Dear Sir,

I was pleased to read in today’s Pattaya Mail that vehicle access to the “beautiful new Jomtien Beach walkway” is to be restricted from 1st March.

But I hooted with laughter and disbelief and derision when I read that vehicles will be allowed to use the walkway from 4-8 p.m. Did it occur to anyone in city hall that people using the beach usually start to return to their hotels and homes at about 4 p.m., and that many people stay on the beach until sunset? Anyway, why on earth should vehicles be able to use the WALKway for eight solid hours each and very day? Why should vehicles be permitted to drive along the walkway at any time? Are there huge stores along the beach that need to be stocked up? There is plenty of car parking space available at the start of the walkway, but that would mean certain poor people would be forced to use their legs and walk to the beach or their places of work. Shock! Horror!

Whilst we are on the subject of Jomtien Beach, isn’t it about time that serious and consistent efforts be made to control the multitude of vendors who cause so much annoyance to sun worshippers who just want a pleasant day at the beach? If people want to buy suitcases or wooden elephants or whatever, surely they would do their shopping in Pattaya’s excellent shops and not at the beach? It would be nice if beach lovers could post notices near their chairs which would say something like “Vendors keep away please”. That idea is the height of pathetic and misplaced optimism as such polite requests would simply be ignored! In the meantime, “may ow kap” will have to do.

I am willing to bet quite a large sum of folding money that, this time next year, vehicles will still have virtually unrestricted access to the WALKway, and that the public toilet will not have been declared “open” by the mayor of Pattaya or anybody else. Any takers?

Yours in eternal despair,

Dear Sir,

I read with interest the letters about traffic conditions in Pattaya and I must say that I agree whole heartedly with the Idea of a MUCH longer walking street, and make it an all day walk.

On a visit to Europe I was pleased to note the centers of all the places that I visited had traffic free shopping zones that where very busy. The rule there in most places is that delivery must be done after midnight and before 10 am. This gives ample time to keep shops fully stocked and leaves the public unstressed by trucks.

The idea that Pattaya 2 and 3 become one way would also relieve the snarl of the downtown core traffic.

One other change that I would HIGHLY recommend is a pedestrian right-of-way law be introduced and enforced. I found that shopping in the downtown core was so disagreeable that I did most of my shopping in other places, just because getting from one side of the street to the other was very dangerous.

Remember, Pattaya is a tourist dependent town. If people go there and are nearly run down trying to shop, they don’t tell their friends what a wonderful time they had. They tell them how close a call they had. This is not good for future business.

I personally liked Pattaya, but my wife did not and it was just two things that made her not to like it. One was the traffic hazard, and the other is the pollution. Wake up Pattaya, these are both areas that can, and in my opinion must be remedied.

With the great climate and beaches, Pattaya could become a world famous resort town. Its up to you.

Canada

Dear Editor,

Whilst I very much enjoy reading your newspaper there is one aspect of Pattaya Mail’s news reporting that disturbs me and I wonder if it is really necessary. It is the vivid photography that appears from time to time on TV. Admittedly, in recent years the images have been blurred in an attempt to make them less gruesome or perhaps to respect the subject’s privacy; however, I doubt that in many instances it has the desired effect if it is for the former reason. As an example, recently it was reported that a man from Holland had been discovered dead in the house he rented and death was believed to be two weeks ago. It didn’t take a vivid imagination to know that the extensive stains on the floor that the camera man took a lot of time and trouble to slowly pan over were either leaking body fluids if death was due to natural causes (which I think was the case) or perhaps extensive bleeding if the death was a case of murder or suicide. Whichever, do your viewers really need or appreciate these gruesome vivid details? I for one do not. I have never seen such graphic coverage published in any media anywhere else in the world throughout which I have travelled extensively.

Editor;

There are a multitude of reasons for enjoying travel in Thailand, not of least of which is the genuine and smiling hospitality and high levels of service afforded tourists by the Thai people. One tiresome and annoying facet in Pattaya however is the concerted and continuing rip off of tourists by song taew / baht bus operators. The principle of a foreigner being expected (read demanded) to pay double the fare is extortionist.

I was on a baht bus together with, amongst others, a European man, his Thai wife and their two young children. As they left the bus and paid the ‘local’ fare they were subjected to a barrage of abuse for presumably not paying ‘double’. This tirade continued with the driver’s head out the window even as he departed. I was subjected to similar treatment upon alighting soon after. This situation needs to be rectified. It is a blight on the tourism industry of Pattaya.

Yours sincerely,