HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Not much has changed

Noisy temple keeps tourists awake

Jomtien’s palm trees riddle solved

Shouldn’t drive motorcycle in right lane

Common sense in Bangkok or...

A different terror at the beach

Baht bus monopoly scam

Thanks for the help

Not much has changed

Editor;

After a lapse of 10 years I returned to Pattaya for my vacation staying at the Sunbeam Hotel. Even though Pattaya has grown out of all recollection it has not lost its charm and friendly nature.

I found it one of the safest places to walk around no matter what time of day or night it was and drunkenness or people performing in a loutish manner. I can only put it down to the way the Thai people behave themselves which is a credit to you all.

Please though do something about the traffic as I found it unbearable walking along Beach Road and second street and nigh on impossible to cross the road. I am sure this will put off a lot of people from returning.

I hope to return again next year.

Yours,

John Parkinson

Noisy temple keeps tourists awake

Dear Sir,

Re noise pollution: if you ever thought a Buddhist temple is a place of peace and tranquility, think again! Try Wat Chaimongkol - Pattaya Tai at 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. most mornings.

I can only guess why they broadcast their teachings and music at such incredibly high volume over their most efficient loud speakers. Is it an effort to reach the people of Naklua, Jomtien and Larn Island? Is this really necessary?

Do those areas not have their own temples? Is there anyone who can ask them to turn down the volume? Believe it or not many visitors and locals would like to sleep at this time of day. Surely a Buddhist temple should be the very last place to promote noise pollution.

Pietro

Jomtien’s palm trees riddle solved

Dear Sir,

I refer to the letter by ‘Observer’ published in Mail Bag on Friday 3rd January 2003 under the heading “A miracle has happened”.

‘Observer’ made reference to the palm trees that have been planted along both sides of Jomtien Beach Road Soi 5 and enquired who was responsible.

As a point of explanation the vacant land was being used as a rubbish dump and becoming very unsightly. The management of View Talay Villas approached the council for permission clean up the area and plant the palm trees.

The project was jointly funded at considerable cost by the management of View Talay Villas and two long term residents of the Villas who have asked that their identity remain anonymous.

I endorse completely the remarks made by ‘Observer’ as regards rubbish being dumped on vacant property around Pattaya and especial Jomtien Beach. With the cost of labour in Thailand so economical it would make sense for these unauthorized rubbish tips to be removed. Lets hope for more miracles.

Sincerely,

Rob Astbury

Pattaya Properties / View Talay Villas

Shouldn’t drive motorcycle in right lane

Dear Editor,

I’m writing regarding Freddie Clark’s letter in last week’s Pattaya Mail, where he states, “...driving in the right lane ploy (incidentally this is not illegal in Thailand)”. I bought my first motorcycle in Thailand about 8 years ago and since have ridden it about 40,000 km with only one violation, caught on radar speeding (which I do all the time). A while back I was stopped on my other bike I had just ridden up from Singapore, for ridding in the right lane. I explained to the officer that it was not your typical “moto-cy” and with more horsepower than most four wheel vehicles, had no problem moving along in the fast lane, which I had done all the way from Singapore. He told me that Thai laws are written for the local underpowered variety. I know better than to argue, paid the usual fee and was on my way in short order. Question; if Mr. Clark is correct, was I unlawfully fined?

Incidentally I would like to comment that regardless of all the negative letters you receive regarding driving in Thailand, I know from personal experience that it has improved dramatically in the 15 years I’ve been driving here. I attributed it mostly to the improved highway systems, but also Thai drivers are much better than they use to be. Except for the few exceptions, the Thai highway police do an excellent job and deserve a lot of credit for the safer driving conditions (and normally don’t bother fast moving big bikes).

Regards,

Art Savacool

Common sense in Bangkok or...

Editor;

During a recent trip to Bangkok from my normal residence in Pattaya, I spent at least two hours in taxi at various places in our capital city.

After just a few minutes, we stopped at red light, and the two lanes to the left were crowded with motorbikes waiting for green. My brain spent around 15 seconds to interpret the strange sight, quite the opposite of what I was used to here in Pattaya.

Suddenly I could see it. All the 51 motorbike-drivers (I counted them twice) had helmets, even the 6 passengers. And they had good ones, not the 100 baht “pee-pee-pots” they use here in Pattaya.

Being a number freak, I decided to make a traffic count during my taxi-trips, and it sounds a little bit like an “mission impossible”, but it turned out to be very, very easy. During the two hours I must have seen hundreds and hundreds and my numbers comes here:

I saw absolutely no motorbikes with 3 people, adults with babies or drivers being under aged!

I saw, in total, 6 drivers without any headgear (one of them was from India and had a turban), and finally 4 passengers without helmets (one lady had an umbrella though).

The question of the century is therefore: “Do people in Bangkok have more common sense in the traffic than people in Pattaya?”

