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Twister hits popular Sattahip market, nine injured
Patcharapol Panrak
Sattahip officials face a large cleanup effort after a small tornado
hit the city’s popular “700 Rai” outdoor market last week, destroying nearly
500 vendor tents, toppling power poles and sending nine shoppers and vendors
to the hospital.
The twister, and a strong storm it preceded, flung about 60 tents into the
air with some hitting people running to escape the 700-rai marketplace.
Rescue teams arrived to find people trapped under crumpled tents and felled
electric poles.
“I saw more than 1,000 people running and screaming, scared for their
lives,” witness Boonchuay Boonchaiyo said. “After the storm lifted, many
people were hurt. We’re just lucky no one was stabbed by steel from the
broken tents.”
The injured were taken to Queen Sirikit and Apakornkiettivong Sattahip
hospitals.
A reporter estimated storm damage at nearly 3 million baht. Broken tents,
smashed cars and damaged property now lie between the city and the reopening
of the outdoor market.
Waterworks director: Pattaya has enough water until mid-2010
Mabprachan Reservoir appears
to be full - Thanee Thongprachum (inset),
director of the Pattaya Provincial Waterworks Authority says we have enough
water to last us until 2010.
Sawittree Namwiwatsuk
While Pattaya officials continue to search for a permanent cure for the
city’s sporadic water-supply shortages, the head of the Provincial
Waterworks Authority affirmed last week there is more than enough water
available to meet our needs until mid-2010.
In an interview, waterworks Director Thanee Thongprachum also called a city
hall proposal to bolster the city’s water supply with treated wastewater
unnecessary.
The idea sprung “from concern about a future drought. But the plan is an old
one that has already been studied,” he said. Study results showed the
treated water still contained clumps of purification agents that would need
to be filtered out before the water met Waterworks Authority standards.
Thanee noted that additional filtering might also increase the cost of
producing water, but further study would be needed. Until then, Pattaya is
storing rainwater in Monkey Creek in the Huay Yai sub-district.
Pattaya’s water shortages have eased significantly since summer of 2006 when
tanker trucks were the only supply of the liquid for many residents and
hotel taps spat out brown liquid that left tourists horrified. Since then,
the city has doubled its freshwater supply to 240,000 cubic meters a day and
hired a company to draw more water from the Bang Pakong and Chachoengsao
rivers.
However, in a June 1 meeting with Pattaya Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome,
executives from that company said they’ve encountered obstacles to the plan
that will delay completion by three years and cost 5 billion baht.
Thanee said the Waterworks Authority has its own long-term solution.
The authority recently took out an 803 million baht loan to increase
capacity at the Nong Klangdong and Banglamung filtration plants. The upgrade
includes laying a new pipeline from Bangpra Reservoir to Nong Klangdong that
will markedly increase the amount of raw water flowing to the city. The
project is expected to be complete by the end of next year.
Undersea cable to bring more power to Koh Larn
Sawittree Namwiwatsuk
The days of power outages on Koh Larn could soon be a thing of the past as
the project to bring more electricity to the popular tourist island nears
completion.
 Somsak
Pittayapongporn, director of the Pattaya Provincial Electricity Authority
says the project to bring more electricity to Koh Larn is nearly done.
Pattaya Provincial Electricity Authority Director Somsak Pittayapongporn
said an undersea electric cable has already been laid and needs only to be
connected to the city’s power grid near Pattaya Park Hotel. He said the
project should be complete by year-end. However, earlier in the week,
Pattaya Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome said work likely will be finished by
August.
The 140 million baht project was launched after Koh Larn outgrew its tiny
power station, which supplied only 2 mw of electricity to the island and ran
up losses of 2 million baht. The new cable will bring 11 mw, which will
cover the entire island and accommodate about 80% of its projected growth,
he said. The price of electricity for end users will remain the same.
Pattaya officials invite
tourists to ‘Be Our Guest’
Sawittree Namwiwatsuk
City and provincial government officials are spending 17 million
baht on a multimedia advertising campaign to rebuild domestic tourism by
inviting visitors to “Be Our Guest.”
