Category Archives: Pattaya

Yai Chang Pattaya 2007

Outside my house in Pattaya I had a mango tree which bore fruit every year. The mahouts of the tourist traps wandered the night with their elephants, selling sugar cane to people to feed their friends. One older pachyderm Yai eyed my mango tree when the flowers burst from the limbs. I knew what time […]

Public Knowledge

Several years ago the beach resort of Pattaya announced plans to place public urinals along the Beach Road to better serve the nearly five million tourists expected that high season. Most sunbathers piss in the sea and beer drinkers relieved themselves in the bars along the busy road. Everyone else has to hold their water […]

TO LIVE AND DIE IN PATTAYA by Peter Nolan Smith

Pattaya isn’t what it used to be in the 90s or 80s. The coconut plantations have been replaced by luxury villas. Interpol and the Thai Police hunt down fugitives and the Russians have taken over the hills, so three summers ago I moved north to Sri Racha with my son Fenway and his mom. The […]

Most Dangerous Drivers in Pattaya

I’ve been traveling in Asia over thirty years and have survived a head-on motorcycle crash along the Burma border, a mudslide in Sulawesi, and the chaos of Bangkok traffic. My scariest drive in Thailand was during a blinding rainstorm through the Khao Yai Mountains. Insects smashed into the windscreen and the wipers smeared their bodies […]

TWO SECONDS LEFT WITH THE BALL IN MY HANDS by Peter Nolan Smith

Every high tide deposited beer bottles, oil containers, fishing lines, shiny candy wrappers, and plastic bags onto the sloping shoreline of Jomtien Beach. At low tide I harvested the trash into sea-worn rice bags. Within a half-hour the sand was devoid of any human refuse and I smugly regarded the pristine strand with pride. While […]