Readers get no points for the correct answer because it is too easy. What they have in Bangkok is a police force that made the change, which means it could work in Pattaya, if certain people got to work, that is. In other parts of the world we used to call it “law enforcement”.

The motorbikes in Pattaya are an insult to people without a bike and with more than 100 cells in the brain. No wonder the rest drops the protection under such circumstances.

KS

Pattaya

A different terror at the beach

To the editor:

As a long-time resident of Jomtien, I love the beaches here - until now. I say that because the noise pollution at the beach is totally out of control. The jet skis, powerboats and illegal motorcycles along the beachfront and path have transformed a once-peaceful beach into a nightmare of noise. Forget the possibility of a terrorist threat; this serious problem is here now and it will kill the beach for sure if it isn’t stopped.

The Pattaya government has spent a fortune on the new pathways and other improvements along the beach. But by the time they are done, it will be so noisy there, no one in their right mind will want to sit on the beach and be assaulted by the noise.

No one seems to regulate these terrible noisemakers. They seem to load and off-load anywhere they like, and the water and noise pollution they create is awful to behold. There is an endless buzz of noise that cannot be escaped anywhere on the beach. The balconies of condos all along the beach cannot even be used during the day because of the endless noise from their motors. Windows need to be shut to reduce the noise to the level of a constant buzz. Turning up your TV and air con is the only way to drown it out completely.

The less commercial beach just north of Pattaya Park, which many Thai people use as a free-access public beach area, used to be a calm and peaceful oasis. In the past few weeks, it has suddenly become a jungle of beach chairs, jet skis and powerboats, vying for every inch of the public beach. I have been told that many of these concessions are not licensed and are illegal. In any event, they have quickly transformed the new pathway into a mess of stacked chairs and tables.

In addition, illegal motorbikes have begun to use this section of the new beach pathway at all hours. They are illegally accessing it from the Pratamnak terminus of the pathway, which has never been finished, and it is now common to see motorbikes zooming around the beach pathway well south of Pattaya Park.

Over this holiday, many people at this section of the beach couldn’t even bathe in the ocean for fear of being run over by some hotshot showing off on a jet ski. Who needs terrorists or Jaws with this kind of threat already in the water?

I say ban these nuisances, as I believe authorities are attempting to do in Phuket and most other major beach resorts in the world, and give the Jomtien beaches some chance for survival.

One of these days, some international magazine is going to write an expose about the abominable noise levels along Pattaya and Jomtien beaches and then we can all watch as the beach chairs empty. A few dozen irresponsible jet skiers and power boaters are going to cost thousands of people their livelihood at the beach when that happens. The beaches will be very silent then.

Beach Expat

Baht bus monopoly scam

Editor:

I want to thank the signatures ‘tired of Thieves” and “Lessons Learned” in mailbag/Pattaya Mail, 10 Jan/ because I think that this is important knowledge and warning for people coming here.

I would like to continue in the same spirit and give readers and tourists a hint about one common situation were tourists get cheated and how to avoid it. When travellers are coming to Pattaya with the aircon bus from Bangkok there are dark-blue pickups (“baht-buses”) waiting for passengers. Some pickups take passengers on a kind of regular route around Beach Road-Second Road for a fee of 20-25 baht per passenger which is comparatively expensive considering, distance etc., but maybe not far too outrageous and convenient for most people. But - if you need these pickups to go anywhere else as a private/chartered taxi - Beware! They try to charge unsuspecting foreign travellers 2-4 times the decent “Thai” price. I know one who paid 300 baht for going to the southern end of Soi Bua Khao!

If you need a “taxi going-pickup” and want to avoid being cheated - the trick is simply to pass the bunch of baht bus cheaters by and cross the main street (North Pattaya Road) and stay there and wait for another dark-blue pickup not involved in the “baht-bus-monopoly-for-cheating-foreigners”. Negotiate a price on the principle of at the most 20 baht per kilometre - it has always worked for me.

The reason that the normal otherwise praised and guarded free-competition policy is out of the game is probably that “they” have decided to do so to extract the maximum benefit out of inexperienced, insecure, unsuspecting and timid tourists. The practice is probably formally illegal but since it goes on and on for years and decades I guess it is well established and well “paid for” to the upper strata of corrupt scoundrels.

By the way, isn’t it very strange that some in charge of the public transportation in Pattaya so clearly and fervently oppose the introduction of common “fair-metered-taxis” in Pattaya which nowadays are abundant and so easy to get in Bangkok? What are they so afraid of?

Reflecting Resident

Thanks for the help

Mailbag;

The Queen Victoria Inn (Soi Yodsak- 6) would like to thank its many customers, guests, friends and Carlsberg for helping to raise over 37000 baht for Pattaya Orphanage during the Festive season. Don’t forget, every time you buy your UK bonus ball at the bar you’re helping the kids.

Queen Victoria Inn

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