HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Changing Times

Your car alarm

Thank you Pattaya Police (Soi 9)

The rise and fall of Pattaya

Miracle at the Bangkok Hospital Pattaya

Dual pricing in England

Rescue madness

Don Who?

In response to “Singapore - the model city”

High heels answer to Soi Buakao flooding?

Changing Times

Dear Editor;
I’ve read the Pattaya Mail now for years and have been here for 10 years now. I’ve married to a Thai Lady and have 2 great children. I’m now divorced and still love it here.

I could walk down the beach at 4 or 5 in the morning 8 years ago and get no hassle apart from the occasionally ladyboy. 95% of them will do you no harm if polite and straight with them, and I still do the same these days.

The thing some people have to remember is, does this happen at home? Yes it does. Do I walk about with a 1000 USD in my pocket on a beach front at 0400hrs at home? No! Then why do it here? I never carry a passport or even a copy with me, let alone my entire money?

Please all, I know snatch and grabs have increased but let’s not get carried away and let the Land of Smiles, especially our beloved Sin City, get a bad name for having nothing more than we have in our own countries.
Regards,
The Mad Scotsman

Your car alarm

Editor;
If you have a car with an alarm system already installed, you already have a good burglar alarm for someone trying to break into your home in the nighttime. When you lock your car for the night, always set the alarm system for panic alarm. If you hear someone trying to break into your home, just press the panic button on your car keys kept by your bedside. The alarm on your car will activate with that very loud sound. This will frighten the burglar away.

Also, in car parks set the alarm for panic and when returning to your car carry the key in your hand. If you are accosted by someone in the car park press the panic alarm and when the loud sound starts the thief will run away. This is good news, use it.
Frank Mack
Pattaya

Thank you Pattaya Police (Soi 9)

Editor;
I have been a neutral observer of the work of the Pattaya Police, having been called by a friend to assist a foreigner who had been stabbed several times.

The response of the Pattaya Police was very quick; the first patrol team followed me to the crime scene after alerting them on my way to the victim.

Several more teams, including detectives, arrived only minutes later. At the same time Police Chief Colonel Sutin showed up and personally directed the initial investigation.

Within 30 minutes the first facts of the incident were gathered and an initial interview with the victim had taken place even before his major surgery at the hospital had started.

The alleged perpetrator of the crime was arrested within (seemingly) record time of 36 hours and investigations are now ongoing to determine all the facts of the case.

I had the opportunity to follow the case from the sidelines. I have talked to Colonel Sutin, chief of police and the investigating officer several times. I have been impressed with the courteous, friendly and professional way of all officers involved.

Colonel Sutin and his force deserve appreciation for a job well done and for all their efforts to make Pattaya a better and safer place. They deserve the full support of foreign and Thai residents. Things are improving!
Thank you Pattaya Police!
Mr. Walter

The rise and fall of Pattaya

To: [email protected]
Are we getting a bit paranoid? On baht buses I check my pockets to be sure I still have my mobile and money. I never wear gold anymore. The sad truth is you have to be careful.

Word of mouth travels around the world quickly these days. The would be first timers will have heard so many negative reports about Pattaya they will just cross it off the list.

That magic spell that Pattaya cast over me along time ago is fading just a little. You can’t even cross the road without taking your life in your hands. If the driving is anything to go by, respect for life and others has gone bye bye and it’s not acceptable.
Michael Taylor

Miracle at the Bangkok Hospital Pattaya

Editor;
The doctors had given him up but he was saved by the great surgeon Dr. Montree Luksuwong of the neurology department at the Bangkok Hospital Pattaya in December 2006. Mr. Benoit suffered from complicated aneurismal rupture with cerebral hemorrhage.

The great surgeon Dr. Montree Luksuwong took the great risk to accept to operate as a last resort.

Thank you and thank you again Dr. Montri Luxuwong. Mr Benoit is now doing very well. He is out of danger and there are no after effects.

