Situated in the Gulf of Thailand, Pattaya is one of Thailand’s youngest cities and has become a leader in business and recreation and a notorious player in Thailand’s sex tourism industry. The streets are lined with every manner of entertainment venue, ranging from theme parks and museums to go-go bars. In spite of the city’s burning nightlife, there’s plenty to do during the day, whether its diving, hanging out at theme parks or visiting the zoo. Pattaya also welcomes gay travellers who will find gay Pattaya very welcoming. Pattaya for tourists

Ripley’s Believe It or Not
For those with a taste for the outlandish or out-of-this-world, Ripley’s Believe It or Not is a must-see. Located on level three of the Royal Garden Plaza, the museum houses more than 300 exhibits that display all sorts of bizarre phenomena and weird, unexplained mysteries. The Haunted Adventure is a reenactment of a mystery from the past that took place at the Grimsby and Streaper Casket Company. Other immersive displays include the Infinity Maze and the Motion Master.

Mini Siam
Located on Sukhumvit road at the centre of Pattaya, Mini Siam is a miniature recreation of Thailand’s most well-known historic buildings and popular tourist attractions. This is one of Pattaya’s most touristy destinations and is generally teeming with foreign and local visitors alike. The display is in 1:25 scale and includes a spread of 80 buildings. Some of the miniatures include the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Temple of Phimai in Nakorn Ratchisima and Don Muang Airport. In the evening, the exhibits take on new life when they are illuminated for the last round of visitors.

Pattaya Elephant Village
Over the centuries, elephants have served Thailand in a variety of roles, beginning as mammoth super weapons in times of war and transitioning to beasts of burden in the teak wood industry. Today, they serve mainly as entertainers and educators to foreign tourists. Pattaya’s elephant farm is located on Sukhumvit road in the city centre. Here, visitors can take elephant rides, watch them performing their skills in forestry and even catch them playing football. The elephant shows start in the afternoon and are accompanied by an English commentary.

Sriracha Tiger Zoo
Anyone seeking close contact with big, impressive animals should head to the Sriracha Tiger Zoo, located 30 minutes drive north of Pattaya on Route 3241. In addition to tigers, this facility has crocodiles, scorpions and elephants. A few shows are performed each day including the crocodile roundup and the more outlandish woman wrestling a crocodile act. Meanwhile, visitors are given plenty of opportunities to view and interact with the tigers, the facilities main attraction. Guests are allowed to bottle-feed and take photos with some of the cubs.

Nong Nooch Tropical Garden
Nong Nooch Tropical Garden is a sprawling replica of a Thai village that covers 600 acres. The re-creation is intended to offer foreign tourists a glimpse into the rural and more agricultural heritage of Thailand. A zoo is located on the grounds, as is a recreational lake, cactus garden and an impressive collection of orchids. Several presentations are hosted in the arts and cultural centre including Thai boxing and Thai dance and elephant shows. A shuttle departs from the Nipa Lodge Hotel and accommodation in the grounds of the park itself makes it possible to stay overnight.

Wat Yansangwararam
A few miles south of Pattaya city centre, Yansangawararam Temple was built in 1988 to commemorate King Bhumibol’s ascension to the throne. The temple grounds are large and well-kept, with a pond, Chinese pavilions and a small museum dedicated to artefacts and works of art from China. The temple can be reached via a 299-stair climb to the top of a hill with panoramic views of the surrounding countryside.

Pattaya Beach
The number one draw to Pattaya is its more than two miles of beach that border the city. Some visitors come for the water sports, like jet-skis and banana boats; others come to walk on the tree-lined paths and still others to rent a deckchair and relax on the beach. A string of casual restaurants sell fresh, top-notch seafood that can be eaten in comfortable outdoor settings with views of the ocean. Boats can be chartered to nearby islands for snorkelling and exploring.

Nightlife and Gay Pattaya
In many ways, Pattaya has become synonymous with the country’s infamous sex industry and this aspect of the city can’t be denied. Many tourists come for the go-go bars on Walking street. Beyond the seedy side of Pattaya, there is also a thriving nightlife with no shortage of bars, clubs and restaurants to visit after hours. A couple of English and Irish pubs offer a more laid-back evening in a non-sleazy atmosphere. There’s also a very big gay scene in Pattaya, one of the most tolerant and gay friendly places in Asia. Gay Pattaya centres on Boyztown, a big entertainment complex with all sorts of options for a fun evening.

