HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

I say why not?

Who runs the country?

Mystified

Caught speeding

No color food

Uncaring, unthinking Thais and farangs are trashing Pattaya

Bad boat experience

Nanny government

I say why not?

Editor;

In the 7 May mailbag Re: government regulation by John Arnone, he states that because he is a smoker the government unfairly imposes higher insurance premiums on him. I say why not? Because smokers have many more health problems because of their degraded health from self poisoning. Smokers require more medical services than non smokers. It’s also a fact that smokers take more sick days off than non smokers to the point that some companies do not hire smokers at all.

Then he asks what is the problem if he smokes in a park. I’ll tell you; nonsmokers in the park have to breathe the polluted smoky air.

Lawrence Remington,
Bangkok

Who runs the country?

Editor;

It certainly is not the government, after the debacles of the yellow shirts (a couple of years ago) and now the red shirts. In both cases neither the army nor police would obey legitimate orders given by the prime minister.

Nearer to home, about fourteen years ago the highest court in this land decreed that the 101 businesses on the beach side of Walking Street were built illegally and as such have to be pulled down. To date not one has come down, (in fact they are still building and renovating the place). Could it be that the same people who have no respect for the government or its laws are in charge in Pattaya? My company has recently purchased a building on the legal side of Walking St. and I would like to know why I don’t have the view of Pattaya Bay that I am entitled to by law. Anyone who would like to clarify the situation for me can contact me on email [email protected]

J.C.

Mystified

Editor;

On 22nd April 2010 I received a congratulatory card posted in Andover Hampshire on 2nd April.

According to the postmark it was received at the Southampton Royal Mail Exchange at 6.13pm the same day.

A postmark clearly shows that it was received at Banglamung on 7th April.

I find it difficult to understand why a letter, correctly addressed in both English and Thai, took only 6 days to travel from the U.K. to Thailand, but 14 days to travel from Banglamung to South Pattaya.

I am aware it was during the Songkran period, but checking back previous letters find that this is par for the course.
Yours faithfully,
Brian P Wale

Caught speeding

Editor;

I am an Italian man living in Pattaya and from January to now, every week I go to Bangkok with some of my friends. I go by my car driving myself on motorway n. 3 (Chonburi-Bangkok). Usually I come back in the afternoon from Bangkok to Pattaya by motorway n. 3 and usually some police by motorcycle is standing at the pay toll and every time they stop me and tell me I made an infraction, normally for exceeding the speed limit.

I made an experiment and I did not exceed the 60 Km/hour and the same they stopped me and asked me to pay the fine. I do not have any tool for demonstrate I did not exceed the speed limit, so I have every time to pay the fine.

The fine is not always the same. For 8 times I had to pay and they never gave me any recipe. Sometimes they asked for 300 baht, sometimes 500 baht, one time they asked me for 1,500 baht! And every time I have to trash a lot of time for listen and understand what the policemen need from me. The last time I prepared 200 baht and showed it to the policemen. The policemen took the money and gave me back my driving license and I had not to trash a lot of time.

I noted that more cars are stopped by the police and every time they are falang.

So now I have to do a long way for come back by motorway n. 7 because the way is longer, but it is a lot less expensive and I take the same time because I don’t have to stop to pay a fine.
(sic)
Best regards,
(Name withheld by request)

No color food

Editor;

When it comes to food and ice cream, there’s no color discrimination as proven by these lovely nurses during their lunch break at Phyathai Hospital Sriracha who were enjoying their multi- colored ice sorbet.

Sue K

Uncaring, unthinking Thais and farangs are trashing Pattaya

(Ed’s note, we only have room for one photo; the photo at Jomtien Beach)

Aloha;

There are 6 pictures here; the first one is the storm drain at the rear entrance of Tuk Com Pattaya, full of toxic garbage waiting for the next rain to wash it into the ocean. The second is the storm drain on Thappraya Rd and Jomtien Beach Rd next to Seven Eleven, full of rancid grease 30 meters from the ocean we play in and fish live. The third and fourth picture is garbage on the beach that has been there for many months, a real bad thing for beach-goers to see or children to play in. It is located on Jomtien Beach Rd and Thappraya Rd 30 meters from the Dongtan Beach Police Box.

People need to understand and realize that what they put into the storm drains ends up in restaurants and on our table at home; we need to stencil the storm drains in Thai and English with pictures that all understand. This should be done in heavy foot traffic areas.

We also should fine the people that put trash into the drains.

Signed,
The Pollution Solution Group

Bad boat experience

Editor;

I’m a 40-something happily married American national, living in Thailand with my family.

My wife isn’t too fond of the sun, but I love the beach, so I go to Koh Larn by myself sometimes. On the 1700 ferry ride back to Pattaya recently, a 60-ish year old, very drunk Russian lady offers me some fresh pineapple. I politely decline. She speaks zero Thai and zero English, so it’s all sign language as I speak zero Russian. Fair enough.

Three minutes later she squirms her way into a space where there was no room to begin with on a very crowded boat, lays her head on my shoulder and starts trying to put her hand down my pants. That is just un-civilized. Yeah, she was an old fat drunk woman, but even if she were a young super-model, civilized people don’t do things like this.

I just removed myself from her clutches (that she was going for in front of 100 people). She took the hint, stayed in my previous seat, then proceeded to pass out.

I should have called the police at Bali Hai and pressed charges. Talk about un-couth!

If I had tried that with a Thai or Russian girl 20 years my junior I’d be arrested and deported immediately. I’d have arrived at the jail with black eyes and broken ribs also.

In all seriousness, she tried to sexually molest me, in public. It was quite sickening.

Ken

Nanny government

Sir,

John Arnone presents a plausible argument decrying unnecessary government legislation, but destroys it by his almost pathological need to defend unrestricted smoking. Since the introduction of smoking legislation in 2007 in the UK there has already been a 20% reduction in heart attacks. Surely Mr. Arnone cannot wish innocent people to have heart attacks?

Doubtless it was with tongue in cheek that he asked what harm there was in a smoker sitting on a park bench smoking. Isn’t that what most tax evaders, child molesters, fare dodgers and shop lifters say to justify their particular nefarious activities? The answer is almost too obvious to relate, but in the first place he or she will be poisoning the air for a distance of several hundred metres, depending upon the wind conditions. This is, at the least, extremely uncivil as well as being unpleasant to those who enter the park to breathe fresh air. The main fault in his proposition, however, is that no smoker only sits on a park bench to smoke; they smoke in lifts, around swimming pools, on beaches, in restaurants, in buses and even in the sea itself. Mr. Arnone seems to be unable to understand that smoking legislation is needed to protect ordinary people from what is, in effect, common assault.

One would not expect to find people copulating on a park bench, even though this would be doing no harm to anyone. Why, then, should we have to put up with people smoking which is both unpleasant and harmful? Is this too difficult for smokers to comprehend?

Dr. M.

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