Cheap beer draws retired Pattaya expats to Buffalo Market

November 15, 2020

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Retired expats enjoy the rustic ambiance of the ‘Por No’ beer shop at Buffalo market.

There’s one constant in Pattaya, even during a global pandemic: If you sell cheap beer, retired foreigners will come.

The Por Nor Grocery in the Buffalo Market on Thepprasit Road is the latest business to cash in on that economic constant, setting up tables and a counter out front to hawk big bottles of Chang for about 60 baht.

Expat residents relax on chairs provided by the ‘Por No’ shop looking across to the Buffalo Market at twilight.

Retirees from Belgium, Scotland, Germany, Russia, Australia, France and the U.K. have all been seen lingering in the evenings until the market closes at 11 p.m.

German expat “Schmeichel” said he retired in Thailand after working in a German factory. Now 68, he lives in Pattaya, has a Thai girlfriend and likes to drink Chang because, he joked, it gets him drunk easily.