Buying a Condo in Pattaya

Story One The Independent Businesswoman A Positive Experience

In 2019, I was online using the Thai Friendly dating app to look for someone for a new potential relationship and met one nice girl of a similar age to me in her forties. She was a businesswoman that owned several hotels and factories and was single with no children. I had arranged to travel with her around Bangkok and Pattaya as she wanted to show me some sites and get to know me. We had spoken for several months online and by voice and video prior to meeting, but I thought we might as well meet as I wanted a holiday after I had gone through a bad divorce.

I met her at the airport, and to my surprise, she had actually paid for a taxi to drive us from Bangkok airport to Pattaya. She had also organized for her room to be located next to mine with a journey adjoining doors. Once we arrived in Pattaya, she had shown me around some great places to eat and some other nice places for a few nights, and we had a good time. Then we traveled to Bangkok, and she proceeded to show me around some tourist areas and some nice places to shop and also to eat with me eating foods I had not tried before in the Chinatown area of Bangkok.

We had a really good time together, and I felt we had a good connection. What surprised me was that she sometimes insisted that she paid for everything for me and even bought my parents gifts for me to take back to Sydney, Australia. I did not expect any of this. She told me also, to my surprise, that all of her female friends were businesswomen and all single and in their late 30s and 40s, and struggling to find a suitable well educated partner. They were all independent and did not need anybody’s money, but just wanted a Western partner that they could connect with and could form a relationship with. She made a joke that the reason so many good girls are single in Thailand is because the good Thai guys are married already, and the others are ladyboys or are gay.

Although the relationship did not work out in the end due to various differences, what I learned from this experience is that if you take your time to search for a decent Thai woman that is independent and not after you for your money, there is plenty of them out there. If you search. Now with my goal to move to Thailand, I am again learning from that experience seeking educated or independent Thai women that I can form a long term relationship with. I also learned the culture is very beautiful once you get to learn about it, and I am optimistic about finding a good Thai woman. I still remember this as a positive experience for me.

Story Two Buying a Condo in Pattaya A Different Kind of Love

I’ve been going to Thailand now for almost 10 years from my early 30s until recently, I am now 42. I started going there with my girlfriend who is now my wife. I’ve never really had a strong desire to take girls out of the bars and back to my hotel. My wife and I have been to many of the go go bars, and it’s been good fun watching the live shows, etc. We still have some laughs about stories from visiting these live shows and all the clubs. At the end of the day when looking back, it was always something we never took too seriously. It’s also not something I miss when I think of Thailand. I have some amazing memories about the bars with musicians and great stories.

I know most of the stories on your channel are about single guys or finding love and loss in the Land of Smiles. However, this is not that kind of story hopefully it’s not boring for your viewers.

My story took place around 2018. We had been going to Thailand at this point for many years on holidays both as a couple and with family. We are in a position where my wife and I run our own business and can pretty much travel every few months prior to this pandemic. Sometimes we traveled alone, sometimes with our family.

On a family trip to Pattaya which was my second visit we were staying in the north part of Pattaya close to the Dolphin Roundabout. I have to say that this part of Pattaya is a little slower place and does not have too many crazy bars. It’s really beautiful with a very island feel about it and quite upscale. It has a real sense of community, and we came here a few times to enjoy this beach area as it was so close to Bangkok which we love.

So on this trip, we were chilling by the beach at the Pullman, and we look up and see to our left this really nice condo. We think to ourselves, “Hey, that would be pretty nice to have a place right here on the beach.” We were sending our parents to Hua Hin a couple of months a year anyway to get away from the harsh winters. My daughter went for a little walk and to the right of this condo was a new apartment block. It had just finished construction and was about 30 to 40 percent sold at this point. We all went to check it out as my daughter said that it was a really nice building with a beautiful pool.

Buying the Pattaya Condo Together

We didn’t buy the condo on that trip, but we did purchase a few months later. Both my wife and my mother and father in law used it whenever we traveled there. It’s great because it really does overlook the ocean, and the property is right on the beach. Whether it was a good deal or not doesn’t really matter for me, it was like buying a classic car or something you really enjoy. If you use it well, you don’t really need to think about how much you paid for it. My buying was a good choice.

We’ve had lots of great times visiting since. The surrounding beach hotel bars have become like a second kitchen, and the hotel staff were almost like family. Not being able to visit Thailand for almost two years now is kind of nuts, considering my place has been empty this entire time. So this purchase although unplanned ended up changing or affecting our lives in many positive ways. We created so many great memories and stories of our trips to Pattaya. This apartment became our family meetup place.

