Eastern Thailand Travel Guide
Thailand's East Coast, an angled corner reaching some 500km (310 miles) from the mouth of the Chao Phraya River around to the Cambodian border, offers a wealth of attractions ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime. On the one hand is Pattaya, formerly the Kingdom's premier beach resort but now a victim of developers' greed; on the other hand are the tranquil tropical islands of the Ko Si Chang archipelago, as yet largely unspoilt. In between are pleasant, unexceptional spots for a quiet time by the sea, while inland are pretty views of green hills and fruit orchards. None of the beaches is as good as those in the South, but they do have the advantage of being within a 2-3hr drive from Bangkok along a modern highway.
Pattaya is now more of a fun city than a true beach resort. Increasingly it is becoming a service station for the ambitious Eastern Seaboard economic development programme, which so far has spawned industrial estates and port facilities at Laem Cha Bang and Mab Ta Phut, Herein lies the future, but Pattaya can still be recommended as a resort quite unlike any other.