Most seasoned visitors to Pattaya are well enough clued up so as to make the right decisions in times like these when Thailand is a leading news story around the world. The protests flashing across TV screens worldwide are events in Bangkok. Apart from the protests last week when the ASEAN summit was supposed to have taken place in The Royal Cliff Resort Hotel, Pattaya just gets on with holiday making. Current developments in Bangkok have little effect on what happens here. Residents and tourists alike just get on with getting on with each other as you'd expect in a tourist resort.
A casual drive around this afternoon indicated that Songkran had gotten off to a moist start. Numerous bars had supplier of water outside to 'cool' passers-by! Events in Bangkok couldn't have been further from people's minds.
People continue to arrive in town and continue to email looking for accommodation. The proximity of the new airport to Pattaya means that travellers can avoid Bangkok metropolis completely and zip down here in about 1 - 1.5 hours. While smaller properties continue to offer value-for-money rooms, some of the larger, more up-market hostelries have suffered a setback through the absence of 'package deal' visitors on whom they depend. What this means is that the town is somewhat 'quieter' than it might otherwise have been.
Unfortunately, the exchange rate continues to be unfavourable for visitors. However, with the current worldwide economic downturn, more crunch than credit, cheaper flights than a year ago and an expectation that the exchange rate will come under pressure through decreasing exports, more favourable rates might well be just round the corner.
In the meantime, in Pattaya it is 'business as usual'.
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