My wife and I love Pattaya but not for the usual sin and skin vacation it’s famous for. We love the beach, the massages whenever you want, amazing food, slow living, and also healthy living if you want it. You can visit Thailand not only for the bars and aerobics but actual exercise and a change in lifestyle from what you have in your home country. Sure, there is a lot of female company in Thailand, and if I was divorced or single, I might even be tempted to taste the local cuisine if you get my drift.

This is definitely not one of my more tame recollections, but it’s a warm memory of buying a condo in Pattaya. Maybe at some point the government there might actually let me come back to visit my apartment without all the red tape.

Story Three The Travel Agent Tom A Lamb to the Slaughter

I arrived in Bangkok about 3:00 a.m., a little inexperienced I’d not really planned the trip well and was looking for a taxi to take me to a hotel. A couple of men waved me over, and I decided to take up their offer of transport to a hotel. They took me to a hotel whereby I paid too much for one night. The owner also wanted to retain my passport never do this, you guys.

The next morning, I decided to go out to a familiar bar and have a few beers. As I was waiting at reception, I was approached by a Thai man well dressed and a little bit pushy offering to show me around. So the scam begins. The guy called himself Tom, and he was a tour operator working in the hotel and experienced with foreigners. At first I resisted and said, “Forget it, I just want a taxi,” but he was persistent. So I thought, “Okay, I’ll have a few beers with this guy as I’m alone anyway.”

We all go to a familiar bar I know, and I was surprised at how much this guy Tom could drink obviously at my expense. Tom told me he had a niece, and maybe I would like to meet her. A lonely intoxicated farang is like a lamb to the slaughter. So we arranged to meet up with his niece on the following day apparently she is not too old and looks okay. I’m 52. Of course, she has a friend with her who speaks good English who will translate.

We go to a local shopping mall for lunch I hate shopping malls, and this is in Bangkok which has literally hundreds of them. The niece asked me if I would like to buy her a phone. I reply, “No why would I want to? And besides, you already have a phone.” I decide to go back to my favorite bar and take my new friends with me. This was my next mistake, as they now know where my hotel is and where I drink. So now they have latched on.

With Tom the tour operator you have to laugh I catch up with Tom and we go out with the two girls to a restaurant, at my expense again. Seafood for four about 80 Australian dollars it’s okay. I say to Tom, “I’m not interested in your niece she’s too old.” He says, “I have another one she’s 30.” I said, “Why didn’t you tell me that before?” He says, “Because she lives on the other side of Bangkok, a long way from here.” At this point I’m fed up with him, but I agree to meet her provided that she can speak English of which he assures me she can.

Tom’s Expensive Tour of Bangkok

I don’t really want to go where she lives, as Tom says it’s a two hour drive with his nephew a taxi driver at my expense. Tom tells me she lives with her parents good hard working Thai people and her sister. As soon as I walked in, her sister gives me red roses to give to her sister. Well, what can I do? I had no choice, so I gallantly give the flowers to a woman that I don’t even know. Of course, Tom has organized everything. We drink beer all night again at my expense. I discover that the girl cannot speak English, and neither do her parents. So now I’m stuck in the outskirts of Bangkok. I have no idea where I am, and Tom has arranged the next day to go shopping for a table and a microwave for my new family. I get out of this at about 300 lighter which is okay, considering it’s a department store.

So now I’m stuck in a nice house on the outskirts of Bangkok with very nice people that I don’t know, but with encouragement from Tom that I’m doing okay. I spent all day on my own. I decided to leave. I take my clothes and passport and wallet, and I walk out looking for a taxi to take me back to the hotel. Problem yes, no taxis at all. I’m in regional Bangkok. But Tom sorts it and sends the woman’s father to find me. I felt so sorry for him because he had been working maybe 15 hours, and he insists to take me back on a two hour drive back to my hotel. Now this is important to Tom because he doesn’t want to lose me.

I couldn’t lose him for days. I eventually took a girl from a sleazy bar to keep me company for a week, and eventually the message got through that I was not interested in Tom’s nieces, sisters, daughters, or any other members of his family as I now had my own choice of company.

Wow what a holiday.

