The wild side of life in Pattaya

One evening I had an exciting encounter with the 'underworld' in Pattaya.

Thailand has something for everyone who goes there. Depending on how much you want to give in to it, you can easily experience the most exciting adventures. I know that from my own experience. Looking for some other pictures of Pattaya I walked along the waterfront, near the famous Walking Street and was drawn to an area under the pier with its restaurants, boxing ring and bars.

Underground forest

A gigantic collection of poles, all different in size and shape, each with a strange plinth as a base, formed an intriguing and disorganized picture. A real forest lined with moss, chickenpox and mussels. Besides all the more or less regular shapes, there was also a shadow that moved. Your gaze is automatically drawn to it. Each time the shadow darted away, startled, just like me.
The space was anything but cosy, a bit spooky. The sounds from above, the busy street life, were muffled. Like the light blocked by the many obstacles. Slowly accustomed to all this, I walked towards the shadow to see what it was.

Half in the water, among all the washed-up remains of our society, a little girl of about 10-12 years old was fishing in pink shorts and a blue T-shirt. Strange that the bright colors of her clothes had not been noticed before.

With a simple hook on a piece of string or wire, she sat there waiting. Whether she really wanted to catch something was not clear to me with the simple fishing gear.

I crouched down next to her to see how she handled it now. In the meantime I looked around at the construction and the beautiful light I saw there.

Graffitisers

As a photographer, it's easy to make it clear what you're doing with your camera. I am ashamed to confess that my knowledge of the Thai language is still limited despite a large number of visits. She understood from my gestures that I was taking pictures.

Suddenly she took my hand and pulled me back, further away from the water on the dry part, close to the quay wall. Here it was even darker. In the twilight, some older children were drawing a few spray cans on one of the coincidentally square columns. It was a very rough drawing.

Before I set up my camera and brought it to my eye, everyone had disappeared. My only company was a dead rat and the girl watching from a distance. I would have loved to take a picture while they were spraying the graffiti, half in the dark with the movement of the children. Despite that, I took a picture anyway and I thanked the girl.

On the way to the light, the heat, the noise and the bustle returned. At the top of the overcrowded boulevard, I looked back at the pier's picket fence and was happy about my encounter in the 'underworld' of Pattaya.

Text and photos: Francois Eyck