Saksiri Uraiworn
The Tourism Authority of Thailand will promote Pattaya in Germany, Brunei and India early next year as part of its global “road show” to revive tourism to the Eastern Seaboard.

Niti Kongkrut, director of the TAT Pattaya office talks about upcoming road shows to promote Pattaya.
At a Nov. 12 meeting at the A-One Hotel, TAT Pattaya office director Niti Kongkrut signed off on plans to exhibit at the ASEAN Travel Forum in Brunei in January, Outbound Travel Mart in India in February and the ITB Trade Show and Travel Mart in Berlin in March.
The Germany show is the only stop TAT plans to make in a Western country. All other tourist promotion is planned for East Asia, India and the Middle East.
The stops are the latest on the city’s worldwide Road Show to showcase Pattaya for international and domestic visitors. An Issan Road Show, catering to the domestic market, will travel to Khon Kaen, Udon Thani, Ubon Ratchathani, and Nakhon Ratchasima in March.

Mayor pushes new pipelines, water pumps to relieve flooding

Vimolrat Singnikorn
Pattaya Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome is continuing to pursue a new drainage system for Pattaya that will see more polluted storm runoff piped directly into the sea.
At a Nov. 12 Pattaya City Council hearing on the mayor’s short- and long-term plans to relieve the city’s annual flooding problem, the mayor outlined his new “I Theory” of drainage pipes that will replace the current “T Theory” under which storm water is funneled west to Beach Road, but not directly into the sea.

Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome discusses long term plans for solving floods.

While the mayor admitted his proposal still needs more study, he said the current plan calls for the installation of new 2.5 m. drainage pipes to connect Soi Buakhao with the South Pattaya Canal, Soi Diana with Second Road, and under Phettrakul Road. The city has already allocated 3 million baht for the new pipes, he said.
Long-term improvement plans also call for the dredging and widening of the South Pattaya Canal, through which storm runoff flows directly into the ocean.
While these items are being completed, the city has also come up with short-term plans to relieve flooding, Itthiphol said. These include having the Pattaya Social Work Department deliver food and supplies to those impacted by flooding and double the number of portable water pumps.
The mayor said the city had identified 14 low-lying areas in the city where flooding is the worst, including Second Road near Soi Diana, central Beach Road, Central Road, Third Road and part of Pratamnak Road.
Water pumps can provide immediate assistance to these areas, he said, but there is a fear there are not enough machines to go around. Therefore the mayor said he has requested a budget to purchase eight more pumps, bringing the city’s total fleet to 14.

Bahraini, Thai woman arrested in human-trafficking plot

Boonlua Chatree
Police have arrested a Bahraini national and one of two alleged Thai accomplices who officials claim lured Pattaya-area women into forced prostitution in the Middle Eastern country.

Mohamed Ebrahim Yasuf Naserisa has been arrested in Pattaya for human trafficking.

Mohamed Ebrahim Yasuf Naserisa, 27, was apprehended inside the Marine Plaza Hotel Nov. 11 by a team of officers from the National Police Operations for the Prevention & Suppression of Human Trafficking Division. He denied the charges and told the Gulf Daily News in Bahrain he plans to fight the charges in court.
The arrest came after a 30-year-old Thai woman filed a complaint that Naserisa and two Thai women had enticed her to come to Bahrain to work as a massage girl in a hotel but, when she arrived, she was told she had to work as a prostitute and was beaten until she complied.
Police later that same day arrested one of the alleged accomplices, 32-year-old Patcharee Thepbat, who was found hiding in the Bam Bam Laundry on Pratamnak Road.
She and the Bahraini have been charged with human trafficking and prostitution charges. Police said they are aware of other Bahrainis connected to the trafficking gang hiding in Pattaya and are continuing their investigation.
Police said they were tipped off to Naserisa’s whereabouts by the Thai embassy in Bahrain where two women who escaped their captors had fled and laid out the trafficking operation. However, an embassy spokesman is quoted in the Gulf Daily News story denying any embassy involvement, saying “such incidents are rare.”
According to the U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report for 2009, Bahrain is one of the top destination countries for persons trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation.

Pattaya tackles its own ‘Big Trouble’ with jet-ski vendors

Sawittree Namwiwatsuk
Following the lead of officials in Phuket, where a British TV documentary showed a worldwide audience a jet-ski vendor scamming British Royal Marines, Pattaya Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome has called for a crackdown on the local watercraft-rental industry to prevent tourists from being ripped off.

Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh (left) will co-head a committee comprised of officials from the Harbor Department, Sea Rescue, Tourist Police, Marine Police, Pattaya lawyers, and civil protection to bring jet-ski vendor corruption under control.

