HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Deficiencies of British NHS system

The real cost of Songkran

Re: Hunkering down for Songkran

Songkran, bars, & “Cheap Charlies”

Dream on Colonel Bonafide

Tourists go home - we don’t want you here

Deficiencies of British NHS system

Sir,
Dr Ian Corness’s article “Modern Medicine” in last week’s Pattaya Mail highlighted just some of the deficiencies of the British NHS system.
Why, I wonder, is his 91 year old mother receiving (or rather waiting to receive) treatment in the UK, when it would appear that like him she is an Australian citizen?
British citizens who leave the UK to live overseas lose the right to return for free treatment and will only be considered for hospitalistion in the UK should they become an emergency whilst there. But of course we British expats are fully aware that our Great British Government always seem to give priority to everyone other than its own native citizens! We have paid our national insurance contributions, pay tax on our frozen pensions, but are treated as second class citizens!
Isan Nick
Buriram
Ed’s note: Dr Corness’s mother is not an Australian citizen. She is Scottish.

The real cost of Songkran

Editor;
The Songkran festival is beautiful, very Thai and thoroughly enjoyable for all who participate and well summed up by Doctor Iain in your last issue. Conversely the letter from Mickeyfin of Burnley was inaccurate and I doubt Mr Fin knows the first idea about what Songkran actually stands for and is in fact one of those individuals who is suckered into his local bar to spend money, get pissed and shower unmercifully for a whole week anyone passing or going about their business.
Sadly, however much these waist stripped heroes spend does not constitute good income for business in general but simply for the handful of well located bars around town; eg. Beach Rd., Soi 7 and 8. Furthermore, by their temporary nature it is ridiculous to claim that these revellers spend more than expats or retirees living here, however careful they may be.
Here is the reality from a hotel viewpoint and after all it is the hotel bed count that tells you what is happening in town. If we are down the town is down! Our hotel is located on Jomtien and enjoys a busy season. Everything was running fine right up to the weekend of the 13th which is the official opening of Songkran. Although we are predominantly a foreigner hotel, in the season we do have many Thai guests, particularly in the low season. On the 13th and 14th we were full with 80% Thai guests and traditional Songkran ceremonies were happening all over Jomtien with some water fighting between pickup trucks. The atmosphere was very pleasant. On Monday the occupancy dropped severely to 50%, on Tuesday and until today it dropped further to 30% mainly foreign. The coming weekend is staggering; unless we get good walk-in, which would seem unlikely at this point, we will record the worst weekend on record!
The problem continues as it takes time to build up occupancy after Songkran. April for us is still in-season, as in recent years there is low business still in October.
The answer is one Songkran weekend and that is it. This is what Phuket does. It is a total illusion to think that the town benefits from what is 9 days of Songkran. The reality is that Songkran creates the end to the Season and virtually wipes out April for Pattaya. It’s not that the tourists or expat spenders are not here in Thailand, they are, but not in Pattaya.
Wise up city hall and get this thing under control to maximise tourism and make Songkran a one-weekend attraction in order that the city can benefit, not just a few bars encouraging drinking by laying on squirt guns. Meantime I shall be preparing to join the best water carnival in the world at the beginning of Jomtien on 19th April.
Richy

Re: Hunkering down for Songkran

Editor;
Don Aleman’s letter made me angry, so here is my reply: You are among the ranks of many foreigners of whom I know dislike this holiday, and spend it in safe seclusion away from the watery madness. I can respect the fact that the holiday’s central feature may appeal to the older foreigners who are used to the staleness of Western holidays. However, that’s where my respect for you ends. You, like so many others seem to lose sight of the fact that you are a *guest* in this country that has gracefully accepted you as a long-term foreign resident. Although you have the right to dislike Songkran, and the right to avoid it, you do not have the right to nit-pick and complain about the way the residents of this country choose to live their lives. Especially an activity that is steeped in tradition and loved by the very masses that allow you to live here.
I will be the first to say that the version of Songkran that is witnessed in Pattaya is a far cry from the rural Songkran of yesteryear, but it still holds significant importance to the Thai people, and I could not imagine Thailand without it. I go out every year to get drenched, and each time, I see men, women, children and the elderly all having a great time getting soaking wet during this hot time of year. Who are you to call this foolish?
Also, your notion about “keeping the money at home” is ludicrous. It would take much more than a few sour farangs boycotting businesses for a week to keep these festivities from happening. If you want to change how things are done somewhere, go move back home where you have the right to do so. If, however, you choose to remain here, you will have to come to grips with the fact that not everything in Thailand or the world at large will be up to your narrow standards.
Michael

