HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

International school needs legal u-turn

Bar closing hours

Sophon Cable TV and CNN International

Children of the dark

Beachcomber’s letter amusing

Beach cleanup

Re: Our wonderful traffic police

Agrees with Richard Franklin

International school needs legal u-turn

Editor;
I am writing as a long time resident with children in the international school system. Pattaya has only one international school within the city limits and the International School of Pattaya has operated for over 15 years at the present location. I have experience with other international schools but the 30-100 km round trip commute twice a day is brought more into question as petrol prices continue to rise.
This automatically brings focus to the egress and most importantly the ingress to the International School of Pattaya and the Wuttichott Bi-lingual School. The two schools share the same campus on Sukhumvit Road about midway between Bangkok Pattaya Hospital and the Naklua-Sawang Road. Unless you live in Naklua and approach the schools from Sawang you will have to drive about 3-4 km extra and out of your way, through four stop lights, burning extra fuel twice a day to find a legal U-turn to approach the schools.
I ask you to take a look at helping the education system in Pattaya City and add a school zone and crossover in front of the schools for reasons stated. Two hundred students study at the schools, whose parents are forced to drive 3-4 km twice a day out of their way to take their children to school in the city will wastefully drive 180-240,000 km per school year. Parents approaching the schools from the South should not have to drive to near the Toyota dealership on Sukhumvit to make a U-turn.
Let’s help advance education in Pattaya with a small improvement to yield big savings and reduced pollution.
Thank you.
G. Baker

Bar closing hours

Editor;
Can anyone at Pattaya City Hall, police, TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand) or the Pattaya Mail explain just what the legal hours for selling alcohol in a bar are? Are legal hours the same for all in all areas of the city?
It seems there is a difference depending if you are on the West side of Sukhumvit Hwy, or on the East side. On the West side, downtown, Beach Rd, or Jomtien, bars can stay open until 2 am in most areas, or later in some areas. Not so on the East side.
In the past three months a group of people claiming to be Pattaya city councilmen raided no less than eighteen (18) bars owned by farang ex-pats with Thai wives and shut them down for various reasons. Selling beer after 12 midnight, having bar bills on the bar after 12 midnight, or playing music they say are illegal, or copies with wrong labels.
A friend of mine, an Englishman, was raided 5 minutes after midnight on a Sunday, made to close immediately, and fined 6,000 baht on the spot. No receipt given. Four days later these people returned and put a notice on his door closing him down for 30 days.
Close at midnight? Are they and the TAT saying you can’t have a New Years party in your bar because you have to be closed when the New Year arrives? What about music CDs? My friend had just gone to Carrefour and bought several CDs to play in his bar. He even showed them the receipt for the CDs and suggested they go arrest the sellers, not someone who legally bought them. The CDs were confiscated anyway. No receipt.
The sad part of this is, directly across the street from his bar is an open front Thai bar who were by-passed, and remained open until 4 am.
My question is: Were these people really from city hall? My friend said they refused to offer any identification, but he knew better than to challenge them. It could be costly or dangerous. I won’t mention my friend’s name, name of bar, or exact location, but believe me, he is real and totally ticked off.
Farang Observer
Ed’s note: The last time we checked, the legal closing time for bars inside the entertainment zone was 2 a.m., whilst outside the entertainment zone it’s midnight. The entertainment zone runs from North Pattaya to South Pattaya, from 3rd Road to the beach. So, certainly there is a difference as you write between the West side and East side of Sukhumvit. Sorry, we wish the news could be better. But please feel free to take your spouse (and/or the legal owner of the bar) and head on over to city hall to double check. And if you think those who shut you down were not from city hall, then please state your claim with the tourist police.