 Mayor
Itthiphol Kunplome (left) and Deputy Mayor Verawat Khakhay (right) invite
visitors to ‘Be Our Guest’.
The city announced May 28 that it hired GMM Media Co. Ltd. to handle
production and publicity duties for the campaign, which will run on Thai
television, radio, billboards, websites and in major newspapers and
magazines. Six thousand t-shirts, umbrellas and other items bearing the
“Pattaya: Be Our Guest” slogan will also be given away as prizes on TV quiz
shows through the end of July.
Pattaya Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome said the program, funded jointly by city
hall and the Chonburi government, targets domestic tourism, which has
suffered most in the global economic turndown and after April’s
anti-government protests in Pattaya.
Itthiphol invited hotels, restaurants, golf course operators and other
tourist-centric businesses to sponsor the program. In return, their logos
would be featured in the ad campaign, he said.
Pattaya and TCEB work to
revive the local MICE market
Ariyawat Nuamsawat
Humiliated by anti-government protests that forced the cancellation of
April’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, Pattaya officials
are hoping to revive the city’s moribund meetings-and-events business
with a new marketing push form Thailand’s Convention & Exhibition
Bureau.
 Suppawan
Teerarat (left), acting director of the Thailand Convention & Exhibition
Bureau and Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome (right) sign an agreement to bring
more meetings and conventions to Pattaya.
TCEB Acting Director Suppawan Teerarat and Pattaya Mayor Itthiphol
Kunplome signed a new cooperative agreement at city hall on May 28 that
aims to make Pattaya the country’s second-largest center, behind
Bangkok, for “MICE,” the industry acronym for “meetings, incentives,
conventions and exhibitions.”
Suppawan said that in the weeks following the red-shirted protesters’
takeover of the Royal Cliff Hotel’s convention center - which saw
foreign leaders fleeing Pattaya by helicopter - the TCEB held back
meetings from Pattaya, further damaging the city’s already weakened
economy. However, the new agreement with TCEB will not only see more
events directed toward Pattaya, but have the city featured in bureau ad
campaigns to rebuild the country’s image, he said.
“Pattaya was selected because it’s replete with hotels and locations for
large-scale exhibitions and conventions,” Suppawan said. However, he
noted, TCEB is also scouting new MICE centers in Phuket, Chang Mai, Hay
Yai and Khon Kaen.
Itthiphol said he believes the agreement will help Pattaya become known
for more than just being a tourist resort. “What we are doing will help
Thailand compete on the international level (for meetings and
conventions), increasing income for the country and improving the
economy.”
A 2006 TCEB report showed that more than 100,000 people attended MICE
events in 2006 in Pattaya, with average spending of 80,000 baht per
person. Total numbers tripled in 2007, but fell in 2008 because of
anti-government unrest and Swine Flu. Itthiphol expects the new TCEB
agreement to revive business and increase revenue to 40 million baht.
One year on, mayor’s big plans net mixed
results for infrastructure, tourism
Ariyawat Nuamsawat
When he took office a year ago, Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome laid
out an ambitious development plan for the city that attracted both
plaudits and brickbats. Yet even while hampered by unforeseen global
economic and domestic political crises that sapped funding and destroyed
tourism, the mayor has managed to make tangible progress on his goals
during his first 12 months.
 Mayor
Itthiphol Kunplome discusses progress his administration has achieved during
his first year in office.
At a one-year review meeting May 29 at city hall, Itthiphol noted that
traffic improvements on Sukhumvit Road are nearly complete and efforts to
bring more electric power to Koh Larn should be complete by August. The city
has hired the TOT Public Co. Ltd. to build a high-speed wireless Internet
network along the beachfront and even the mayor’s pet project, a downtown
monorail, is proceeding with the city now ready to hire a consultant to
shepherd the project.
Yet while work to improve the city’s infrastructure appears to be proceeding
steadily, repairs to Pattaya’s tourism sector are still a work in progress.
