Impressions of Pattaya from a Bangkok resident

[TrongpaiExpat]

I just got back from a short trip to Pattaya and here is my personal impressions on two topics, The Nook and the Beach at Jomtiem.

Niddys Nook: I really wanted to give it a shot or try the cheese berger but I walked past it two times and there were just no customers and it did not feel inviting. On my third pass in three days at 930pm it looked like some customers at the one table outside. I approached with trepidation. There are four chairs on one side and two sofas on the other. The customers turned out to be staff or friends of staff . No one was inside, the two tables inside are set for four and I just did not feel comfortable going inside. I hate taking a table set, when I am alone, for 4 when there's only two tables, what would happen if 8 customers suddenly appeared? I sat at the outside chair with a side table and felt like I had walked into someone's house uninvited. Someone approached me and asked me "what I wanted", Well, how about a fruit shake? I asked in Thai and got a strange look, I am speaking Thai, I think he was expecting English, so I switched to English and he answered in Thai, mai mee no have, want beer or cocktail? No want alcohol, what do you have with no alcohol, only coke. No want coke, do you have any fruit juices?, no have, Sprite?, no have. How do they make cocktails without juices? I dared not ask about the cheese berger. I was never presented presented with a menu. I just got up and left and said thank you. I wondered over to Memories and had my second delicious special pork BBQ sandwich this trip and felt right at home and comfortable like I was family. Next visit, comfortable or not, I am going in the Nook!

Dogtan Beach: Customers were scarce, low season and not much sun I was told. I saw the same old Farangs at the same old chairs from previous visits, two, four and six months ago. The same old fella with the light brown Moe Howard toupee with gray hair sticking out the back, the same old nervous looking man who keeps looking behind for something or someone, the same few large guys who seem to complain a lot and this one large guy who has the smallest ankles and feet that I have ever seen, how his feet support him is a mystery. Then the assorted Euro's with the speedo-look being stretched to the limit. Round bodies laying in repose under the palms with Thai massage boys at various stages of kneading looked like something in a Fernando Botero painting. Conversations among farangs seem limited to three topics: Urology, cardiology and complains about Thai boys not doing what they agreed to do or what they did after promising not to.

As I was having my last parting breakfast at Two Faces this older gent comes in a meter taxi with a bag and a waking stick, he had booked a room. I asked if he just came in from the airport and his opinion of the new airport. All he said it's, modern but they lost his luggage. He then went on about having a bladder infection and he had to go to a Bangkok hospital to have a catheter put in and once he was drained he was ok. Probably prostate enlargement. As soon as he has some problem with a Thai boy he will fit right in at chairs on Jomtiem. I hope his heart is ok.

I had an enjoyable time but a week is enough and I am now back in more normal Bangkok.

I just got back from a short trip to Pattaya and here is my personal impressions on two topics, The Nook and the Beach at Jomtiem.

Niddys Nook: I really wanted to give it a shot or try the cheese berger but I walked past it two times and there were just no customers and it did not feel inviting. On my third pass in three days at 930pm it looked like some customers at the one table outside. I approached with trepidation. There are four chairs on one side and two sofas on the other. The customers turned out to be staff or friends of staff . No one was inside, the two tables inside are set for four and I just did not feel comfortable going inside. I hate taking a table set when I am alone for 4 when there's only two tables, what would happen if 8 customers suddenly appeared? I sat at the outside chair with a side table and felt like I had walked into someone's house uninvited. Someone approached me and asked me "what I wanted", Well, how about a fruit shake? I asked in Thai and got a strange look, I am speaking Thai, I think he was expecting English, so I switched to English and he answered in Thai, mai mee no have, want beer or cocktail? No want alcohol, what do you have with no alcohol, only coke. No want coke, do you have any fruit juices?, no have, Sprite?, no have. How do they make cocktails without juices? I dared not ask about the cheese berger. I was never presented presented with a menu. I just got up and left and said thank you.

Standby. You are about to get a blasting from the "Rose by any other name", the owner in whatever guise he is currently using and the owner's friends once they see what you have written.
You will be able to join the growing ranks of those who are called liars for telling it as it is! :alien:

[fedssocr]

After you were treated poorly at the Nook why would you ever want to go back there?

My impressions of Pattaya were also that it is a bit of a depressing place.

