The Pattaya Building Bubble when will it explode?

Since you can't swim in the Water here, when will the Pattaya Building Bubble Collapse?

Heralded as Pattaya’s finest beach and the most up and coming residential area on Thailand’s Eastern Seaboard, Wongamat Beach, could easily be called the Beverly Hills of Pattaya. Here the most prestigious condominium complexes, and hotels are springing up like mushrooms. Northpoint condominiums with its twin 46 and 54 story towers starting at 100,000 baht per square meter is scheduled for completion one year from now. The Cove just several hundred meters from Northpoint will be even more exclusive starting at 138,000 baht per square meter. And if Northpoint’s proximity to the beach is a huge selling point, The Cove, built on a point with its own intimate bay and sensational rock formations, is even more idyllic. And between the two luxury condo developments is the Central Wong Amat Beach Resort with its two huge buildings looking like giant wings over 20 stories high should be completed within several months at the latest. The Centara Resort is being constructed by the same company that recently completed Pattaya's Central Festival Shopping Center, which at 8 stories high and one block long is Asia's largest beach front shopping complex. Central Festival Shopping Center is a stunner so we can expect some pretty impressive things out of the Hotel as well, and so far it's looking very sharp, especially when you factor in that staying here right on the ocean starts at only 2200 baht. Just North of The Centara Resort, The Cove and Northpoint is T.W. Wong-Amat which boasts that it will soon have Thailand's largest waterfall. But it's not here yet and it will be manmade. But it just goes to show how big some of these developers are thinking. The Sanctuary, with its huge private grounds less than two kilometers from Northpoint, will be opened one year from now, is next door to the Sanctuary of Truth where the price is 5,000,000 baht for a 64 square meter condo. And there is much more being built. The question is, will there be a huge real estate crash in the near future? The world economy is in the most severe recession since the Great Depression. And even if it wasn’t are such high prices justified considering that anyone with an ounce of common sense wouldn’t swim in the Gulf of Thailand at Wongamat Beach? When they are completed, North Point, the Cove and other high end developments will keep their beach fronts pristinely clean, but what about the unsanitary salt water that is beyond their immediate control?

There is nothing like a swim in the ocean if the water’s warm, and here the temperature of the Gulf is about perfect. And if one takes a walk from the Sanctuary of Truth all the way down to the Dusit Hotel which is where Naklua ends and Pattaya begins, the coastline meanders around several points changing direction as much as ninety degrees. On the way one encounters numerous boulders where water meets land. Just six miles out is Koh Larn Island which breaks up what would otherwise be a boring horizon. Compared to Koh Chang’s White Sands Beach Wongamat Beach is far more varied and interesting. It is also a cesspool.

It could be the jewel of Pattaya. Certainly the spiraling prices asked by condo developers such as North Point’s Raimon Land can only be justified if the beach is properly taken care of, cherished and nurtured. But when you take that walk you will notice a number of areas where the garbage has been allowed to pile up, left untouched for months. Swim in these waters and you will be assaulted by plastic bags and other disgusting debris that will brush against you, not just once or twice but 10 or 20 times in a half mile swim. And as you approach the Cove from North Point your nostrils will instantly recognize the smell of excrement. Which makes one wonder if there's ever going to be a comprehensive solution to the sewage problem.

Now, take another walk, only this time go to Buddha (Prataminak) Hill. Actually there are three hills there altogether and taken together they will remind you of Singapore with its many colored flowers and cleanliness. Singapore is to those who know little about it, the place where the government fines you something like $300.00 for throwing a single gum wrapper or cigarette butte onto the street or sidewalk. The second thing you will notice, not always, but often, is the cleanup crew patrolling the area. Now why isn’t a similar cleanup crew employed down at Wongamat Beach?

And when you get just fifty meters from where the property of the Cove ends, there's a small group of lady boys that you will encounter, not on just this walk but nearly every walk you will ever take. In the shadows in the brush just a few meters from the water's edge, there is a crude little makeshift roof that is visible only to the observant. Here you must pick your way through a cluster of boulders through which there is a narrow opening. You cannot avoid walking through this narrow path through the boulders without climbing over the rocks. It is here the lady boys pick their targets. If lucky all you will hear is a "Hello, how are you"? The voice will sometimes come from the bushes, but just as often you will encounter at least one lady body intercepting you as you walk through the opening which is less than two meters wide. I've had lady boys ask me if I have any money as I went through there when no one else was in sight. There is one particular lady boy who invariably wears a bikini. Once, when I tried to avoid the unwanted intrusion, the lady boy asked: "You want me smoke you? I smoke good." On several occasions I've seen Western men go into or out of the bushes near the little hovel. I mean I really don't care but a lot of tourists will never make that walk again. It would be interesting to guess at how many millions of baht the lady boys and the litter are costing Wongamat Beach each year.All you want to do is to take a nice walk alone with your thoughts. But there is no avoiding having to deal with this most aggressive small pack of lady boys. And they call this Pattaya's finest beach?

Obviously something should be done if Wongamat Beach is to continue to attract affluent condo buyers willing to plop down over 100,000 baht a square meter. Somehow the concepts of up scale condo owners who can’t even swim off their own beach doesn’t fly. It should be recognized by the powers that be here that if it smells like excrement, it 's shit and that this needs to be taken care of. And sure, although the big condo communities and Hotels police the beach areas immediately in front of their properties, what about all that garbage that’s been piling up for years in areas that are not immediately in front of the Northpoints and the Long Beach’s or what's floating into the swimming areas from ships and other sources that need to be controlled. The absence of a cleaning crew says all that needs to be said about the complete negligence of those who should know better. And how about all those plastic bags floating around?

There’s two types of people who are littering the area. First there’s what I call the Hill Billy Thais. These are the poor, uneducated Thais who simply don’t know better. For them I recommend a short period in re-education camps to be followed by a few days joining the cleanup crew. The second is what an American friend of mine refers to as Eurotrash. These are simply trashy Westerners who should know better but simply don’t give a rat’s ass. Castration would be good for them just to control the continued breeding of such low lifes defiling our planet. And just so that Europeans don’t think I’m picking on them we’ll add in the derelict Americans, Aussies or what have you. Thais are well known for their tolerance, which is a virtue and a fault at the same time. The concept of "Mai Pen Rai" which means "Never mind" or "Just let things continue as they are and not sweat it" is mutually exclusive of any pretense of claiming a first rate beach or being able to justify upscale pricing for condos or hotels here.

Hopefully things will turn out for the best. That is the world economy will improve and that Pattaya and Wongamat Beach along with the rest of Thailand will continue to grow and to become more prosperous. We can only hope that the promise of the jewel that Wongamat Beach can become is realized. But the jewel must first be seen for what it is, and then carefully maintained and cared for. These new developments all of which should soon be completed are most impressive. They already have what could be some of the best natural surroundings in Thailand. Wongamat Beach has that much promise. Hopefully there will be a comprehensive solution to the sewage and litter problem that will fulfill the promise of the jewel that Wongamat should be.