Dear Editor,

On behalf of all expats living in the Pattaya area I would like to congratulate The Pattaya Mail for having the foresight to run the “Coins of the Realm” feature each week.

This allows us all to benefit from the quite incredible and wonderful knowledge of the world famous president Jan Olav Aamlid on a subject of such tremendous interest to almost everyone.

Many of your readers will have been simply amazed that he was able to buy the gold medallion of Constantius I Chlorus for a mere U.S.$ 300,000, such a bargain, many of us would happily pay more (Pattaya Mail May 26th)

Real congratulations to President Jan, surely everyone in Pattaya is almost as full of admiration for you, as you are for yourself.

Thanks again to the Mail.

Yours truly,

Urs

If I may be so bold and to introduce myself to all you avid readers, My name is Soo-pahp sa-dtree Ethel. I have been residing here in this gorgeous little town since 1965 when it was a tranquil, if lost, fishing hamlet. My husband Nai Basil discovered Pattaya when we were being escorted by some devilish friends of ours who worked along side him in Wireless Road. What a wondrous place Pattaya Bay was then. Little men in their fishing boats happily smiling and working, oh so hard. Little scallywags scampering about in the ebb and flow. My maid Ying Rup Chai Mabel often sits slowly shaking her head as she remembers those clean water days. And then of course came those lovely young G.I.s on holiday from those tunnel digging liberation armies in Vietnam. We all felt so sorry for them and their chocolate and Lucky Strikes. In fact my husband would often, when time allowed, invite a few of these young lads around to sit on our porch and watch the sun go down with the happy fisher folk milling aimlessly around us. It was such a happy time that we, Ying Rup Chai Mabel and I would even invite them when Nai Basil was busy in Wireless Road. Such gleeful awakenings when we saw them stretched out on our veranda as the early morning sun cast shadows over a spotless beach.

Of course we decided it was better for overworked Nia Basil not to know these things. And so I finish with the hope that the big man in Pattaya Mail Office will let me muse a little more over the coming weeks about those days of long ago. That reminds me. I hope my driver has cleaned up the pizza I spilt last night. May all that you wish come true.

Dear Editor,

Thank you for publishing Regine’s letter about the bus station “Short change”. It is not only happening to Regine every time she comes back to Thailand. I live here permanently now, and I quite often take the bus to Bangkok to visit my relatives. Being conscious about the “small money”, I always count my change, and about nine out of ten times has it happened to me. Maybe I look like an easy touch. When the cashier sees me counting the change, they are quick to say “Solly madam”, and make up the difference.

I wonder how many farangs gets “ripped off”, because most of them like my husband, they don’t’ really count their change.

If the cashiers have problem counting, I suggest they be replaced with someone that can, because the bus service is excellent and most of the drivers are very friendly.

Yours

Dear Sir,

Although I offered an alternative view point I agree with ‘Ben’ that the accused should be found guilty first. However everyone that I know with direct experience of Thailand including Pattaya believes they are safer there than most countries including the USA. I wouldn’t call Beach Road dangerous, unless it was full of groups of male servicemen swearing and treating everyone with contempt. I have been there when US service men have done exactly that. I have also been there when Russian sailors were there (mostly in uniform and admittedly in far fewer numbers) without any problems at all. It may be that we didn’t understand their swearing and comments, but the atmosphere was not the same.

Nick Fisher is spot on. Why have they no respect for others or themselves. Do they understand the impression they give of their country to others? I know with such large numbers there will always be some that let the side down, but in the case of the Pattaya incident, if justice was done, it was not seen to be done.

UK

Sir,

What is wrong with the youth of today?

A brisk stroll around the town last night revealed to me that most of the young ladies in this city seem to spend all their time hanging around in bars and public houses. My blessed wife, God rest her soul, would never have done such a thing, being far too busy preparing jam and pickles for the Womens’ Institute or organising the flowers for the Sunday service. Let your young ladies hang around in bars and soon they will have boyfriends on motorcycles and we all know where that leads. I remain your obedient servant, Major C. Petard

I notice Mr. Fisher mentioned that 10,000 sailors converged on Pattaya, and had it not been for the 4 letter word, they would have been speechless. Here is another example of prejudice, generalization and using the proverbial “broad-brush” to paint a group with the same color of baseness. I doubt if Mr. Fisher spoke or heard all 10,000 speak the 4 letter word(s) in question. It makes as much sense as my saying that all people named Fisher are ignorant, biased, louts.

Editor,

I was recently looking through pictures of when I lived in Pattaya. One picture brought thoughts of terror to my eyes after the recent elephant attack. The photo was taken at the same show and my daughter was scared as I wanted her to pet the giant beast just inches away. Wow, how we take are lives for granted at times. After viewing that picture I could only think of how that elephant could have charged my daughter and I that day. Pattaya lets everyone get to lax on safety. I’m saddened that it took this young lady’s life to make me realize how lax safety is in Pattaya. Elephants shouldn’t be running around freely among unsuspecting people. Stop this now, it should never happen again!

Kearney, Nebraska, USA