HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Keep Pattaya clean and D-Day, no smoking zones

Pedestrian bridges

Pay for paper at public toilet

Noise pollution

Disappointed at airport

Keep Pattaya clean and D-Day, no smoking zones

Editor;
First, I take my hat off again to Mayor Niran Wattanasartsathorn for jump starting the 2007, “Keep Pattaya Clean Campaign”. I sure hope that it stays on track, as I have seen so many, lets clean it up day, and that is about how long it lasts, one day.
If we all want to do something, lets stencil most, if not all, of the storm drains in English and Thai, “Goes to Ocean, No Garbage”, with a picture, so the children can teach their parents. I have the stencil. Impose fines: we all need to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. The mayor has the right idea, let’s back his play.
Also I take my hat off to the public health minister, Mongkol Na Songkhla, for starting D-Day for additional no-smoking zones. One thing that happens when you ban smoking in an area, though, is that you are putting more people outside and they flick toxic filters into our storm drains, onto our beaches, and into our waterways. Cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate and when you mix that with nicotine, it becomes toxic and kills all kinds of wildlife, pollutes the water, and is a danger to children. If you don’t put large ash trays with sand in them, we will just open up another can of worms and defeat the whole purpose.
If the mayor or the public health minister need another hand in the garbage, I’m out there every day, walking the walk. I have years of hands on experience. Just do it - the life of the people is in the land.
KOTO
pollutionsolutionthailand @yahoo.com

Pedestrian bridges

Editor;
Pattaya is trying to attract families and upscale tourists, but it fails to address basic quality of life issues such as providing a safe place to cross the street. Why are there no pedestrian bridges on 2nd Road? Each time I visit Pattaya I see groups and individuals taking their lives in their hands trying to cross this street which is busy as a freeway. It is past time for this problem to be address and rectified.
Yours,
Bill Turner, USA

Pay for paper at public toilet

Dear Sir,
My wife and I visited Pattaya in early January, 2007. One day, we decided to go to an outlet mall in Pattaya. Upon arrival, both of us were in need to visit the toilet area within the premises.
But, gosh, once we had finished our private business (separately, of course), we discovered that toilet paper was nowhere to be found! Later, we learned that paper was to be bought (for 2 baht a piece!) prior to entering the loo.
In my whole life I have never experienced anything that stupid and inconvenient. Please publish this in order to force the mall to change their present policy.
It would be very interesting to know why this unfriendly system was adopted in the first place.
Mr. Lars Sand

Noise pollution

Dear Sir,
I just returned to the UK from my second visit to Pattaya in three months. It was very enjoyable but ... This trip we stayed in a nice hotel on Soi 2. Great room, lovely view, friendly staff. All went well until nightfall. The boom boom base music from a bar on the soi reverberated through the building until well past 2 a.m.
After the second hopeless night, we checked out. The staff knew our reasons - we obviously weren’t the first to go. The odd thing was that on walking past the offending bar, guess what? There was no one in it! Too loud.
You know if a hotel has a pool, car park, etc., but how can you tell if the room is quiet enough to sleep in? Should there be a new symbol for silent rooms available?
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Clayton
Windermere, UK

Disappointed at airport

Hi,
27 years ago I came to Thailand and landed at Bangkok Airport. The Thai Air plane stopped on the outer runway and we were transferred by bus to the terminal. On the 11th of December 2006 I flew into the new airport on Thai Air. Guess what? We landed and again were transferred from the outer runway by bus. So it’s back to the past to get to the future. But worse was to come on the return. Has anybody seen 2a Departure Room? The car park is better than 2a. Please, let’s go back to the old airport and be the Thailand I love.
Best Regards,
Ray Wallis

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