Story Four The First Trip A Nightmare in Bangkok and a Welcome in Pattaya

I lived in a very small town in the Welsh valleys, and back in the day, myself and four of my friends who had heard of a place called Pattaya halfway around the world which was full of beautiful girls sounded too good to be true. All five of us were quite young at the time and, looking back, I suppose very naive. Anyway, that said, we decided to book our flight to Bangkok through a local travel agent. As our village was quite small, word soon got around that we five guys had booked a trip to Pattaya. It wasn’t long before we were the talk of the village.

Being very naive back then, we kind of thought we wouldn’t be able to buy anything in Thailand that you could get in the UK, so we stocked up on far too much stuff it was ridiculous, really. We finally arrived in Bangkok and were booked into the old Bangkok Palace Hotel. We hadn’t been in the hotel for more than 20 minutes when we found ourselves out and about drinking in a bar that was full of beautiful girls. We had heard about Patpong and Nana Plaza, so we took a taxi and asked the driver to be taken to Patpong.

We eventually ended up in a bar it was kind of like an old warehouse building, but it was a strange place. Even though we’d never been to Bangkok before and we’re naive, we knew this was not Patpong. But this place wasn’t too bad, and although we didn’t know exactly where we were, we decided to carry on drinking as we were all having fun with the ladies in this bar, and they were good fun. We also enjoyed watching them dancing on stage.

The Hotel Security Nightmare

The night finally came to an end. Myself and my friends decided that we would like some of these ladies to join us back at the hotel to continue drinking. So we paid what seemed like an excessive fee to the bar to compensate them for taking out these ladies even though the bar was closing. But hey, we’re on holiday, so what the heck.

Around 6:00 a.m., we were all getting very tired and had drunk far too much, so we decided to ask the girls to leave as we wanted to sleep. The five girls that were with us demanded a huge fee for each of them. We protested, as we thought this was included with the money we paid the bar as it was quite a lot of money. A massive argument broke out between all of the girls and all of us guys, and before long we were all shouting at each other and stuff was being thrown around the room by the girls. We must have made a lot of noise and bear in mind this is now 6:00 a.m. I think we must have woken most of the guests in the hotel.

Eventually there was a knock at the door. It was hotel security who started threatening to throw us out of the hotel if we didn’t keep quiet, and told us to pay the girls what they were asking so that they would leave and the noise would stop. One of the security guys was quite a nice guy and spoke a bit of English because he took us aside and explained the protocol when you take these ladies back to your room for drinks. We eventually paid up, they all left. We were all very tired, so slept soundly as we were also still jet lagged from the long haul flight the day before.

The Escape

The next day we were heading to Pattaya. We all met up outside our rooms, headed down to the hotel lobby, and were very surprised to see some of the girls from the night before hanging around the lobby. Of course, when they saw us, they started shouting and screaming abuses at us, and we took a few slaps running out of the front door to the taxi. The driver had witnessed all of the commotion, so as soon as we were in the taxi, he drove off as fast as he could. We left the girls still screaming and shouting at the exhaust fumes coming out of the taxi. Once we cleared the hotel, we all burst out laughing.

That was our first experience of Bangkok we didn’t even see Nana Plaza, Patpong, or Soi Cowboy.

I’m guessing we were about halfway to Pattaya when the taxi driver gets a phone call. Of course, we don’t understand what the conversation is about, but after about half a minute, the taxi driver asked, “Is there anybody called Paul here?” to which we reply, “Yes, this is Paul.” The taxi driver hands his phone to Paul. Paul’s face turns white as he’s listening to the person at the other end of the phone. He is talking to a policeman who is telling him that the girls from the night before have accused us of all stealing money from their handbag, and in particular they are pointing the finger at Paul. The policeman then goes on to tell Paul that we must all head back to Bangkok to speak with the police back at the hotel.

We all took a joint decision that we were going to ignore the phone call and carry on to Pattaya. Our plan was to have our current driver drop us off on Beach Road. Once he had driven off, we would get in another taxi and head off to our hotel. But the driver insisted that he drives us to the front door of our hotel. The driver started insisting that we tell him the name of the hotel, but we refused and got dropped off very close to Soi 6 off Beach Road. We walked up to Soi 6 with our entire luggage, as our hotel was at the top of the soi.

