An Australian tourist has plunged to his death from a high-rise balcony in Thailand just an hour after checking into his hotel, local authorities have confirmed. He was unable to be revived and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police and paramedics were called to View Talay 6 in central Pattaya on Monday after the grim discovery of a man’s body, 40, found sprawled in the parking lot with severe injuries from the suspected fall. Authorities say the Adelaide man had checked into his room on the 17th floor of the hotel shortly before 7am, with his body found an hour later. Police are investigating but aren’t treating the man’s death as suspicious. He had suffered broken limbs and a ruptured stomach wound. Searching inside his room, there was the deceased’s passport and one suitcase inside the room,’ Pattaya City Police Station Deputy Inspector General Amornthep Petchtim said. Authorities have informed the Australian Embassy in Bangkok. An examination of the man’s room and belongings revealed no signs of a struggle, Newsflare reported. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed on Tuesday it’s providing consular assistance to the family of an Australian man who tragically died from a fall in Pattaya. We send our deepest condolences to the family,’ a spokesperson said. View Talay 6 is a three-star hotel located in the heart of the city on Thailand’s east coast and metres away from Central Pattaya Beach. The latest tragedy comes just weeks after another Australian tourist Joshua James Connell, 19, died after he fell 15metres from his hotel’s pool deck in Phuket in June.

The Golden Sea Pattaya Hotel is located in a quiet neighborhood between Central Pattaya – Find Out More – and South Pattaya. Despite the peaceful immediate surroundings, however, it is just a short walk from a busy commercial strip and a bustling bar street close to many key tourist attractions. I was planning to spend a total of seven nights in Pattaya, Thailand, a beach resort located about two hours from Bangkok and 90 minutes from Bangkok’s impossible to pronounce Suvarnabhumi International Airport. Faced with a gap in my schedule, I went on line to find a hotel to spend two nights at to fill in the gap. After checking out of the Hotel Baraquda Pattaya – MGallery by Sofitel, I asked staff at the front desk to arrange a taxi for me to my next hotel, which I assmed would be only a few blocks away. They wanted to know my budget, but I wasn’t sure how much I should be willing to spend as I was still struggling with the exchange rate and didn’t really know how much a short trip like that should cost in Thailand.

This seemed like a bit of an adventure.

“Don’t the taxis have metres? No, I was told. A fare needed to be negotiated in advance. When a price was suggested, it seemed a bit high considering the short distance. Was air-conditioning necessary? No, I said. I could survive a short trip without it. I was told to sit down in the lobby while a member of staff ran down to the street to see what he could come up with. So I was asked if I wanted to go by motor scooter, but I said no. I didn’t have a lot of luggage, but I certainly had too much luggage to be accommodated by a scooter. Several minutes later, he came back to fetch me, and he escorted me to one of the flatbed trucks that have been converted into a sort of minibus in Pattaya. They usually hold several people, but I was to have it all to myself. This seemed like a bit of an adventure. I climbed on board with a sense of exitement.

Lee Marine Pattaya

I made sure to double check the price before departing from the hotel – you have to be careful in this part of the world, and I didn’t want any unnecessary drama upon arrival. As we negotiated the side streets and back alleys of Pattaya, however, I suddenly remembered that I had tipped the guy that had arranged transport for me. The fare was supposed to be 1,500 baht. I looked in my wallet and discovered that – to my dismay – I didn’t have exact change to pay the driver with, and that could lead to the kind of drama I had been hoping to avoid. When we arrived at my destination, the Golden Sea Pattaya Hotel, I got out of the truck, pulled out two 1,000 baht bills and held on to them as I asked the driver if he had a 500 baht note. He looked surprised – or maybe it was disappointment. But he extracted a 500 bill from his shirt pocket and handed it to me.

I could be wrong, but I have a sneaking suspicion that if I had handed him the two 1,000 notes first, he would have insisted that he didn’t have change, and I would have been left in an awkward position. The hotel seemed nicer than I had expected. It also seemed larger than I had expected. Were they one hotel or a collection of hotels? There was also a strip of what appeared to be row houses opposite the buildings. There appeared to be three or four separate buildings, and one of them had its own lobby. A bellman had come out to the street and escorted me from the van to the furthermost lobby. I later learned that these were villas targeted at long-staying guests. After I checked in, I was told to sit down and relax while my room was readied. I was housed in room 315, a superior room measuring 40 square metres, but – if truth be told – it seemed much larger than that.