HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

A thank you from the Austrian Embassy Bangkok

Lining up beach chairs “stupidest” idea

Why are police picking on Jomtien Beach?

Stop blaming foreigners

Cleaning up Pattaya - start with corruption

Tourism to take a nosedive?

Postal delivery seems to be slowing

Only too pleased to set UBC straight

A thank you from the Austrian Embassy Bangkok

As the Austrian Ambassador in Thailand I follow with interest all Thai publications concerning Austria. I have the great pleasure to let you know that I highly appreciated “Romantic Journeys” by Chalerm Raksanti which succeeded to give a very balanced view of the Austrian character. The article in Pattaya Mail of 25 January unlike other publications of that kind refrained from giving a too sweet picture as well from ignoring the darker side of the character of some Austrians.

Please accept my thanks for this and be assured that the Austrian Embassy will always be at your services when there is a need for help in giving objective information about Austria.

Sincerely yours,

Dr. Georg Znidaric

Ambassador of Austria m.p.

Lining up beach chairs “stupidest” idea

Editor;

I read with great distress the article about the “lining up of the beach chairs on Jomtien Beach and have to say that the bureaucrats that run the local government have to have their “heads read”. This has to be the stupidest idea that any bureaucracy has ever come up with.

On my vacation in Thailand one of the high points was the good and friendly service that we received from the “beach boy” at the North end of Jomtien Beach.

He kept us supplied with decent chairs and umbrellas. The cost was not high and the service was great. The massage therapists and locals made us feel welcome.

If local government interferes with this type of entrepreneur, Pattaya and Jomtien can kiss the family tourist, goodbye!

A.R. Wainwright

Vancouver Island BC. Canada

Why are police picking on Jomtien Beach?

Dear Editor,

I cannot believe what Purachai Piumsombun is doing to the concessionaires and indeed the tourists at Jomtien (Dongtan) Beach. He has now decreed that each concession be allowed only 40 deckchairs and tables; he is stopping the use of upright plastic chairs altogether; stopping the use of water electrical facilities and has decreed that the concessionaires are not allowed to use counter tops and cupboards for storage etc., thus forcing them to use their hands and knees for washing cups, etc.

Tourists such as myself enjoy the facilities provided by the owners and are thus deprived of the enjoyment they require. He is depriving us from buying the sandwiches, fruit, trinkets and souvenirs from the vendors who are trying to earn a decent honest living. I suffer from spondolosis of the neck and back and due to the kindness of the police am allowed to use an upright chair but what about the many other tourists who suffer in silence? I also understand he is to close the beach at one end for one day a week for “Volley Ball” reasons.

The 2 a.m. closing does not effect me as I am not a night person but I know of many tourists, restricted at home, come here for relaxation and freedom to enjoy a holiday atmosphere but who now are going elsewhere to spend their money. Poor Thai’s, I have much sympathy for you who, from the government downwards, are growing poorer every day because of the stupidity of people like Purachai Piumsombun who has no idea of the everyday life of vendors and concessionaires such as those at Jomtien. And he has certainly no idea of promoting tourism!

From,
Disgusted

Stop blaming foreigners

Editor;

By Thai government reports, tourism in Thailand is down 20% from last year. The reports I have read in the Thai press blame the drop in tourism as a natural part of the aftermath of terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the United States. To counter the drop in tourist visits to Thailand, several hundred million baht are being spent on tourism promotion and public relations.

I am from the United States, and I have been a tourist in Thailand. I have friends in Thailand who are involved in the tourist business, and the drop in tourism has hurt them, their employees and the businesses where they spend the money they earn from tourist income. They tell me that business is down much more than the 20% drop claimed by the Thai government - down by as much as 50%. If Thai government reports are as reliable as those in the United States, I trust the figures my friends give.

I agree that fear of terrorism after September 11 has affected tourism, not just in Thailand but worldwide. I do not agree that this is the only cause of the precipitous drop in tourists visiting Thailand, and I do not think that a public relations campaign is going convince tourists to come back to Thailand in any great numbers until Thaksin and Purachai stop trying to legislate public morality and until they stop portraying foreigners as the cause of Thailand’s problems.

Anyone outside Thailand who contemplates a visit there now has to wonder whether they will be caught up in a police raid or whether they will be stopped by the police as they drive through the streets of Bangkok. Thaksin, Purachai and the governor of Chonburi have made it abundantly clear that foreigners are going to be targeted in their crackdowns, and that cannot help but make most potential tourists nervous - even if they are not doing anything illegal or immoral. Thailand is no longer the “Land of Smiles,” and the only thing amazing about Thailand these days is that there are any tourists there at all.