The Journey from Bangkok to Pattaya

We couldn’t believe our eyes and our ears hundreds of screaming girls trying to get us to come into their bars. We had never experienced anything like this before, and remember we all came from a small village in Wales. We tried to refuse as we wanted to leave our bags at the hotel first, but we got as far as the Eagle Bar and relented, going in for a cold beer. We stayed in the Eagle Bar for about three hours. It was great we were enjoying the girls’ company. Some of us were playing pool, others Connect Four. We were all thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

Eventually we did check into our hotel. We never heard anything further from the girls which, as you can imagine, was totally untrue. So this was our first experience of the Land of Smiles that hideous night in Bangkok and the wonderful welcome in Pattaya. It makes me cringe when I look back now how naive we all were, but we soon learned to adapt to the ways of Pattaya and we learned some useful lessons.

I am the only one out of our original group of five who continually travels back to Thailand on holiday. Looking back, I honestly think that Thailand is not as much fun as it was back in the early 90s perhaps it’s my age. But I have found I have fond memories of my early days in the bars of Pattaya. I could have made this a much longer story, as we had further adventures in Pattaya as it was only now our second day at this time but I wanted to keep the story short. If you’re interested in part two, let me know and I’ll put something together.

Story Five The Village the Ex Boyfriend and a Late Night Knock

I’m returning to Thailand to work teaching English in middle school in Bangkok in the summer. I taught English in the winter and I taught skiing in the Swiss Alps. After five years of teaching English, I decided to spend the sixth year as a holiday in Thailand. I left with a relaxed mind. I spent three wonderful months in a beautiful hotel in Pattaya until the following happened.

On a dating site, I met a girl who lived in a village near Rayong which is about an hour by car from Pattaya. After short messages back and forth, I finally agreed to visit her. We met at Starbucks. After an hour of waiting, a really beautiful girl shows up. She told me that she had finished business school abroad and that she is currently running her own frozen fish business. After finishing coffee at Starbucks, she took me to a hotel where I would sleep. This beautiful girl took me with her on an evening with her business partners. It was nice, and we drank a lot. (One of them is a director of a company that assembles pre fabricated houses and sends them to Hungary.) Everything was nice until we had to leave.

When we arrived at the hotel, we took the keys at the reception and went to the room. There was no one at the front desk, and the girl had accidentally taken the wrong keys and put us in a room where there was only one double bed. I know we liked each other, and she suggested I go take a shower. I crawled into bed and wanted to sleep when she replied that she couldn’t sleep next to me. She sat down next to the bed and watched me sleep. I said it wouldn’t work that way and suggested that we go to her house where I could sleep in another room. I really respected her though, but I did have ugly thoughts (alcohol does do that kind of thing). I knew I shouldn’t try to talk her into something she doesn’t want to do, right?

She agreed and drove drunk to her house. It was already 3:30 in the morning. On the way to her house, we stopped off at yet another friend’s house for drinks. It was now 4:00 a.m. By the time we finally got back to her house, it was 4:30 a.m. I was sitting in my underwear when someone knocked on the door. Had this beautiful girl changed her mind? The girl opened the door, and a strange Thai man came into the room. I had no idea who this guy was, but he sat down opposite and introduced himself in Thai. He left the room after a few minutes. What’s just happened? I thought.

The Ex-Boyfriend’s Late-Night Threat

The girl went on to explain to me that this guy was her ex boyfriend and that he lives next door. She then told me to go to sleep and try to rest, and she would take me back to Pattaya in a couple of hours which actually turned out to be about 11:00 o’clock in the morning.

I could have come to real harm in that village that she took me to. I could have been beaten, robbed, and the jungle would eat me alive if I’d been left stranded with no funds. The following day, she sent me a text message telling me that she wanted to introduce me to her family in the village. I ignored her text even though she had told me that she has her own business and she’s doing well, I had to pay for absolutely everything. Thailand is beautiful, and I always respect it, but we need to know that Thais respect each other even more than we respect Thailand.

Story Six A Housegirl’s Journey From Thailand to America

I have a story about bar girls that I learned about in Thailand. Like you have said, most come from poor farming areas where they have received very little education. Some come to Bangkok or Pattaya on their own, and some are brought by older sisters.

I married a girl who had been my housegirl. We had hired her to watch my son while living and working in Thailand. After returning to the States, I divorced my wife not wanting to get married again but having started a romantic relationship with my housegirl, who also came from a poor family. I insisted she returned to school and get her high school education. She did. And after graduating high school, I insisted she go to college and get her degree. She did. Then I brought her to the States on a fiancee visa, and I married her.