Songkran, bars, & “Cheap Charlies”

Editor;
Today’s temperature is about the same as the IQ’s of “Mickyfin” & “SLF” - 38C! I say this as it is obvious that neither of these nameless individuals read what I wrote in a previous letter. I did not denigrate the origin, nor practice of Songkran, only what foreigners and some Thais alike have converted into a drunken, dangerous (today’s fatality count was 314!), and yes, silly variation of its founders’ intentions. I stopped playing with water pistols when I was 7.
To “Mickyfin” (which in a number of countries is administered as a knock out drug to remove unruly drunks), intoxicated, sweaty, wet, cursing louts are not buying your beloved beer when they are halfway into a busy street. If, and they do not, the police followed the letter of the law, you would be in jail.
Money has nothing to do with having fun, it just makes it easier to avoid the show off, street side, juvenile antics you call “fun”.
Don Aleman

Dream on Colonel Bonafide

Editor;
Another American with megalomania, who sees the splinter in the eye of others, but not the beam in his own eye.
I hitch-hiked through the “greatest country on earth” some 30 years ago, seeing what happened to the red Indians and many of the Vietnam vets.
From the first the great Americans took everything they had giving them booze in return and the vets live like outcasts in all parts off the world, because they lost a war they should never have been fighting.
In Carpenteria (close to L.A.) I was on a camp site on which I had some conversation with some nice American people about communism and the way things could be. According to them we really had to speak softly, because they were afraid somebody could hear (land of the free?). Your country will get a lot of new vets from the recent war where you bring democracy and freedom.
You really think you can rule the world; why don’t you let some decent people rule your country first? Hopefully there comes a time the Americans will see, that they also can learn from “the old world” and the rest of the “inferior” countries.
God bless America.
Dutchie
Jomtien

Tourists go home - we don’t want you here

Editor;
It was just a little over three weeks ago that the Bangkok Post, in screaming headlines, made mention of how the major industry in Thailand - tourism - was being affected because of hideous crimes that were committed against foreigners with fear that if the crimes were not solved and continued to happen then the tourists would pack up and go home, never to return.
Oh my! It was finally admitted in bold print that the alien farangs and tourism are important to Thailand! Crime and punishment, yes! Right on!
However, recently the obnoxious sound trucks making their rounds throughout the city and suburbs during the days and evenings (are there not laws here against noise pollution?) are advising us that once again the natives of Pattaya-Land are going to have the opportunity to go out and cast their ballets for some official or another.
And with that comes the scent of another closing of the nightlife and entertainment sections of town for probably two more days/nights. Just imagine how visitors feel after traveling half way around the world only to find that the entertainment centers are closed and they can’t have a drink at that spot on Walking Street that they heard so much about. Not too many weeks ago this happened on two weekends, back to back. (Ed’s note: it will happen again in the upcoming weekends – April 26 & 27 for the provincial elections, then May 3 & 4 for the local and mayoral elections).
This will make, by my guesstimate, a total of 5 weekend closings, just for elections, in less than a year. All combined these closures affect the entire community. And is this also not a crime of sorts that will send the farangs away?
Just think of what is involved when the nightlife of Pattaya is forced to close down on a normally busy weekend and think of how it affects the community.
In particular: The producers and suppliers of foods and beverages and their employees. The transport companies and their workers and drivers. The petrol stations that supply the fuel. The baht bus and motorbike taxi drivers. The owners of entertainment places. The waiters, waitresses, cooks and staff at all of the bars in town. And the list goes on and on…
These are the people who pay the taxes! And yet the powers above continue to close down, on prime weekend time, the main money making industry in this fair kingdom for elections that the tourists have no interest in whatsoever.
Let the laws of abstinence be for the local populace and the officials. Okay! But let the visitors to this wonderful land enjoy themselves and spend their money. They will be happy and the local populace and business people will prosper.
Jomtien Observer

Letters published in the Mailbag of Pattaya Mail
are also published here.