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Jet ski vendors at it again
Dear Editor.
I have been reading Pattaya Mail for 12 years now
and this is the first letter that I have felt the need to write in order to
bring to the attention of everyone, an outright scam that takes place
everyday on Pattaya Beach.
The scam is engineered by some jet ski operators,
particularly in front of Mike Shopping Mall.
The scam works like this: A tourist will hire a jet ski
for half an hour or so, returns the jet ski to the people hiring them out.
These people, who form a group, then point out that the jet ski has been
damaged. The damage is already existing and now the scam is pulled.
The tourist will obviously try to argue their case that
they have not damaged the equipment not knowing if they have or not. Things
turn for the worse now as more of the scam artists appear and intimidate the
tourist. I have personally seen a jet ski operator physically attack a
tourist who was not having anything to do with their daylight robbery.
Whilst a fee is being negotiated, a tourist police
officer will turn up. It seems to be the same officer that attends the scam.
He also enters into the negotiation and the tourist, who is in a foreign
country after all, feels that they have no choice other than to pay up.
It is very obvious that this particular policeman is in
on the scam; this is very concerning. As I believe, the police force is more
of a business than a service, but to target tourists is very shameful.
Further details of the scam can be followed on Thai Visa Forum through this
link.
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/410151-jet-ski-scam-out-of-control-tourists-have-no-hope-of-being-
treated-fairly/
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsPuoaktoAw& feature=player_embedded
Yours disgusted,
Chris Hull
Ed’s Note: As sad as it is, the best solution for
the time being is to warn all tourists: do not rent jet skis. Aside
from the well documented scams, they are dangerous to both rider and anyone
happening to be swimming in the area. One wonders how many more deaths need
to be recorded, and tourists fleeced before City Hall passes an ordinance to
ban them from the beaches here.
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Switch the lights off
Editor;
The two roads alongside the railway line have been built
to improve the flow of traffic; unfortunately not much thought has been
given to the problems that are encountered by several busy roads crossing
these roads. When the traffic lights were in operation, it very quickly
became apparent that the chaos caused by these lights reached an
unacceptable level. To alleviate the problem the lights were switch off and
low and behold the traffic started flowing again - not a great solution, but
it worked.
To improve this situation, probably to avoid accidents
which have occurred, the lights have been reintroduced - now there is
complete chaos. The traffic doesn’t flow, there are very long cues caused by
a totally impossible sequence of light changes, and now motorists are taking
the law into their own hands and starting to cross on red (a recipe for
accidents).
As a law abiding citizen I do not approve of this action,
but I must say the patience of motorists is stretched to the limit by a
light sequence which makes no sense at all. This morning I was travelling
300m on Soi Toonklon-Talman towards the crossing of the two roads; this
momentous journey lasted 5 minutes, and all commuters travelling into town
had to wait 3 minutes for the light to turn green, for 15 a second duration.
Conclusion: Take the easy way out and switch the lights
off, or use experts studying the situation on site and come up with
acceptable sequences of light changes.
Hans Steiner
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Pedestrian traffic lights a step in the right direction
Editor;
Having written on the need for traffic lights to allow
for the safe crossing of roads in Pattaya several times over the years I was
actually very pleased to see on my latest visit that finally something had
been done. The response to the latest death may be viewed as a bit over the
top (possibly part of the problem) but despite some of the negative views
expressed in the Pattaya Mail this has to a step in the right
direction.
For as long as many people get away with driving through
the red lights it will continue and even increase. I have to admit given the
standard of driving in Thailand it would often be safer for the motorcyclist
to keep moving rather than stop in the middle of 2nd Road and hope the
vehicle behind decides to stop as well.
As usual the solution is quite simple. Get a couple of
roving officers in plain clothes and give them the job of dishing out fines
to anyone (not only farangs please) who goes through a red light. Let the
police keep all the money as their incentive. And while they are at it lets
have the fine fixed at THB 2000 if paid on the spot or THB 5000 if they have
to go to the police station. After all Thailand has suffered inflation over
the years and the fines have not reflected this.
I suppose they would need another couple of plain clothes
bodyguards to protect the police holding all the money they would raise. But
just see how quickly people would start respecting the laws of Thailand
then.
Scottish George
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A hard rain gonna fall…
Editor;
(Above) is a photo of the spectacular storm last
Tuesday (Nov. 16). I am visiting in Pattaya. I am a storm chaser and
like to keep an eye on the dramatic and beautiful skies. This was the
best weather in weeks.
I went up on Pattaya Park tower to see the storm
arrive. It almost produced a waterspout tornado. It did produce a brief
funnel cloud (without ground contact).
To see a video, go to http://www.youtube.com/klipsigeneva
Best Regards,
Olivier Staiger
www.klipsi.com
www.extremetornadotours.com
“Britons have never
had it so good!”
Dear Sir,
The above words, obviously stolen from Harold
Macmillan I would add, were uttered by Lord Young, a government advisor,
in the UK’s Daily Telegraph last Friday.
He was making the point that many UK citizens had
experienced a ‘good’ recession, with heavily reduced mortgages because
of low interest rates, rock bottom prices in the shops and thousands of
jobs being created in the export manufacturing arena due to a weak
pound.
When I made this very same point some weeks ago in
your newspaper, pointing out that the scenario for UK citizens in
Thailand was exactly the reverse, whereby interest on savings was
virtually nil and incomes in sterling had fallen by 30%, I was crticised
as some form of whinging expat.
Maybe the government knows more than your
correspondent about the realities. I doubt many UK citizens in Pattaya
have had a ‘good’ recession, not to mention the frozen pension issue
that has been heavily debated in your columns.
Mind you, there’s always a royal wedding to cheer us
all up, if you believe the UK newspapers.
Yours sincerely
DW
Nongprue
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Caution beachgoers
Editor;
I’d like to warn all beachgoers to be careful when
walking on the beach. If this year is anything like the previous Loy
Krathong, you might expect to see leafs and other things from the
krathongs that are drifting back to the shoreline. Many have rusty
nails, pins and staples in them, so be careful not to step on them. You
might be thinking you’re stepping on a leaf only to find that you’ve
just punctured your foot with a rusty nail, pin or staple. We remove as
many as we can, but many keep drifting to the shore throughout the week.
Please be aware of where your feet are while on the
beach and warn your children.
Thank You,
The Pollution Solution Group
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