As soon as she arrived in the States, I noticed a change in her attitude looking down on other Thai girls. I asked her why. She said, “They’re bar girls and had worked in bars and married their husbands just to get to the States.” I told her not all these girls were fortunate like her to have someone who could help them get an education and have a better life.

We were married for 12 years, and the first five were very good. We had two children and were both workaholics. I worked at night, and she worked at first at an apartment complex in the daytime. I would come home and take her to work and stay with the children, so I got very little sleep. Eventually I bought her her own car, and then she started wanting to hang out with Thai girlfriends. I would be sitting home on Friday and Saturday nights watching her children. Eventually she had an affair with my best friend and became pregnant by him. I had already had an operation, so I knew the baby wasn’t mine. I took the children and left and divorced her.

She had started a career with Walmart. She finished her career as a manager with them and received an excellent retirement package. She married her boyfriend, and he died and left her rich. I think it’s good because it would become an inheritance for my children. I left her in Las Vegas. We both now live about 10 miles apart in Florida.

Story Seven Lessons Learned The Timeshare Scam and the Moved Motorbike

In October 2017, I took my sister to Thailand. My sister Mary is an ex prison officer and a smart girl. She always goes shopping with me and negotiates the best prices. So it came as a shock to me when she suddenly purchased a timeshare in Patong, Phuket. She was approached by an expat, and the standard sales pitch about how good the timeshare was in Phuket. She went to a presentation to one of the newer resorts and was basically pressure sold. Mary was told there was only a few units left and she might miss out on a great deal later. Mary showed me a leather bound contract and the paperwork. “For God’s sake,” I said to her, “this is a scam.” I showed her the scam on Google, and she was mortified. She’d put down a deposit of 15,000 baht with another 80,000 baht to be charged to her credit card the next day.

I told her that we had to stop that payment being charged to her credit card, and obviously she was now in panic mode. We immediately called the bank and had the payment cancelled. She was advised to contact the local police. So I took her to the Phuket police station to complain about the scammer. I am an ex cop, so I was able to speak to an investigator one on one and explain the situation. He took all the details and already knew about the scammers, but usually the fine for this crime is only about 5,000 baht. The investigator went on to tell me that he was aware of these scammers because other people had complained about being scammed, but unfortunately they couldn’t remember the exact location they had signed these contracts.

The next day, the expat that had scammed my sister phoned her as a payment hadn’t gone through. My sister told the guy that her card had been stolen and that she was going to use a different card. The guy asked my sister if she would be willing to meet him with another card. Of course, my sister said yes but we informed the investigator first, and he told us he would be happy to come along and arrest the guy.

Escaping the Timeshare Sales Trap

So the meeting was set up in the bar where the guy had arranged for us to have free drinks, and he would turn up at about 2:00 p.m. The investigator was there with two plainclothes police officers, but just out of sight. Just after 2:00 p.m., this guy turns up with a big smile on his face. The guy didn’t have a clue that this was a setup, and within minutes the police jumped out of their hiding place and arrested him. Surprisingly, the court case went through very quickly. The guy was fined 5,000 baht and deported. But the timeshare company didn’t give up as they tried to charge my sister’s card again not once but twice, but obviously the card declined payment.

My sister Mary is such a smart girl I really can’t understand how she fell for this timeshare scam. But the investigator told us that many people do. It just goes to show you even when you go to a fantastic country like Thailand, you have to be on your guard. Don’t buy anything that you didn’t intend to buy, and definitely don’t let anybody sell you anything you hadn’t planned on buying.

The Motorbike Scam

On another occasion, I had parked my motorcycle on Bangla Road, locked it, and went for an hour’s massage. When I came out to get my motorcycle, it was gone. So I thought, perhaps I’ve parked it in a different place. I started walking up and down the street only to be approached by a guy who asked me what was wrong. I told him my bike had disappeared. He offered to help me find it for 1,000 baht. The penny then dropped. I told him, “No this is another scam.” I thought to myself, it couldn’t be too far away as the front wheel was locked. I walked up the street just 50 meters to the intersection, turned left, and saw my bike about another 30 meters away. I walked up to the bike, unlocked it, put my helmet on, and started it. I was just about to pull out into the traffic when the guy who offered to help find it came up and said he found the bike and demanded 1,000 baht. I told him to get stuffed and drove off.

Don’t get me wrong Thailand’s a great country. I’ve been there lots of times, and most of the Thai people are very honest and friendly. However, it only takes those few to spoil it, so you really must be on your guard at all times.