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The popular beach resort Pattaya is located along a beautiful bay just 150 kilometers southeast of Bangkok. Under three hours of taxi ride brings you to an exotic beach resort filled with endless possibilities.
A sleepy fishing village till early 1961, things started to change for Pattaya when the first group of 100 American servicemen joining the Vietnam War was shipped there for rest and recreation. It did not take long for Pattaya to respond to the US servicemen and slowly it developed into the region's premier holiday resort.
Today Pattaya has hundreds of hotels, from basic backpackers? digs to super deluxe hotels and bungalows, restaurants and bars and thousands of shops. Pattaya also offers a vast variety of sports facilities, ranging from world class golf courses to tennis courts and a full range of water sports such as scuba diving, surfing, para gliding, water skiing, parasailing and deep-sea fishing.
And then there are the pool halls and discos, massage parlors and go-go bars with erotic shows and cabarets. Most of the action gravitates along the Beach Road and Walking Street.
Getting around Pattaya is very easy with the mini buses that drive along Beach Road and Second Road in a circular pattern. You just flag them down and get on. Ring the bell when you want to get off. The fare is usually 10 to 20 Baht for the ride.
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