What’s not to love about Pattaya?

I have been back in Pattaya on business for the last week, in fact I still have my main office here, and it has been great.

If you have followed any of my blogs and vlogs you will know that my family and I relocated to Hua Hin less than a year ago and, on the whole, it has proved very nice for both business and my family. It offers a different pace of life.

In among all my travel this month I also was back in the UK for one week for a funeral and – you will spot a theme here – it was also very nice. In fact this is the problem, every place I go I enjoy for different reasons. I don’t entirely understand those that shudder at the thought of a return to live back in the UK.

In the grand scheme of things though it would take some convincing me that living in the UK is better than the wonderful lifestyle on offer in Thailand.

I was in the sauna just the other night in Pattaya and got chatting to a friend who quizzed me on whether I am due a return back to Pattaya. He, for the record, is very happy living in the city. He made an interesting point actually. What he said was it was not necerssarily the location you lived but the home you lived that played a role on your contentment. I have to say he made a good point. For the last 4 years of living in Pattaya I lived in a large condo in Pratamanak and, in hindsight, for a family I should have perhaps opted for a villa. We live in a villa in Hua Hin and love it.

Pattaya doesn’t scream quality but if you dig deep it does…

As I drove back into Pattaya and hit the Sukhumvit Road into instant traffic, Pattaya was not enticing me, in fact I felt very reassured about relocating to Hua Hin. Let’s face it the streets of Pattaya look pretty worn and tired, especially with overhead cables seen everywhere (although Pattaya Klang cables are now all underground, so the change is happening). There is alo a big police presence in the town doing routine checks. By contrast in Hua Hin the traffic is less, the roads are well maintained and the air is clean.

But Pattaya offers just too much for it to ever be discarded as an expat location to live – if you can overlook all its other faults. Whenever anyone puts Pattaya down, I always defend it.

Pattaya is like your mischievous younger brother that is always getting into trouble. It doesn’t matter how much trouble he gets into, you still love him.

Pattaya is your Asian Benidorm, but it also offers a little finese you would not associate with mainstream tourist locations. Thai polo and equestrian, five star dining like Cafe Des Amis, Ocean Marina Yacht club, world class golf courses, Silver Lake Vineyard and Legends of Siam spring to mind as being higher end attractions.

I cannot get bored in Pattaya as it has everything my family and I want and as a gateway to Bangkok it is perfect at less than 90 minutes to the International airport and 2 hours to the heart of the capital.

So the burning question, will I ever return to live in Pattaya? Only time will tell.