WITH its countless gogo bars and massage parlours, Pattaya seems like paradise for single men with money in their pocket.
But the neon-lit façade of easy sex and non-stop partying – which has seen Thailand’s Sin City dubbed ‘Porno Disneyland’ – hides a grim and tragic secret.
The suicide rate among foreigners who move to live there is five times the national average, with many taking the same horrific route of jumping from a high-rise balcony.
It has become such a common phenomenon that the method has even acquired its own sickening nickname – the Pattaya Flying Club.
ASOS co-founder Quentin Griffiths, 58, was the latest Brit to acquire ‘membership’ of this club when he plunged to his death from his 17th floor balcony earlier this month.
The investigation into his death, which came amid a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife and claims by her that he had stolen £500,000 from their company, is ongoing.
But a Sun investigation has revealed that the problem goes far beyond the most recent headlines.
While some visitors to Thailand’s ‘Sin City’ enjoy their stay, others end up depressed, lonely and broke.
And when the money runs out and the fun stops, some feel there is only one, tragic way out.
Alan Andrews, 68, is one of those who escaped Pattaya unscathed after he emigrated to Thailand from Port Talbot, south Wales.
He now lives in a more remote province in southern Thailand where he keeps himself busy by fishing and volunteering with the police and community groups.
But he knows plenty of others who have failed to turn their back on Pattaya and all it offers.
He said: “I had to get out of Pattaya. Staying there will kill you. The city chews up people and spits them out with empty pockets.
“If you’re coming here as a two-week millionaire, so be it. Have a great time. But if you want to survive long term, avoid the bars. The girls will bleed you dry.
“If you can’t afford that lifestyle anymore, it’s easy to become depressed.
“It’s important not to get sucked into the bar scene, as you will end up lonely.
“Many people move to Pattaya and then have nothing to do, twiddling their thumbs all day and going to the bar at night for companionship.
“I know dozens who come thinking it’s paradise, but in six months they’re skint.
“Many Brits fall in love with a Thai bar girl and it all goes wrong. They spend their life savings building houses for them and buying them a car and they then get kicked out and she returns to her local boyfriend.
“For every one happily married foreigner, there are at least 20 who have lost everything.”
One Brit told The Sun of his personal experience of how the promise of paradise can quickly turn sour.
He said: “I loved the party lifestyle of Pattaya, hitting the bars on a Saturday night, finishing the night with a girl, a third of the price of what they would cost in London.
“I remember taking a beautiful bar girl home for an evening and in the space of a few hours was enamoured.
“She said she loved me and that she was saving her money to buy a car. The next day, I saw her social media update – posing in front of a brand new Toyota arm-in-arm with her Thai boyfriend.
“My evening’s pay – a hundred pounds or so – had tipped the balance, and they had reached the amount they needed for a car.
“She never worked in the bar again. I was devastated, but realised it’s all about money for them.”
‘With no way out, they jump’
British businessman Steven Acreman, who runs a number of bars in the resort, echoed the dangers of British men falling for pretty, much younger Thai women, only to have their hearts broken.
He said: “The reasons for jumping usually revolve around money – having everything financially taken away by a Thai girlfriend or wife. I know many people who have been ripped off.
“Untreated mental illness is also a problem. I see them in Pattaya a lot, people who shouldn’t be in the country but have no money to fly home.
“Some simply do not want to go home. Pattaya is addictive and when the money runs out people do crazy things to stay.
“That snowballs into dangerous situations and with no way out they jump.”
Deaths of people jumping from high balconies occur at a frightening rate.
At one stage there were so many people falling from one building near the seafront Central shopping mall that nets were put up.
A review in 2024 found one foreigner was dying by this method every five days and in the summer of that year five fell to their deaths in less than a week.
Brit Martin Upton, 69, was one of those to die in 2024, falling from a fourth-floor hotel balcony in the early hours of a Sunday morning.
He died from his injuries in hospital on the same day that a 60-year-old Swedish swimming coach died in a fall from a hotel elsewhere in the city.
In September last year Keith Jones, 74, of Prestatyn, Wales, also died after falling from his 10th floor hotel room.
We have so much temptation at our fingertips, it is very easy – especially if you’re not disciplined – to get carried away
Trevor Knight
And in October 2023, Brit Fred Adamson, 89, plunged to his death from the fifth floor of an apartment block, with his body being found next to the complex’s swimming pool.
Although the vast majority of these deaths are clearly suicides, the odd one gives rise to suspicion.