Itthiphol said city, provincial and national governments are all working to
lure domestic and foreign visitors back to Pattaya. Among those efforts are
the ongoing offer of 20,000 free hotel rooms, a string of special events and
last month’s approval of a 17 million baht on a multimedia advertising
campaign to promote the city.
Vitsanu Palayanon, chairman of the city’s tourism strategic-development
committee, said public events have been particularly successful in
attracting tourists to the city during the past year and that the next year
will see more. Among the most popular were the New Year’s “Pattaya
Countdown,” the Chinese New Year festival and the Pattaya International
Music Festival, he said. Over the next year part of “Old Town Pattaya” in
Naklua will be closed to traffic to create an outdoor market and officials
are also discussing another “world carnival,” an Asian film festival and
even professional auto racing.
But enticing tourists bludgeoned by recession and frightened by Thailand’s
string of airport closures, hotel takeovers and street riots back to Pattaya
is proving harder than shoring up streets and public utilities. As a result,
most of the city-development wins have involved traditional concrete and
steel.
Improving traffic flow has been a big priority with work on Sukhumvit Road
in progress and improvements to 16.5 kilometers of roadway along the area’s
railroad tracks now needing only lighting and traffic signals, Itthiphol
said.
Likewise, work is nearly finished on the project to bring stable electricity
to Koh Larn. Vitsanu said undersea electric cables bringing 11 megawatts of
power to the popular tourist island have been laid with only connections to
the mainland still incomplete. Work, he said, should be finished by August.
Not everything has gone according to plan, however. The city’s longstanding
goal of providing Pattaya with an adequate water supply continues to
confound officials.
Representatives from the company hired to solve the city’s water problem
attended last month’s meeting to report that it has encountered obstacles to
the original plan to draw water from the Bang Pakong and Chachoengsao rivers
that will delay completion of the project by three years and cost 5 billion
baht. City officials were unwilling to confirm the name of this company,
saying only that they were an experienced outfit from Japan.
Permanent secretary of Pattaya City, Sittiprap Muangkoom, suggested the city
should develop an alternate plan that does not require water from the two
rivers or uses water from the local wastewater treatment plant, which both
fails Provincial Waterworks Authority quality standards and has been shunned
by the public.
But solving the city’s water problem is just one of projects the city has on
tap. Vitsanu said the officials still want to develop a “perfect beach” that
includes extending the beachfront and protecting it from erosion.
1 dead, 2 injured after teen motorbike gang attacks Sattahip youths
Patcharapol Panrak
A well-known teenage motorbike gang is believed responsible for last
month’s shooting death of an insurance broker and injuries to two others in
an early-morning ambush in Sattahip.
Theeradet Chamapakpimol, 21, was found lying dead in on Third Road near
Sukhumvit Road 25 in Sattahip around 2:45 a.m. May 31, his motorbike helmet
still on. An insurance broker at Siam Commercial New York Life Insurance
Co., he had been shot once in the back.
Two others, Royal Thai Navy Petty Officer Ekarin Ruang-Aram, 25, and
18-year-old Aksorn Technology School student Pakorn “Tong” Khunthongpan
suffered gunshot wounds to the shoulder and leg, respectively, and were
treated at Queen Sirikit Hospital.
Sattahip Police Superintendent Col. Somchai Suntawanik said the assailants
are believed to be a group of teen gang members living in the Najomtien
neighborhood in Sattahip. They’re responsible for several crimes in which
they follow cars and motorbikes late in the evening, he said.
Sanhanat Charoenporn, 17, one of 14 youths riding back to Sattahip after a
night out in Pattaya, said his group encountered six teens on three
motorbikes when passing Sattahip Technology College in Najomtien. He
admitted being disturbed by the new riding companions, but no problems
ensued until the 10 bikes reached Thepprasit Temple when the new group fired
shots into the air to threaten them.
The assailants then turned off their lights and pursued them, Sanhanat said.
