Mail Bag

Puzzled by enormous distance marker

Dear Sir,

I was puzzled by the picture of the enormous distance marker located on the wonderful new road from Sukhumvit to the Regent’s School. It indicates that the distance from there to Bangkok is 120 km.

The other day I drove from my house, which is almost next door to the Buffalo Bar on Third Road, to Suvarnabhumi Airport. My odometer showed the distance to be 121 km. I’d guess that from the airport to, say, Siam Square in downtown Bangkok is at least 25 km, making the journey from Pattaya to Bangkok 146 km.

In case anyone thinks that my car’s odometer is up the creek, I checked it against distance markers on the highway and it is very accurate.

As the proverbial crow flies, I think the distance from Pattaya to downtown Bangkok may be about 120 km but surely that is not the way such measurements are made? Or is it just a matter of TIT?

Yours faithfully,
Oliver Minto
Ed’s note: Distance markers usually calculate the distance from a particular spot to the outside border of the city or province being measured, not the city center.

Try eating vegetarian for a week

Dear Editor:

I’m delighted to see how successful the latest Vegetarian Festival is. But I noticed that about 99% of the customers who are eating at most of the restaurants serving vegetarian meals are Thais (at least that’s how it looks here in Pattaya). Since many ex-pats have written nasty letters calling vegetarian meals “rabbit food” shouldn’t they be willing to at least give vegetarian food a try during this week?

Those who are experimenting with these meals know first hand how delicious vegetarian food can be. So I urge ex-pats to make the most of the Vegetarian Festival before passing judgment on vegetarian food. I tried the meat eating diet for over thirty years and paid a price by having dangerously high cholesterol (which I no longer have) and a guilty conscience. All I’m asking from meat-eaters is to have enough courage to give the vegetarian diet a chance for one week. Is that too much to ask for?
Eric Bahrt

Doesn’t miss Thai dancing

Editor,

I stand corrected by Tony Crossley (8/10). It is true some people know they are alive by what annoys them. Wasn’t the 8/10 Mailbag a prime example? We had Concerned Farang with yet another harangue about TV, Concerned Resident worrying about water shortage, ‘I live in hope’ David whinging about law enforcement and ‘Waiting with bated breath’ waffling about stuff. As I said in my original letter, all these moans are common in Cyprus, a cultural world away from Thailand. In common is negative retirees, which is where I differ with TC and say Expat Syndrome does exist. Do these blokes epitomize a late-life frolic in a ‘Fun Town’? At least Bill Turner’s typically off-beat humour gave relief - or was he serious about a canal system? Some may find it a ludicrous idea, but it wasn’t dour.

I agree with John Arnone that the homogenisation of cities is an unfortunate trend of modernity, but can’t say I will ever miss being able to watch traditional Thai dancing any more than I miss English Morris dancing. Times change and being negative has to be not changing with them or being unable to adapt.

If ‘positive’ can be summed up, isn’t it beating life’s daily trials and tribulations?
J. Tighe

Pedestrian crossing lights

Editor:

On a recent but rare trip down Beach Rd on my motorbike I was amazed to see the City Council’s latest knee-jerk reaction to negative tourist complaints about their inability to cross the road safely. I counted 13 new pedestrian crossing zones with “push button” ability to activate a “safe crossing light”. They are not yet activated but looking ahead (no pun intended) I can foresee some looming problems.

1. These 13 different lights over a relatively short strip of road will cause huge traffic problems as a road as busy as this will be so “stop/start” for vehicles that gridlock could occur frequently.

2. At the moment some of the crossing lights are either not visible, or are barely visible to a driver as a number of banners (as usual) are hanging over the road and in some places tree branches intrude.

3. Even though there are many lights, tour operators will still park their buses wherever they feel like and will put up their “stop traffic hands and flags” to further impede traffic.

4. At least initially there will need to be a mass publicity campaign to announce this new event. Plus I would hope a massive (doubtful) police presence to make everyone conscious of pedestrians’ right to cross, plus I would hope a fine for the hundreds of people who will “jay-walk” anyway as no-one (Thai of farang ) in the 10 plus years I have been here has any regard for red lights or zebra crossings.

