HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Hey, presto...

Beach police priorities

Please put out that cigarette

Old habits die hard

Walkway or motorbike track?

More temple noise

Agrees with Khai Khem

Hey, presto...

Dear Sir/Madam,

Having lived in Pattaya for 2 years now, & reading all the letters in your excellent paper on the driving, or should I say lack of road sense of the Thai drivers, I have thought of a way to cure the traffic problem in Pattaya. The Authorities should make all the Thai baht bus drivers take a European style driving test. Hey presto traffic problem solved, only 10% would pass, leaving around 250 baht buses on the roads, more than enough for this size of town.

Regards,

European Resident

Beach police priorities

Sir,

The fruit/food sellers at Jomtien Beach provide a convenient and useful service to the patrons of the beach. The harassment of these good citizens by City Hall and the police is nothing less than scandalous. The politicians and police efforts would be far better directed at the animal abuse to be seen now in the Dongtan Beach area. There are at least three people offering small dogs for sale. These puppies look as if, in two cases, they are not old enough to have been weaned properly. If a clamp down is to be made on beach sellers, these animal abusers should be the first in line.

Ganymede (animal lover)

Please put out that cigarette

Editor;

The song goes, “Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette. Smoke, smoke, smoke it till you smoke yourself to death.” Everyone recognizes these true lyrics and realizes that it is a nasty habit, but one that’s hard to break. Possibly the new Thai law that prohibits smoking in enclosed air conditioned areas will help smokers kick the cigarette habit. It sure has worked in California, where the smoking population has been reduced from 29% before the ordinance to fewer than 2% today.

But only if the law is enforced! In any case, it is not fair to non-smokers to be forced to breath second hand smoke while trying to enjoy a meal or a beer. In Pattaya, most restaurants and hotels have recognized the new ordinance and have posted signs to enforce it. However there are still a few holdouts that flaunt the law and refuse to comply. These establishments fear losing their smoking customers and so far have mostly avoided the fines that accompany the new law. Not only are they being unfair to the restaurants that do comply, but in reality California has proven that the loss of customers is nil providing all establishments follow the same policy.

An example of this is a place on Soi 7, whose proprietor states that he has no intention of obeying the law. This is rather comical, as his food is great and I know he has lost a large segment of the non-smokers, who make up the majority of Pattaya diners. The Pattaya police department states that the ordinance is not their responsibility to enforce. They refer complaints to the tourist police, who also claim non-responsibility. A crackdown is now overdue. In only a few instances have there been fines.

If this new law is to have any teeth in Thailand, then it must be enforced. The local police need to take the same initiative on indoor smoking as they do on enforcing the law on underage drinkers. Only then will it be a pleasure to dine inside a Pattaya restaurant in a smoke free environment.

A Concerned Pattaya Resident

Old habits die hard

Dear Editor,

I recently heard a joke, which I found very funny and was dying to tell it to someone else. It was one of those Essex-girl jokes, but as the company I was in was 60% Thai people, I decided to change the Essex-girl to be a naive young Thai-lady in Pattaya. It went like this:

A naive young Thai-lady in Pattaya was bought a car for her birthday by her rich Farang-boyfriend on condition that she gave up riding her motorcycle and took driving lessons. The next day she got up early and left her boyfriend a note to say that she had decided to visit her mother to show off the car. She hadn’t been gone very long when she received a panic call on her mobile-phone from her boyfriend, who had just woken up and read her note, to warn her that he had just heard on the news that there was a car driving fast the wrong way on Sukhumvit Road. “It’s not just one,” she replied, “there are hundreds of them.”

All of the farangs chuckled at the joke, but none of the Thai’s could see the joke. I wonder why.

Yours truly,

Richard

Walkway or motorbike track?

Editor;

A few months ago the new “walkway” along the beach from Jomtien ending at Moo 12 was completed and quite good it looks as well. The final part was the planting of lots of palm trees and the whole thing was brick paved with ornate lanterns added although they are not turned on yet.

So living overlooking the beach at Moo 12 we were a little apprehensive but in the end delighted with the final results.

