Dear Editor,

This is an open letter to whoever is responsible for the absence of water in Suksabai Villa where I live.

To Whom It May Concern: Yet again we have had no water for days. This has been going on for weeks. When we telephone to ask why, we are fobbed off by your dutiful staff as to the reason. The reason given varies from day to day and is quite pathetic, and has obviously been fed down to the downtrodden girl on the phone by an idiot. It is always inconsistent with the previous excuse and is clearly complete rubbish. The obvious reason is down to your incompetence. Yes, YOURS. How can you allow families to be without water for days on end? There are families here with young children who for obvious reasons of cleanliness and hygiene must be bathed. They also need to go to the toilet as indeed do my wife and myself. We also need to wash clothes. We became reluctantly accustomed to having the water pressure dropped at weekends and would fill up buckets so we could get by because we could not shower, amongst other normal things, in the usual way. Now, we cannot even do that.

You, whoever you are, are a disgrace to the position that you hold. You should resign as a matter of basic honour. Just admit that you are not up to the job and allow someone who can handle it to step in. You may be undergoing new works or trying to build a trout farm or whatever, but this situation is totally unacceptable for people who always pay their bills.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

Yours disgustedly,

P.S. I bet your house has running water.

Dear Sir,

The brilliant letter by Mr John P pretty much sums up the situation as I have seen it so many times in the past 20 years from the perspective of a frequent visitor to Pattaya, and member of the US Navy. There are always two sides to every story. I have witnessed this same scenario many times before from our port visits to Newport Oregon to our overhauls in Subic Bay, PI. For some odd reason many of our guys seem to be just downright niggardly! Thus one individual will seek a companion and take her back to the room for a tryst, only to have three to five companions share the experience for the price of one. Often the woman complies, and often she is indeed raped by her new found “friends.” Either way this practice is deceptive and has become more common place, and the Navy needs to take action to curtail this custom, as certain ethnic groups in our Navy seem to teach this practice to one another and pass it along. Mr John P is correct in that not all the questions have been answered and the girl may have been attempting to exploit a situation strictly for monetary gain. But if indeed she had no idea of the group activity and was pressed into compliance then legal action is most justified against the perpetrators, and they should indeed be given the full measure of Thai justice; just as our other 3 “ethnic” Marines were given via Japanese justice, who captured and brutally raped the 12 year old Japanese girl on Okinawa 5 years ago. A very proud moment for the US Marines who tried desperately to free “their own” from the Japanese justice system and spirit this unsavory gang of 3 back to the US. Well written letter Mr John P. You captured the essence of the situation quite well.

Dear Pattaya Mail,

I have been coming back to Thailand many times for the past three to four years with my husband and we generally like Pattaya. There have been quite a few inconveniences before but they were not really worth writing home about.

There is just one “tiny” thing I’d like other foreigners and the Thai people as well to know. Take note: I said it is only a small thing but this seemingly trivial incident happened to me over and over again for these past three years. Lately, we had to travel to Bangkok more frequently from Pattaya by taking the Ekamai-bound bus. By so-doing, it made me more aware of a scam that has probably been going on for years and it was only about a year and a half ago when I noticed this deliberate shortchanging by the cashiers selling the bus tickets. At first I thought the first few incidents were genuine mistakes on the part of the cashier but it happened literally five times out of six incidents. What happens is, if there are two of you and you give the cashier baht 500 and the fare for each person is baht 77 and therefore the total amount to be paid is baht 154, that seems to be a favorite chance for the cashier to do her trick. She’ll give you a lot of notes and coins which gives you the impression that you’ve been rightly changed. But count your change and you’ll find out that it is baht 20 short. Sometimes it is baht 10 short if you give a smaller amount. All the time I had to go back and tell her of her “mistake”.

There are quite a few faces taking turns behind the counter. There were only about two trips when this act was not done out of the very many trips we made. They also do it to the unsuspecting Thais who simply dunk their change straight into their pockets without counting first. I always count my change now before I leave the counter. It seems only like peanuts money but it is a rip-off and it must be stopped. I would give money to someone who begs but I would not allow people to cheat me even out of one baht. To anyone of you who might be going to Bangkok using the same bus company, count your change first and see for yourself.

Respectfully Yours,

Mailbag,

Reply to “tongue firmly in cheek”: don’t you think you should have looked under the bed or in the wardrobe to see if any of Skampy’s friends weren’t laying in wait for you? You have a lot to learn about Pattaya. Most of the ladies or guys along Beach Road late at night are rejects from the bars or in Pattaya looking for work, the US navy has left, its the off season, not many tourist around... Finding it hard to make ends meet, hungry, until a nice farang like you appears, with all his jewellery and wallet bulging, and a first timer to Pattaya at that, who had never been seduced, and falls into the trap. “Hallo, where you come from? I want to go with you,” patter. Wow, you say, I have never had so much attention and affection come my way in many a year. Am I dreaming or is it for real that all these beautiful girls want to go with me? I mean, just look at me, I am 60 years old, balding, not too fit, why me? All my birthdays come at once. Wow, I can’t believe it. Straight away you should have put a padlock on your back pocket. I mean, I could see how bulging your wallet was and I was standing on the pier watching ...a sucker for the taking.

Come on my friend, admit it, you were fleeced, and rightly so, for being so naive. Skampy and her friends shared the takings, and then it is back to Beach Road, waiting for the next unsuspecting farang to seduce. I see them all the time when I walk along Beach Rd., and I have been coming to Pattaya for a long time.