Before I get started on this story I would like to point out that I am not an economist, a historian, a business expert or a political advisor so the things I write are just my own experiences and the opinions are, unless otherwise noted, mine.
I do not profess to know Thailand and Pattaya any better than the next man (or woman) nor do I have a magic crystal ball.
What I do have is an all-consuming belief in a country that I now think of as home and a city that from being a once small town I first discovered in the early ’80s is now the second city of Thailand and my only real residence for the past two decades.
When I moved to Thailand, I was sure that nothing would ever come of the place. Bangkok was a nightmare. Although it had a thriving business district, it was under water for half of the year, the poverty was horrendous and plain to see, disease was rampant and at the time it was known worldwide as the city with the worst traffic.

Stuck in traffic
Doing business was almost impossible. It was acceptable to be four hours late for a meeting because it was not unusual to be static in traffic for three hours although my personal record was completely static for six hours and 20 minutes.
Every shop owner on the side of the road allowed motorists to use their bathrooms out of necessity and it was accepted that you left your car in the middle of the road and had a bowl of noodles or a plate of rice on the side of the same road.
There were no 7-Elevens, no supermarkets that could justify the name but the street vendors did a roaring trade both on the side of the road and in between the vehicles.
The food, of course, was covered in carbon dust and lead from the belching diesel fumes of the then, uncontrolled and badly maintained, ancient delivery trucks and buses.
It was normal to have a bad stomach for weeks on end and until you finally built your immune system up to be able to eat the expected handful of bacteria that came with your daily allowance of rice, pork, beef or other unrecognisable fare, you just lived with it and got good at squeezing your cheeks and politely asking to use the nearest toilet.
The traffic woes only increased during the building of the First Stage Expressway system that was to link Bang Na with Din Daeng and Dao Khanong. Roads were partially blocked or closed altogether while the piling was completed and then they were left with massive craters in the roads and fatal accidents were the norm.

Safer part of Thailand
During all this time the population of Bangkok doubled from eight to 16 million and the traffic on the roads increased by an estimate 35 per cent per year so there was little wonder that I finally gave up the idea of staying in Bangkok and decided to head for a less populated and safer part of Thailand.
Having already travelled extensively in the country I decided that I would head for the seaside village of Pattaya.
The road to Pattaya back then was a two-lane monster. As buses and trucks were the main users it was normal to see an overtaking vehicle coming directly at your bus on the wrong side of the road and death or serious injury were only avoided by your own driver swerving onto the dirt at the side of the road.

Only by bus
It was still the Bang Na Trad Road and known in all the towns on the way as Sukhumvit. The trip was only really possible in a bus as most Bangkok taxis could not have found their way past Bang Na.
The most expeditious buses were private ones that did the trip twice a day. The journey was normally between four and four-and-a-half hours and was always broken in the middle at a large rest station close to the Bang Pakong River.
The buses travelled through Chonburi, Bang Saen, Sri Racha and Laem Chabang to finally come to a sweaty stop in what was then called Soi Bus Station (funnily enough) that now does not exist but was between
Soi 1 and North Pattaya Road. In the mid-80s Pattaya was still a “one street” town and this was Beach Road.
Second Road was in existence but there was nothing of substance on it. North, Central and South Pattaya Road were where they are now but were much smaller with very few buildings on either side.
Soi Buakow did not exist, there was a dirt track there and houses on stilts that you had to use a boat to get to in the rainy season.

No supermarkets
There was not a supermarket in the town but the closest thing to one was a double shop house on Soi Post Office. You could not buy milk, bread, bacon or western clothes.
Jomtien beach consisted of what is now called Dong Tarn beach, there was no road along Jomtien beach and it was widely known that after dusk you did not venture down that way if you wished to ever be seen again!
Now for the surprise ... there were no condominium buildings at all! And there was only one housing estate!
Now let’s think about those statements for a minute ... we are not talking about the dark ages here, this was only 23 years ago.

Not long ago
Okay for some that may be the dark ages but for those of us in our “prime” that was not that long ago!
In case you have forgotten, we are talking about Pattaya, Chonburi, Thailand, here. Condo City Asia and believe it or not, we have had multiple military coups, student riots, airport closures, HIV outbreaks, Bird Flu outbreaks, an Asian financial meltdown, a world financial meltdown, and the latest riots and airport closures as well.
How has it been remotely possible for a sleepy tourist town to develop into this massive metropolis in such a short period of time with so many obstacles in its path?
I’ll try to answer that in the next issue ...