Pattaya trip report

The proposed high-speed railway station, an urban railway from station to sea, demolishing the notorious Walking Street, and visiting the retirement beaches.

Pattaya is the closest beach city to Bangkok (though not the closest beach), so it gets a lot of weekenders from Bangkok. I wasn’t planning on visiting this year, but then I saw a news article about the proposed Pattaya station redevelopment, so I became a Bangkok weekender as well.

I had thought that getting out of Bangkok would be a respite from the pollution. It turns out that Pattaya and Chonburi province have been just as smoky. It’s now getting to the point where this annual burning season will affect tourism. I already avoid the north because of this, and I may have to consider not visiting Bangkok in Feb-Mar, which is a shame because the dry season is usually a great time of year to visit.

Pattaya Station Redevelopment

In keeping with the theme of this being a railway-inspired trip, I got the train from Bangkok to Pattaya. There is one train a day in each direction, and an extra express train on Saturday and Sunday. I went on Saturday, but the express was already sold out. The regular train stops at all stations and takes 3h 39m to cover 155 km, for a total of 31 baht (90 cents USD). That is about 42km/h. The “fast train” does it in 2h 28m, which is still pretty slow. I got the bus back to Bangkok, which took 2h 20m to Ekkamai Station in central Bangkok.

Pattaya Station will be redeveloped to accommodate the Don Mueang–Suvarnabhumi–U-Tapao high-speed railway. The high-speed railway will have a top speed of 250 km/h, so Pattaya will be within an hour from central Bangkok.

The high-speed railway will follow the same path and use the same station location. Here is the current Pattaya Station.

After riding the slow train here, I will be happy to see a new fast train. I think that the high-speed railway isn’t necessary, though, as a semi-high-speed railway would have sufficed (basically the same train speed and gauge that Laos uses).

The current metre-gauge railway was recently double-tracked. I rode the train to Chonburi in early 2020 when it was still being double-tracked. It would have been better if they had just built a new standard-gauge railway. Now there is a new double-tracked metre-gauge, and the elevated high-speed standard gauge will be built above that. I’ve written more about this at the mixed-gauge mess of Thailand’s railway.

I was interested to see the station because there is a map circulating that shows the proposed redevelopment area.

Map via mgronline.com

A quick look at Google satellite view shows that half of this land is built up. I’ve made a Google Map that marks out the area.

I had a walk around to see what was there. If it were an informal housing area like the railway lines in Bangkok, then there would be a case to clear land and resettle people in new houses. Here, though, is a normal urban area. The areas marked on the map as being developed first are mostly clear, so I don’t know if they intend to continue to expand into the established neighbourhood.

Lightrail/monorail

The other issue with the station is that it’s not centrally located. To address this, there is a plan to build a transit line from the station to the city centre.

Proposed monorail route, via Pattaya Mail.

I followed the route of the line on foot and baht bus (the local pick-up truck bus), and there is enough room on half of the route for an elevated line. The section along Pattaya Sai 2 is going to be the most difficult section.

The route becomes even more challenging if they plan to extend the line all the way to Bali Hai Pier. This is a built-up area with narrow streets at the southern end of Pattaya Beach. This ties in with the next points.

The proposed demolition of Walking Street

Spend enough time in Thailand, and you soon hear about the notoriety of Pattaya’s nightlife. The most infamous place in Pattaya is the Walking Street, which is lined with nightclubs and girly bars. There have been plans to renovate the street by demolishing the bars and opening up the street to the seafront.

Pattaya is famous for this street, and the sordid nightlife that goes with it. Pattaya has been trying to clean up its image by promoting the city as a family-friendly location. This street does not fit in with that plan.

I haven’t spent much time in Pattaya, so I didn’t realise there were more bar areas that are larger than Walking Street. They could close down Walking Street and still have more bars here than every city in Southeast Asia combined. After walking around the bar areas, I would have to say that the death of the Pattaya bar scene has been greatly exaggerated.

Having seen the other bar areas, I would say they should go ahead and clean up Walking Street. The biggest problem for the city is evicting the bars from the street. You don’t have to know anything about this street to guess that there would be powerful figures who own the bars, and a lot of black money involved. Good luck to the city.

Bali Hai Pier

After walking through Walking Street, you end up at Bali Hai Pier. This is where ferries and speed boats for outlying islands depart. The foot of Pattaya Hill forms the southern end of Pattaya Bay, which includes the HOLLYWOOD-style “Pattaya City” sign. Next to the sign is the abandoned Waterfront Suites and Residence.

This apartment tower was almost finished until it was discovered that it was not permitted to be built. It has remained in this state since 2014, and in 2020, it was ordered to be demolished. This would be another demolition job with many obstacles in its way.

If this tower is demolished and Walking Street is turned into a seaside promenade with a light rail going down the middle of it, then that would be an impressive city transformation.

Wongamat Beach

I was expecting to see more high-rise towers along the beach, but the buildings in Pattaya are spread out everywhere. Perhaps I have spent too much time in Vietnam, where a coast like this would have more apartment towers. There is a cluster of apartment towers at the northern end of Pattaya Bay, so I went up to have a look.

It’s a different vibe on this beach as there are no bars around here, and most of the beachgoers are Russian families. The beach here is much narrower than Pattaya Beach, though this is what Pattaya Beach would look like if it weren’t widened with imported sand.

I was interested to see this beach box, where there is a wall along the beach with a sand pit on top. I’m collecting photos of beaches I see like this because this might be what future beaches look like with rising sea levels. In the background is the Arom WongAmat Tower.

Jomtien Beach

I also visited Jomtien Beach. Even though it’s in Pattaya, it is to the south of Pattaya Hill, and this demarcation gives it a feeling of being in another place. Jomtien is a popular retirement destination, and the nightlife here is mainly expat bars.

I visited Jomtien over 10 years ago, and it was low-rise and felt quiet. There is now a skyline all the way down the end of the beach. This photo also shows how hazy it was while I was here.

One of the biggest apartment projects in Pattaya in recent years was the Copacabana apartment tower. This building dominates the Jomtien skyline now, and there is a similar tower going up nearby. There are several blocks of the same size along the beach, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see more towers like this in the future.

I met up with a British friend who has retired here, so it was good to get a perspective on living here. We had a few different cafes to choose from, while the last time I was here, the only place to get a coffee was at an Aussie or Scandinavian bar.

If the light rail were extended here, it would make Jomtien even more appealing.

Future Pattaya

I added some new apartments to the Future Pattaya page, and I was reminded of the Neo Pattaya project, which seems to have gone quiet. I will keep updating this page to see what the vision of New Pattaya holds.

For hotels, I have updated my guide on where to stay in Pattaya.

I’m not sure when I will be back again. Definitely for the high-speed railway, and if the Pattaya-Hua Hin ferry restarts, then I would like to check that out.