Pattaya Mail — Letters

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.

Give us your opinion on any subject.

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Letters published in the Mailbag of Pattaya Mail will also be on our website

The Jomtien Chalet's locomotive

Dear Sir,
If you are able to help, and Mr Geoff Wilde who commented on this locomotive in the current issue of Pattaya Mail is agreeable, I would like you to put us in touch with one another. I am, like his father, a former B.R. employee; I retired 18 years ago and my interest in railways has never dimmed. I am sure we would have a lot to talk about.

As to the locomotive at Jomtien Chalets (about 6 km. along the road from the ‘inhabited’ part of Jomtien Beach), I’m afraid that Mr. Wilde has been given some wrong information. The locomotive did not come here in wartime but in 1952; it did not come from Switzerland but from Germany, and was the last steam locomotive to be imported into the Kingdom to work on a public railway. Built by the great locomotive building firm of Henschel at Kassel, then in West Germany, it was one of two of the ‘Pacific’ type for the Meklong Railway which runs from Wongwianyai station in Thonburi; the other similar locomotive is also in poor condition at a holiday resort near Nam Tok station, the present terminus of the notorious Japanese-built railway from Thailand into Burma where it connected up with a section of the Burma Railway system. With the erstwhile Pak Nam Railway this once privately owned line was brought under the control of the State Railway in 1951. The section from Thonburi to Mahachai, on the banks of the Thachin River, was opened first and known as the Thachin Railway; from Ban Laem on the opposite bank to Samut Songkran on the Meklong River gave the combined system the name Meklong Railway. The Thachin River still does not have a railway bridge.

Mr Wilde may already know of the other steam locomotive which may be seen still in the Pattaya area, but other readers may be interested, too. At the Siam Country Club, just off Sukhumvit Highway, is a former main line locomotive from the State Railway, built in Germany by ‘Hanomag’ in 1929, and there are three old wooden passenger coaches there, too. On the other side of the road stands a tiny locomotive built in Stoke on Trent, England in 1915 for the logging lines of the Sriracha-based Srimaharacha Timber Co., and with it stands a small passenger vehicle, which used to take tourists round the forest areas.

In a public park in Sriracha stands another locomotive from the timber company; this also came from Henschel’s works about the same time as the ‘Jomtien’ one and was one of four for the timber company, although four identical locomotives were provided about the same time for the Chonburi Sugar Co., and all still exist.

Of the timber company’s locomotives one of the Henschel type is in the compound of their factory, some 15 km. inland from Sriracha (they have cut down all the trees, and so do something quite different), and their other two of the type are on a scrap dump of old locomotives and rolling stock a short distance from the factory. There are a number of other steam locomotives there and two more in the factory compound.

The sugar company is not known to have owned any other locomotives, but the four that they had have all been bought for preservation: two have gone to England, and the other two to Queensland, Australia.

Slightly further afield, there is a British built locomotive on a plinth outside the State Railways station at Chachoengsao.

If Mr Wilde has not discovered it yet, the D.K. Bookshop in Soi Post Office has a good supply of ‘The Railways of Thailand’ by R. Ramaer; published in Bangkok by White Lotus Ltd., in English, despite this firm being under German management and the author being a Dutchman!

Yours faithfully,
John D. Blyth

Bring a casino to Thailand

Dear Sir,
Hi! Everybody is aware that "Rich Thai guys" go out of the country to gamble in the Casino. Which means they go and throw their money there. Well, some do win and come back.

Due to the downfall of the economy, the government has increased the VAT from 7% to 10% and more other taxes, too. It seems to be that they would prefer sucking our blood rather than opening a casino of their own, so that the people who go out of the country to gamble would stop going. Since next year is the "Amazing Thailand", it would be good for the country to gain the foreign currency because the tourists visiting our country could come and gamble in the casino. The government could run the casino themselves. Therefore, we could bring the economy back to the same stage it was before, or even much better, and we could return the loan taken from IMF much faster.

Yours sincerely,
Goldy

Defending Pattaya against the world press

Dear Editor

A friend of mine has sent me a copy of your newspaper dated 10th October in which a copy of my letter to the Perth (Western Australia) newspaper "The Sunday Times" appeared.

The letter I wrote was in defence of Pattaya after an article appeared (in the Sunday Times) which was titled "Pattaya- More Sin Than Sun". I think it would have been more benefit to your readers had you printed that article as it would have given your readers an insight into the negative publicity your wonderful city receives from our press and no doubt other world news services.

Thailand, and in particular Pattaya, does suffer an insidious reputation mainly because of the prostitution and I have no doubt that a huge number of tourists visit Pattaya for that sole reason of cheap sex.

On my first visit to Pattaya in 1987 (which I won in a competition) I had never heard of the place. However, after that holiday I would tell people that I had been to Pattaya and I would cop some stupid reply such as "Did you get a bit" or "I hope you didn’t get AIDS", comments that made me stay off the subject of Pattaya. To publicly say I have been to Pattaya three times practically puts me into the class of sex fiend or worst a paedophile which I am neither.

Thailand has to weigh up the pro’s and cons of the nation’s sex industry. For example, will tourists visit Thailand if the cheap sex is not available? Perhaps Thailand will attract a better class of tourist if the cheap sex is controlled, and of course if that was to happen what will happen to the sex workers that rely on tourists to live?

What attracts myself and my wife to a holiday destination is "value for money". Thailand is definitely value for money when it comes to airfares, accommodation and shopping.

I would love to see more of my own country but it is so expensive, and that’s why we holiday in Asia. Next we want to be sure that we are going to be relatively safe wherever we go. Our third priority is "Things to do and see". Thailand has that and much more.

As far as Pattaya goes, I think the main priority should be to clean up your water front so it is safe to swim in the Ocean, then get a "Throw away the key" reputation on paedophiles who prey on your children and violent criminals who hurt tourists. (Perth is no longer a safe place because our weak government and "do gooder judges" that will not hand out appropriate sentences to the thugs that control our streets).

Last week my family and I returned from a 10 day holiday in Bali. This place is where you are losing the Australia Tourist dollars. The young people love it with its abundance of "Night Clubs", good beaches, and Bali holiday packages are so cheap, as is the food and shopping.

Finally, I enjoyed your newspaper. I read the Bangkok Post on the Web. I will now bookmark the Pattaya Mail. Good luck and try to keep those politicians from ruining what you have

Robert McNab

Yangebup,
Western Australia

Missing mail

Dear Sir,
I’m a regular reader of your weekly newspaper and truly "Amazed" that, in your mailbag, nobody ever complains about the sadly amazing postal system of Thailand. Coming from Europe and having been living here for the last 6 months, at the same address, I have noticed that many letters sent to me from abroad by friends and relatives never reached my place. And I have heard of other people here with the same problem. That’s very annoying. It seems that the letters from Thailand to Europe (at least) reach their destination. Then, what happens to the incoming mail? Could anybody start an inquiry (somebody from the Pattaya Mail, for instance!).

Hoping for an answer, I remain faithfully yours.
Raymond