Night, though, is where this resort city comes into its own and puts on a riotous spectacle of neon, noise and naughty bars.
Local businesses have been hoping to benefit from the sailors’ nine months of unspent salary while at sea – but Pattaya’s sex industry has been declared off-limits to the sailors, who have been reminded that prostitution is technically illegal in Thailand.
Conflict in the Middle East, where the USS Abraham Lincoln was last operating, has impacted business in Pattaya, with many of the tourists the city depends on choosing to stay at home.
But on Wednesday night, the city’s most famous promenade, Walking Street, was very much open to the sailors, with a huge, illuminated sign at its entrance welcoming the crew of the US carrier.
By midnight some of the younger sailors there were so inebriated they had to prop each other up. Others edged nervously into the red-lit caverns of the go-go bars, with their gyrating and barely-clothed pole dancers.