Then it was decided to build a small car park at our end and just before Christmas the bulldozers moved in and formed a concrete ramp from the car park to the beach, which included a large step that was quite obviously intended to stop cars, bikes and boat launch trailers from being able to get from the new car park onto the beach or the new walkway itself.

Within days of the car park being finished the first motorbikes appeared on the walkway and a month or so later finds us with a constant flow of motorbikes, motorised food vendors and bike taxis. I just counted 55 bikes in twenty minutes. Tourists and locals alike who are now using the walkway as intended can be seen jumping off to the side as motorbikes proceed at very fast road speeds along it.

At our end the walkway finishes with a set of concrete steps designed to lead walkers to the waiting baht busses in the new car park but sadly this also is now so full of mobile food vendors and permanently parked cars and bikes that no baht busses can use it. So having walked the mile or so from Jomtien the hapless walker has to turn round and walk back through the stream of traffic in the direction that they came from.

Up until today, however, the motorbikes have been having real difficulties in getting up the ramp onto the car park after driving through a beautiful beach garden that is now partially devoid of grass because of that traffic. To begin with, some resourceful people provided planks of wood and then lumps of broken concrete to make it an easier path for the bikes but these kept breaking and it was still difficult for them.

This afternoon the problem seems to have been solved when three men turned up (not from the city) with picks, shovels and bags of cement that they have mixed with the sand on the beach. By adding some water from the sea (don’t try this at home), they have just finished building a proper concrete ramp that joins up with the car park and will by tomorrow, when hardened, provide a permanent access for motorised two wheelers.

Maybe tomorrow they will come back with more concrete to form a road so even cars will be able to get onto the walkway then we could call it “Walkway Highway”.

Many of us applaud the efforts of the city to enhance the area but please complete the job and put up traffic barriers as you have done in other places so as to protect the walkers that this amenity was provided for before someone gets really hurt.

Jomtien Resident

More temple noise

Dear Sir,

I hope the temple authorities will heed the letter in last week’s Pattaya Mail (Jan. 17) regarding the level of noise emanating in the early hours of most mornings from Wat Chaimongkol Temple. The level of amplification of voice and music is obnoxious and unnecessary, and must disturb a great many people who live in South Pattaya.

The matter has nothing to do with religion but is about decency and consideration for others. Buddhists too need to sleep, to work, and to go to school.

Sincerely,

Sitthiporn

Agrees with Khai Khem

The Editor;

I have become a great fan of Mr. Khai Khem the commentator at the Pattaya Mail. His commentary in this week’s Pattaya Mail was titled, For Goodness Sake - Fix The Roads. How I agree with everything he said. How many people did the potholes and loose gravel kill in Pattaya this year? How many will potholes kill this year?

As a motorcycle rider I know most of the very dangerous ones by heart. The one at the corner of the street leading to the bus station from Sukhumvit is a very bad one, the U turn not far from the same corner (Sukhumvit Rd.) is even worse because the deep hole there is on some days filled with gravel, which disappears the next day. The sand on many parts of Sukhumvit Road, around Siam C Road is treacherous for motorcycles. The latter street has some very ugly potties near the ‘dirt market’ not far from the railroad crossing. And so on and so on.

Problems happen when a new one that has so far escaped me suddenly is right smack in front of my front wheel. Corner of Sukhumvit/Nern Blup Wan had me reeling several times. Loose gravel with which the potholes were filled (and which had disappeared the next day) gave me a dangerous spin several times. Talking about Soi Nern Blup Wan, about 5 months ago a friend of mine counted the vehicles passing through it near the dirt market at 7:00 p.m. In 10 minutes he counted 612 cars or motorcycles. And this is a Soi that 2 years ago did not even have an official name. So I was told.

I liked what Khai Khem said about the new entrance to Central Road. But I ask the people at the city hall how many potholes in their estimation could have been filled (permanently filled, not only gravel thrown in) with the money that the showpieces at the Central Road have eaten? How many lives of motorcycle riders and possible car drivers could have been spared if a lot of money had been spent more wisely on the mending of the ways and roads in the city of Pattaya instead of a folly thing of a showpiece?

Yours sincerely

Jean Deveraux

Letters published in the Mailbag of Pattaya Mail
are also on our website.