The attackers overtook the 14 teens and a long-haired pursuer riding a black
Honda Wave 125 with orange wheels and no license plate shot at the returning
revelers until one was dead and two others injured.
Jomtien DVD pirates’ turf war ends bloody with 1 dead, 1 injured
Boonlua Chatree
An ongoing turf war between rival pirated DVD sellers in Jomtien
Beach has ended in a bloody climax with one vendor dead and the other
hospitalized.
Nawin Sapkhuankhan, 26, died of a stab wound to the chest May 31. His rival,
23-year-old Wuttichai, “Pae” Promsawat, was treated at the scene near the
Dongtan Beach police box for cuts to the face.
Witnesses say violence erupted after simmering jealousy over earnings and
territory boiled over.
Nawin was a newcomer to the Dongtan-area band of media pirates, starting
work on the beach after being fired from his job as a beach-umbrella seller
for using ya ba, according to friend Chakaphan Taithong. In his new job,
Chakaphan said, Nawin was upset because he earned less than nearby
competitor Wuttichai and wanted revenge.
Wuttichai’s girlfriend, 20-year-old Kanatnan “Om” Gongthonglang, backed up
Chakaphan’s story, adding that Nawin accused her boyfriend of trespassing in
his sales area. The two men got into a major argument May 30 during which,
she claimed, Nawin threatened Wuttichai with a gun. She said they fled the
scene and filed a police report.
The next day, Kanatnan continued, Nawin returned with a group of 10 men
armed with knives, sticks and iron bars and a fight broke out. Her husband
was cut and Nawin was stabbed and later died at Banglamung Hospital.
No one was immediately arrested in the melee, but police are investigating
with the help of video from media agencies.
British cigarette smuggler on the run for 10 years nabbed in Pattaya
Boonlua Chatree
Doctors have warned for years about the dangers of smoking, but a
British fugitive found hiding in Pattaya has discovered those hazards also
can include a prison sentence.
 Royston
Jones (right), aka Patrick Keeley, is facing deportation to the UK for
allegedly smuggling cigarettes.
Royston Jones, 50, was arrested May 27 by Pattaya Immigration Police at the
request of local British Interpol agents. On the run for a decade, Jones is
wanted on charges he smuggled two shipping containers of cigarettes into the
U.K. a decade ago.
Armed with a photo and tip from Interpol that Jones frequented North
Pattaya’s U-Too beer bar, a team of immigration police led by Pol. Col.
Arnonnun Kamollut, superintendent of the Pattaya Immigration Office,
followed the alleged smuggler from his Second Road watering hole to his
Grand Park Village home where they confronted him. There they discovered
Jones was living in Thailand under a false identity and a fake Irish
passport bearing the name Patrick Keeley.
Under further questioning, Jones said he was arrested in 2005 for smuggling
smokes into the U.K. Facing up to four years in prison, he fled the country
and had been living in Thailand under an assumed name for four years.
Jones will now be deported by to the U.K. to face charges there.
Sattahip police net 2 ya ba dealers after fishing drugs from toilet
Patcharapol Panrak
Sattahip police have arrested a ya ba dealer and his supplier and
seized nearly 400 methamphetamine tablets, despite having to fish more than
half of them out of a toilet.
Chalermporn Singjanusong, 40, was nabbed by police May 29 while preparing to
sell 140 ya ba tablets to customers on Bang Saray Beach Road. Rather than
haul him away, police used the Rayong man to set up his alleged dealer,
26-year-old Niwat “Tong” Iam-Sanga, who police apprehended after the Bang
Saray man attempted to flush 246 pills down the toilet.
 A
plainclothes police officer fishes illicit drugs out of the suspect’s
toilet.
Sattahip Police Superintendent Col. Somchai Suntawanik said undercover
officers had been tracking Chalermporn for some time and had staked out his
usual sales venue. Intent on getting to the source of the drugs, police
convinced Chalermporn to arrange another buy with Niwat at a Bang Saray pool
hall. As the supplier handed over the drugs, Somchai said, he spotted police
and attempted to flush the drugs. Pol. Sgt. Maj. Yotpon Ratchanoo recovered
the tablets in time, however.
