After a long deployment in the Middle East, a US navy aircraft carrier is set to dock in Thailand’s infamous resort city of Pattaya, triggering a hasty crackdown on prostitution. Nearly 5,000 American sailors and marines are set to arrive on the USS Abraham Lincoln and two accompanying vessels on Wednesday after more than 200 gruelling days at sea during Donald Trump’s war with Iran. Five days of rest and recuperation will come as a relief following weeks of mounting reports of dire conditions on board the carrier, including food shortages, water contamination and the deteriorating mental health of staff.
But while the visit is expected to bring a much needed $3 million to the local economy, law enforcement officials say they will have difficulty policing the visit. The Independent looks at how Pattaya earned its status as an international ‘Sin City’. Pattaya is today a metropolis of some 350,000 people renowned worldwide for its long beaches and nightlife.
But that was not always the case. Until the second half of the 20th century, Pattaya was a fishing village on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand, some 150km southeast of Bangkok. That began to change with the arrival of American soldiers on leave during the Vietnam War.
A large group of U.S servicemen arrived in 1959, renting houses at the beach’s south end and that has become what is known as its strip. Word soon spread of the local hospitality and by the late 1970s, Pattaya had been granted city status. High-rise condos and investment into a burgeoning tourism industry flowed through the 1980s, and even as the war wound down, the city retained its appeal with westerners.
Pattaya today remains popular with British tourists, with occasional headlines in the UK press recording bar brawls, police raids and shootings. It also played host to Manchester boxer Tyson Fury’s latest professional fight. The heavyweight beat Mariusz Wach in Pattaya’s Max Muay Thai Stadium in July.
The local authorities are working to shed the city’s image as a hotspot for vice and debauchery, investing in family friendly attractions and child-friendly hotels. But Pattaya’s Walking Street, brightly lit with neon signs, remains a busy centre of restaurants and parties, pressed together with an array of brightly lit nightclubs and sex shows. While prostitution remains illegal in Thailand, the sex industry is openly visible in major tourism hubs, including parts of Bangkok and Pattaya.
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