Images courtesy Tracy V.
If you need a break from the figurative-and-literal meltdowns of global catastrophe, or the trove of lulz from #WINNING, I recommend one of my sources for daily succor: The Pattaya news crime blotter feed.
From today's scan:
"Kid Gangsters Rounded up by Police"
"Body of Man Found in Waters"
"Danish Expat Found Dead in Room"
"Pattaya Packed with Russians"
"Killing Cheaper than Vote-Buying"
and "Amputee Out for Revenge gets Busted before Payback"
Once a quiet beach escape at the end of a gravel road, American shore-leave helped transform Pattaya into what it is today: an accumulation of the most salacious stereotypes of Thailand and its expat population. Today it's mostly septuagenarian Vikings, hordes of Russians and loads of Limeys stumbling through its unctuous alleys.
Every day -- it would seem from the crime blotter -- an Aussie is found with a shank in his gut, someone mysteriously 'falls' from a hotel balcony or a Thai-style, 20-on-1 beatdown is doled behind a temple. Occasionally inside a temple.
Such a magical place. Where else on the planet could you write a lede such as:
"Another high season has brought another crop of Russian tourists getting caught having sex on the beach."
From the Triads and Mafiya Russkaya to the Yak, it seems everyone has a piece of the action in Pattaya, which helps stave the forces of conformity and maintain Pattaya as a premiere adult destination and sexpat paradise. Somehow, it also remains a popular destination for Thai families.
