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Songkran better left
to the Thais
Dear Editor,
Songkran and the associated Pattaya Festival are really
Thai holidays and my suggestion to all farangs, resident or visitor, is to
leave it to them.
Last year I was advised to stock up on food, drink and
videos and just ride out the 5 days of water assaults. Except that Thais
are not much on clocks and calendars so the water dousing began on the
Saturday before the “festival”, ran through the 5 days of the
festival, through the following weekend and then for the two days of
Songkran. A total of 11 days of water assaults.
On the 8th day, suffering from cabin fever, I decided
to chance waiting until almost dark to visit a favorite restaurant on
Jomtien Hill. I did, and the baht bus driver was quite good in avoiding
attacks by having a side curtain down and adjusting speeds and making lane
changes to avoid wet spots in the road. Within walking distance of the
restaurant, however, he had to stop for traffic and a hose was stuck in
the back. So much for an enjoyable dinner. With drenched clothes I
couldn’t risk sitting in air conditioning, so had to eat outside with
the mosquitoes.
Perhaps I should have known better as just the morning
before, on my way from my home to Bangkok-Pattaya Hospital (a direction
away from the “fun zone”) for an 0800 doctor appointment I was
assaulted twice so that when I arrived I was soaking wet and covered with
white. I noticed that none of the Thai patients had that problem. The
hospital being a center for intelligent Thai life the staff actually
seemed embarrassed that a patient would have to endure such treatment at
that early an hour.
After dinner we rode back home almost the full length
of Second Road, from Pattaya Tai to Soi 2. I noticed that although all
those beer bars had plenty of girls, at least 75% of them had no customers
at all. The ones that did had only a handful. I was silently wondering how
the owners and other tourist related businesses were enjoying the
“festival” when my Thai girlfriend pointed and said, “look, no
customers”.
Safety is not a concern either. What great fun it is to
shoot a motorcyclist in the face, or with a stream strong enough to cause
him to swerve. Or to white out a car windscreen so that the driver would
have little chance of seeing a child playfully running into the street.
Then there are the real “sickies”, many of whom are
farangs themselves, who think it is great fun to douse people with iced
water. That isn’t done in the spirit of having fun, not to mention the
health risk to the person who now is wearing cold, wet clothes on a hot
day. Think I’m kidding? Ask your doctor about the number of respiratory
cases he handles in the days after Songkran.
So I wish all my Thai friends and neighbors all the
enjoyment that Pattaya can be for the holiday festival. But I will be
spending my time, and money, in Cambodia.
Rich Mathews
Pattaya
For the sake of a
few baht
Sir,
I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t let him get away
with it! I’m annoyed and irritated at Mr. Mario and the account of his
“most disturbing experience” in Thailand.
C’mon, Mario, what’s your problem? To enter a
tourist attraction you were charged 3 times the amount local people are
charged. You poor thing! Considering you earn probably 20 times the local
salary (and some), I’d say you got a bargain. With your attitude I’d
have charged you much more.
A cursory glance at any guidebook would have prepared
you for this phenomenon, which, incidentally, is by no means unique to
Thailand. In Thailand most people have low incomes. In the West,
pensioners, students and others on low income usually get special rates on
transport, cinema tickets, etc.
Would a Thai visitor to these countries complain of
discrimination? Or course not. Yes, Mario, Thailand can be corrupt. It’s
an accepted fact of Thai life. A fact also accepted by the thousands of
foreigners who have chosen to settle in Thailand.
You, Mr. Mario, are just a visitor and allowing such an
insignificant event to mar your holiday is more a reflection on your own
intolerance and lack of understanding and experience rather than a
constructive criticism of Thai culture.
Your letter smacks of hurt pride and your flippant use
of terms such as “Apartheid” and “White Face” would be comical if
they weren’t so insulting. As a regular visitor to Thailand I have no
qualms concerning the two tier system or any other of the “corrupt”
practices. I’ve had a bad experience or two, but so what!
Mario omits to say whether he otherwise enjoyed his
stay in Thailand. Let’s hope so. It would be sad if his holiday was
ruined for the sake of a few baht.
From a loyal reader,
Richard White, London
Some beer served on
election day
Dear Sir,
I have just returned to England from a very pleasant
holiday in Pattaya. Whilst there I read with interest a letter in your
paper entitled “No Tourists, No Pattaya” sent in by LCR. Knowing the
establishment very well but not being the “valued and registered
guest” mentioned in the letter, I thought I would write to you, to
recount my experiences during the election last week.
I was told by LCR that he would be unable to serve any
alcoholic refreshment to me during the period of the election. I also read
the articles on the front page of your paper quoting the Election laws of
municipalities B.E. 2482 and amended B.E. 2523 sections 12 and 76.
On the Friday evening at approximately 19:40 hrs I was
able to buy a glass of beer in my hotel, a 5 star hotel in South Pattaya,
without any problem at all. When I questioned this I was given the
impression that the restriction on the sale of a alcohol did not apply to
them. I had dinner at LCR’s refreshment during the election time. After
dinner I went for a walk around ‘the strip’ and also down Walking
Street. Within 100 yards of the strip and also within sight of the small
sub police office I saw two bars serving beer to customers and down
walking street it was also possible to get beer, etc. The following
morning, the very day of the election, beer and other alcoholic
refreshment was freely available for sale on Jomtien Beach. I again asked
how this was possible and was told the law did not apply to serving beer
to tourists and we had come for a holiday to Thailand.
