As Thailand’s largest resort, Pattaya has a lot to offer, but be beyond its boundaries are natural wonders just waiting to be explored.

            Pattaya is Thailand’s largest and perhaps best-known seaside resort. A popular holiday destination for both local and foreign visitors since the 1970s, Pattaya has grown into a city of about 800,000 residents, complete with shopping malls, schools, hospitals, dozens of large hotels and hundreds of restaurants and entertainment venues. Access has improved dramatically recently with the new superhighway cutting travel time to less than two hours from the centre of Bangkok and a little over and hour from Suvarnabhumi Airport.

            As Pattaya matures as a holiday destination, the coast and hinterland beyond is beginning to attract interest from both holidaymakers and property developers alike. From the neighbouring resort of Jomtien and eastwards along the coast to the Royal Thai Navy base at Sattahip, there is much to discover and enjoy, both by the seaside and inland.

            Anyone who ventures a little further along this coast will discover an amazing contrast to the bustling streets of Pattaya. Within a few kilometers of downtown, tall buildings become few and far between and eventually give way to traditional fishing villages, where brightly painted wooden boats are beached on the sand of bob in the limpid water offshore.  East of Pattaya, the beaches are mostly empty, except for the tables and umbrellas of small restaurants that offer fresh seafood at reasonable prices and the chance to wiggle your toes in the sand while you eat. Jomtien was always considered as the sleepy little sister of Pattaya, but that seems sure to change now that development has begun to expand along the coast, At the moment, its centerpiece property is the Ocean Marina Yacht Club, the largest in Thailand, with a berthing capacity of 500 yachts and dry-dock storage for another 200.

            For those who enjoy the sea but don’t want to bother with tacking and jibing, the ideal solution is to take a day charter from the marina on Serenity 71, a superbly appointed catamaran owned and built by Jean Obry, a Frenchman who produces custom composite yachts in the shipyard next to Ocean Marina.  The Serenity takes from 10 to 60 passengers on well-organised day trips to pristine islands offshore, such as Koh Phai and Koh Rim. According to Obry, these is lands have remained unspoiled  because they have always been the preserve of the Royal Thai Navy. Apart from being completely uninhabited, no one is even allowed to camp overnight. As a result, the natural vegetation is still intact, with dense forest dropping down onto deserted beaches fringed by clear blue water that is ideal for snorkeling and swimming.

            A little further east from Jomtien is the picturesque fishing village of Bang Sarae.  The colourful wooden trawlers to be seen here are all working boats and most of the locals are still involved with the sea in one way or another. The rhythm of life moves at a delightfully slow pace and there is nothing more relaxing than whiling away a couple of hours savouring a delicious seafood meal a t a restaurant on the wooden pier, watching the seagulls swooping for scraps off the boats moored alongside.