Just like in every year, there comes the important decision where to spend the festive season of Christmas and New Year. As part of the aim of any holiday is to recharge one’s batteries and there seems no better place to do so than Pattaya’s sea, sand and sun experience, I headed down from Chiang Mai by train to Bangkok to continue by car with an old friend, who lives there.

With a Baht881 ticket for the special express train from Chiang Mai down to Bangkok, we left Chiang Mai at 17.55 on December 25 and enjoyed the first hours of the train ride with a dinner and bottles of beer at the restaurant car. The train was fully booked, so I was lucky to get a lower sleeping berth to fall easily asleep just before midnight. When the train arrived at Hua Lamphong Station in Bangkok, it was just an hour later than the original arrival time at 7.00.

Pattaya lies some 150km in the Southeast of Bangkok and can be reached in less than two hours via Sukhumvit Road, which connects as National Highway No.3 the provincial towns of Chonburi, Rayong, Chanthaburi and Trat.

Pattaya in the 1960s was just a little fishing village, when only a few Bangkok residents began to spend their weekends. A modest tourist industry started with the Nipa Lodge as the only hotel of any size and a German school friend of mine from Karlsruhe/Germany arrived there already in 1966 to stay in the popular Palm Villa Bungalows, which today are long gone. With the start of the infamous Vietnam War, Pattaya was developed as an official R&R centre for US soldiers, which were flown into nearby U-Tapao Airport built for American use at that time. Thus, service shops, bars and hotel accommodations grew rapidly to meet the demand.

Today, Pattaya is a large beach resort city in its own right and struggles to shed its bad reputation as “Sin City” and nightlife haven, because it offers a much broader range of activities than before. Actually, Pattaya stretches for some 15km along the Eastern Seaboard and has now something for everyone. Needless to say, Pattaya emerges more and more as Thailand’s advanced safe and new family destination. Let’s examine some of its attractions:

Last not least, Pattaya is a hot spot for the yearly countdown of the Old Year. At that special time, thousands of tourists gather at Bali Hai Pier to watch the amazing fireworks and it was here that I ushered into the New Year 2010. By the way, a similar countdown was organised by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Hat Yai, and surprisingly also in Ubon Rachathani, a city in Thailand’s Northeast or I-San.

It was difficult to reach Bali Hai Pier on the very last night of the year. Luckily, Mr. Dhaninrat Klinhom, Communications Manager of the five-star hotel Amari Orchid Pattaya, had invited me with a friend on short notice to enjoy the sumptuous seafood dinner party along the swimming pool site of the hotel. Surprisingly, next to the professional music band, the hotel staff of one of the very best accommodations in town entertained all the guests with their own kinky performances leaving far behind Pattaya’s renowned Tiffany Show and Alcazar Cabaret – reminders of Thailand’s transsexual sub-culture.

Two hours before midnight, we left the colourful party and headed on foot down the newly developed beach promenade from North Pattaya along the congested Beach Road to reach Bali Hai Pier at the southern end of the city.

On the way, we passed Asia’s largest beachfront lifestyle shopping complex called “Central Festival Pattaya Beach” where over 200 shops of boutiques and international brands abound plus 10 modern world-class cinemas. Its visitors find only the best of health & spa, beauty, hotels, recreation, dining, fashion and what else. Also, we passed the lively “Walking Street” in South Pattaya, where open-air bars, fancy night entertainment places and discos abound, but in the same time tailor, grocery, jewellery, handicraft and even ice-cream shops welcome tourists of all walk of lives. Interesting to note was the high percentage of male visitors from distant Arab countries and Russia. When we finally reached Bali Hai Pier near the Siam Bayshore Hotel, it was just the time for the countdown and greeting the New Year 2010.

In the late afternoon of January 1, it was time to go back to Chiang Mai. After six days and nights at the getaway from it all and staying in the centrally located Midtown Inn in South Pattaya, I opted for the 17.00 o’clock bus for Baht725 from the Nakhon Chai Air Station at Sukhumvit Road or Highway No.3 heading up to the North. Via Chonburi, Phitsanulok, Lampang and Lamphun, I reached Chiang Mai at around 6.00 o’clock in the morning, where it was much cooler than down at the sea.

For further information, please contact Reinhard Hohler by e-mail.