In 2019 there were calls for Thai police to investigate the death of ex-British Steel worker John Toms, 68, of Neath, Wales, who had been involved in an acrimonious divorce from his Thai wife.
He ran up huge debts after “spending a fortune” on his former sex worker wife who he then discovered was cheating on him, according to allegations contained in court papers linked to the divorce.
Pals feared he had been murdered before being pushed off the balcony to make it look like a suicide but no one was ever convicted in relation to his death.
Another Brit told of a similar case: “My friend supposedly jumped from a balcony. Two hours before that he called me to tell me he was fine, on the way to the shops.
“All of a sudden, he’s dead. He was also in the middle of a very bitter court case with his ex-wife. I do not believe he killed himself.”
There has been no documented case of a murder conviction in relation to a balcony death in Pattaya.
Brits are often victims of such deaths but it is a global phenomenon.
Last summer, a 70-year-old South Korean man plunged to his death from his hotel balcony two days after a Chinese man died in similar circumstances.
And in October last year, American Alan Pryor, 70, who lived alone, was found dead below his 5th floor condo.
He had left a note that read: “I am leaving because I have run out of money.”
The ‘Pattaya Flying Club’
Brit Trevor Knight documents life in Pattaya on his Buzzin’ Pattaya YouTube channel.
He said: “The Pattaya Flying Club, as we call it, derives from the sad situation where people run out of money and have little if any other options out of their predicament.
“Many people come out here, particularly men, with great expectations that they will be living the dream.
“We have so much temptation at our fingertips, it is very easy – especially if you’re not disciplined – to get carried away and caught up in the motion of the environment we live in.
“Many men fall in love with the beautiful women surrounding us and unfortunately for some that relationship is very tainted and all about financial gains from her side.
“We see guys with X amount of money to live with and survive, but after falling in love he overspends and runs out of money.
“As we all know, when the money disappears, so does the woman in 99.9 per cent of relationships here.
“Now the man is left heartbroken and penniless and with no options to get himself back on his feet.
“When you reach despair and with no hope of finding a solution, unfortunately people decide to take matters into their own hands, hence the Flying Club.
“When your dreams are shattered and your heart is broken, desperate times call for desperate measures.”
How to get help
EVERY 90 minutes in the UK a life is lost to suicide
It doesn’t discriminate, touching the lives of people in every corner of society – from the homeless and unemployed to builders and doctors, reality stars and footballers.
It’s the biggest killer of people under the age of 35, more deadly than cancer and car crashes.
And men are three times more likely to take their own life than women.
Yet it’s rarely spoken of, a taboo that threatens to continue its deadly rampage unless we all stop and take notice, now.
If you, or anyone you know, needs help dealing with mental health problems, the following organisations provide support:
Deadly ‘difficulties’
Local police figures show that five per cent of deaths of foreigners in Pattaya are by suicide, compared to a national suicide rate of just over one per cent.
Police Colonel Anek Sarathongyu, Superintendent of Pattaya City Police Station, said: “One of the main factors behind foreigners jumping from buildings is personal stress.
“We do not always know what they may be going through. It could be problems with colleagues, business partners, family issues from their home country, health problems, or depression. There are usually many factors involved.
“When officers examine the scene we often find anti-anxiety medication, antidepressants, or medicine for existing medical conditions.
“In many cases, we also find alcohol or substances such as cannabis in the room of the deceased.
“We cannot know who may be facing personal difficulties.”
Thai authorities are making efforts to combat the problem by establishing a suicide taskforce with input from the Department of Mental Health, the police and social media influencers.
The innovative approach uses the influencers to monitor social media round the clock to identify expressions of suicidal thoughts.
The Hope (Helper of Psychiatric Emergency) Taskforce can then launch a rapid intervention, with police officers attending the home address of the person at risk in extreme cases.
The project has more than 600 successful interventions to its name and in 2023 was awarded the Thailand Public Service Award.
Admirable though their efforts are, the Thai authorities still have some way to go to put an end to the so-called Flying Club.
Just this week, Tomasz Piechura, a Polish national in his 30s, was found dead after falling from his condo in central Pattaya.
He had left his job working for BMW in Poland to move to Thailand so he could follow his dream of becoming a Muay Thai fighter.
Sadly, just like so many other foreigners before him, his dream move to the Land of Smiles ended in a tragic nightmare.
- If you or someone you know needs help then the Samaritans in Thailand can be contacted on 02-113-6789 (Press 2 for the English language option) or +66 2113 6789 if calling from outside Thailand.
