May 9, 2007

Asia | Thailand | Pattaya

Sin City Reborn

By Newley Purnell

Bangkok's notorious neighbor wants to clean up its act.

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Amid the waggishly sloganed t-shirts that are hawked along the street stalls of Bangkok, there is one the Thai tourism bureau might wish didn’t exist. It says, “Good guys go to heaven. Bad guys go to Pattaya.” Jammed with go-go joints and girlie bars, the notorious resort enclave on the Gulf of Thailand has long been known as the kingdom’s “red light city.” Yet while its current news swirls with stories of paedophile teachers, elephant kidnappings and the world’s largest trans-sexual cabaret show, Pattaya’s developers and hoteliers are aiming to transform the city’s seedy image. The Hard Rock Hotel (pictured) now cultivates family-friendly volleyball in its huge pool. A luxury “lakes condo” golf resort has just broken ground. A new upscale fusion restaurant, Mantra, has been hailed as the future for sophisticated dining. And hotel bookings are 17 percent up from 2005.

The tipping point might simply be geography: a new international airport is around an hour’s drive away. And even the city’s skyline is set to change: a new Meridien is slated to be the city’s first five-star beachfront resort, plus plans are under way to make Pattaya home to Thailand’s tallest building, a 92-floor office and residential tower. But can the city truly shed its bad-boy rep? As Pattaya’s own city council chairman says, “People don’t come to Pattaya city to pray.”