Why Thailand?

(Courtesy of http://www.whythailand.net)

Cobra Gold is an annual joint military exercise held between Thai and American forces. The US Navy comes to Pattaya.

First
This exercise generally starts late April and usually runs through most of May.

However, no one knows exactly when the navy will arrive, including the sailors themselves. Anyone who tells you differently is WRONG. The way the navy works is to keep everyone in the dark about where they are or when they will be at any location.

There is a plan BUT it gets changed all the time and without notice. Of the many rumors that they are coming on such and such a date 99% are wrong. You are better off flipping a coin rather than listening to rumors.

Second
It makes little difference except around Walking Street when they are in town. If a carrier group arrives there will be about 6,000 sailors. At any one time no more than half are allowed on shore so that means 3,000 in town. There are 3,000 bars in Pattaya so that’s one extra person per bar. So who cares.

In reality though, the sailors tend to hang around Walking Street and Soi Pattayaland 2. You’d be lucky to see a single sailor in Soi 8 or North Pattaya.

Third
During Cobra Gold no more than 200 guys get leave on any one day. The impact on Pattaya is ZERO. Usually for the last three days in late May a larger number will be given leave. Maybe a thousand or so. Impact on Pattaya - negligible.

Remember, Pattaya has a huge overcapacity of bars and ladies.

Plus, when rumors of the navy’s imminent arrival surface, thousands of girls trek down from Bangkok. That means the ratio of men to women probably improves even if the navy does turn up. If the navy doesn’t show up - which is the more common scenario - the ratio goes through the roof.

Pattaya: Big enough for all of us http://www.whythailand.net

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 at 10:03 am and is filed under Pattaya, Thailand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.