Rampaging protesters, a state of emergency and blood on the streets of this seedy beach resort have triggered warnings for tourists to leave town or stay in their hotels.
But it would take more than that to end the non-stop party that rages every night in Pattaya, where an Asian summit was canceled at the weekend as Thailand’s political drama spilled over to its most popular holiday spot.
“Yeah, it’s not good, but having said that, I know guys who’d come here if it was a war zone,” said Briton Peter Norton as he and his friends knocked back Thai beer in the heart of Pattaya’s bar district.
PHOTO: AFP
“I like the party here. There’s cheap beer, good weather and the girls — they work hard,” he shouted over the thumping disco music while gazing at Emma, a 21-year-old he rates as the “prettiest transvestite in Pattaya.”
But the sex workers who stalk the streets and gyrate on go-go bar tables complain that years of turmoil in Thailand, including last year’s closure of the main international airport in Bangkok, is bad for business.
“We are Thais and we are known for our smiles, but now people around the world are looking at us and we are not smiling, we are fighting each other,” Emma said between posing for pictures with goggle-eyed male tourists.
“Why are they fighting? We are the same blood, we should be talking instead,” she said, perched on a bar stool in a tiny black and orange floral dress and towering platform sandals.
Emma watched on TV as the thousands of anti-government protesters stormed the luxury hotel where Asian leaders had gathered to discuss the global downturn and North Korea’s rocket launch.
Thailand’s leader was forced to cancel the summit and declare a state of emergency for Pattaya for several hours as leaders were evacuated — some by helicopter from the hotel rooftop.
“I was very disappointed, it was an important meeting for the whole Asian people,” Emma said.
“This is a tourist place and if tourists see these protests they will not want to come,” she said.
Pattaya, which began its transformation during the Vietnam War when it became a popular destination among GIs from a nearby military base, attracts millions every year to its beaches and bars.
The former fishing village is now an overwhelming crush of narrow streets packed with tattoo parlors, pool halls, tailors’ shops and go-go bars with names like “Candy Shop” and “Don’t Tell Mama.”
“Good guy goes to heaven. Bad guy goes to Pattaya,” reads a popular slogan at T-shirt shops, while sex workers in school uniforms and air hostess outfits tout for business.
For most tourists, Thailand’s political dramas are a minor inconvenience quickly forgotten after the first few ice-cold Beer Chang.
“We’re a little bit worried, but we’re here to enjoy ourselves,” said one British man clad as Batman’s sidekick Robin, part of a bachelor party dressed up as superheroes who charged through Pattaya’s main street.
“We don’t think it’s directed against us so hopefully we’ll be okay,” he said before dashing into a go-go bar with friends Superman, Catwoman and “Beer Man.”
“I saw blood on the street, so it made me worry,” said German tourist Raymond Beel, who canceled a trip to the mountains.
“I think the tourists are safe in this area. But if they go to the protest place then there could be problems,” he said.
But Beel, on his 24th trip to Thailand, said he had noticed that while there were still plenty of people around, business had been affected by the global downturn that has weakened western currencies.
“Now in the bars there are only bar girls, no tourists. People are walking around, but not spending money. Where before a guy might have drunk six beers, now he will have only two,” he said.
Norton, also a regular visitor to Pattaya with 15 visits under his belt, said he was now forced to haggle with the working girls.
“Haven’t they heard of the credit crunch? They think they’ve got problems, you should see the problems I’ve got. The pound used to be worth 75 baht and now it’s only 50 baht,” he said.
The working girls say that bar takings are down as much as 50 percent and that while regular sex tourists are still around, newcomers have been scared away.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
RSS