Amusement parks
There are several amusement parks in the area that capitalise on the strong wave of tourists that stream through Pattaya. The Funny Land Amusement Park includes several rides, a roller coaster and a carousel. A monorail transports visitors all over the park. Underwater World is Asia’s largest and most modern aquarium that features a Plexiglas underwater promenade more than 100 yards long. Located next to the Pattaya Park Hotel, Pattaya Water Park is an enormous facility with whirlpools, water slides and Jacuzzis. The Pattaya Park Resort and Amusement Park owns a secluded stretch of beach and three towering, revolving restaurants that offer panoramic views of the land and seascape. Visitors can also participate in thrill and adventure rides like the Cable Jump slide-line. Pattaya pictures

Million Years Stone Park and Pattaya Crocodile Farm
Located 15 minutes drive from the city centre, the Million Years Stone Park is housed on 160,000 square meters and contains a wide range of interesting plant and animal specimens. The grounds are well-landscaped, especially the beautiful bonsai garden. An on-site zoo is home to elephants, crocodiles and a rare group of albino bears. The most impressive animal here is the crocodile, of which there are more than 1,000 breeds. Daily shows include crocodile roundups and daily elephant shows.

Pattaya is a popular holiday destination among gay and lesbian travellers, not just for its beaches and close proximity to the Thai capital, but for its liberal attitude towards homosexuality and its vibrant gay-friendly nightlife.

Notorious for its thriving sex industry, Pattaya has long attracted those in search of a good time. We’ve all seen the t-shirts claiming ‘good guys go to heaven and bad guys go to Pattaya’, but what is it that attracts so many members of the gay community to this commercialised beach resort? The answer is, of course, Pattaya’s naughty nightlife.

Pattaya has cashed in on the gay scene in recent years with numerous bars catering to a gay clientele, not to mention the enormously popular cabaret shows performed by kathoey, transwomen who are also commonly referred to as ladyboys. These unique performances add a touch of Moulin Rouge to the otherwise largely unglamorous resort and make for a memorable spectacle for the many gay men who come here specifically for the ladyboys.

First-time gay and lesbian visitors are often overwhelmed by Pattaya nightlife and its large area devoted solely to gay entertainment – Pattayaland soi 3. Lined with male go-go bars and nightclubs packing in a largely western crowd, the neon-lit district attracts equal numbers of curious tourists and punters looking to pay for sexual services. Gay Pattaya guide

Each bar has a number of staff at the entrance whose job it is to attract customers. In addition, the streets are lined with ‘freelancers’ whose presence multiplies by the end of the evening. Men and women walking around Pattayaland at night, also known as Boyz Town, should be ready to encounter friendly yet persistent representatives of the gay venues.

As with girlie bars in Thailand, inside Pattaya gay bars foreigners are made to feel welcome by staff that readily spark up friendly conversation with customers. The male-oriented gay bars are run by mainly young Thai guys whose feminine and petite nature often appeal to western tastes. Customers at these bars are under no obligation to do anything more than have a drink, but if they do like the look of one of the boys working, it is easy enough to agree on a price for any additional services.

Popular favourite Pattaya gay bars on Pattayaland soi 3 are Boyz Boyz Boyz, attracting both foreigners and locals with its dance floor and nightly shows, and the Throb/Splash nightclub opposite Le Café Royal, a popular ‘gay’ hotel. For happy hour, head for Panorama, a large and lively gay bar in the heart of the Boyz Town district.

“I’m amazed at how relaxed the atmosphere is in many of Pattayland’s gay bars”, says Hank, a first-time gay visitor from the Netherlands. “Of course, you have your regular pick-up joints, but many of the bars here offer more than just friendly guys”, he adds.

