of foreign tourists died of cardiac arrest due to overdose of powerful tranquilizers that prostitutes pumped to their clients in order to rub them later. The rapid development of the city began to affect the environment. For many years, raw sewage was dumped into the bay, resulting in perishing fish, corals, occurred on the skin of swimmers itching after bathing. The official response to this disaster was the statement by the mayor of Pattaya in the Bangkok Post newspaper: "green and smelly sea is normal." The mayor was not only bothered turning the Gulf into a cesspool, but even suggested that this situation will have only a "short-term impact" on tourism development. Surprisingly, he was right: the popularity of the city, especially among the residents of the capital of Thailand, has not changed. Pattaya has not only preserved the core of its core users, thousands of American soldiers, who return here every year to conduct regular joint exercises, military units in Thailand and the U.S. also attractted new ones. The city became the birthplace of modern mass tourism in Asia, and still is its undisputed capital, attracting a large number of tourists from Russia, India and especially China, whose number has now reached nearly 5 million per year. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the emergence of direct flights from Moscow to the international airport U-Tapao initiated the influx of wealthy

Russian tourists in Thailand.

It is believed that the Russian make the city more respectable, because usually come in pairs or families, rather than as single tourists. Pattaya tends to change its well-established image, giving it a more respectable appearance, but it's not an easy task. Over the past few years, they have settled many owners of sex clubs, forced to leave Bangkok due to the strict control to stop the operation of such institutions . In Pattaya, close monitoring of the time bars and clubs are not so strict, many local officials have their share of profit and turn blind to violations. Even the site of tourism in Thailand did not hesitate to boast advanced sex tourism of the city, listing, as tourist attractions, rides on elephants, water and air sports, as well as "exotic erotic shows," "saunas and massage parlors," "an incomparable range of opportunities for rest during an exotic holiday on the beach, "" the embodiment of every fantasy, especially after sunset. " Somewhere in the world, perhaps there is a city with a dubious reputation, more involved in sex - tourism, better known as a heaven for fugitive offenders. But perhaps such town you will not find . Once a tiny fishing village, opened by the American soldiers during the Vietnam War, Pattaya is now considered a center for sex tourism in Thailand, "a heaven for pedophiles."

The city has many other interesting sights, but all agree that the huge number of sexual entertainment attracts visitors here. When the twilight appears, this beachfront resort, the sea of ​​neon light casts a pale shadow of a thick layer of makeup on the faces of thousands of women (and even some men), sitting on bar stools and tempting bags of pot-bellied expensive clothes. Bars with prostitutes can be found in most areas of Pattaya, but the bulk is concentrated in the city center down the Walking Street . The night life in the neighborhood brothels (or the red light district) is one of the major tourist attractions that attracts foreigners and Thai nationals. Here is concentrated the bulk of nightclubs, pubs under the open sky, and, of course, the restaurants at good prices for tourists. You can find usual bars with live music. On the territory beer bars provide Thai boxing. In the daytime, the street becomes dull and expressionless.

Sex for money in Pattaya is an usual business. Hotels require "users" (the so-called prostitutes) to provide identity cards, after which the client pays a fee for the night drive guests to their room. Despite the prevalence, prostitution is illegal in Thailand, so you must be prepared for a possible police raid and a large bribe to the local police department or the mafia. To show how the authorities are struggling with prostitution, police publish photos of foreigners caught with girls or boys in the international media. Cases of drinks laced with drugs and robberies of tourists are also common. Pattaya has become known as the largest center in Asia for its homosexuality, gay beaches involved in this sex industry workers. The city considered the capital of transvestites, with demonstration shows, songs and dances. The most famous of them, Tiffany .

There's no official figures for the number of street children, but it is estimated that about 2,000 children roam the streets of Pattaya selling everything from flowers and sweets to sex. Boys aged 10 to 15 may earn up to 10,000 baht ($ 280) per night spent with a foreigner, a lot more than a monthly salary of civil servants with higher education in Thailand.

The sea in the city of Pattaya is dirty, the streets are full with too many tourists, the architecture is faceless, high-rise hotels with small rooms, which often lack balconies. In Spain, the developers are destroying high-rise hotels as tourists refuse to stop them. Pattaya continues to build multi-story. There are no buildings of historic value. You can stroll along the central waterfront Pattaya Beach Road . The reconstruction of this area continues forever and looks so ugly, that seems to Pattaya, not Phuket, suffered from the tsunami of 26 December 2004. The city suffers from chronic water shortage. The long, curving beach fringed umbrellas and worn wash waves with floating debris from the top. Many tourists who came here 10 or 15 years ago, and then returning here, miss that old Pattaya. Now it is a city where to make big money on tourism, it has lost its former, attractive appearance.

Visiting Pattaya, a tourist might get not quite a good impression of a really beautiful country of Thailand. In a novel by Alex Garland's "The Beach" looking for adventure backpackers found nobody of eminent island in Thailand, and here formed an utopian community, which was later broken up by jealousy, greediness and violence. The idea of the story is that heaven does not exist. No, we do not deserve to live there. While we do not realize it, there will always be places like Pattaya.

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