Pattaya City

General Information of the city of Pattaya

Pattaya not only is a top attraction in Thailand, but its reputation has also been spread all over the world. This is because there are a number of natural attractions in Pattaya, such as Pattaya Beach, Jomtien beach, Koh Larn, Silverlake winery, and so on. Apart from these natural attractions, there are also night clubs, a broad range of restaurants, sports and water activities, and traditional shows. It is therefore not surprisingly to see numerous numbers of visitors travelling Pattaya, especially in October to March where it is as the peak season.

Pattaya History

the name of Pattaya
There is a story for the reason why this city is named Pattaya. In 1767, before the second fall of the Thailand former capital, Ayuthaya, to Burmese, Phraya Kampangpetch named Tak Sin (became King Tak Sin later) believed that weak army in the former capital could not win the war from Burmese during that time. Then he, Phraya Kampangpetch, gather Thai soldiers to fight for heading southeast of Thailand in order to develop a new strategy and collect more soldiers to fight back Burmese army.

On the way of heading to Chanthaburi, he made a decision to let the troop stay at the current location of Pattaya. However, Phraya Kampangpetch then encounters with the troop of Nai Glom, who tried to intercept him. Surprisingly, Phraya Kampangpetch was riding a fighting elephant followed by his troop to head to the middle of the troop of Nai Glom in order to frighten the opponent. When Nai Glom met face to face with Phraya Kampangpetch, he then chose to surrender without a fight because of a respect in Phraya Kampangpetch’s manner and his army conformity.

After that, one part of Phaya Kampangpetch’s troop, approximately 10,000 soldiers and leading by Nai Glom, stayed at a district around that area for a night, and that district was then named “Thap Phaya”, meant the Army of the Phraya. However, the name was afterward changed to “Phatthaya” as its location has the blowing wind from southwest to northeast called Phatthaya at the beginning of the rainy season. However, “Phattaya” has been rewritten to Pattaya. [Ref: info.pattaya.go.th/DocLib1/ประวัติเมืองพัทยา.aspx (Thai)]

How does it become popular?

Pattaya became well known since the war between Vietnam and The United State. Approximately in 1961, a number of the United State’s soldiers located in Nakorn Ratchasima military base went to Pattaya for relaxation. Not only Phraya Soontorn provided resorts for them to stay, but they were also amazed at the beautiful beach of Pattaya. It is therefore the beginning of its reputation of beautiful beach went viral.

Pattaya was just a small bay village before, but it has been developed as a large city. When becoming a busier city, a lot of tourist businesses such as hotels, resorts, restaurants, travel agencies, vehicle rentals, attractions, night clubs, and so on, have been established constantly to support a large number of visitors coming to Pattaya. At the present, Pattaya became a busy city for tourism from all over the world.

The Background of Pattaya City

Pattaya City, a city in the province of Chonburi, is situated approximately 140 Kilometers from Bangkok and on the east coast of golf of Thailand. Its area covers the whole tambon Nong Prue and Naklua, and the psts of Huai Yai and Nong Pla Lai.

Before 29 November 1978, Pattaya was as the Naklua district, established in 1956. The territory of it was just the Nakua Part. After 1964, the territory was expanded to South Pattaya, where it is approximately 22.2 square kilometers. Due to fast-growing development, Pattaya became a major attraction for both Thai and Foreign visitors. After that, the originally managing strategy could not support this constant grow. Thai government then lunched the Regulation of Thailand for governing and managing Pattaya City (Thai language) on 29 November 1978 for announcing Pattaya as a self-gorverning city within the province of Chonburi Thailand. During this time a city manager was the one who took care of Pattaya city. However, after 1998, the constitution of Thailand regulated that those who become a city manager in any district in Thailand must be from the election. This regulation was started from 30 November 2001. [Ref from Pattaya City Background (Thai language)]

Pattaya Main Areas

Pattaya are divided into 6 main areas – Naklua, North Pattaya, Central Pattaya, South Pattaya, Buddha Hill and Jomtien. The brief details of such areas are provided below:

Naklua is the first area that visitors will arrive if theycome to Pattaya by Sukhumvit Road. There are a number of five stars hotels and Condominium in This area. Wong Amat Beach is also an interesting place in Naklua.

The second one is North Pattaya. A lot of Pubs and restaurants such as Differ, climax, and Lal La, locate in this area. There are Hypermarkets, Big C Pattaya (Central Festival) and Lotus Pattaya, to provide convenience to local people and tourists. A high quality hospital as Bangkok-Pattaya Hospital is also located in North Pattaya.

Central Pattaya is the next one, but this area seems to be for day businesses, not night businesses. The major businesses in Central Pattaya are pharmacies and clinics, including dental clinics. Pubs or bars are rarely seen in this area, but there are still spas in this area. Although in Central Pattaya Carrefour is the only one hypermarket, Foodland - food supermarket – could help to support demands for quality range of food products 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Additionally, Telephone Organization of Thailand, TOT Public Company Limited provides a complete range of telecommunications services for all target groups.

South Pattaya is a wide range of businesses. In the day time, TukCom, a department store for IT and telecommunication is very popular for both local people and visitors, while in the night time, pubs, bars, a go go are most popular in this areas – this might be because South Pattaya connects to Pattaya Walking Street where there are huge numbers of pubs, and a go go bars.

For Pattaya Buddha hill, there are a number of high class accommodations. With a spectacular view on the hill, some of tourists may prefer to stay in this area. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) office is also located here so that tourists can request informations for travel in Pattaya, and Pattaya Tourist Police is also located next to TAT to support tourists in the emergency case.

The last one is Pattaya Jomtien. Water activities are major interesting points for this area, and Jomtien is also a nice place for tourists preferring to take a rest a bit quietly. Furthermore, every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night, there is a local market called “Talad nut Thepphasit” where a number of interesting products, including hand-made products, are sold.

Main streets in the downtown

There are 4 main roads to get around Pattaya Downtown – Sukhumvit Rd, Third Rd, Second Rd, and Beach Rd. Memorizing these main roads will help visitors plan their trip easier.

Pattaya city map

Map of Pattaya City for presenting Pattaya main streets

Sukhumvit road is the main road connecting to Bangkok and Rayong, so this road would be for visitors to go to somewhere else instead of getting around Pattaya. In other words, once visitors plan to travel in other places such as Tiger zoo (Sriracha), Beach in Sattahip, or Samet Island, this main road would be used to visit there.

The other 3 main roads connect North Pattaya to South Pattaya. Pubs and bars are located around these 3 main roads. However, pubs and bars in the third roads are softer than the other two roads. Remember that the beach road and the second road are joined together at Dolphin roundabout, North Pattaya, and the beach road also connects to Pattaya Walking Street at South Pattaya.