Not all gay visitors to Pattaya come here from the sex industry mind you, with many enjoying the cabaret shows and go-go bar performances along with their partners. The popular cabaret shows in Pattaya such as Alcazar and Tiffany’s are a hit with all types of visitors and are highly rated for their ornately costumed and often bear-breasted kathoey dancers.

The lesbian scene is more discreet, with a lack of venues devoted to women looking for women. Nevertheless, most of the bars welcome lesbians and there are many prostitutes who are happy to service women. Just like men, lesbian women can enjoy the go-go bars though they should expect to be in the minority. Thai tom girls, or dee, mostly take on a male appearance and can also be found in many of the regular, heterosexual bars and clubs around town.

Megan, a 30-year-old lesbian from Brisbane says the lesbian scene in Pattaya is healthy enough. “Anyone can walk into any bar and watch one of the shows or enjoy the company of the pretty Thai girls”, she says. “Many of the girls at the bars prefer the company of a farang female”, she adds.

There is however inevitably a seedy side to Pattaya’s gay and lesbian scene, with many gay tourists rejecting the entertainment on offer here. Even worse, a fare share of tourists end up getting ripped off while enjoying the bar scene. The Pattaya authorities have tried to clean up and contain the entertainment areas in recent years with some success, but as with all sex industry hubs, Pattayaland has its downsides. You’ll also be surprised to note that many of the rent boys aren’t gay at all, but willing to cash in on the lucrative skin trade in Thailand, just like the ladies.

Despite its controversial nature, the raunchy nightlife scene on offer in Pattaya remains a melting pot for gay and lesbian visitors, and a good income earner for the many gay and straight Thais who work the scene.

Pattaya tourist Guide

Strolling along the busy streets of Silom in downtown Bangkok at night will reveal a city that is alive with lights and laughter. The narrow sidewalks are packed with stalls, turning the whole area into a bustling night market where everything, it seems, is for sale.

Two tourists with German accents haggle over watches and a vendor puts a Thai silk tie in a bag closing a sale. Meanwhile, on Silom soi 4, or Gay street, other activities are in play, with the homosexual wonderland offering everything anyone gay ever dared dream of.

There are more people on this street than anywhere else nearby and they come in all shapes and sizes. Tourists from around the world flock here, reveling in the comfortable atmosphere and open nature of this pocket of the capital. Though Phuket and Pattaya have great gay scenes – if you’re gay and in Thailand, Bangkok is the place to see and be seen.

Bangkok hosts Pride Week once a year, but the spirit of Pride is alive every night on Silom soi 4. Most of the bars and clubs in the area have balconies and patios and people spill out into the streets, watching passers-by and taking it all in.

The Balcony has drink specials during happy hour and perhaps the largest number of chairs outside on the street. It’s a great place from which to check out the staff at the bar opposite, who dress in different coordinated clothes every night and gracefully entice passing people into their midst. For those too shy to make face to face contact, the Telephone Pub and Restaurant provides customers with a telephone at every table to facilitate meetings. Gay venues in Bangkok

Several establishments on and around soi 4 host cabaret-style shows. The former Freeman Dance Arena is still one of the most popular venues for shows. The Arena recently reopened under a new name, the G.O.D club, but still has the same great style. Their nightly shows are legendary – the costumes and coordination are excellent and the drag queens are some of the most spectacular on the planet. But the name really says it all; G.O.D. stands for ‘guys on display’.

“G.O.D. club looks great, the music is fantastic and it’s open until at least 04:00. It blows other clubs completely away”, said British tourist Jack Nambert, who loves the saunas on soi 4 and the discos on soi 2, but who can’t get enough of the drag shows at G.O.D.

Drag queens in Thailand are, as a whole, almost unparalleled. Thai society is very amenable to a little gender bending here and there. The Thai word kathoey is used to refer to someone who is born a male but who chooses to dress and act like a female. Often translated to mean ‘lady boy’ in English, kathoey in Thailand are highly visible and take up positions throughout society in television dramas, as aerobics instructors, shop clerks and so on. It takes a lot to get to the top of the entertainment circuit as a lady boy, so what gets on stage is generally superb.

