LETTERS
HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Will opt for bicycle instead of baht bus

The magic disappearing road

Foreign visitors being peddled expensive Thai golf

Drummond defamation case

Road safety, not cosmetics, should be paramount

Upon reflection...

Open message to President Bush

Pattaya postal service

Will opt for bicycle instead of baht bus

Editor;
Please excuse my belated email regarding your issue of baht buses double charging. I would like to weigh in on the subject and hope to offer a new twist to the scenario that you will include in Pattaya Mail letters.

The issue I have is the drivers go wherever they damn well please. What should be a short b5 ride down a direct route turns into all sorts of twists and turns and one ends up not only wasting time but spending b15 in the process.

I would strongly encourage the Pattaya government to organize routes and system. I would also encourage them to post the prices in the buses for foreigners and disallow the driver from peeling the stickers off at first chance.

I have seen drivers enraged and foaming at the mouth ready to go to blows with foreigners (how *un-Thai* no?) over money - usually due to greed and scams. These almost always from drivers coming from the aircon bus station.

City fathers, please address this mess and make a number of foreigners holidays more memorable. One bad experience leaves a bad and lasting impression forever.

I will continue to pay the local rate of b5 as a person I cannot see any difference in carrying myself or a Thai. Most drivers only hassle me if they have no passengers and/or I’ve traveled a *longer* distance. That said, I am so tired of it all and it has become such a hassle that I often, very often walk everywhere save for returning from the market with groceries. On my return in November, will purchase a bicycle. So they are really big losers now.

These behaviors are very un-Thai and un-Buddhist.
MTV


The magic disappearing road

To the editor;
Once upon a time there was a road, not a big road, but adequate. The road wound its way from Siam Country Club Road, opposite the orange wall of Wanasin Farm, to the hinterland of Banglamung.

One day a wicked prince decided to raise the level of some of the land adjacent to the little road. He contacted his friend, the Sandman, and then hired several lorries and drivers to bring sand to his plot. After ten days or so, of continuous comings and goings by the lorries, the road had disappeared.

All we need to finish the story with a happy ending, is for the fairy princess to come and put the road back. But this is Pattaya, and I’m not sure about fairy princesses here, so we will have to ask the city council.

Maybe they should ask the prince and the lorry drivers if they know where the road went?
From a Concerned Resident


Foreign visitors being peddled expensive Thai golf

Dear Editor,
After reading Pattaya Bum’s letter in your Oct 24 edition about how Thailand can be expensive I cannot help but concur. I recently concluded my first ever visit to Thailand and it will likely be my last. I went to Thailand with my wife (I’m not a “monger”) because many had told me that it was a beautiful land (which it is), inexpensive, a golfer’s paradise and warm. I like hot weather and golf. However, like Pattaya Bum, I found that in many instances it was not inexpensive.

Take golf for instance. I had been lead to believe that quality and inexpensive golf were plentiful in Thailand. While I agree there are some quality golf courses in Thailand they are not inexpensive especially for tourists. Not only is there a big discrepancy in costs with this two tier pricing system between “Farangs” and Thai’s but the price itself is considerably higher than where I play in the United States (east coast).

In the US I live not too far from both Pinehurst and Myrtle Beach (two US east coast golf Meccas) and I can easily find a nice golf course to play during the week for less than 35 US dollars (often in the mid to upper 20 dollar range) with all expenses included. For between 35 to 65 US dollars I can play a high quality golf course. Nowhere in Thailand did I find comparable prices for the same quality. Thai golf courses cost more for tourists and when you added in the transportation costs, the cost was considerably higher than what I can play for at home.

I found the transportation costs particularly “interesting”. To travel to and from the local courses I was charged at least 1200 baht (per person) which is roughly 30 US dollars and rather high for Thailand (based on my limited experience). To travel to Pattaya from the Bangkok airport via Thai Limousine Service was only 200 baht per person for a ride that was obviously a longer distance even when you factored in both ways to and from the golf course. It was obvious to me that I was being gouged just on the transportation costs alone, not to mention the two tier greens fees and the mandatory caddy fee and tip even when I only use a cart. To summarize, when you add up all the expenses to play a single round of golf in Thailand it cost me considerably more than the allegedly much more expensive US.

I originally thought before I arrived in Thailand that perhaps I might consider doing an annual golf trip/vacation to Thailand if everything went well. I can guarantee you now if I ever come back to Thailand it will not be to play golf. I found Thailand to be much more commercial than I originally thought and sometimes downright predatory (money wise) to foreigners. The touts (of all types) can be very aggressive and persistent. I certainly found no golfing deals there despite Thailand’s reputation as a golfing mecca. I can do much better at home.
Sincerely,
John Huston

Ed’s Note: Obviously Mr Huston became caught up in the wrong crowd. Had he joined the PSC or IPGC, for instance, he would have been able to enjoy low cost golf and transportation, whilst contributing to charity at the same time. Plus, he would probably have made some new friends with better insight to Pattaya, and perhaps enjoyed some of the many friendly competitions that are held here nearly every day of the week. We hope that you might consider this upon your return.


