HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

What about the other scams...

Beach vendors add colour

Unfair persecution of beach vendors

More baht bus trouble

Ashamed of his government

Khai Khem commentary was off, or was it...

Mr. Bird missed the boat

What about the other scams...

Editor;

I have been living in Thailand for 6 years going back and forth. Since I’ve been in Thailand, yes I’ve been ripped off with double pricing and even paying 10 times for attractions, quote: in Kanchanaburi 7 waterfall Farang pay 200, Thai 20 baht.

I, however, have been charged 2 times to fix my car with the same problem because they did not do their job properly, thoroughly investigating the cause. And when I got my car back running rough, I resorted to do the timing belt myself, putting nuts on the distributor they left too and getting it checked by the main dealer.

I am also aware that if I took legal action against the garage concerned there might be reprisals like my in-laws getting hurt or their house burnt down, where we stay, and the police wouldn’t be bothered too much because I am a farang and they would say I caused the problem because they’re on the side of their countryman.

Be warned because this goes on all the time:

I bought a computer too and had to wait for 1 month for repair, and it wasn’t repaired 100 percent, as the floppy drive wouldn’t work. When I found out they used it to play music they told me to f-k off. Subsequently I got a qualified computer repairer to change the parts, losing my warranty, and got the dealer to give me software at a lesser price as agreed than cost and had no more to do with them.
Sincerely,

Michael McGovern

Beach vendors add colour

Sir;

I read that Mayor Pairat has issued an order banning wandering vendors from Jomtien and Pattaya beaches. Do these short-sighted officials ever consult or canvas the opinion of the many tourists who use the beaches? Not only do the wandering vendors provide a useful service for visitors but they are part of the “colour” and attraction of a day at the beach.

Are the Mayor and his blinkered officials hell bent on spoiling Pattaya for tourists? They should remember that without tourism Pattaya would be a ghost town. OK, by all means clamp down on the social order aspects, motoring madness, beggars, rabid stray dogs and freelancers (both real and second category ladies) selling sex along Beach and Second Roads. But I fail to see what harm the wandering vendors are doing.

Could it be the very fact that they are wandering and therefore not available in one place to offer tea money to greedy police and municipal officials that has made them a target of this stupid bureaucratic nonsense?

D Snowdon
London

Unfair persecution of beach vendors

Hi there,

I was so excited at locating the honourable Pairat Suthithamrongsawat, the mayor, no less, I forgot to mention the fax no at city hall is 039 428 405.

Quite by chance there was a photograph of the honourable gentleman in the last Pattaya Mail, threatening dire consequences on the Jomtien vendors. He also advises beach chair operators will be held responsible for fines as well as the vendors. How on earth can anyone hold the beach chair operators liable for the vendors? It’s very unfair persecution and moving the responsibility from the beach police onto the operators, they have enough to contend with as it is.

The letter from Richie about the massacre of the trees on Dongtan Beach hit the nail on the head with the brief observation, “I note that heavier pieces of wood are carefully taken away might give a clue” to the massacre that is, rather than the trimming. Wood sold for charcoal making is quite a lucrative business, is any of that getting back into city hall funds? Good morning Thailand.

Why don’t they provide more toilets, free, showers, they have the water supply already in place and allow sun loungers on Dongtan Beach? City hall do something constructive for a change, tourism keeps Pattaya afloat, why not encourage it? The vendors are not a problem, they are all polite and a smile and a shaking of the head is enough to put them off. I personally like to purchase my fruit from my favourite lady, and the odd Thai snack on the beach. The locals are a large part of the charm of being in Thailand. Who wants to associate with farangs? We are mostly fat and ugly, the Thais are slim, beautiful and the reason most of us are here.

Thank you Pattaya Mail for being such an informative paper,
Yours. R. Walton

More baht bus trouble

Editor and Townsfolk!

Some days ago I took a public route-going vehicle, a so-called baht-bus, from Soi Buakow to Big C at Second Road. When stepping of I pay the usual 5 baht simply because I know that is the legal fare. Then the driver started to harass me and try to tell me that the fare is 10 baht for foreigners-farangs and points to a sign inside the pick-up. But this sign never ever states the fare for any category of passengers travelling by baht-buses which pick up passengers on a certain route. The sign only gives fare-examples for one person or more e.g. groups who charter the baht-buses, that is to say, hire them as taxi-going vehicles.

