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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.


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


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


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


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


HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]

Jet ski vendors at it again

Switch the lights off

Pedestrian traffic lights a step in the right direction

A hard rain gonna fall…

“Britons have never had it so good!”

Caution beachgoers


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

It is noticed that the letters herein in no way reflect the opinions of the editor or writers for Pattaya Mail, but are unsolicited letters from our readers, expressing their own opinions. No anonymous letters or those without genuine addresses are printed, and, whilst we do not object to the use of a nom de plume, preference will be given to those signed.

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