As you can imagine this whole experience left me very
confused indeed and to misquote Shakespeare it would appear that “it is
a (Law) more honored in the breach that the observance.”
Yours faithfully,
PIS
Editor’s reply: We can only say that the
establishments you observed selling alcoholic beverages the night before
and on election day took a big risk and were lucky indeed to escape
prosecution, as at least 35 other establishments were closed; the owners,
when available, were arrested, when they weren’t, the servers were. As
silly as it may seem to tourists who have no rights to vote in local
elections, the law is still the law - those who choose to ignore it do so
at their own risk and face possible arrest, fines of up to 10,000 baht and
up to 10 years in jail. To bastardize a modern cliche, if you don’t mind
doing the time, by all means do the crime, but if you can’t do the time,
don’t do the crime.
Inequitable helmet
law treatment
Dear Sir,
As a regular visitor to Pattaya I get more and more
annoyed about the rules prevailing for the use of helmets while driving a
motorbike. This is a sheer alibi exercise for he following:
a) few of the helmets really fit the drivers’ head,
specially not when the bike is hired by a tourist
b) helmets must not be worn closed around ones chin
c) helmets are mostly of poor quality that would never
serve the purpose in case of a crash
d) back-seat passengers must not wear a protection at
all
In other countries where helmets must be worn for
(good) safety reasons, police enforce the respective laws because this
protection is for the sake of the driver itself - and the passenger. In
Pattaya, where Traffic Police have a special eye on farangs, the law seems
only to serve to improve the police department’s revenues. The funniest
and most incredible thing is, however, the fact that policemen themselves
do not use their helmets properly to provide a good example and there is
seemingly a class of higher ranked officials who are allowed to run their
motorbikes without a helmet at all. Is this the proof that the brains of
this category of civil servants are not worth being protected, or that
there is nothing to be protected at all? Or does it belong to the fringe
benefits that higher ranked servants are spared this kind of exercise? If
so why can Pattaya Police not close an eye in case a farang in renouncing
this kind of useless protection? It would only be of profit to tourism -
the only trade Pattaya is living off.
Heinz Herzog
The so-called
Pattaya Festival
Editor;
Remembering the outcry from many visitors to Pattaya
around Songkran last year, which filled your Mailbag page for more
than one issue, it is to be regretted that the Wooden Heads in City Hall
have decided to ignore what was said, and plan a repetition for this year.
They have ‘decided’ to move the Songkran ‘water
throwing’ from its traditional day to the 18th and
19th, with a sublime disregard for the history and
long established customs elsewhere in the Kingdom. They pretend that
during the so-called Festival itself there will be orderly entertainment,
everyone will be so enthralled with the competitions, parades, and
what-have-you that there will be no water thrown during that period.
Wake up! Get out your file of back numbers of Pattaya
Mail and read what was written in form of bitter complaints last year.
How many people do what long time resident is now constrained to do, to
get out of Pattaya for a week and stay somewhere a little more civilized?
How many visitors, not expecting this week-long outburst of legalized
hooliganism, cut their stay and willed themselves never again to set foot
in Pattaya as long as they live?
I already have my reservations for the train to a
distant place, leaving on the 12th, and returning on
the 20th. I am sure not alone.
The new City Council, pictured on one of your front
pages, still has time to reverse the announced decisions, and go back to
reason and decency.
Yours faithfully,
‘6867’
Re: A most
disturbing experience
Editor,
In response to Mr. Fourrier’s attack on the
‘Apartheid’ that takes place in Pattaya and all around Thailand
according to him, I would like to make a few basic and elementary points.
Firstly, I’m delighted for him that he is able to afford a pleasure trip
all around the world where he can visit every city in the world with his
family. I don’t think there are very many native Thai families that
would be able to afford similar.
Secondly, as the price of a cab ride in Thailand is
approximately one twentieth the price of one for the exact same distance
in Zurich, my heart goes out to the poor Mr. Fourrier (no pun intended)
who thought he’d been robbed in Thailand by them dastardly taxi drivers.
Thirdly, it IS plain to see that difference in culture Mr. Fourrier talks
about between Thailand and Switzerland, especially through the amount of
honesty both countries have shown to foreigners. But, one begs to ask the
question: how did Switzerland become one of the wealthiest countries in
the world? I suppose it’s through that honesty and good will in the
past! One could make the assumption that one Swiss smile is worth a
thousand Thai smiles.
I also resent Mr. Fourrier’s inference that the
welcome one receives in Switzerland is the same as that one receives
around the rest of Europe. I know from experience he is gravely mistaken
in his generalization.
Yours Sincerely,
Karl Guiney, Sydney,
Australia
Copyright 2000 Pattaya Mail Publishing Co.Ltd.
370/7-8 Pattaya Second Road, Pattaya City, Chonburi 20260, Thailand
Tel.66-38 411 240-1, 413 240-1, Fax:66-38 427 596; e-mail: [email protected]
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