Since I speak Thai fluently I was able to tell this driver quite resolutely in easily understandable vocabulary that I actually live in the country and would never ever accept that he and his “Baht-Bus-Corrupt-Corporation” or whatever cheats me or any other foreigners, and the I advised him where to go next, you know.

Besides, that sign inside the baht buses is, deliberately or not, very misleading and confusing in many respects. First of all it does not state a regular fare, second it appears to be issued by a Department of Land Transport while it is not so and there are many other peculiarities. The general impression this sign gives me is that it is a rather clumsy try to mislead and deceive foreigners and let the drivers keep up a kind of “flexibility” as to charge what from whom?

My question is finally, how long this “practice” will continue in the face of residents here and in a new climate where war is declared on dark influences, corruption and the hyper-varied cheating of tourists and foreigners living in the country? This is a real nuisance to me and many others!
“Plagued BB-Traveller”

Ashamed of his government

Editor;

I am a Thai notional. I came to Switzerland as a tourist and stayed on. I worked in Zurich as a cook in one of our hotel kitchens. 5 years later I accepted an offer to work in a very large Thai Restaurant in Munich. Where I have been now for 7 years. My paid 4 weeks holidays every year I spent in different countries in Europe. [I have no family in Thailand]

I want to state: never, and in no country in all Europe have I been discriminated because of my race. Never did I have to pay extra because of my race. Nobody in all Europe ever asked me to pay more for a service or any ware I bought because I am not a national of Europe but obviously an Asian. I receive the same salary as anybody in my job.

I am deeply ashamed about my government that they allow this discrimination based on racism. I am also ashamed about the people who overcharge the guests to Thailand. But they do not know any better but to be greedy.

The people in the government should know better. They went to better schools, travelled further, saw more of the world. Should know about a thing called racism. They should have stopped this two-tier-pricing when it first started. Why did they not? I put all the blame on the governments. The one before and this one. How can they speak about democracy when they allow racism? I can only hope a good and honest man in the Thai government reads about my sorrows and my shame.
‘Piak’ Puchan
Ex-Singburi / Thailand, now, Berlin Potsdamer Platz

Khai Khem commentary was off, or was it...

Hello;

I just can’t stop myself from commenting on the Khai Khem commentary in Pattaya Mail titled ‘build more prisons’.

I think Khai is being deliberately provocative with this mis-informed piece of propaganda. I can’t really believe he is being honest with his own writing, as he seems an educated man.

A society that has to build more prisons is a society that has ‘failed’!

There is cause and effect. Sure you can cut down all the weeds in your garden but if you do not remove the roots they will just grow back again.

As for the USA being so fantastic, their administration is the biggest danger to world peace, as they bully and bribe other countries to get what they want - surely we must take the side of the angels? - That we must educate and rehabilitate and not punish and repress.

Research shows that 75% of prisoners re-offend and most prisons are a training ground for crime. Why is there crime? Social/economic factors and corruption and greed.

What can we do? We can be better parents! And better citizens!

Poverty is the main root cause of all petty crime - so lets remove it!

Here’s to the day we don’t need wars or prisons. As the Beatles once said, ‘Love is all you need’ and not a boot camp! Get with it Khai this is the year 2003 and not Victorian England.

James

P.S. I can assure you there are as many foreign criminals in Pattaya as there are Thai. Perhaps another thing we can do is to check the criminal records for those wishing to apply for visa b? Or perhaps the loss of income from these people will be too great for Thailand? What duplicitous times we live in.

PPS - Re my letter to Khai Khem: well I have just changed my mind after trying to cross the road and being kicked from behind and having abuse shouted at me by 2 teenagers on a motorcycle. I might have fallen into the on coming traffic but I doubt that would matter to them. Yes you are right Khai, I didn’t realize there was such a lack of respect in your youth culture. Sorry to have been so hard on you.

James

Mr. Bird missed the boat

Editor;

Re: Mr. Bird’s letter complaining about Torrey Pines green fees being double for non residents. I fear he has missed the boat with this rather pathetic comparison, as the resident card is available for residents that pay taxes to support the course. The resident can be Thai, farang or from Mars, they do not restrict the card to anyone but non-residents.

I have been ripped off many times by baht bus drivers charging farang prices, double, for me and my Thai lady, if I hand the money over. A tip: let the lady pass the coins to the driver.

Al Collinge

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