Pattaya is the most affordable resort, my acquaintance has started with Thailand. Due to the popularity of the city among Russian-speaking tourists, Pattaya is very quickly Russified. In the city there are many signs in Russian, menus in many restaurants in Russian, there is your TV channel and radio, even merchants on the streets and those a few words can tell.
Movement on the streets of the city, it seems, never freezes. Tuk-Tuki, Motobiyki, buses with tourists - all this forms some kind of chaos from which the head is spinning. Most of the streets of the city go perpendicularly Sukhumvit - the longest street of the city, walking through the entire city in parallel coastline. But still, the first days, I had difficulty orientation. Most of the streets are very similar to each other, there are neither names or pointers (someone could have seen, but I did not notice). In order to ask the road from a local resident, you need to call some major shopping center or a landmark that is nearby. Therefore, I recommend purchasing a map.
Pattaya can be treated in different ways, someone considers this city too depraved and free, someone the opposite is cheerful and noisy. And for me it is, first of all, a good opportunity to see Thailand, because I came exactly for this. After all, there are many places where you can go out of Pattaya, the Kwai River - where you will learn from a rustic life and nature, Bangkok - where you will see a modern megalopolis, Ayuttaya - where they will plunge into the history of Thailand and many others.
I think everyone will find something in Pattaya, and you will not stay indifferent.