{"id":2127076,"date":"2026-09-03T05:17:04","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T02:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2127076"},"modified":"2026-09-03T05:17:04","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T02:17:04","slug":"uss-abraham-lincoln-us-sailors-unwind-in-thailand-by-shopping-and-bar-hopping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2127076","title":{"rendered":"USS Abraham Lincoln: US sailors unwind in Thailand by shopping and bar-hopping"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/a1f2\/live\/315f2940-a748-11f1-a7f4-7146ff2fa146.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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Watch: Why US troops have a history in this raucous Thai city<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Far from hitting the bars and fleshpots of the Thai beach resort of Pattaya, in their first hours onshore most of the nearly 5,000 sailors from the USS Abraham Lincoln seemed determined to go shopping.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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At the Hard Rock Hotel \u2013 one of two beachside hotels where they were able to stay off the ship \u2013 they hung around clutching their recent purchases. But perhaps, after a record 250 days confined inside a grey steel warship, the normality of a trip to the mall might have been just what they needed. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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With their military haircuts, moustaches and navy t-shirts, they stood out against the usual Pattaya crowd in flip-flops and beachwear.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"ReutersReuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
US sailors arrived in Thailand on Wednesday<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Night, though, is when this resort city comes into its own, putting on a riotous spectacle of neon, noise and naughty bars. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Pattaya’s tourism industry has been hit by conflict in the Middle East, where the USS Abraham Lincoln was last operating, with many of the tourists the city depends on choosing to stay at home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Local establishments have been hoping American sailors, arriving with nine months of unspent salary while at sea, will provide a much-needed boost. On Wednesday night, the city’s most famous promenade, Walking Street, was very much open to them, with a huge, illuminated sign at its entrance welcoming the crew of the US carrier. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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They have, however, been reminded the sex industry is off-limits, as prostitution is technically illegal in Thailand. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But alcohol was flowing. By midnight some of the younger sailors 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Bar owner Kanta Saenkla said she’d seen fewer sailors coming to her establishment compared to the past <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Conversation over the pounding music was challenging. One older crew member told us they really needed the break. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“The news says we’ve been at sea for nine months. To be honest I’ve lost track of time,” he said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“It got boring. It’s never big enough on board. It’s big but it still feels like a boat, especially when you’re sharing it with thousands of people.” How long would it take them to get home to California? “Too long,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Restaurant owner Kosol Homkhunthod said the American sailors had “created a buzz” in town and among his staff – business had been “really slow” lately.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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And a passing tourist described seeing “tonnes of people sitting on the beach”, with soldiers in good spirits. “It’s not like that every day.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But bar owner Kanta Saenkla complained many of the sailors appeared to simply be roaming around rather than enjoying the local bars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“They haven’t really come in for drinks or anything,” she said. “Mostly they just walk around. They’re not spending money like they did in previous years.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Pattaya is renowned for its racy and neon-lit nightlife<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Out partying or not, Pattaya is a welcome respite for the crew.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Shakeira Fairfax, mother of 25-year-old sailor Jada Fairfax, told Reuters there had been moments over the past few months when “morale was low”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She described the period after hostilities broke out in the Middle East as an “uncertain” and “scary” time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“I just can’t wait to see her smile. I can’t wait to hear ‘mum’, I know that’s the first thing she’s gonna say,” Fairfax added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The crew have been well-drilled not to talk about conditions on board the USS Abraham Lincoln during its long combat deployment in the operation against Iran, which have been the subject of criticism back in the US. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Some sailors were wary of making any conversation at all. Others referred journalists’ questions to their media teams. Visible everywhere in Pattaya were the men wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the letters SLG, or Shore Liaison Group. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It is their job to maintain discipline on land, to watch out for the crew members, some of whom are very young and inexperienced, and to co-ordinate with the local authorities during port calls.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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US Naval Attache Kristopher Robinson did not answer questions from the BBC about activities that soldiers were banned from doing while in Pattaya, saying that “we’re trying to give the sailors as much opportunity for rest as they can”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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US personnel, he added, would “conduct themselves in accordance with US law, US naval regulations, and the laws of Thailand”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"ReutersReuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has spent nine months at sea<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The decision by the USS Abraham Lincoln to stop in Pattaya makes a lot of sense. Port calls by the US Navy in Thailand, a long-standing treaty ally, are routine with well-established protocols. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It is also on the ship’s route from the Gulf to California, giving the crew a chance to let off steam, and enjoy a break from the demands of life on board a warship.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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If their stop in Thailand does the trick, any frustration they may feel over their unexpectedly long and tough mission may have dissipated by the time they get home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cj9x2k8n3y1o”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/a1f2\/live\/315f2940-a748-11f1-a7f4-7146ff2fa146.jpg”] Watch: Why US troops have a history in this raucous Thai city Far from hitting the bars and fleshpots of the Thai beach resort of Pattaya, in their first hours onshore most of the nearly 5,000 sailors from the USS Abraham Lincoln seemed determined to go shopping. At the Hard Rock Hotel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-2127076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2127076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2127076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2127076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2127076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2127076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2127076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}