After you were treated poorly at the Nook why would you ever want to go back there?



Methinks it was a typo and there is a "not" missing before "going" in the last sentence of his paragraph on the Nook. At least that is how I thought it was intended to read when I saw it. :idea: TrongpaiExpat will no doubt let us know in due course.

My impressions of Pattaya were also that it is a bit of a depressing place.

Exactly the same impression that I and many others also get.

It appears to be a place where the geriatric go to spend the final few years of their life nursing their numerous health problems whilst trying to convince themselves that they are attractive to the Thai boys.

Take away the over 60's and the place would become a ghost town.

[TrongpaiExpat]

Not a typo, I will give the Nook another shot and I did not mean for it to sound all that negative. I can't comment on the food, I did not eat anything and I was not insulted at all. They just did not have what I wanted, no big deal.

I am a regular defender of Niddy's Nook - never had a bad meal and always found it friendly. But from your comment's TrongpaiExpat, I did begin to wonder how many others are put off by empty bars or cafe's or put off by anything else!

Personally, I always found it harder to enter a restaurant alone when there were many people already seated in couples or groups - I used to feel like the saddo 'johnny no mates'. Then again I didn't like entering an eatery where no one was seated as I didn't want to be overly waited on or to disturb the peace! And there is that old addage that if a restaurant is empty, then the food can't be all that good. I still don't like going to overcrowded bars or restaurants and have been known to turn and run when feeling overwhelmed by too many people, but an empty restaurant is not a problem for me anymore. It's not an indicator of the quality of food and you do tend to get faster service. Entering an empty bar is still a bit of a thing for me, especially a gogo bar when all the guys suddenly crowd around and you have umpteen pairs of eyes directed on you, but that's my problem and would probably be fun for others here to have a bar full of guys all to themselves!

I feel a little like Goldilocks - this bar has too many people, this bar doesn't have enough people ... Ahh this bar is just right - normally Panorama in Boyztown, Welcome Inn Bar or Krazy Dragon in Sunee.

[TrongpaiExpat]

Where I really feel out of place is one of those Chinese Dim Sum restaurants where there are large round tables set for 12 to 15. The concept of dining alone or even with your BF alone is considered strange.

There are places where eating alone or just with one person (Western Style) is comfortable.

Maybe it not only the lack of customers or comfortable space, how does that go....

"Sometimes you want to go

Where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name. "

cheers (http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/cheerslyrics.html)

but an empty restaurant is not a problem for me anymore.............you do tend to get faster service.

For Niddys an empty restaurant is a good thing - the only time I visited the place it was empty when I went in and it still took 35 minutes for chicken and cashew nuts to arrive. Hate to think what the waiting time would have been if the place had been busy !

[Smiles]

Since the long Niddy War-of-Words has settled down (apparently LMTU is in debtor's prison in Banff, Alberta), I would like very much to hear Chris's comments on Trongpai's experience at Niddy's.

There has been much hysterical gnashing of teeth here every time Chris posted with this or that promotion, but here above is what I would describe as an objective and unemotional description of the service and atmosphere at Niddy's during one visit.
It would be difficult for anyone not to agree after reading it that it was anything but a particularly positive experience . . . even though no cheeseburgers were downed.

Over to you, Niddy . . . .


The Day at Dongtan Beach was quite inspired!

" ... I saw the same old Farangs at the same old chairs from previous visits, two, four and six months ago. The same old fella with the light brown Moe Howard toupee with gray hair sticking out the back, the same old nervous looking man who keeps looking behind for something or someone . . . . Conversations among farangs seem limited to three topics: Urology, cardiology and complains about Thai boys ... " If one of those dudes so described wasn't Hedda, I'll down a few cheeseburgers at Niddy's next time I'm in Pattaya :blackeye:

Cheers ...

The Day at Dongtan Beach was quite inspired!

" ... I saw the same old Farangs at the same old chairs from previous visits, two, four and six months ago. The same old fella with the light brown Moe Howard toupee with gray hair sticking out the back, the same old nervous looking man who keeps looking behind for something or someone . . . . Conversations among farangs seem limited to three topics: Urology, cardiology and complains about Thai boys ... " If one of those dudes so described wasn't Hedda, I'll down a few cheeseburgers at Niddy's next time I'm in PattayaI didn't see a mention of a facial birthmark anywhere