HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Siding with the Thais

Koh Larn tragedy

PM Thaksin missed a good chance to set an example

Who is kidding who here?

Greed transcends nationality

Nightmare on rubber wheels

Siding with the Thais

Editor,
Helpful suggestions are one thing, but time and again in Mailbag we have farang asserting their own misconceived perceptions. In the Jan. 13th issue, we yet again had a farang (DKF) telling us what Thais should be able to expect from visitors. Where do these know-alls get off? In case DKF is not aware of the fact, many people choose a holiday or retirement destination purely because they do not have to learn the language. Can you imagine the reaction if any nation’s promotions contained a rider such as: “We expect visitors to speak our language!”
Whilst one has to wonder at the arrogance of people who continually knock aspects of a nation whose culture and language they have little or no command of, DKF is yet another (of the hordes) who presume to advise others on matters of etiquette, yet upon which he/she has much to learn. One does not extend an invitation to people who one cannot accommodate, DKF. That is why Thai schools now include English in their curriculum.
On the matter of dual pricing, whilst it is discriminatory I come down on the side of the Thais, at least in the matter of such things as National Parks and other government administered places. These belong to the people of a particular nation, all of whom should be able to enjoy them without punitive charges. Tourists, on the other hand, should pay the rate that such attractions can command. If one overall price were attached, it surely would not be the one that ‘locals’ pay. It could be argued that private enterprises who allow locals admission for token payment are providing a social service. Don’t we all wish that our own governments would adopt such a policy?
T. Tighe

Koh Larn tragedy

Dear Sirs;
I read your article about the very sad death of the 26year old lady on January 9th on Koh Larn and was completely unsurprised. Only the previous day we had taken a boat out to Koh Larn and spent the day at Samae Beach where regrettably the authorities have decided to remove the safety booms which has made it such a peaceful and safe location for swimming. This will probably be my last trip to Samae Beach as we watched a series of near misses involving jet ski’s and speedboats. Indeed I was actually watching boat number 25 which was stationary on a mooring, being hit and holed by a jet ski driven by a tourist who looked as if he had imbibed too many beers.
He punched a big hole into the side of the 21 foot speed boat. If it had been a swimmers head, it would have been another tragedy for certain.
Pattaya and Jomtien appears to me to be quieter than in previous years, this may be in part due to a number of factors that the local authorities have no control over, European recession, tsunami, bird flu, visa complications. Etc., however, they do have control over their own beaches. Why not use a little common sense and put the booms back to enable safer swimming? Tourism is enormously important to this area and needs preserving.
Do something about it now before it is too late. Bad news travels faster than good news and tourists vote with their feet, they don’t need to justify their reasons for not returning to a resort. They just go somewhere else. And then it’s too late. I hope the right person with authority reads this article and something is done and soon.
Thanks
David Mead

PM Thaksin missed a good chance to set an example

Editor;
I would not normally write but, on this occasion, I was surprised and upset by the prime minister’s totally irresponsible act on the second day of his Reality show.
He had the opportunity to convey, by example, to the thousands of untrained and on lunatic motorcycle drivers the basic, and legally required, safety precaution of wearing a crash helmet.
Not him. There he was cruising to the next act of the show on a motor bike, surrounded by others and all not wearing crash helmets.
He probably does not drive a motor bike often, but what were the police, his minders, advisers and PR entourage thinking about watching him do it?
It was a bad mistake, and a wonderful opportunity missed. The nearby UBC cameras, and host of other photographers, could have shot him putting the helmet on as an official example and statement to those who cause, or suffer from, the majority of road accidents that occur in Thailand.
That message alone would be worth a thousand of the stir fries and walk about sequences that we are expected to watch. The chief of traffic police, in retrospect, should book Mr. Thaksin for breaking his own law, and check too if he had a motorcycle license, and if the bike he was riding was taxed and insured.
To really make it really a reality show, and I cannot believe that nobody spotted the error and missed opportunity, he should do a re-take, admit he was wrong and demonstrate how to put a helmet on, do it up and say why you should wear it.
‘Disappointed Farang’

Who is kidding who here?

Editor;
I am getting so tired of reading the same basic stories about police busts on groups that are gambling here in Pattaya. While there are always people arrested during these frequent raids, may I ask why there is never any substantial amount of money confiscated? How do 40 people get arrested and have a total of 3,000 baht between them all? Where does the money really go? Into whose pockets? How does this continue to happen week after week? Disgusting and dishonest.
Eric S

Greed transcends nationality

Editor,
It was amusing to see ‘Stockholm Syndrome’, a term arising from a psychological reaction to a life-threatening hostage situation, applied by Mr. Bloom (Mailbag Dec.30) to those who willingly pay a B5 overcharge. Extreme as the comparison is, the same psyche does apply, and as it commonly does in many situations. I live in a condo where the apartment owners were fiddled on maintenance fees, yet most preferred to ignore the scam rather than face the fact that a {farang} thief took them for fools. A fact of life is that the same people would rather ‘normalise’ abuse than admit to being a victim of it. This can from the person who overpays ‘willingly’ to the child abuser who was abused as a child. The common term for self-deception is ‘denial’.
On the other side of the coin, a common syndrome is for people to actively seek reason to be outraged and assert their ire. These dwell under a self-made personal cloud and insist that others are rained on too. They tend to lack social skills and adaptability, and carp, as it is the only self-assertion they are capable of. Someone ‘addicted’ to writing an annual grumble about baht bus drivers needs to get a life. Given Mr. Bloom’s gloomy view of Pattaya institutions - he omitted grumpies - one wonders what keeps him in a place that causes him to opine in the manner he criticizes others for doing. It can only mean he is afflicted with the very “mental disease” that he attaches to those who find his way vexatious to the spirit?
Equally supercilious, are those who like to dictate what ‘type’ of people are entitled to be here and call anyone who is prudent in their spending ‘cheap Charlies’ (Hyde Park Dec. 30). Greed transcends nationality, and one must realize what would happen to the cost of anything if no one complained when it rose. It is also excessive to say that a guest not learning a host’s language is insulting. What is, is the confrontational posturing, self-superior lecturing and derision of anyone with a different perspective, that as highlighted in the baht bus debate is endemic in Pattaya’s farang community.
Tony Crossley

Nightmare on rubber wheels

Editor;
The trip between Pattaya and Bangkok is a real nightmare on rubber wheels: the highways are overcrowded with heavy traffic in lack of mass transit. You never know how long the trip will take: two hours, two and a half hours, three hours and on weekends up to four hours. When the new airport opens the Pattaya area will be more attractive, and the highways more crowded.
Only a doubled track railway line will fulfil the need of an effective, fast transportation from Bangkok/Airport and out to Pattaya. The eastern railway line already runs nearly through the new airport, and is already doubled tracked out to Chachoengsao.
Everyone who has travelled by train from Pattaya knows that the line needs to be doubled tracked out to Sriracha; the single track line today is crowded with container trains to and from the harbour.
A doubled tracked railway has the capacity of four times a four-lane highway! With fast and effective intercity trains you will always know your arrival time.
This has to be a high priority for a big destination as Pattaya. The situation today is really too bad.
Mr. Svein,
Norway

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