HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Smoking laws protect citizens

No helmet and potholes

Do not legalize casinos

Keep karaokes inside and out of hearing range

Wonderful Thai invention

How can we get our views across to the people who matter?

Bali Hai Pier costs

Electricity lines exposed

Use your credit card

Smoking laws protect citizens

Dear Sir,

What an amazing example of convoluted thinking was displayed by Mr. K. Cleary (7th March). Legislation to restrict smoking in confined areas has been put in place to protect (Thai) citizens from the dangers and unpleasantness of modern tobacco smoke and has nothing whatever to do with California. Similar legislation has been enacted all over the world. At one time it was sheer misery to travel in a bus in Turkey as it was scarcely possible to see from one end to the other. Almost overnight the picture was transformed and for many years now nobody has smoked on Turkish buses. What a pleasure it is to use the commuter train in KL! No smoking or eating, so the trains are spotlessly clean and no foul smells.

I was glad to read that Mr. Cleary has had thirteen happy years here and I wish him many more . So, why does he want to inflict misery on the rest of us? I wonder why he wants to eat in an air-con restaurant if he dislikes American ideas? Is he also opposed to laws requiring helmets and seat belts or laws protecting children from paedophiles? Before Thailand became infested with the worst type of American “culture”, cigarettes were relatively harmless and inoffensive, being made from natural tobacco and, of course, puffed in the open air. It is precisely because of retrograde developments that laws have to be passed to protect us from the machinations and selfish behaviour of inconsiderate people. I very much resent the bombastic assertion that because I dislike smoke, especially in a lift, I should go and live in California. His argument is totally illogical and insulting. I dislike big brother and nanny government as much as anyone, but when it comes to safeguarding my life I am all in favour.

Sincerely,

Michael Nightingale

No helmet and potholes

Editor;

Many people have written to the Pattaya Mail about the law concerning motorcycle drivers without helmets and why they are hunted for. The situation should be clear to even the most naive.

A person (preferably a farang) on a motorbike without a helmet means 200 baht is going to the police cashbox. Catching three 14 years old on a bike is not worth a satang to anyone. So, it’s just a matter of adding 2 and 2.

Although, I would advise anyone driving on the streets of Pattaya to wear a helmet, not for the reason of saving 200 baht (or 100 without a receipt) but for the danger of striking a deep pothole as there must be a million of them on Pattaya’s roads. Most of them are well known to the public as they have existed for many years but there are always new ones that might kill the unwary.

Lister, L.

Soi Nern Blup Hwan Thanyawan II

Do not legalize casinos

Editor;

I have been to your city many times and never wanted to leave. Like most people who visit your country, I fell in love with Thailand and its people. Please do not legalize casinos as it would change your country from a place where people spend all their money happily over a month or two, on the beauty of Thailand, to a place where a different type of people will be coming to lose their money in a week or two and leave with a different attitude towards your country. These people will not be in Thailand because of the friendliness of the people, the incredible shopping or the water sports, races, etc.

I love most things about your country. Casinos, like sex shows, bring in tourists looking for something other than the true beauty and atmosphere that is Thailand.

Susan Holloway

Keep karaokes inside and out of hearing range

Dear Sir;

One is always told that the Jomtien area of Pattaya is the smart and up-and-coming place to live in, or to visit, but is it true?

There certainly was a time when the worst excesses of ‘mainland’ Pattaya were far away and not to be seen or heard in Jomtien.

However, a new and dread disease has appeared in genteel Jomtien. It is called karaokeitis. Yes, it has unfortunately arrived there. I refer not to ‘karaokeitis de intro’, or a karaoke bar sealed in a closed and presumably air conditioned room, but ‘karaokeitis focu’, or a karaoke bar open to the street and therefore alarmingly heard by all neighbours within a kilometre of its wretched source.

As Pattaya is promoting itself as a clean and civilised resort, not yet quite like Baden -Baden or Bournemouth, but nonetheless trying hard, I am sure the city fathers will take it upon themselves to rid us of this appalling scourge. Often the noise is quite horrendous, especially when several singers, if I may call them that, appear somewhat the worse for drink and hopelessly out of tune!

Is there not a law to force all such noise to be shut up inside, rather than in the open for all to hear never endingly?

Yours faithfully,

Observer

Wonderful Thai invention

Editor;

I’ve been searching for weeks for one of these great Thai safety inventions I see all over Thailand to no avail. I am hoping maybe your readers can help me locate one of these. I am of course referring to the motorcycle air bag. I see these everywhere. These airbags are very lifelike in their resemblance to small children perched on the front seat of driven motorcycles. I’ve been to Lotus, Big C, several Ma & Pa stores, and numerous motorcycle shops in Pattaya looking for this device. In my broken Thai I have also inquired in some of these shops but when I ask about this fine product the staff have no idea what I am talking about and/or look at me like I’m some sort of idiot.

