Several months ago the Culture Minister received a letter from a  well-known Thai architect demanding that the government stop the construction of the Dora-Shada Resort in Baan Plai Nam on the grounds that its main reception hall resembled a Buddhist temple.

    
“I have been in the forefront, for some years now, in trying to stop people using temple architecture for commercial establishments including hotels. Soon we will see the Royal Chapel as a sauna or massage parlor if we do not stop this trend.”

The architect wasn’t wrong.

The reception hall looked like a temple.

The result of the complaint?
The Dor-Shada Resort celebrated its soft opening in October.

I paid the new hotel a visit yesterday and was struck not so such by the likeness to a religious structure as to its intended luxury. The greeting hall was palatial, the staff gracious, and within the next six months the gardens will mimic Eden.

I felt a little weird about this, because Pattaya was never about luxury.

Before if people asked me why I came here, I told them for the water like Rick in CASABLANCA.

“But Mssr. Rick, there is no water in Casablanca.”

“I was misinformed.”

Pattaya ten years ago shared the same tawdry reputation with 1970s Miami.

Drugs, run-down hotels, and crime.

MIAMI VICE, then the trendy people discovered the deco hotels and wide strand of sand 15 minutes from an airport.

Rebirth with fashion, hipsters.

No more street-walkers, kilo-bags of cocaine floating on the tide, or the Ace of Spades Bar.

I haven’t been to Miama since the renaissance and I thought Pattaya was so disreputable that no one would ever invest in its future as a major destination, however a hotel like the Dora-Shada proves me wrong.

While it’s not the Oriental in Bangkok or the Hotel de Cap on Cap d’Antibes, someone is investing a lot of money to end Pattaya’s reign as the Costa del Crime. The rooms run 5-39K / night. A beer at the bar is 120 baht.

Expensive but not really if you’re sitting by the pool. No one will ask if you’re guest and if they do, say, “A beer and towel please.”

Usually throws them off the scent of a free-loader, until your beer is marked onto the computer.

For any further infomation vist www.dor-shadaresort.com

For a related article click on this URL

https://www.mangozeen.com/kumari-stripped-of-goddess-status.htm