DJ Station is a club on Silom soi 2 with an excellent nightly show. Entry is inexpensive and the ticket price includes two drinks. The show is fantastic, the drinks are strong and at the end of the night, the dance floor is packed almost to immobility with hordes of half-naked, beautiful men.

Silom soi 4 can be a little overwhelming. Although it is a great place to meet other like-minded tourists and even hook up with a travelling companion for the rest of your vacation in Thailand, it isn’t the best place to get a true glimpse of gay life for Thai men.

Ramkhamhaeng road has several bars that make up a small gay strip near the intersection with Lamsalee road. ICK, Finalle, SeaTrue and Crazy all serve reasonably priced drinks to a mostly Thai clientele and play great music that gets people dancing.

At weekends, Bangkok hosts a huge market in the north end of the city known as Chatuchak. During the day, it’s a great place to shop and the nearby parks are perfect for picnicking and people watching. As the sun goes down however, people head to a number of small, trendy bars in the neighbourhood, several of which are great places for guys to meet guys.

ICY on Kamphaengphet road was voted one of the top gay bars in Bangkok and is the place to go to hook up with a trendy young Thai guys.

“A friend took me to ICY for the first time. I was really nervous because I usually hang out with other foreigners on soi 4. The music was surprisingly good and there wasn’t another foreigner in the place. Things were really Thai style”, enthused Adam Miller, an American student studying in Bangkok.

“I feel so much less repressed here than I do back home. I walk along the street in Bangkok hand in hand with my man and nobody bats an eye. I love it”.

Things are slightly more difficult for a woman trying to meet another woman, even in Bangkok. While the boys are out on the street making noise and being highly visible, it can be hard for the uninitiated to figure out where the lesbian scene is going on.

When one of the bouncers at Balls, a sports pub on Silom soi 4 was asked, ‘Where are the lesbians?’ he replied quickly, “I think they go to sleep at 18:00”.

Fortunately, not all the lesbians in Bangkok go to bed so early. But the truth is, like many lesbian social groups in the West, the social scene in Thailand tends to be discreet and centered around private gatherings.

Although many women in the West have tried in recent years to distance themselves from the clear distinctions of butch and femme, lesbian life in Thailand is still very much divided along those lines. Lesbians in Thailand generally call themselves either a tom (as is tomboy) or a dee (as in lady). Toms are by far the most visible group and generally carry the most sex appeal.

Because modern Thai society is accepting of homosexuality, tom and dee couples can go out together everywhere, meaning there are very few establishments catering exclusively to lesbians. There are a few places along Sukhumvit road that are good including the upscale cabaret restaurant Mambo and Thumb Up (both on Soi 32), which is a great place to get a groove on a Friday night. Phra Athit road has several mixed establishments that attract a decent lesbian crowd, particularly at weekends.

Vega (Sukhumvit soi 39) is a restaurant owned by a tom-dee couple, so you are guaranteed to meet at least two lesbians if you dine here. The place is occasionally empty and occasionally full to the brim, but whether or not the lesbians are in residence, good food and great music are always on offer.

Still, looking for lesbians in Bangkok can be extremely frustrating. “I lived in Thailand for 6 months and every weekend I would go looking for someone else, anyone else, who was gay. I just could not meet any women”, complained Melissa O’Mara, a teacher from Australia. “Finally”, she said, “I discovered the internet”.

Meeting up on the internet is one of the best ways to get inside the social life of lesbians in Bangkok. There are several organisations that can help including the Anjaree Group. Though focused on Thai speakers, they occasionally plan social events which welcome travellers. Websites such as Utopia Asia, Pink Ink and the Pink Couch are excellent resources for meeting and getting in touch with local lesbians, who are often happy to dish out the scoop on what’s happening in Bangkok.

Just as the general Thai public are welcoming and accepting of homosexuality in their culture and from abroad, most gay venues in Bangkok are equally welcoming of non-homosexuals in their midst. Sitting on the patio chairs at bars on soi 4 are families with their teenage children, pairs of snuggling gay couples and groups of straight girls gearing up for a night of dancing.

That’s the great thing about Bangkok – it’s in the Land of Smiles. No matter where you go and who you are going with (or want to get with), someone’s sure to be smiling at you.

Gay guide to Pattaya