HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Free lessons in UK

British Hon. Vice Consul

Re: Thai women that move to the West

Tons of rubbish in Lamai marshland

Morning after

Thai woman who loves him

Free lessons in UK

Editor;
In reply to Aitch, the college was called Southampton City College. As far as I know, as long as you contact a proper college or university they do courses for people with a poor understanding of the English Language or no English at all.
I used to take my wife down there every week and she started a basic computer course and at the end of her English course they gave her a pass certificate. I was earning up to £46,000 a year but I never paid for the course. I also know that her sister got free lessons in London.
So please don’t contact a language school but contact your local authority and they should tell you where the courses are done and who to contact. I hope this helps your wife meet other Thai ladies at these courses, so get on the phone and see where you stand.
Good luck.
Wayne

British Hon. Vice Consul

Dear Editor,
I would like to make a few comments on the letter from Col West (6/11). In the first place, your title is misleading since there is no such thing as an English Consul. Neither is there an English embassy, or an English passport or English nationality.
It is manifestly inappropriate to compare an honorary consulate with an embassy which, almost by definition, is going to be prestigious.
It is true that the fees imposed by the British are steep and sometimes unjustified. However, it is pointless to compare Britain with Australia which is a country with a lot of natural wealth and a thriving economy. Britain, on the other hand has squandered her resources on two very costly wars, has funded an unbelievably expensive National Health Service and for some fifty years has pursued the insane policy of providing huge amounts of money to arriving foreigners. It also supports an army of idle, indigenous parasites and at the same time penalises its citizens who retire in countries like Thailand.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to see any change with the existing political parties. But, who knows? We are due for a new order on 21st Dec 2012 and those who are content to live on their fair share of the earth’s resources and in conformity with the Laws of Nature may experience a utopia where letters from a Consul, and even passports, are a thing of the past.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Nightingale

Re: Thai women that move to the West

Editor;
Well! I have some news. I come from an area in Cumbria where I have lived with my Thai wife for over 21 years and I have known of approx 45 Thai girls that moved here with farang husbands over that period. All but about 6 couples are still married (nearly all of the girls have their own businesses).
All of those that are still married have various things in common; e.g. both parties are of a similar age, have a good education or the Thai girls are from a good background (wealthy-doesn’t need to send any money back to Thailand) or they are running a business.
Like Shark Fin’s comments, my wife comes from a wealthy Bangkok family and she went to a public school, a private school and university. She married me nearly 22 years ago after we met when she was working in a Bangkok Bank (I was working in Bangkok for 6 weeks, not on a holiday). There is only 6 years difference in our ages and we fell in love with each other straight away without knowing too much about each other’s family history or wealth.
I was probably lucky and maybe if I was in a bar drinking and I fell for a bar girl I could still be married, or maybe not. I think I know the odds and that’s the luck of life & love.
My wife has run 14 different businesses since she arrived here in the UK and she sometimes feels embarrassed at the way some Thais behave and the high divorce rate. Most of the Thai girls that have married local men have either had a big age difference or they have realised that the men in question are not as wealthy as first thought. Or as I said in the previous issue, it’s not the land of milk & honey.
So from my calculations the divorce rate with Thai ladies locally is about 85%. I would be interested to know: is it just the Lake District near were I am based or the whole of the UK?
Now a footnote to Wayne. I live in Cumbria and it’s nearly 2 hours away from a Chinese deli or wholesalers (maybe that’s why the divorce rate is so high because it’s such a long way to get papaya for som tam). My wife is lucky, she learnt English to degree level at school so she understands a lot. But as I am also an adult education teacher and my wife also teaches in the evening, it is very difficult to not only get the girls to venture into a college, but to understand the course (teaching of English as a foreign language) unless they are very keen to learn. When a Thai lady has difficulty reading and writing even Thai (which I have come across many times as a lot of Thai ladies speak a different dialect - Isaan), or put it this way, go and learn correct Bangkok Thai then go and speak it up in Isaan and you will have wasted your time and money because it won’t be fully understood.
I actually feel very sorry for a Thai girl trying to learn to read and write our script. I most certainly can’t write Thai or speak it that well, and I had a so called Western education. I think your wife is to be congratulated on her achievements in what some people say is one of the most difficult languages on Earth to learn: English.
I know of 4 guys that brought girls back here (married of course) and the girls did take a lot of money off them when they divorced but the guys still want to remarry other Thai ladies ASAP. So good luck to them.
Many years ago (23 to be precise) I saw many gentlemen waiting outside the British Embassy in Bangkok. The Ambassador at the British Embassy (Mrs Claire) knew perfectly well that these girls were not going to be compatible with the British men that had already been interviewed due to age or background (from either side) and even though I’m sure she broke a lot of hearts she knew best and saved them not only a future broken heart but maybe their life savings.
I again wish all Thai/Falang couples a happy and long life together and I with my wife hope that his Majesty the King gets well very soon and recovers from his recent illness. Long Live The King.
John Rigg

