HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Thappraya Road joins two bottlenecks

Tales from the dark side

Re: Ongoing extortion in Thailand

Re traffic police

UK pensioners in Thailand being robbed by UK government

Poor pedestrians get it again

Thappraya Road joins two bottlenecks

Editor;
Many foreign visitors enjoy walking for pleasure and health. Thappraya Road is being widened to 3 or 4 lanes in each direction. This urban motorway serves nothing but join two bottlenecks at Jomtien and the beginning of Second Road.
What an improvement and ecological success story to provide a shady tree-lined walk- and cycle-way with dedicated areas for food stalls and proper pull-ins for the baht bus. If the footpaths were well lit it should be possible to walk in comfort and safety from the Dolphin Roundabout all the way to the end of Jomtien Beach.
What an opportunity missed if Thappraya Road is to become two kilometers of dangerous treeless racetrack.
George Layton

Tales from the dark side

Editor,
Regarding reader J.G. Nongprue (on the dark side) I fully understand his SSDD, since I myself live on the dark side. But this situation is bigger than what these engineers can handle. They just do not have the training or experience to fix the problem since the road itself never should have been designed in this matter around the train tracks. Put that along with the Thai population driving habits or lack of knowing what a large X on the road means and you have the makings for disaster. They can build simple new roads but when it comes to redesigning something old I don’t have much faith in their abilities.
I still remember the first day they started the new system with the new light controls 15-06-09, the traffic on Nernplabwan was backed up as far as the eye could see, and it was only 07:00 in the morning. There were dozens and dozens of police and traffic engineers just standing around on Siam Country Road and the railroad tracks. It took me 45 minutes just to get to the bottom of the roadway going to Bangkok which normally takes 10 minutes tops!
On some of the intersections along the new motorway, large trucks are unable to make left or right turns since the spacing is too narrow. Yet they are building this huge expensive new freeway from Sukhumvit to the Motorway leading to Bangkok. It’s beyond us farangs. But they did open up the intersection at Siam Country Road and Sukhumvit again after years of failing to admit they were wrong in closing it!
Also, regarding the comments of Alan Stevens about the San Francisco style trams, being from that city I have to say no, no! If you don’t know already, the MUNI system is broken and not just from the expense of labor. It cost $5.00 USD just to ride one way. The underground cables require constant upgrades and repairs. I do agree that building a monorail system is insane! You’d be better off creating a system above ground like what they are using in San Francisco - the F-car system that travels above ground along the waterfront to pier 39. I don’t really have an answer but a cable car system in Pattaya: if I was a voting citizen I would vote no. This is too big a task!
J. Chukito

Re: Ongoing extortion in Thailand

Editor,
I have lived in Thailand for over 11 years and have over 350,000 kilometers on my car. I have been stopped many times, and with no exception I had clearly violated the law that I was told that I was stopped for.
One time I was stopped for speeding and I asked how they knew. The officer said “radar” and that I was going 127 km/hour. I wanted to say that the radar was broken because the last time I looked at the speedo it was over 150 km/hour but didn’t put my foot in my mouth.
There were always Thais pulled over at the checkpoints and I have driven on long trips with my brother-in-law where we shared the driving. He got stopped as many times as I did and always gave the cop 100 baht. I’ve only paid more than 100 baht once and that was 200 baht when he was asking for 500.
I’ve had the nasty experience of going into the police station to pay a fine only twice, both parking violations where I was wrong. One was in a small town where I teach and it took over an hour and a half to fill the paperwork and I was the only one there. I paid the 200 baht which the officer promptly put in his pocket. The other time was in Samui. My motorbike was impounded for a parking violation and it took all day for them to find out where the bike was. I don’t remember how much the fine was, but the aggravation wasn’t worth it.
I pay the cops and know that they pocket the money, but never over 100 baht. Every time I’ve been stopped I’ve been wrong and don’t want the aggravation of going into the police station. Every time it happens I think of what would happen to a Thai, with limited English capabilities, with a rental car in NY City getting caught making an illegal turn on red. Probably off to the police station and having his car impounded with no idea about how to get it back. Or worse yet have the same thing happen in the small town where I lived in Southern Mississippi.
I have seen a scam near where I live. A farmer waits on his tractor near the start of a long bridge. When he sees traffic coming he slowly pulls out and crosses the bridge. The traffic of course passes him, double yellow line, and guess who is waiting under the shade of a tree on the other side. Race, creed, or color has no bearing on who he stops. He stops everybody that clearly violates the law by crossing the double yellow line.
I’m not condoning the corruption that certainly exists. I’ve just been lucky I guess. I teach school and had the unfortunate opportunity of teaching about 200 Thai teachers who failed the periodic English test. They cheated more that the children. I asked one why and he told me he was taught that he should always win and that he should do anything he had to, to win and cheating was one way. I’m too old to try to change them so I grin and bare it.
Wayne Williams