Both men admitted to slinging ya ba in Bang Sarary for about a year and
coughed up the name of their alleged supplier, a Cambodian fisherman in Bang
Saray named “Da”. Investigators as of yet have been unable to locate the
man.
Police search for German man who slashed ex-girlfriend’s throat
Boonlua Chatree
Police are hunting a German man who, witnesses say, slashed the
throat of his ex-girlfriend after she left him and began working in a Soi 6
bar.
Erik Zodrow, 38, allegedly came up behind 27-year-old Sairung Boonsomtob as
she was playing pool with a customer at the Love Club June 3, cut the
woman’s throat in full view of patrons and employees and then fled on a
motorbike taxi. Police searched the man’s apartment, but found only his
passport.
Sairung, taken to Pattaya International Hospital, suffered a deep gash
around 20cm long that nearly severed her trachea.
Co-worker Kanokwan Srisongkram, 46, said the attack happened on Sairung’s
first day of work. She had just ended her relationship with Zodrow who, the
victim said, frequently beat her and was often drunk. Before the attack
Zodrow has supposedly sent numerous threatening messages to her.
The motorbike taxi driver told police that he brought Zodrow from the Roi
Lang Apartment. Police went to the man’s third-floor room where his passport
was seized. The investigation continues.
City upgrades marine
fire-fighting training
Will start new rescue service
Sawittree Namwiwatsuk
Pattaya marine rescue officers will embark on nine days of extensive
fire-fighting and damage-prevention training as the city prepares to offer
24-hour rescue services at Bali Hai Pier.
 Deputy
Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh (center) inspects marine rescue officers in the
marine rescue station near Bali Hai pier.
About 30 officers will participate in the joint Pattaya-Royal Thai Navy
course that focuses on fire-fighting techniques for both boat crews and
vessel commanders.
At the opening session June 1, Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh said the
training will both improve the officers’ skills and knowledge, and bolster
the confidence of tourists who ride the area’s many boats and ferries.
Ronakit said the Navy provided instructors from its Damage Prevention
Department for classroom training June 1-7 and practical drills June 13-14
at the Royal Thai Fleet’s Sattahip base.
Following the training, Ronakit said, marine rescue officers will be
stationed at Bali Hai Pier around the clock in case of vessel fires or other
distress calls.
Local road to run one-way only
Ariyawat Nuamsawat
The new roads on either side of, and parallel to the railway tracks
in Pattaya, which run between the Banglamung and Huay Kwang railway
stations, will become one-way only beginning June 15.
Construction of the 16.5 km roadway is nearly complete. T.T.K. Solutions
Joint Venture, which is overseeing the road project, said only the
installation of traffic lights and closed-circuit television cameras at
intersections remain to be done.
Pattaya officials said starting next week the eastern side of the roadway
will operate in one direction only between Kratinglai Junction (National
Road No. 36) to the Huay Yai Junction while the western side will be one-way
from Huay Yai Junction to Kratinglai Junction.
For more information, contact the Pattaya City Call Center at 1337.
Each side of the divided new
ring road will become one way beginning June 15.
15 day tourist extension
rules toughen up
Staff reporters
According to the Thai Immigration Bureau, the rules for the 15-day
tourist extension have been tightened up, in order to prevent foreigners’
abuse of the previous ruling.
The new regulations were put in place without warning on June 1, and state
that any foreigner who has entered Thailand on 4 consecutive occasions using
the 15 day extension stamp will not now be allowed to leave and re-enter the
kingdom unless this is done via an international airport, in which case a
further 30 day stay will be allowed.
The new rules will not affect holders of visas issued abroad; foreigners at
present using the 15-day exemption method are advised to obtain Tourist or
Non-Immigrant ‘O’ visas from a Thai embassy or consulate outside the
country. Holders of Tourist visas will be given a 60 day stay; those with
Non-Immigrant visas will be allowed 90 days.
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