A place you never want to leave, where, as often quoted, “the women treat you like a king.” A tropical, temperate paradise where the ocean meets sun-kissed beaches. A place not like home, a place like no other place on earth. Pattaya, Thailand.
A tourist trap is usually defined as a place that attracts tourists purely to profit from them. Pattaya is a tourist trap, but of a different kind. The sensual, erotic charm of Pattaya attracts single men just like nectar attracts a bee to a flower.
Despite countless free Thailand guides and helpful tips for single men visiting Pattaya for the first time, there are unwitting, impetuous, gullible men for who Pattaya’s charms are a powerful and highly addictive drug. Once Pattaya has them, they never want to leave. Going back home is a comedown, not reality anymore.
Being a place in the world where sex or a girlfriend experience with Thai girls that are sexier and more beautiful than you might ever have dreamed of is possible, whenever, and for relatively little cost, can you blame a guy for never wanting to leave Pattaya?
The Farang (foreign) Beggar in Pattaya
Destitute, living on the street, visa expired, maybe even an expired or lost passport too, and no funds for a return ticket home. His friends soon forgot him, and the girls no longer wanted the broke farang.
The party ended long ago, and now he’s single and very much alone. He became a virtual leper in his kingdom, begging for handouts from sympathetic tourists and Thais alike.
What’s the farang’s story?
A destitute farang, begging on the streets of Pattaya, you can only wonder what happened to him, how it came to this.
He arrived in Pattaya from a foreign land as a tourist with money in his pocket, a hotel room, and a positive outlook. Then, at some point, he started to slowly spiral into free fall. This might have been his first trip or one of many frequent visits to Pattaya.
He became hooked on the free and easy lifestyle in Pattaya. So long as he had money in his pocket, he would have a sexy Thai girl on his arm. Occasionally they were pretty gogo dancers from Walking Street.
It was all too easy to pick up Thai bar girls in Pattaya. And the more they told him he was a sexy man and that they would “love him long time,” the more his need to return to his homeland and normal life weakened.
He always knew he must leave Pattaya one day, but not today, not while he still had money in his pocket. He would worry about that tomorrow.
He was having the time of his life in Pattaya, so much so that he canceled his flight home, and the party rolled on. It turned out he spent a little more than he had budgeted, but where else can you have so much fun for so little money? So he moved to a cheaper hotel and started living off his savings. What the heck!
He never bothered to check, but he was sure he had enough money to continue living his dream, even though he had already been in Pattaya for 6 months. Time had passed so fast that he completely lost track. He realized he might need to do a visa run soon. That’s the moment he realized his visa had long since expired. Never mind, he would just pay the overstay at the airport. Party on.
He woke one morning with 2 of the most gorgeous women beside him in bed he had ever seen. He recalled one of the best nights of fun he had had so far, but that night of passion and fun had left his wallet empty, and his 2 gorgeous escorts were waiting to be paid.
His female companions escorted him to a nearby ATM on Pattaya Beach Road, where he intended to pay them before heading off for breakfast. He stared in disbelief as the ATM screen told him, “No funds available.” A telephone call to his bank confirmed that his account was empty, overdrawn. His face ashen gray, his stomach churning, he managed to persuade his 2 hired lovers this was a temporary glitch, and that he would call by their bar tonight and pay them.
He made a few friends in Pattaya and often spent a night out on the town with them, but they proved to be fair-weather friends. After lending him several small amounts for a room and food, they no longer answered his calls.
He’d taken many girls back to his room in Pattaya, some of them several times, he had a soft spot for some of them, and he was sure some of them had feelings for him. Some wanted to help but had little to offer, and their family was their priority.
He asked his embassy for help to fund his airfare home, but they, unfortunately, had to decline. He pawned his watch, sold his phone to some guy in a bar, packed his clothes into a small bag, and left his room.
He spent his first homeless night on Pattaya Beach and the second on Jomtien Beach. For those first 2 days, he would go penniless into a supermarket or 7-11, arrive at the counter with a loaf of bread or a packet of noodles, then pretend he’d forgotten his wallet. He would ask a foreigner in the queue if they could lend him 100 or so baht and that they should give him their phone number so he could repay them.
Countless nights sleeping on beaches, benches, and in shop doorways reduced his appearance to that of a vagrant. His appearance meant he could no longer feign the forgotten wallet. His destitution was plain for all to see. Nowadays, he relies on the sympathy of tourists, who wonder what happened to the foreign beggar in this far-off foreign land.
Conclusion
The story of the farang beggar in Pattaya is fictitious. Still, it is typical of what can and does happen to foreigners in Pattaya. Quite common are stories of middle-aged men rashly investing their redundancy payout or life savings into beer bars, only to return home broke a year later.
It’s easy to believe you can live the dream, fool yourself, and be overcome by an infatuation with life in paradise. But the reality is life, love, and business for foreign men in Pattaya all too often go wrong.