Pattaya may be the most foreign town in Thailand. You are just as likely to hear English and German spoken on the streets as you are to hear Thai. On the newsstands there are more foreign newspapers and magazines available than there are Thai publications. This is quite an accomplishment as Thailand produces a tremendous number of newspapers. The store signs also have English written above Thai which is not very common throughout the Kingdom.
The first Western tourists to visit Pattaya were American soldiers who arrived for a spell of R&R in four transport trucks on the 29th of June, 1959. These dozen men rented a couple of houses near the southern end of the beach. Even though they were only there for a week, once they got back to base they raved about the place, and spread the word about Pattaya, so many more GIs followed. As a result, Pattaya Beach as a tourist centre was born.