Complete destruction of the Pattaya's beach !

[Jade & James]

There are a few years Pattaya Beach, along the Beach Road, was lined with a nice walk, embellished with numerous coconut trees. There are 6 or 7 years, nearly 2,000 of them had even been replanted following a major storm. This promenade gave a long low wall that separated the beach and ran all along that beach and numerous stone benches that allowed to rest in the shade while enjoying the sea breeze or talking with strangers and it was so good to walk. A large fountain at Central Pattaya, served as a meeting point between expats and also allow to cool a little.

 

Some mini green spaces, of course poorly maintained, with their funny statuettes gave a weird and friendly character to this promenade.

 

 

On weekends, entire Thai families were picnicking by settling in the shade ...

Almost opposite Soi 6, amateur chess players were confronting every day on this wall, that also allowed strollers to sit down.

But marine erosion also reduced more this range and re-silting program was under consideration.

In 2013, the Mayor of Pattaya decided, with plenty of millions bahts, to redesign this promenade: officially to add a 3rd lane, but certainly also to allow ever more numerous buses still to pollute a little more, but especially unofficially to prevent some girls who walked the streets here to park sitting on this ride... and no doubt also these dangerous chess players!

They then ripped off all the coconuts and the old trees, some very old Buddha trees, laid down flat  the whole promenade by removing the wall and all the many opportunities to sit down, all the green spaces, all the borders and the fountains.
  They have well planted coconut trees, but on the roadside, so that the shade is raised on the road and not on the boardwalk, which is now flooded with sun and we find some benches on the northern part of the promenade, where there are not many people.Besides, what good is put as banks would come to anyone to sit in the sun!

Of course, they also thought to create an outlet for rainwater with a small gutter 40x40cm, replacing the existing, already unefficient, which was 80x80cm.

Of course, adding an additional traffic lane, they reduced the walk, but in fact there is more room to move because there are fewer trees, no more green spaces, nor wall, nor benches ... As for traffic, even with this lane addition, it is not more fluid, because the bottleneck at the entrance to Walking Street remained the same! And I do not speak about the traffic lights in place for pedestrians which do not work for a long time and were never respected ...

 

 

It must be said that the military junta, in power for nearly a year, evicted half of beach attendants, apparently illegally installed, and asked the other to release the beach every Wednesday. These days, you can not find or rent any chair or umbrella...

=================

Last Tuesday (March 24th, 2015) broke a very big storm on Pattaya.
Huge drops, waterspouts and immediately began flooding ... This storm lasted for one hour and half! 90 minutes of intense and very tight rain. Very quickly, the Soi Buakhaow came under 10-20 cm of water and, below, in Soi Diana, we already had 50 to 60 cm. Cars that were moving caused mini waves overturned the motobikes. And of course, all that water rushed towards Beach Road attempting to drain naturally towards the sea, forming a continuous torrent of more than 50 cm deep and 4 km long !!!

 

 

 

But then, surprise! there was nothing to stop or channel this torrent! No green spaces, no walls, no borders, no trees, except this little gutter so insignificant ... This huge amount of water, also carrying along all the garbage of the city, was discharged directly to the beach, guillying deeply, creating mini canyons, finishing to uproot the coconut trees which were desperately trying to resist marine erosion, attacking even the foundations of this new promenade, completely destroying the 4 km of this beautifull Bay, leaving a desolate world and a sense of immense waste of deep sadness, disgust and even shame.

Some beach attendants did try in vain to place paltry sandbags to protect their little patch of beach, which today is the most beautiful effect for a brand new ride!
But stay reassured, the City Hall had already decided the previous months a budget of 430 millions bahts (12 millions euros) for the re-silting of Pattaya beach facing the sea erosion ...
Sure it will be very efficient ... especially if they do not first address the problem of rain water in case of severe thunderstorm!

What will happen then, when a storm like the one of September 9th, 2011 happen? With the same intensity, it had then lasted nearly 12 hours!
There had been more than 80 cm of water in the Soi Buakhaow ... but at that time we still had the old promenade ...
And the rainy season has not started yet ...

 

Today, 10 days later, the beach is staid the same, devasted, not cleaned...

As for the girls, they are still there... So?

Albert Einstein said: "In the life, there are two things that are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, though, for the universe, I can not be sure! ".

I'll let you meditate on that thought and these pictures ...

James
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Roadglide]

Thats really nothing new.  I was in Pattaya September 2006.

 

2nd road

 

Beach road the next day.