Sophon Cable TV and CNN International

Sirs:
Plaudits go out to Sophon Cable TV’s recent addition of CNN International News to its lineup. Many others and I have discussed this, and we hope CNN International News will stay on Sophon forever. It is a welcome addition, in strong contrast to Fox News’ biased news as the USA Republican Party’s mouthpiece. Many thanks from many USA ex-pats, who stand opposed to the present Bush Administration.
Sincerely,
Woods Mattingley

Children of the dark

Editor;
Why is everyone upset about not seeing the movie “Children of the dark” in a theater? While sitting at my favourite outdoor bar in Pattaya, at least 9 or 10 kids come by every hour selling copies of it. Just spend 100 baht, take it home and watch it.
Charlie Brown
Pattaya

Beachcomber’s letter amusing

Editor;
I found Beachcomber’s letter amusing. I was recently returning from Roi-et to Pattaya and was stopped three times during my drive. Twice for being in the outside lane too long! 200 baht each time and no receipt. I tried to state my case by on each occasion, telling the police I was passing convoys of slower vehicles, but they had money on their minds and I wasn’t getting away without a donation to the Mekong fund.
The third time I was stopped, for no apparent reason, I thought I would be smart, they asked to see my licence, I produced my international licence, I was told “this licence no good Thailand, 200 baht”. The policeman had no sooner spoken 200 baht, then I just remembered I had a valid five year Thai driving licence, which I produced from the glove box. The two policemen had a quick conference with each other, and then one of them said “You drive too fast, 200 baht”.
So the long and short of it is, if you’re a farang, you’re easy pickings to both sides of the law.
John

Beach cleanup

Editor;
Aloha to Pattaya Mail and all of your readers. I would like to share this past Saturday the 20th of September with all of you. I’m sure that many of you noticed the 1,500 + people from many parts of Thailand that came to Pattaya to do a beach cleanup at Pattaya, Jomtien and Wongamart beaches, plus 300 participants that went to Larn Island do the underwater cleanup. We also released 500,000 swimming crab larvae. There also was the weighing of the garbage with data in the data cards.
I only wish it could have been low tide so they really could have seen the whole story, which would have been thousands of plastic bags being buried in the sand by the motion of the ocean which then kills the clams, crabs, sea plants and so on. Also all of the plastic that floats and many dolphins, turtles, fish and birds ingest not knowing better. Many die due to suffocation, a horrible death. High tide is a piece of cake for a cleanup, low tide is the real deal. Maybe next time we can program the cleanup at low tide.
All in all it was a wonderful day as I’m sure the beach chair, jet ski and banana boat vendors along with the beachgoers realized how important it is to help Mother Nature take care of our waterways, watch what we put into storm drains and protect the sea life that we eat.
Also please check the krathong that you will buy for Loy Krathong, that carry away bad sins, starts a new year to be joyful and happy, thanks to the Goddess of Water, suffering is floated away. Please make sure the krathong is made the right way, with banana stalk or bread for the flotation, not foam, and that the banana leaves are not full of nails. You see for many days after the beach, lake, pond, streams are full of rusty nails that children step on and injure themselves and the foam is not biodegradable and becomes buried and kills much of what lives in our ocean and waterways.
Have a wonderful, safe Loy Krathong.
KOTO

Re: Our wonderful traffic police

Editor;
Here’s one to soothe Beachcomber’s (from last week) mind: Driving along about 100kmph towards Rayong. Stopped and informed I was going 120++. In my pidgin Thai I asked to see the printout from the speed gun, but was told it was too far back to go back and get it. I insisted it wasn’t and told him to jump in and I’d take him there. After a few seconds of bantering, much to my good fortune, I was then asked for 100 baht for a beer instead, which I must say was requested with a big smile. After I recovered from this, I offered 200 for the show and was politely rebuked. 200 was too much and 100 was enough I was told.
Sign me,
Schumi

Agrees with Richard Franklin

Editor;
I wholeheartedly agree with Richard Franklin in his letter Pattaya real estate - what now? Especially when he wrote: “Simple solution would be to allow foreigners to own a patch big enough for a house.”
If the Thai law deems it inappropriate for foreigners to own land here then the Thai law should also deem it inappropriate for Thais to own land overseas. Tit for tat. Any Thai found to own land overseas should have their citizenship removed. Taksin, are you listening?
I wonder how many Thais are now rushing to “Buy Cambodia” and “Buy Vietnam” now that their laws have been relaxed to allow some foreign land ownership.
Sam E. Same

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