Despite the city’s demise over the past, one Scottish expat still calls Pattaya “heaven” and believes it will bounce back to its old self.
Jean Ducker, who retired to Thailand more than a decade ago and now lives on Soi Khopai with his wife and two children, has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic like many others, as he owns cheap apartments that now lie empty because the bar workers and other casual laborers who rented the 5,000-10,000-baht-a-month rooms have left Pattaya.
Ducker has adopted Pattaya as his home. He speaks the language and is friendly with the neighbors. He said he knows many people in Scotland would like to relocate to Thailand due to its lower cost of living or a fetish about Northeast Thai women.
Ducker believes that once health-related immigration restrictions are dropped and normal commercial airline service resumes, many foreigners will return to Pattaya because “it is still heaven for many foreigners.”