Drummond defamation case

Editor;
While much of last year I spent in places like Central Asia, Korea, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Scotland and the like I am finding it very difficult to dispute your local description of me as a journalist ‘best known for selling crime stories about Thailand’ ... though maybe you should have said ‘about Pattaya’.

For you published this (under the name of Boonlua Chatree and I suspect with less than charitable intention) in a week when I made 15 television and radio broadcasts to the BBC and independent channels in the U.K. - as well as writing for my own newspaper - about foreign related crimes in the Pattaya area alone.

Boonlua is an excellent chap and a rich fund of information on crime in Pattaya in whose company I spent many amusing hours over the last month. He does actually genuinely make his living selling crime stories about Pattaya.

Had he really written the story attributed to him I am sure he would have been able to give your readers more insight into the situation of my defamation case, brought by James Lumsden of ‘Boyz Boyz Boyz’ fame.

This news was of course published extensively in the United Kingdom nearly a month ago because British press actually attended the case and covered it. There were also I understand some very forthright comments published related to this story - which of course I cannot repeat in Thailand.

While I have no intention of breaking any Thai laws and I am informed that my sentence (a 20,000 baht fine and two months suspended jail term) is probably the lowest a libel court could make, readers of the ‘cult of personality’ led ‘Pattaya Mail’ may now be wondering why I have not as yet published the apology.

It is as they say not over until the ‘fat lady sings’.

Yours sincerely,
Andrew Drummond

Correspondent ‘The Times’


Road safety, not cosmetics, should be paramount

Dear Editor:
Last Saturday (18 Oct), I returned to Pattaya after working for some time outside the Kingdom. The first night I’m back, there is a traffic accident outside the gates of Eakmongol 4 which I later learned resulted in a fatality. While there has been much effort expended on rebuilding Soi Katalow, sections of this street are nothing less than death traps. I’m constantly amazed living in Thailand at how much effort is put into what is an obvious bad design, be it roads, buildings, drainage, etc.

Nearly a week has gone by and there has been zero effort by Pattaya officials responsible for public safety to correct or even mark the deadly area that took a life a week ago and nearly took two more last night.

Why do Thai officials apparently show more concern for stray dogs than human beings? Previously, I thought that it was only the Chinese that had such low regard for human life; I guess I have made an oversight in thinking that Pattaya officials have anything resembling concern for the public good. Talk is cheap!

During the last week while driving around Pattaya, the new road repair program has shown itself to be all about looks and little or nothing of substance. Road hazards created by the road “destruction” now abound. These are more deadly than before because the new road surfaces give the illusion of a proper roadway lulling the unsuspecting motorist into a false sense of security. Truly a trap in any sense of the word.

When I see this kind of total incompetence, I wonder why anyone in his right mind would invest in Thailand. Throughout Pattaya there are hundreds of retired engineers of world class competence. Instead of trying to run us out of town, why don’t Thai officials tap into this pool of knowledge? If the Thai ego could get over the fact that Thailand is still 3rd tier emerging industrial country and use the available knowledge for the public good instead of lining the pockets of a few “businessmen”, Pattaya just might have a chance of being a nice place to live and a great place to visit.

You have to start with public safety. While having safe streets is an imperative it also means things like enforcing the law equally - including the helmet law which just possibly could have saved the life of the poor Thai who lost his life last week.
Pattaya “Beach” Bum


Upon reflection...

Editor;
On reflection, over many holidays in Thailand, I feel the nightclubs in Pattaya are receiving a very raw deal, one that to my mind is getting progressively worse.

I have witnessed forced closing at 2 a.m., forced closing before 6 p.m., a constant round of harassment from various agencies, many of whom are not even based in Pattaya, and all for no reason that I can see (is money involved?).

For their part the nightspots provide the very entertainment that is the reason most of us journey to this ‘Land of Smiles’ - lucrative (and safe) employment and working conditions for the local populace courtesy of the entertainment industry, foreign exchange, and much of the street lighting besides!

Surely those in authority are able to find more constructive if not profitable things to do?
William Spencer
Bristol, UK


Open message to President Bush

During your talks with PM Taksin would you kindly ask him to do something about the 300 to1000% markup we Americans have to pay at most of the attractions here in Thailand? Since Mr. Taksin took office even the state parks charge 20 baht to Thai’s and 200 baht to foreigners. I would like to take my child to see some of the sites and we enjoyed camping prior to the 1000 percent increase.
K.W. Crow


Pattaya postal service

Dear Sir,
The experiences of Mr Gwyn Parfitt I fear are not uncommon, but my main complaint about Thai postal services is in regard to magazines. I subscribe to a monthly magazine from England (paying extra to have it airmailed so it will arrive in Thailand within 4-5 days. It then takes a further 5-6 weeks to get delivered, IF it ever does get delivered. How can this atrocious happening be called service? To whom can one complain?
A disgusted resident,
Eric


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