I am not really interested in the cheap one-handed model of the Thai motorcycle air bag resembling 1-2 year old children. These appear to be rather cumbersome, as one has to hang on to the air bag with one hand while attempting to steer the motorcycle with the other. No, I would like to purchase the hands free model where the air bag’s lifelike hands attach to the motorcycle handlebars.

I have spoke with farangs who have lived in Thailand for several years and none of them have been of any real help either. One of them actually suggested this is not an air bag at all but REAL Thai children! What a moron.

While these airbags are normally fitted to Thai motorcycles I have also seen them on several farang bikes. In fact I tried to chase a farang down last week in attempt to get some info from him but when he reached 120 km an hour on Sukhumvit I had to back off.

I am hoping once I locate and fit one of these to my bike I can discard this useless helmet I have been wearing lately as it appears the drivers of these motorcycles fitted with the airbags drive with much more confidence. In fact, usually the helmet is left at home, or it may be carried in the motorcycle front basket in the event the local police suddenly deem helmets fashionable again, or they are short of change.

Any help in locating this what appears to be an excellent safety device is truly appreciated.

Thank you,

Scott Benson

Pattaya

How can we get our views across to the people who matter?

Editor;

As a Pattaya resident I have read and enjoyed the Pattaya Mail for years. One of my favourite sections is the letters page where ex-pats and visitors get a chance to express their views even if they do criticise the Mail itself.

Most of those that write letters have a genuine concern for our town and its many problems. But who actually reads the Mail? I suspect that the Mail is read only by Westerners and hardly ever by those that can affect changes for the better and that is the Thais themselves. I find it almost impossible to believe that the mayor for example rushes down to Foodland on a Friday morning to pick up his copy, nor the police chief, the roads inspector or anyone from the tourist office either.

So are we wasting are breath? Over the years things do change here but change is often brought about as the result of a major incident that causes the authorities to have to make changes to prevent the same happening again.

Our letter writers tell us about many such problems around the town that affect not only the daily routines of the Western population but also the locals alike. They make good and honest suggestions as how to solve the problems as well.

So why does so little ever seem to get done when these observations are made? Surely the powers that be would want to correct basic flaws in its infrastructures. Yes I am sure they would if they knew about them but who is going to tell them?

How for example can we convince the town that putting deckchairs in regimented straight lines is not what the modern tourist wants? Surely officials must have been watching too many 1950’s British movies filmed in Brighton or Blackpool. Modern tourists want sun lounges with cushions and a bit of space around them with most happily paying for the privilege of a bit of comfort. They surely don’t want match of the day in the background showing on televisions hung from trees that never seem to get watched by anyone. Who is advising them on what tourists really want or feel about such things?

Where is the beach inspector or environment officer when jet ski’s weave in and out of children both Western and Thai as they swim through a solid mass of plastic bags and god only knows what else?

Where is the roads inspector when makeshift discos blasting thumping techno music all night suddenly get constructed in the middle of a residential area and hooked up to the nearest free electric supply or the mysterious rubbish dumps appear out of nowhere?

Where are all these people and more?

Frustrated reader Pattaya

Editor’s reply: Thanks for your suggestions – and the people you wrote about do not need to rush down to Foodland every Friday for their own copy of the Pattaya Mail, as a weekly copy is delivered to them directly.

Bali Hai Pier costs

Editor;

The recently completed 238 million baht, 803-meter Bali Hai Pier (was) scheduled to open on March 25. Last week’s article about Bali Hai Pier did not mention the builder’s name. At a cost of 296,388/meter, in water as shallow as the bay is, raises my curiosity as to how many bids were made, and by whom there were made by.

It appears that a lot of profit was worked into the bids, a lot more than the people of Pattaya should have to pay.

Derek Sharron

Electricity lines exposed

Hi,

While Pattaya has been making a lot of progress to clean up drains and sewers, and this is appreciated by residents, I did notice a lot of electricity lines around South and Central Pattaya that are dangerously exposed or hanging very low where people could bump into them.

I hope Pattaya council will take note and consider burying the electricity cables underground so that nobody is electrocuted.

Matthew J. Montgomery

Use your credit card

Editor;

Re why all the fuss: In reference to the rental/stolen motorbike scam(s), I would suggest only renting from places that take credit cards as payment. Most credit card companies will side with the cardholder in a dispute that takes place in a foreign country (dare I say especially Thailand) and reverse the bogus charge. The reputable companies (rental, etc.) know this and don’t try scamming the consumers.

Mike

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