The "Darkside"

[Changnoy]

I'm looking to move to Thailand soon and will possibly be looking to set up home in the "Darkside" of Pattaya area.
Can anyone give me advice/experiences and where the best places to live/eat/socialise are?

cheers

[framed]

Good luck with your ill-timed relocation...To answer your question, the best restaurants are in Penang, Singapore, Jakarta and KL. Better to socialise in Manila where they speak better English and the food can be very good too. But the best place to live is certainly Florida or Montana...Phuket would be my 92nd choice and Bangkok never made the list this month. As you obviously have some intelligence, I won't explain why Pattaya never made my lists. (It does top my list of "Best Place For Expat Homicides', "Paedophile Pleasure", "Scandinavian Informal Euthanasia Services" and "Scams Only Brain-dead Tourists Could Fall For". Have I saved you the price of ticket?

[dillpickles98]

I fell in love with Pattaya in 1982, traveled & lived there for short periods ever since. Learned to speak Thai while working as a expat in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. I am exactly 8 days from my dream of retiring there on a one way ticket. While Pattaya has lost much of it's innocence stupid tourist are to blame. One of my best friends went to Pattaya in 1967 from Vietnam, & has never spent more then 2 weeks back in the U.S. All my friends here in the U. S. I either met them there or know them through someone I met there.

Bar life days are over for me, married & happy with my wife from Samut Prakan we'll be looking for some place off from the beach road, but accessible. After living in L.A. for 5 yrs. she says L.A. is in black & white, Thailand is in color.

So whatever has become of Pattaya stupid farangs made it. Glad I won't have be embarrassed by the things they do anymore. It doesn't matter how many times you go, or how long you live there if your not stupid you will learn something every single day.

[wesway9]

I would scratch Pattaya off your list. It's for farang tourists looking for sex of any flavor you can name.

Unless you have to live around the ocean, consider northern Thailand, namely Chiang Mai. There is a large expat community there, lots of good food including western food, lots of nice pubs where expats and Thai's hang out. The weather is cooler than central Thailand, and the cost of living is reasonable. The airport in Chiang Mai just got a major facelift, and is now the nicest airport in Thailand. The flight from BK is about one hour, and there are lots of flights everyday. Just google Chiang Mai.

[Changnoy]

I called this thread The "Darkside", and included it as the area i am interested in. But for some reason it was changed. Can the editor please explain why it was altered.
To those that dont know..The Darkside is the area to the west of Pattaya beyond the Sukumvit road and over the railway line. It originally got its nickname due to the lack of street lighting..but that has all changed now to a certain extent. There are quite a few security compounds etc and an expat community away from the usual Walking Street crowd.

Good luck with your ill-timed relocation...To answer your question, the best restaurants are in Penang, Singapore, Jakarta and KL. Better to socialise in Manila where they speak better English and the food can be very good too. But the best place to live is certainly Florida or Montana...Phuket would be my 92nd choice and Bangkok never made the list this month. As you obviously have some intelligence, I won't explain why Pattaya never made my lists. (It does top my list of "Best Place For Expat Homicides', "Paedophile Pleasure", "Scandinavian Informal Euthanasia Services" and "Scams Only Brain-dead Tourists Could Fall For". Have I saved you the price of ticket?

I guess you are only trying to help, but i dont see how Penang, Singapore, Jakarta, KL, Manila, Florida, Montana, Phuket or Bangkok help when talking about a future life in Pattaya.
I am married to a Thai and have been coming to Pattaya for 22yrs, so i know a little bit about the place. But my visits tend to revolve around my inlaws who live in the Chonburi area and so i do not know much about life in The Darkside.

I would be interested to hear your take on those subjects which top your list, experiences, factual stories etc....you can PM me if you like.

[Eggmeng]

[After living in L.A. for 5 yrs. she says L.A. is in black & white, Thailand is in color.

Marvelous quote. Your wife sounds like a very smart lady.

[Baster_Hobnail]

Pattaya is not a nice place to visit and I would not want to live there.

[pattayapat]

Brian Jacks ex judo olympic gold has an apartment complex in the darkside . called view dee apartments . He can advise , details can be found online google and youtube..

[clivemh]

I have lived on the "Darkside" for 4 yrs, I have to say it is only 10 minutes from the city but far enough away to be a village community. I agree this town is based on the sex industry, but in it's defense it is doing a lot to draw in foreign families, trying to make this resort more respectable, and not just a dirty word. Let's face it we wouldn't have international hotels chains here if it was all sex and filthy old men. Next month the Hilton is due to open it's doors to the public. We have outstanding shopping malls and high quality restaurants. The streets are far safer than Manila, as everyone realizes that tourism is very important here, so very rarely are tourists ever involved in anything bad. In the past this was a refuge for crooks around the world but with technology, this has been lessened to a certain degree.
I recommend to the poster as high up the hill on the "Darkside" as your budget can afford, we have all the luxuries you can expect back home such as broadband and cable TV. Check out Kao Talo which is thriving with new villages. Brian Jacks is a nice guy, but honestly he lives in a big mansion well away from the city of Pattaya, and wouldn't be an awful lot of good to you in this instance. Finally I have to say I came here originally to learn SCUBA, and I thought the place was a BIG DIVE, but it grows on you, this is a city where EAST meets WEST very comfortably, plus we have a fabulous climate...

[laylek]

I doubt if this reply will be noticed but I have lived on the DarkSide for the past 13 years. First I rented a 2 bedroom halfway up the Siam Country Club road and then bought a home off Maprachan, just past the Siam country Club entrance. I have watched the area grow dramatically over the years. At times things looked bad and later the construction finished and the traffic improved and then it started all over again. Through all this I have seen everything grow and "Improve".

There are more pubs and restaurants. More expats from all different countries and more social groups of all types. It is no longer the Darkside. Personally, I like the change. Other than the greens fees going up over the past 5 years I can only complain about the down town Pattaya traffic. Even this is planning for improvement. Hopefully it won't take 30 years like the motorway to be completed. (I first lived in Thailand from 1971 to 1975).

I hope Changnoy has settled in a quiet area as I have and he is enjoying his retirement. Another 5 years and I will retire also and totally enjoy my home and family everyday.