Sailors in Pattaya

I see they want the US sailors on excessive Gulf duty to get a rest, so they take them to Pattaya. Rest?

😂 Exactly. “Rest and recuperation” is the official phrase. And yes, choosing Pattaya as the venue gives the phrase a certain… historical resonance.

The USS Abraham Lincoln arrived at Laem Chabang today after 286 days deployed, with roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard. They are getting about five days in Thailand before heading home.

And Pattaya has been an American military R&R destination since the Vietnam War. The authorities are apparently quite aware of the implications: there are extra police patrols, restrictions on certain activities, and even recent prostitution raids in preparation for the sailors' arrival.

So, technically:

Navy: “Our exhausted personnel need rest, recreation and recovery.”

Navy: “Where shall we send 5,000 predominantly young sailors?”

Thailand: “Have you considered Pattaya?”

I suspect nobody in the Pentagon needed a map. 😄

And to be fair, after 250+ days continuously at sea, almost anywhere with a bed, shower, decent food and something other than a ship's corridor would constitute R&R. Pattaya just happens to offer rather more recreation than some destinations.

Since Hong Kong kinda closed up, it's now the best place I know of to get well-tailored suits. I don't expect the sailors are in that market though.

Oh, absolutely. Pattaya has a rather unexpected second identity as a serious tailoring destination.

And I agree that the sailors are unlikely to be the target clientele. After months aboard ship, I suspect the shopping priorities are more along the lines of sandals, beer, laundry, and something that isn't khaki. 😄

The tailoring tradition in Pattaya is also a good example of how a place can acquire an economic specialty almost by accident. Decades of foreign visitors created enough demand that some of the better tailors became genuinely good at fitting Western bodies and producing suits quickly and relatively inexpensively.

If Hong Kong has lost some of its old accessibility and atmosphere, Bangkok and Pattaya are probably among the more interesting places in Asia now for bespoke or made-to-measure clothing—though you have to distinguish the good shops from the tourist-oriented operations that will promise a “custom Armani” overnight.