Itthiphol Nov. 9 called for the establishment of a “Controlling Committee for Maritime Tourism” that would register all of the city’s jet-ski vendors, review damage claims, set standardized rates for compensation, provide assistance to jet-ski customers and even fine or revoke the licenses of vendors who violate the new rules.
The mayor’s move came after an Iranian tourist recently filed a complaint about being overcharged for alleged damage to a jet ski he rented and then allegedly being threatened with his life if he told police.
The mayor said such stories severely damage Pattaya’s reputation, much as it did to Phuket, which suffered global embarrassment after a September episode of “Big Trouble in Thailand” broadcast the story of a young Marine who was scammed out of 35,000 baht by Patong Beach jet-ski vendor Winai “J.J.” Naiman for allegedly damaging one of his watercraft.
While the Marine admitted off camera he had been in a collision with another jet ski, the damage Winai pointed out on camera was caused long before. The show, which aired on the Bravo U.K. cable channel and has now been syndicated to Australia, also made it appear as if Winai intimidated the soldiers into paying by producing a rifle.
Winai was arrested a day after the show aired with Phuket Gov. Wichai Praisa-nob taking swift action to limit the number of jet-ski vendors, require all carry insurance and jail any violators. While series creator Gavin Hill later admitted the gun scene had been edited untruthfully, the damage had been done with calls to crack down on jet ski vendors nationwide coming from the deputy prime minister and diplomats from Australia and Britain.
In Pattaya, jet skis would come under the jurisdiction of a committee comprised of officials from the Harbor Department, Sea Rescue, Tourist Police, Marine Police, Pattaya lawyers, and civil protection. It will be headed by Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh and Deputy Banglamung District Chief Pongsit Pijanan.
Itthiphol said one new step will be to construct a dock where vendors claiming damage will take their vehicles for an impartial review. In addition, all jet skis records will be recorded and copies of rental agreements kept. Tourists will also be provided with phone numbers to call if they have any problems.
Vendors found violating the new rules face fines of 1,000 baht or can have their licenses revoked, he said.

Police raid Tukcom computer superstore

Boonlua Chatree
Police seized more than 23,000 pirated movies, CDs and video games when they swept through a storage facility at South Pattaya’s Tukcom computer superstore but didn’t catch any of the vendors.
Sellers were apparently tipped off to the Nov. 9 raid as when police arrived, all the shops were closed. So officers went to the storage facility on the sixth floor where they found a number of lockers, which they had a security guard open after presenting a search warrant.

Police drag out for display some of the tens of thousands of pirated discs they confiscated from storage lockers at Tukcom in South Pattaya.

Officers found 15,520 foreign movies, 110 Thai movies, 7,846 games CDs, 30 karaoke music CDs for a total haul of 23,506 illegal discs.
Officers then pulled lease contracts and plan to chase down the storage locker renters.
Col. Sarayut Sanguanpokai, superintendent of the Pattaya Police Station, said the raid was launched after complaints from sellers of legitimate movies, music and software who said copies were hurting their business. There’s also been a stepped up effort from U.S. based software and media associations to stamp out piracy in Thailand.

‘Insects’ arrested in Walking Street rape of British woman

Boonlua Chatree
Police have arrested two Thai men who allegedly raped and robbed a 25-yearold British woman after dragging her off Walking Street only 20 meters from a Tourist Police box.
Krajon Senkam, 29, and Surasak Kovekasan, 20, allegedly grabbed the woman in the early hours of Saturday morning as she was exiting a bar where she’d been drinking with friends. Too drunk to resist, she told police the men dragged her into the Thaithong Inn where they raped her then stole an ATM card, cash and valuables.

Krajon Senkam and Surasak Kovekasan, and an accomplice, have been arrested for the rape and robbery of a British woman here in Pattaya.

At the victim’s request, the attack was not disclosed by police until it was reported in a U.K. newspaper Tuesday.
Officers obliged as it not only damages Pattaya’s reputation but because it occurred so close to where officers were stationed.
Both men were charged with rape and theft. The victim said they took her bank card, 3,000 baht, a bracelet worth about 5,500 baht and a digital camera worth 8,000 baht.
Police told the U.K. newspaper that the suspects were found quickly as they are were known in the area, calling them maeng da, a Thai phrase literally translating to “water bugs” and used to describe jobless men who live off the proceeds of their prostitute girlfriends.

Italian Muay Thai boxer KO’d on drug-dealing charges

Boonlua Chatree
An Italian Muay Thai boxer was arrested for alleged drug dealing hours before he was supposed to step into the ring.

Police have arrested Renzo Tolve for allegedly selling marijuana to an undercover police officer.

A team of 11 officers from the Chonburi Transnational Crime Coordination Center based at the Pattaya Police Station took into custody 37-year-old Renzo Tolve on Walking Street during the afternoon of Nov. 9.
Officers were called to the scene after an undercover agent found Renzo allegedly selling marijuana in front of the P.72 Hotel. The officer then arranged to buy marijuana from the boxer for 1,500 baht, which he would deliver near the entrance to Walking Street.
He was found with 10 grams of marijuana as well as less than a gram of crystal methamphetamine he said was for personal use.
Renzo had been scheduled to fight at 8 p.m. that night at the Thepprasit Boxing Stadium.

Phyathai Sriracha Hospital opens Neurological Center

Boonlua Chatree
Phyathai Sriracha Hospital can now diagnose many brain conditions within 15 minutes with state-of-the-art equipment in its new Neurological Center.
Provincial Police Region 2 Commissioner Lt. Gen. Kriangsak Suriyo officially opened the new facility Nov. 4.

Provincial Police Region 2 Commissioner Lt. Gen. Kriangsak Suriyo officially opened the new facility Nov. 4.

Hospital Managing Director Dr. Tanakom Mantananon said the Neurological Center was started to improve medical services available to patients suffering from brain-related illnesses. It features fast magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography and x-ray scanners that yield results in less than 15 minutes. Combined with a large staff and new operating rooms, the facility is state of the art, he said.
Dr. Sippanon Samchai said MRI equipment is especially important for treating patients with conditions affecting the brain stem and spinal cord, such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. Many conditions can then be treated with medical and physical therapy.
Dr. Chalermpol Chattarapong said that due to the severity and complicacy of neurological diseases, time is valuable to the patients. He suggested that patients come to his hospital to receive fast medical diagnosis.
However, he warned that treatment of neurological diseases is limited. There are no cures to disabilities and severe damages to the brain, he said. For that reason, people should be careful of accidents and get heath check-ups to protect from preventative diseases.