Does the government really want to boost tourism in Thailand? If so, then clean up the beaches. Stop pouring raw sewage into the waters and treat waste water adequately. Tighten up environmental regulations so that it is more expensive for factories to pollute than to dump their waste. Abandon a two-tier pricing system where every visitor to Thailand is charged twice the price of the same things they see their Thai friends purchase. If Thaksin, Purachai and the governor of Chonburi really wanted to boost tourism, they would do these things and more. They would put out the welcome mat for foreigners and the income they bring to the people of Thailand. Until they do that, I do not think that all the money they throw into tourist promotion and public relations campaigns is going to have any effect.

Shirley Evans

Cleaning up Pattaya - start with corruption

Sir,

As a regular visitor to Thailand, and particularly Pattaya, I feel I have some knowledge of the city and know about its reputation here in England.

The so-called bad reputation is a leftover from the days when the Americans used the resort as an R and R location. True, some of the seedier aspects still exist. However, I must point out to the esteemed Chonburi governor and his partners in the clean up campaign that top of the poor reputation ladder of Pattaya (and indeed Thailand as a whole) is corruption in public life and particularly when in the police, where it is so rampant. Its affects are felt by tourist businesses that pass on the inevitable costs to their clients.

As an aside, have you ever noticed how many high-ranking and influential personages in Thailand (from the very top down) are ex-police officers - this fact alone must lead any sensible person to conclude that being a police officer has tremendous advantages both in financial and influence terms.

Governor, tackle the root of most of the evil in Thailand - corruption - and stop blaming tourists and farang business owners for the ills of the country.

Dave Snowdon

London

Tourism to take a nosedive?

Editor;

I cannot believe someone would actually pay 395 baht for a book about bars in Pattaya (“Money Number One” Lang Reid book review). Is this is why single men go to Thailand? I have been coming here for 26 straight years and read your journal religiously. I have also seen many changes in Pattaya, Patong Beach and now Koh Samui. The bottom line is it’s their country, not the Farangs. If their (the falang’s) country is so great then they should stay home. I do believe, however, Thailand will take a nosedive in tourism in the near future. They will have a wake up call.

Brian Kennedy

USA

Postal delivery seems to be slowing

Sir,

I am concerned with the increasing degradation of the postal delivery service. This morning, 4 February, the postman delivered an airmail bank statement with postmarks:

London, UK on 18 Jan

Banglamung on 21 Jan.

Three days to travel 10,000km and 14 days to complete the remaining 6 km from Banglamung to my home. Even more puzzling is that I have had two deliveries while it was in Banglamung Post Office.

This is not a unique occurrence. I have analyzed all postmarked mail delivered last year. The average delivery time was 4.4 days with a best of same day and worst of 14 days. All were correctly addressed and included the postcode. Friends confirm that they experience similar delays.

Up to two years ago, the postal service was excellent with same day delivery being the norm. I realize that Pattaya has expanded but would have thought the workload largely unchanged due to the increasing use of e-mail. If there are more items to deliver, why has there not been an increase in staffing?

Could you ask the Banglamung Postmaster to comment and perhaps give an insight to the problems he has?

John Malpass

South Pattaya

Only too pleased to set UBC straight

Editor;

How I concur with Bee’s letter about UBC in the Mail. However, what she/he fails to realize is that UBC will not permit any cancellation of subscriber membership.

At the end of last year I had become so fed up with UBC’s total lack of customer support, increased subscription fee, repeats, and programme changing that I decided enough was enough and surrendered their decoder unit and new smart card (which failed to work even after three hours of installation) to their agent at Chonburi together with a clear e-mail message to head office.

I have received no written acknowledgement, or requests for a statement of reasons for cancellation; also monthly magazines continue to arrive (late), and they are still sending me demands for monthly payments despite follow up telephone calls (not easy to get a real live person to speak to at Bangkok but plenty of machine messages and music!) and more e-mails.

I simply cannot understand UBC’s apparently myopic business policy. On the one hand they are scrambling to attract new customers with free gifts and the like, and on the other hand treat their existing subscribers with complete disdain.

In his New Year message to customers the CEO states that all is well in UBC land, presumably based on feedback from his managers.

Well, if he would care to contact me I would be only too pleased to set him straight.

Couch Potato

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