 

/some more damage.

 

Lets face it, Thailand is a developing country, and Pattaya is right at the edge of the water, and there is very little natural green space or drainage in the tourist section down by the beach.

 

One would have hoped that in 9 years some improvements in the water drainage would have happened, but This Is Thailand.

[Scumbag]

Unfortunately the notion to do a full engineering assessment before under taking major works totally escapes the Thais. When they were widening the road I wondered if they had taken drainage into consideration. The answer is obvious now...lol

[Encora]

It is very sad. When I settled nearby Pattaya seven years ago, I would go walking on beach road every Sunday morning at about 6.00, or just after daylight. From the WS ebd to the Thai Airways office and back. On the way back, the sun would be up high and it could get quite hot. But there was wonderful shade from all thise huge trees, so that even later in the day it wss quite managable to sit there, in the Shade.

 

It was a very pleasant shady seaside promenade, that many cities in other part of the world would have been jealous of. OK, the beach itself may not be as brilliant as some, but the shady walking track wss a joy..

 

This ruin was completely predictable, and it is a mystery how it couldn't have been foreseen by those making the decisions.

 

Idiots!

[Bourne189]

^{This beach seems to be going down hill, after an economic loss and another mayor the city will see just what needs to take place.}

[jerry]

7 years here ... is there a beach in Pattaya ... ? 

[OKAY]

7 years here ... is there a beach in Pattaya ... ? 

Perhaps the question should now be 'should there be a beach in Pattaya?"

[southsidebruce]

I remember how it was in the first set of photos the OP posted... the promenade was a lot better then... and the recent destruction from such a minor storm is incredible - I had no idea... haven't been to the beach in awhile... I doubt that anything will be done to actually fix the problem... I distrust the ability of the engineers/builders/etc in general, in Thailand... 

 

speaking of building - there is a new condo (the Cloud) going up behind the condo I live in, in Pratunmak... the builders were working for a couple months on what appeared to be the foundation... then, all of a sudden they pulled out - cranes, etc - up and left... they were gone for a month or so... now it appears that a new building team arrived... so they dug out more of a hole where the foundation will be... they poured some cement in another area - looks like they will use that as a storage area, to stage stuff for the construction... but after digging  out the hole of the foundation, there were these concrete pillars that the previous builders had constructed... so, these new builders are tearing them down... so, I am wondering what the fuque is going on with this construction... I had heard previously that the company that is building The Cloud ran into financial difficulties... that might account for the sudden work shutdown on the construction... but what is going on now?  and why are these new builders pulling down the concrete pillars (there must have been 100 of them - 4 rows along what I am guessing would have been the foundation... they look to be about 10 feet tall, and about 3 feet in diameter)... 

[Scumbag]

... I distrust the ability of the engineers/builders/etc in general, in Thailand... 

I suspect that no proper engineers are consulted before such road works are undertaken. I have seen so many times where an upgrade has been done that is quickly followed by remedial measures. Sometimes it takes them more than one attempt at remedial actions before they get it semi-right.

[insider]

 

and why are these new builders pulling down the concrete pillars

If the previous company put in those pillars, then went bankrupt and a completely new company came in then it actually makes sense.

As the person responsible for the build legally and financially would you trust this other company's work? maybe they skimped on the aggregate in the concrete mix, used expired cement on the mix or added too much sand, used laborers that rushed the mixing process, where out in their measurements, etc, etc.

Any half decent company would do the same.

[Harvey707]

Has the sand been replaced yet.....??

[Jade & James]

Has the sand been replaced yet.....??

Answer: NO - nothing has been done and the garbadge is still there!

[Scumbag]

Answer: NO - nothing has been done and the garbadge is still there!

Yeah I went for a bit of a walk yesterday and it is a bit of a mess. Not surprisingly most of the damage on the beach is across the road from each of the sois. Some are worse than others but obviously a river from each soi carried on straight to the beach. I am wondering how the area is going to survive the rapidly approaching wet season.

[Daveo]

I guess they have always done it their way and always will and I guess we will have to get used to it, I used to think, why is this like this and that like that and hear people say if that were in England it would be done better or different.

I still think well I am glad they dont do things like that back in England, England is Faked for the people as far as I am concerned unless your in the top earners so lets leave them to do things here how they decide because what ever we Farang think will have little bearing on what they do.

 

Just enjoy Pattaya how it is, if it gets to you so much over silly little things you all have choices to stay or not, as for the beach they are trying to stop it being working ladies alley as it puts a lot of tourists off as far as I understand as they are trying to lure more of the families market to Pattaya.