5. I hope I am wrong but I think there will be a need to put medical teams on alert for knocked down pedestrians!

In hope,
Mike the Mechanic

What’s to gain?

Editor;

I find it incredibly hard to understand what possible political gain can come from random bombings and killing of innocent bystanders in Thailand. What could they be thinking, “Hey, I know, if we blow up this building and kill these people, then more folks will certainly vote for us, right?” If these bombings are politically motivated, then shame on the leaders that are promoting them. It seems more likely, however, that these are random acts of violence perpetrated by mentally disturbed individuals that are seizing this time of political turmoil to carry out their heinous fantasies. Hopefully law enforcement experts will be able to track them down soon, and prosecute them to the full extent of the law.
Chalarm

Leave my wife alone

Editor;

Re: Tony Crossley’s letter in the Oct 8th Pattaya Mail: It would appear as though Tony Crossley did not understand my comments about the appeal of Pattaya as a typical Thai city by the sea.

Tony believes that Bangkok, which is no different than Los Angeles, New York, London or Berlin, has made “giant strides” in recent years but that Pattaya is yet to be developed. He believes that Pattaya’s only real attraction is the open sex and the ability of an older man to walk with a younger woman without being stared at. I guess it is possible that he is right but I think it is odd that the majority of retired expats choose Pattaya to reside in rather than Bangkok even though Bangkok also has a fairly open sex trade.

When I was twenty two years old I got married for the first time. My wife was a lovely girl and also the most meticulous woman I have ever known about her personal appearance. Her hair, make up and clothes had to be perfect and she wouldn’t even answer a knock on the front door if they weren’t. Additionally it was impossible to get close to her because she would duck if you reached out to touch her hair or shoulder.

Conversely, my present Thai wife is also a lovely girl, but despite her years working in Bangkok, still has the farm girl instinct. Her clothes are whatever she happens to grab from the closet that day and her hair, although clean, is seldom in any sort of order other than in a bun or just hanging down. Makeup is non-existent.

She has an orchid breeding farm just outside of town and works it every day. She always gets a laugh when customers who have not been there before see her and ask her if the owner is around. They do this because she just doesn’t have the look of an owner of a 25,000 plant orchid farm, mini golf course and strawberry farm.

The thing I like about my wife is that she is accessible. You can touch her, run your fingers through her hair and even wrestle with her if you are feeling playful.

It seems that most people from the Western world today want to live in an environment that is pristine, wear nothing but the best clothes, have the most beautiful car and languish in all of this perfection. Or do they just live like that because others have told them that living like that is the goal. I really don’t know, but I do know that there are an awful lot of people seeing psychiatrists or strung out on drugs, prescribed or otherwise, in the Western world. As I understand it, part of the “giant strides” that Bangkok is making include an increase of the number of psychiatrists employed there also. Are you getting my drift Tony?

Expats have chosen Pattaya to live in because you can reach out and touch it without breaking any laws or fearing that you might spoil its perfect appearance. The experience of living in Pattaya is real, not some surrealistic existence contrived by those who have come to believe that things must constantly be changed, not for the purpose of improving them, but rather in the name of “progress”. Cities have become like laundry detergent and diapers; “new and improved”. And the purveyors of all of this “progress” have now found their way to Thailand where they have an entire country to make “new and improved”. You read their letters in the English language newspapers every day.

There is a certain amount of security in knowing that things won’t change. In knowing that every morning when you wake up, the view outside the window will be the same, you will retain the same family and friends and do basically the same things every day that you have always done. That security was sacrificed in the name of progress and the result is that the Western world is slowly economically crumbling, people are becoming neurotic and life is becoming surrealistic. Some of us were lucky enough to visit Thailand and experience a little d้jเ vu. Many of us chose to remain and languish in it for what few years we have remaining. Unfortunately, among those numbers are a lot of people who haven’t figured out why they are here. Consequently they are bringing their foolishness with them and attempting to transplant it and see if it grows. I can only say to them; please stop! The Thais don’t need it and we who have successfully transplanted don’t need it.

Anyway, I’m sorry to be so long winded, but I am a little tired of being sanitized, deodorized, sanforized and homogenized. I’ll leave you to your progress so long as you leave my wife alone.

John Arnone
Yasothon