Re traffic police

Editor;
My experience certainly parallels that of Pat Kelly’s. I find the police from Bangkok to Chiang Rai very polite and so far, I have not been stopped on the roads in Western Thailand for anything other than check points and waved on. My personal experiences, Thai police are very professional and respectful persons in this region. Also, on the small country roads, I personally have had no problem.
I have been stopped on the main thoroughfares (Route 2) from Udon Thani to Korat, Korat to Bangkok, Korat to Pattaya and around Pattaya, many times for no reason and asked for money from the police. I used to be asked 100 baht, but this was 6-8 years ago. Last year it went up to 500 baht and many times lately, I and others have been asked rather rudely to pay 1,000 baht or more.
I have approached checkpoints in Eastern Thailand, where cars driven by Thais passed me going quite fast, only to slam on their brakes in front of 2 police at a checkpoint. Then waved through. When I approached the same checkpoint driving slowly and not recklessly, the police would start to wave me through. When I rolled down my driver’s side window, I was motioned to pull over as they could then see I was a farang. Like Pat Kelly, I was not asked for a driver’s license, passport or any paperwork, but asked for money. I was never told I did anything wrong.
Every farang friend I speak to here in Thailand states the same has happened to them. The Bangkok Post Newspaper reports police demanding 30,000 baht of foreigners debarking planes, is but an example of what we get on the thoroughfares in Eastern Thailand and Pattaya. If someone has been lucky enough to avoid the police, they are very lucky!
Thai’s are only hurting themselves and no amount of marketing by the Thai Tourist Board is going to bring the tourist back until things change for the better. I met a husband and wife from Italy on a 2 week holiday in Pattaya about 6 weeks ago. I meet them while they and I were stopped by police for no reason. Again, the police did not ask for driver’s license or passport, but asked for money. The couple who had been in Thailand only 3 days of a 2 week holiday said in broken English to me: this was the 3rd time they had been stopped and demanded to pay money to the police. They said they were going back to their hotel, pack their bags and take the first plane out of Thailand.
Brad Johnson

UK pensioners in Thailand being robbed by UK government

Editor;
After paying my N.I. stamps for 45 years, on the understanding that I would receive an index-linked pension from the age of 65, to enable me to live in modest comfort for the last few years of my life, I now find that I’m not entitled to the annual indexation! This is simply because I chose Thailand as the country I wanted to retire to. Even with indexation, in my opinion, England wasn’t an affordable option!
What right has the British Government to remove the 4% (approx) per annum from my financial investment? It may not sound a lot, but without indexation, over a period of about 10 years, the buying power of my pension will have halved!
Where I’ve chosen to spend my retirement should be of no consequence to the Pension People (I use the term very loosely). Indexation is allowed in EEA countries & about 20 “Reciprocal Agreement” countries! Reciprocal agreement? The agreement was between the Government & me! Absolutely nothing to do with other countries! The Philippines has one of these “Agreements”, why? As a result of this “crime”, I’ve been to the Philippines 3 times to see if it was feasible for me to retire there but I decided that Thailand was for me.
I can’t fight this gross injustice on my own but if any of you OAP’s out here want to join my fight, put your grievances to paper & e-mail it to some of these addresses. Include your name, address & phone number.
The Times: [email protected]
The Independent: [email protected]
Daily Mail: [email protected]
Mirror Money: [email protected]
Sunday Express: [email protected]
Evening Standard: [email protected]
Money Management: [email protected]
Financial Times: [email protected]
The Sun: [email protected]
The Telegraph: [email protected]
News of the World: [email protected]
Des Gillet

Poor pedestrians get it again

Editor;
The poor pedestrian gets it again in Thailand: the police are going to harass the pedestrian, with again another way of extracting easy money.
The car is the problem: zero discipline, the drivers are uneducated, no idea on a highway code, no patients, no manners, and certainly do not know what a zebra crossing is. Where is the visual walking green man at traffic junctions?
A lot of the time there are no pavements/sidewalks to use.
If I have to walk on to the road to avoid a blocked pavement, by vendors, or a electrical/telephone support post, or a telephone box, police traffic box, will I be jaywalking and fined?
In a 21st century country, at crossroads junctions, all lights turn red periodically, and give the pedestrians a choice to cross diagonally or straight. Not the case here.
Has the mayor or the people who make these laws ever used a pedestrian walkover? I have, they are dirty, uneven, a potential mugging area, and high. No good if you have bad knees, heart, or in general are old.
Another nail in the tourists’ coffin.
Matt,
Pattaya

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