It’s hardly California’s Muscle Beach, but a stretch of Jomtien Beach has served as an ideal weightlifting and exercise park for a pair of Russian expats.
Kostya Maryenko and his friend Andrey say they’ve been jogging and pushing iron in front of the Pattaya public relations office for nearly a decade. The city long ago installed benches and weights, but the two men say the public equipment has begun to show its age, discouraging many from using it.
“My friend and I like to exercise on Jomtien Beach because it is clean and exercising outdoors makes us feel good,” Andrey said. “But because the equipment provided by Pattaya has become old, it’s no longer ideal, so we’ve started using sand-filled fuel bottles as weights. I hope, though, that the city would renovate the weight-training area here.”
Kostya (left) showing the weight training equipment made by Andrey (right).
The weight-bench area is just part of a larger park on Jomtien Beach where sports aficionados can enjoy everything from jogging, windsurfing and volleyball.
