HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Better have it checked

Shipping a car to Thailand

Songkran - the festival for hooligans

Another distressed by UBC

Unjust photo on centre pages

And away go the birds

Paedophile activities in Sunee Plaza

Blaming foreigners for Thai problems

Missing Barry Kenyon

Bar name changes

Better have it checked

Editor;

This is an important issue and I hope you will print it in your letters asap. I’ve been a weightlifter for about 15 years and as a retiree in Pattaya I joined one of the “in” fitness centers. As a weight lifter trying to stay in good shape, nutrition is a very important part of this equation. Protein, predominantly Whey protein, is a vital part of the nutrition area of staying healthy and muscle recovery.

I recently purchased a 1 kg silver package of “whey” protein at the fitness center. When I opened it to make a protein shake after my workout I saw nothing that resembled any protein I’ve used in 14+ years of training from any country in the world. On top of that, the package was half written in Thai.

Anyone working out in Thailand knows that protein has yet to be approved by the Thai F&D dept. I had this stuff tested at a lab in Bangkok and found that it contained approx 35% soy protein and different fillers.

I recommend that all of you be extremely careful and do not buy that stuff. Who knows what adverse reaction someone could have. I have now moved my body to another fitness center and want nothing more to do with this type of con game - my one and only encounter with unscrupulous people in the fitness area anywhere in the world!

(Name withheld on request)

Shipping a car to Thailand

Editor;

Having visited Pattaya for the last 3 years, and having enjoyed it so much, I have finally decided to leave England and semi retire to Thailand/Pattaya. No real problem there, I have bought a nice house in Jomtien and can’t wait to finally move.

Then I thought I would look into the idea of shipping my car down. What a nightmare. Shipping costs are relatively cheap, but import duty seems horrendous. How can it really be so much? Thai customs will apparently value it and decide how much duty will have to be paid. However, nobody seems to know how they value it or if they use a specific chart or book. In other words, until the car lands on the dock you haven’t got a clue how much you will have to pay (except that it will be a lot of baht).

I would appreciate any information from anybody who has any, or even better anybody that has actually imported a car. I hope to be back in Pattaya in August and a slap up meal and night out is waiting for anybody that can help.

Alan Messeder

Salcombe
Devon
England

[email protected]

Songkran - the festival for hooligans

Dear Sir,

It saddens me to see this lovely festival degenerate into a festival for hooligans in Pattaya. Unlike Bangkok, where areas are designated and proper bans imposed, we, the local residents, are subjected to hooliganism commencing 12th April. Are the authorities blind? I suspect they have left town, as they know what happens here.

I challenge the city fathers and the number-crunching TAT to ride in open songtaews, instead of their air-conditioned limos, through Pattaya during this season, to experience what the local residents and decent tourists have to put up with. It is absolute mayhem. It’s degrading, frustrating and definitely not the Thai concept of Songkran. The dangers of the next generation of Thais embracing this ugly ritual, brought in by foreign hooligans, as theirs, has yet to be calculated. The warning printed in the Pattaya Mail on 19th April was joke.

The ritual being celebrated here in Pattaya is open all hours. PVC water pipe-guns, banned in Bangkok are sold and used openly here despite the dangers we all know it causes. Inebriated hooligans, with their service girls in tow, ambush everyone that have to travel through Beach Road. Iced water, ice cubes, water laced with fish sauce and dye are commonly used. The worst areas are just a few doors down from the Pattaya Police Station on Beach Road, but the cops are nowhere to be seen. You get soaked going to and from work, when you go out shopping or and even when you go out in the evenings. Unless we stay indoors all week, we are at their mercy. They are even there at 9 p.m. It seems the one day allocated to this festival here (April 19th) doesn’t seem to be enough and the authorities don’t care two hoots as they have succumbed to the power of the dollar.

The number of travellers may be up, but can you honestly say that the calibre of travellers you are attracting are the sort you want here during Songkran, having already sold out your own traditional values for their imported version? I wouldn’t hold my breath expecting any changes as I expect things to get worse at next year’s Pattaya Hooligan Festival.

