Planning to go sometime this year. Have read alot about navigating the bar scene but not much as far as suvival tips.

Good places to stay? e.g., Close to the action but not in the action. Gotta sleep sometime.

I hear the food can be a problem and many get the runs. Any advice on where and what to eat? Not to eat? Quality punting might be difficult with 24/7 rear end flow.

Can ya get by on plastic for everything not girl related or is cash needed for stores, dining, cabs, etc.

SIM card for cell? Where? Cost?

Any cash machines / currency exchanges?

Don't drink the water?

Best time weather wise? I hear it can be 100 and raining at certain times of the year. uggggh

No visa required for stays under 30 days?

Let me see if I can help with a few of your questions:

I hear the food can be a problem and many get the runs. Any advice on where and what to eat? Not to eat?
If you decide to eat street food, make sure you go to a busy vendor with plenty of customers (so the food is freshly cooked) and if you are not used to spicy foods, ask for "mai phet" (not spicy).  There are plenty of western food outlets ranging from fast food (McDonalds, Pizza Company) to moderately priced Italian restaurants to fancy seafood places.  Gastronomically speaking, it's not Bangkok but you're not going to go hungry.  

Can ya get by on plastic for everything not girl related or is cash needed for stores, dining, cabs, etc.
Cash is typical and highly recommended.  Thailand has one of the highest rates of credit card fraud.

SIM card for cell? Where? Cost?
Everywhere.  7-11 (or the knockoffs) are good choices.  AIS (1-2-Call) and DTAC are two common choices for carriers.  About 100 Baht and top-ups are available everywhere.

Any cash machines / currency exchanges?
Almost as many as SIM card vendors.  Note that almost all of the ATMs have a surcharge of 150 Baht, so make a few large withdrawals rather than many small withdrawals.  Currency booth may be cheaper for small transactions.

Don't drink the water?
Use bottled water (widely available).  Some people will brush their teeth only with bottled water, but this is probably overkill.

Best time weather wise? I hear it can be 100 and raining at certain times of the year. uggggh
Thailand has three seasons:
1) Hot
2) Unbelievably hot
3) Hot and wet
November to February is high season (best weather).  March and April are the brutal months for heat.  Rainy season is like June through October.  Usually the rain is in short bursts, not the entire day.
  
No visa required for stays under 30 days?
Depends on your nationality.  I believe US, UK, Hong Kong are 30 days.  China is 15 days.

This site should answer lots of your questions... http://wikitravel.org/en/Pattaya

Just returned from my first trip to Pattaya... I was only there for 30 hours, but maybe I can help. Its a great place, I felt like a kid in a candy store.

I stayed at the Inntown Holiday Hotel on soi 11... quiet place. Bars and massage places all around, about a 5-10 minute walk to the beach, maybe 20 minutes to walking street. Or you can just take a baht bus (songtaew) or moto-taxi, getting around Pattaya is easy.

Never had gastrointestinal problems in Thailand, and I'm usually eating street food or at cheap restaurants. Just use common sense, per Jakarta's suggestions.


Now, I have a question of my own. How is the selection of girls during the wet season? Are the beach freelancers still around?

Found this on CL .  Having your heart and wallet survive is important too.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dos And Don'ts, The Rules

For all of you who come to Thailand for the first time and lose your heart, please follow these rules so you don’t lose your wallet and / or your mind also:

1- Don’t give a woman you meet in a bar any substantial amounts of money for any reason whatsoever:

a- Don’t give her money if she says she is sick or has had an accident

b- Don’t give her money if she says her family (father, mother, son, daughter, cow or buffalo) are sick

c- Don’t give her money to fix her house or tractor

d- Don’t give her money to buy land or gold

2- Don’t open a bank account for her; don’t give her an ATM card and don’t give her any passwords of yours.

3- Don’t marry her, either in a western or Thai wedding, if you have only known her a short time. If you do marry her (Please don’t), for God’s sake don’t pay any dowry to her family. Dowries are not a requirement and if she truly loves you she will not ask for one. Sometimes, dowries are paid and the money is then immediately returned.

4- Don’t believe her when she says:

a- I love you

b- You are the only one

c- I don’t go with other men

d- I have only worked in bars for a short time

5- Don’t believe her if she says she is pregnant with your child

6- Don’t bring her to live in your country. Thai women do not perform well away from their family / friends and TV dramas.

7- Don’t send her money for language lessons, beautician school or to open a massage parlour. Don’t send her money directly for anything. If she needs money, speak to the vendor and pay the invoice yourself.

I could give you a thousand explanations for the above rules. A thousand stories. A thousand broken hearts. But I won’t. There’s no point. Trust me and follow the rules.