Dr. Montree Luksuwong:
•You are wise
•Your thinking and your technique of operation make you a top professional
•You are the finger of miracle
• We are so lucky to benefit from your delicate touch

We also thank the whole medical team assembled by Dr. Montree Luksuwong for this operation. We thank the Bangkok Hospital Pattaya for having selected the best surgeons, professors and doctors for our health. Thank you also to the hospital administration for their kindness, their warm hospitality and their professionalism. The Bangkok Pattaya directors run the most advanced hospital in the world. Again bravo and thank you to all. Dr. Montree Luksuwong you will always remain deep in our hearts and minds till the end of our life. A thousand thank yous from,
Mr. Benoit and Miss Emma

Dual pricing in England

Cambridge
Dual Pricing

Dear Editor,
To all those who are unhappy with dual pricing in Thailand, I saw this sign yesterday in Cambridge, one of England’s homes of academic excellence.

My wife-to-be, who is Chinese, asked me why I was taking a photo and I explained the dual pricing debate for foreigners in Thailand. “What’s the big deal, we do it in Beijing as well,” she replied!

So there it is, like it or not, it’s not just a Thai thing.
Regards,
Ian Ashenden
England

Rescue madness

Editor;
RE: “Patient dies as rescuers fight over who gets to treat him”, page 4 in Bangkok Post, March 28. What a sad state we live in when things like this happen. It just goes to show that these people are more interested in themselves than they are for their supposed profession.

To prove my point, all you have to do is watch the news on some of Pattaya’s cable channels. Every night you see at least one, and more often more, scenes of pickups in accident with a motorcycle. The motorbike driver and/or pillion rider, lying on the street possibly bleeding to death, while the TV cameraman is taking shots of the rescue people kneeling beside the victim, pointing their fingers. As far as I am concerned, they are more interested in getting their picture on TV than they are at helping the poor victim.

Is it possible that the TV people are asking the rescue people to do this so they may get enough film for the evening news?
Charlie Brown
Soi Keow Noi
Pattaya

Don Who?

Editor;
Don Muang or Don Mueang? Chonburi or Cholburi, Pattaya or Pathya, Pattaya Klang or Central Pattaya, Suvarna-bhu-mi or Suwanna-poom, River Khwai or River Khwae, Phuket or Poo-ket, Phetchburi or Petburi, etc.

For Thais these don’t matter, as we just know that it’s spelled one way and pronounced the other. For foreigners, to whom the English writing is for in the first place, these are totally different places when written in different ways.

Don’t we just love creating confusion here?
Mai Pen Rai - a Don is a Don is a Don.
Yours,
Don Juan - Alias Don Wan

In response to “Singapore - the model city”

Dear Mr. James Bannister,
It seems that you truly did enjoy yourself on your trip to Singapore. Clean streets, no violent crime, polite and efficient taxis... how perfectly utopian. Ironic how expats such as you and I so hastily make the move from our home countries to set up a new life here in Thailand, only to start picking it apart bit by bit, and finding fault in the most mundane of things. Thailand is not perfect - and nor should we expect it to be. With all the virtues that attracts us to Thailand in the first place comes certain idiosyncrasies that we may or may not like... such as poor traffic and city planning, erratic taxis, or the odd (and sometimes offensive) odors that emanate from the nooks and crannies of a local soi.

I moved to Thailand to get away from a society governed by endless rules, decrees, ordinances and regulations. True, Thailand’s lack of regulations in some aspects of civic planning are at best inconvenient... but I am much happier living here amid the occasional chaos than I was in the hermetically sealed and over-regulated dominion I come from.

Having been to Singapore myself, I found its immaculateness completely deprived it of the flavor and aura that makes Thailand attractive to so many people. As clean and organized as Singapore is, it’s no different than the places we all fled from in the first place. As the old proverb goes - you can’t have your cake and eat it too. If you find Singapore to be such a better place than Thailand, then by all means - move there. I’ll stay here with my amiable Thai friends.
Vernon Dozier

High heels answer to Soi Buakao flooding?

Dear Editor;
I have stayed at hotels on Soi Buakao a number of times and the flooding during rainy season has definitely gotten worse, knee deep last year. The protesters certainly have a valid point as it costs them business and damages property. I have noticed that a number of dancing girls wear shoes with excessively large heels. Is it possible for the city fathers to distribute footwear of this type to Buakao visitors during the wet season? Either that or tie life rafts behind the baht buses.
Regards,
Bill Turner USA

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