 

I know a lot of guys use beach road girls and there are some real crackers but I often wonder with many of them being on beach road because maybe they have some undesirable STD and have been kicked out of their job for taking yabba etc.

 

The transition seems to be the massage joints, walk along the rows of massage shops, see the girls, choose one you like and ask her what is what and how much for said what, go in and hey presto your short time with no rotten short time room to pay for.

 

I know a guy who used to take girls off beach road because many would not insist on a condom, needless to say he got what he deserved, if you find a girl who says no need for a condom, she should be avoided.    

[chris2004]

What i miss is nowhere now so sit along Beach road. I used to enjoy sat there watching the world go by. I suppose they got rid of the seats to stop the girls sitting there, so now no one can.

[peter1950]

no 1 has mention they have sorted the rain problem out

they have put pumps along beach to pump the water away

onto the sand witch will then be washed away plus u have to

cross over 10 inch pipes crossing the walk way

[Scumbag]

What i miss is nowhere now so sit along Beach road. I used to enjoy sat there watching the world go by. I suppose they got rid of the seats to stop the girls sitting there, so now no one can.

Is there any evidence that an important part of the redevelopment was to remove the working girls? If that was the aim then surely rounding them up more regularly than they do and fining them a lot more than the normal 100 Baht would be a hell of a lot more efficient at achieving that goal.

[Cosmic36]

The old winding paths were scenic but made it hard to walk past more then 2 people. Especially if you like jogging. I like the wider straight bricks now but miss the lack of trees. I've only hung out on the beach once in all my 9 trips, I know the water is nasty there. I stepped and turned my ankle in a mini widow maker on BR the other day. I'm sure in time it'll be under constant repairs with lack of proper drainage. At least the large opening of holes give places for the garbage to collect.

[udontony]

What a mess!  In posts when the road was first widened I made comments about the drains being  smaller than the drain that took the water from our house roof to the roadside drain.  Absolutely knew what was going to happen so why on earth didn`t any planner ( if planners were involved ) think about the water run off.  The lack of shade from the trees being removed is really not good at all and I used to love to sit and watch the world go by on the concrete low maintenance benches that used to be there.  From the pictures it seems that the beach has been damaged to a big extent, how much will that cost to reinstate?  Also how much to reinforce all the infrastructure that has been damaged all along Beach Road and to make safe all the exposed electric that is connected to all the lights etc.  I am back there in a few weeks time and will be very interested to see what they have done about this.

[Bourne189]

Hopefully the city will see taht they are losing money in the tourism industry and correct the problems.

[plahgat]

Soon there aren't going to be any trees at all!

 

plahgat

 

 

 

 

[Wok N Rok]

So much potential in this place but apparently the complete lack of understanding what they need to do to put it right.

 

If they hired Western or even smart Asian holiday resort planners they could improve this Town so much.

 

Build proper pavements. Enforce good driving practices. Clean the drainage systems. Put their electric cables underground. Maintain, clean and manage the beach properly.

 

It wouldn't take much to do this. But, alas. 

[udontony]

So much potential in this place but apparently the complete lack of understanding what they need to do to put it right.

 

If they hired Western or even smart Asian holiday resort planners they could improve this Town so much.

 

Build proper pavements. Enforce good driving practices. Clean the drainage systems. Put their electric cables underground. Maintain, clean and manage the beach properly.

 

It wouldn't take much to do this. But, alas. 

This is all true and the money that has been wasted on all the projects and repairs to the projects over the years would have been enough for a first class resort to be built!

[striderman]

complete destruction is not correct.

yes there was damage but mostly limited to opposite soi's 13/2 (soi post office) heading north.

i walk the coconut bar a lot and i've seen the beach in much worse condition.

i have some pics but there is footy on and i'm out to watch some.

i'll post some tomorrow

[Scumbag]

complete destruction is not correct.

yes there was damage but mostly limited to opposite soi's 13/2 (soi post office) heading north.

i walk the coconut bar a lot and i've seen the beach in much worse condition.

i have some pics but there is footy on and i'm out to watch some.

i'll post some tomorrow

This is probably true. However there has only been the one down-pore since the project has been completed. With the wet season not far away it will not be long until there is a lot more rain. This will probably lead to some remedial action that will be ugly as sin. They show lovely photos of Pattaya in tourist literature but it is far from reality. Not a good way to get repeat business.