If you don’t believe me:

8- Don’t believe that your girl is different.

Those are the Don’ts. Here are some things to do:

1- Check her Thai ID to make sure of her sex (and age).

2- Spend quality time with her. Take her out of the bar and to a nice restaurant, a temple, the movies, a supermarket. See how she acts. See how she looks after your money.

3- Spend quantity time with her. A lot of time. 6 months or a year (face to face. Skype is not a substitute for a relationship).

4- Check her phone for messages from others. Check her email if you can get the password. Assume she has a second account. (Yes, I know this is immoral. So what?)

5- Spend a lot of time in her village with her family. If they ask for money, just smile and follow the Dont's above.

6- Get her a real job or send her to a real school. Insist on seeing her report card and attendance record. Pay the bill yourself after speaking to the person running the school. Ask for her performance review (every Thai gets a written review 3 months after they begin work.)

7- If anything seems unusual, or disturbing, like strange phone calls, or she turns her phone off when she is with you, or you think she is not where she says she is...if anything at all doesn’t feels right, run away.

8- Trust your gut. If it doesn’t feel right, it is not right.

9- If everything is perfect, do nothing. Wait a year. Wait another year if you can.

10- Print this out and put it in your wallet. Read it from time to time, preferably every day.

This may seem cynical. It is not. This may seem callous. It is not. There are many wonderful Thai women out there. I am in a long term relationship with one of them. I have been with her 5 years and every year I trust her a bit more. I still don’t trust her 100%. I know people who are happily married to Thai women. But I have been going to Thailand for 20+ years; and others live there.

It is different if you are just coming for the first time, or only come once a year. You need to spend significant time on the ground with a Thai woman before making a commitment, financial or emotional. Thai women can be the most wonderful, thoughtful, caring, appreciative, warm, responsible, people.

They can also be the opposite.

You are a buyer. They are sellers.

Buyer Beware.

PS: I wrote this to serve as a warning to others. Feel free to send me your comments and additions and I will update this as more thoughts come in.

This is all good stuff. just a few things to add.

First thing is that Pattaya is a wonderful place. It is where I had my first punting experience, so it is a special place to me. I admit, I fell into some of the "don't". I was young then.   I need to get back there some day.

Another thing to watch out for is excessive lady drinks. There are some women who really have no intention to go to your hotel, but they want you to keep buying them the lady drinks since they have your attention. The lady drinks cost more because part of that money goes to the girl.

My personal rule is one lady drink for a woman I am interested in bringing back to my hotel. I don't want to spend too much time in the noisy bars. I want to pay the bar fine and get out of there with my chosen girl so the evening can begin.


Also, this one is very true "Spend quality time with her".
I have always been more of a "long time" guy. I really like there is that option and it is cheap (not much more then a short time). The overnight options in HK tend to be a bit on the expensive side. With a Thai girl, once you are going to go "long time" with her anyway, the girls love to be taken out to eat (the food is cheap). The girls work long hours, they love to get out. Take them to the tiger zoo or something. Many of the places in their home town they never get to visit due to time and money restraints.

I had one of the girls follow me from Pattaya, back to Bangkok, and then all the way to the airport with the last two nights free. (well, if you do not count buying her food and transportation)

I guess one more thing. Beware of the baht buses trying to act like taxis after dark and asking for ridiculous prices. If the driver starts to give you shit after you get on asking where you want to go, just get off and get on another one.

Have a wonderful time!

[ Last edited by  TravelGuyHK at 14-5-2011 07:20 ]

I've spent not much time in HK but too much time in Pattaya. It's the best. I've found that it pays to approach it differently depending on what you want. If you're there by yourself it's easy to find a nice girl that will show you around & keep you company. If you're there for a short time & want to party you can find some crazy girls too. Keep that in mind when chosoing your lady.

THe other thing is that bargirls to my mind are different from straight up hookers. Sure you can take them & fuck them with minimal interaction if you like, but by & large thai girls are funny and that approach will result in a bored disinterested performance from the girl. If you spend some time drinking in the bar & going out to a disco to make sure you 'click' with the girl it will usually pay back many times over and you can end up being quite good friends with the girls. I've even introduced one ex BKK bargirl whos now a fashion designer in singapore to work colleagues who were none the wiser.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and if she looks too young, she probably is. Trust your eyes and not the (probably borrowed) ID card. If she leaves long time early (usually friend locked out of room, have to go school, friend sick) she has a thai BF, can her.

[ Last edited by  Mandalay at 15-5-2011 08:48 ]

Very good advice.  I live in pattaya and couldnt agree more on if she looks young she probably is - just be careful! you never know!