Greg Oliveiro

Pattaya

Another distressed by UBC

Editor,

Being an ex-pat that only spends two to three months in Pattaya per year I would have thought that UBC would have a partial payment system for people like me. It seems they do not and it is a case of all or nothing. Okay, I understand this to a certain point but try as I may, they will not send me a bank payment form despite various promises over the phone.

All my invoices have been wrong and so today I have cancelled my connection. The stress it has caused me, especially the UBC “automatic answering service” leaves me no choice. I hear a remark that another company will start up soon in the Pattaya. Please tell me it is true!

Mark Iles

Unjust photo on centre pages

Dear Sirs,

With reference to the Songkran photograph shown in the centre pages of the Pattaya Mail, I feel it necessary to bring to your attention what I feel to be a major injustice. The lower central photograph depicting England’s finest export - ‘Lager Louts’ causing mayhem on the Beach Road clearly shows the bar signs of two bars whose farang owners, upon seeing the rabbles deteriorating behaviour, had sensibly turned of the water and actively discouraged any more such festivities.

Having their establishments associated with the mayhem encouraged by other, and I may add, Thai owned bars, seems unfair to me considering their responsible actions.

Perhaps next time when taking such photographs your photographer could check his angles and look at what else is in the frame.

Regards

John Henderson

Pattaya

And away go the birds

Pattaya Mail,

Bird watching is my hobby and the wetlands behind Soi Gaw Pai is my favorite stomping ground. It is over 100 square rai in size and the habitat of over 20 different species of birds. Alas, the whole area is being filled for development!

One thing the new tenants will not hear for sure is the birds’ singing at dawn. They, like me, will have moved on! All the beautiful lagoon will be lost to development and housing!

Yours Sincerely,

Concerned

Paedophile activities in Sunee Plaza

Sir,

I refer to Mr and Mrs Anderson’s letter in the 19 April issue regarding the paedophile activities witnessed in Sunee Plaza.

I am a gay man with no interest in under-age boys, but I do know that the Sunee Plaza area has an increasingly notorious reputation in gay circles as a place where paedophiles can find young boys. A fact which nauseates the average gay man who condemns these illegal activities.

The Andersons ask some rhetorical questions:

1. Where are the police? Answer - they are not there because they are being paid to turn a blind eye to these activities - the February arrest of a bar owner led to nothing because, I understand, large amounts of money changed hands for proceedings to be dropped.

2. Similarly it is widely suspected that similar inducements are being made to high-ranking provincial/city officials.

3. Do the farang owners have permits? Answer - the vast majority of the bars in this area are owned and run by Thais. Indeed, if they were farang owned perhaps the authorities would then take action to close them down.

As in most areas of life in Thailand, if you have enough money or have influential political connections you can get away with just about anything with little fear of arrest and certainly with no danger of prosecution.

D Snowdon

London

Blaming foreigners for Thai problems

Editor;

The writer of the piece in the Pattaya Mail “Traditional values featured in Pattaya’s April 13 Songkran parade and festival” with the comments “There was still the small army of beer-filled farangs and service girls who chose to ignore traditional Thai values and soak everyone in sight” must have been on yaba. Why not blame the sale of pvc guns and talcum powder on the evil (beer-filled) farangs also? What about the 650+ dead on the Thai roads during Songkran? Was it those same terrible foreigners responsible or maybe a few Mekong-filled Thais also getting in on the act?

Scott Benson

Missing Barry Kenyon

Editor;

I have been reading Pattaya Mail every Friday for some years now in order to keep in touch with the expat situation in Thailand. I found Barry Kenyon’s Grapevine particularly informative. I am sorry to see he has left and wish him well in the future.

Joe Walshe

Ireland

Bar name changes

Editor;

I agree with Khun Francis’ assessment in the 19-4-02 letters. The semantics of the forced name change vis a vie the actual business being conducted (allowed) is hypocritical.

Mike Kasarda

California, USA

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