Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Pattaya as a "Wild West Town". I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Pattaya Mail goes all electronic this month. Quoting directly: "As Pattaya has slowly changed from essentially a "Wild West town" to a city catering for business and families." Just going to quote that small excerpt. 

One, I think it is noteworthy, the print edition of the Pattaya Mail is being phased out; that's really kind of a bittersweet moment. I have read the Pattaya Mail for years. The print edition it was always kind of, yeah I remember when I would go to Phnom Penh, Cambodia and you would read like The Cambodia Daily or even the Phnom Penh Post over there and it was I don't know, there was just something about having a local paper in a medium-sized city. Just, there is something about it, I find it, it's not quaint, I find it kind of charming or something. And with this situation where Pattaya, they have had the Pattaya Mail for years. That was kind of the local paper if you will down there and to see it being phased out of the print edition is just kind of sad. Now that said, I mean I get it; you have got to move with the times and the times really are changing and things are on the internet but it's just kind of a bittersweet moment seeing Pattaya Mail go out of print and just go to an online presence. 

In any event though, the question being posed is, Is Pattaya a "Wild West town?" Yeah, in its own way I think that is one of the reasons it's kind of endearing to many people is that in fact it has the kind of frontierish kind of quality insofar as it is a little disorganized around the edges; people kind of leave you to your own devices, it is a little bit like the Wild West. Coming from Kansas, kind of a part of the Wild West, albeit the tamed Wild West now, I have read the histories and things and yeah it is probably not too far off. Now that said, as we have discussed in other videos or another video I made contemporaneously with this one, this recent so-called scandal that has emerged as a result of this documentary that was produced by DW has resulted in quite honestly probably Thailand's version of Wyatt Earp being sent down to Pattaya which, ask Dodge City and Tombstone how it goes when somebody like that comes rolling into town. And as we have discussed, "Big Joke" being sort of in my mind, the minute I read that he was getting involved I was like "wow okay so Wyatt Earp is getting involved." 

That said, Pattaya is changing a lot; it sits in the middle of the Eastern Economic Corridor. I posit that 10 years from now Pattaya will look very, very different to the Pattaya we see today. Now that is not to say everything is going to go away. In fact I think the things that we enjoy about Pattaya will probably remain but it is going to grow and growth has consequences and over time, how that growth will play out remains to be seen. Again, in the Eastern Corridor if anything, I think everything down there is just poised to become more wealthy as everything grows and as more value is created in that zone, I suspect it will have if nothing else, indirect tangential benefit to Pattaya City itself. So it will be something interesting to watch and we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.