Tons of rubbish in Lamai marshland

Editor;
The once beautiful Green Fields area of Lamai is now being spoilt by being filled in with tons of rubbish. These marshlands are home to dozens of species of wildlife and their natural habitat is being taken away from them. Surely there are other places where rubbish can be disposed of in a more environmentally friendly way?
A friend who lives in the Green Fields bungalows tells me that it used to be a pleasure to sit on his balcony and look out over the marshes but not any more, he can see the rubbish getting closer to his home (and the accompanying smells), as each day goes by!
I took a few photos of the damage being done and a lorry dumping a load of rubbish, which included several sheets of corrugated iron.
One wonders who has given permission for this atrocity to happen? This area is also a natural soak-away and when the rainy season comes, it holds a great deal of water, which helps to ease Lamai’s flooding problems, to a certain degree. If this in-filling is allowed to continue, I can see that it will only increase Lamai’s plight because when the marshes are filled and then levelled off, I can imagine that the next step would be that developers would move in and build on the land?
The flood water that lies on the road near the old boxing stadium can get up to 3 feet deep after only an hour or so of heavy rain and that is with a drain towards the marshland! How deep will it get if the marshland is filled in? I live not far from there and I’m glad I live upstairs!
Think of all the wildlife that will be lost, especially the fish; they will have nowhere to go! I’m told that some of the local people go fishing there. The snakes, lizards, skinks, frogs and many more creatures, too numerous to mention, will go! When the rains come, once the land is sodden, the water will have nowhere to go except into the village and flood the streets.
Des Gillet

Morning after

Dear Editor,
This was the sad site of the sea the morning after Loy Krathong. How can apologizing to the water gods involve chucking so much more rubbish in the water? (Photo taken near Ban Amphur.)
Kind regards, Susan

Thai woman who loves him

Editor,
Congratulations to ‘Fin’ on having THE Thai woman who loves him for his good looks, sunny disposition and brilliant mind. Okay, Fin, we believe you. Ignore the sniggers.
He has told us he does not spend much time here or frequent the bar scene when he is, but he wants to tell us that he has all the girls, working in bars or otherwise, tagged.
If I had a Thai wife or girlfriend, I would not be so pretentious as to think that she and my experiences were typical and interesting. I did not say that everyone wants to live in Pattaya, but the fact that Fin did is pointed to by his dwelling here via letters.
His apparent pique at a view that does not flatter him really makes him put his foot in it. To say someone knows any place from one end to the other, but nothing in between, is an oxymoron - a contradiction in terms - it doesn’t make sense. That’s his English reading and writing he needs to work on, but we’ll still believe he’s got everything sussed.
Now onto a more important topic. Everybody and his dog has an opinion about what is needed to bring tourists to Pattaya. I ask this: how can anyone expect the reputation of the place to improve when much of the media, the resort’s shop-widow to the world and the very people who should be setting an example and promoting the sunny side, instead display the toilet? There is not a single social commentary column that rebuts at least some of the misrepresentations that there are so many of. Some letter writers and columnists point the finger at Thai politics, saying that tourists won’t come here while corruption is rife. If tourists avoided places that had corrupt politicians, there would be no such thing as tourists - anywhere. Some writers are always saying that money is number one to Thai girls. True enough, but where is money not number one to everyone?
The latest manifestation of keeping Pattaya’s image in the gutter comes via a UK cable TV’s ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’. Whoever sanctioned it needs to provide an explanation.
J. Tighe

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