HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Building code violation

Driving in Thailand

Gates now close at walkway to Dong Tan Beach

Another moan about UBC

The photograph was truly chilling

Turning back the clock

New visa requirements at Royal Thai Consulate in Los Angeles

Pattaya would be nothing without the nightlife

Building code violation

Mr. Veerachai Somchart, Editor, Pattaya Mail;

It has come to my attention that the construction of a new hotel on soi 13, Beach Road, Pattaya is planned for nine (9) stories, which would be in conflict with current building code. It is my understanding that new construction within 200 meters of the beach is limited to four or six stories. This building is between the AA Hotel and Pattaya Beach Condo with construction just beginning. Directly across the street at equal distance from the beach is construction that has been limited to 6 stories.

I believe that such construction, in violation of the height code, would be disastrous in that it would open the entire beach area to construction of new high-rise buildings. This, of course, would increase the population density and associated problems such as auto traffic and parking. I think that this would do tremendous damage to Pattaya as a tourist destination.

Concerned

Driving in Thailand

Dear Pattaya Mail,

I look on in wonder when a dilapidated 1960’s pickup truck filled with coconuts to three times its height is allowed to travel at thirty kilometers per hour on a highway accommodating traffic traveling at up to one hundred twenty kilometers per hour. An accident will happen. When highway workmen who trim bushes in the center median are less than a meter away from the traffic. Someone’s going to get hurt. All I can do is roll my eyes. When obviously mentally disturbed youths on souped-up 125cc motorcycles powered by amphetamines can (sans-helmet) play slalom in traffic and run red lights - it’s obvious they will have short lifespans.

As of just a few days ago I arrived home from my seventh trip ‘upcountry’ via rental car. The fact that I arrived home safe and unscathed still amazes me. If perhaps you have had the pleasure of driving in Thailand you will understand that statement. If you don’t, then you are either a non-driving tourist or are a Thai.

The number of near misses, close calls and absolutely brainless things that happen with the wide variety of vehicles allowed on the roads are astronomical. I remember reading that over the New Year’s holiday that some 600 plus people were killed and thousands more were injured. Those numbers must, from the antics I witnessed, be grossly understated.

This isn’t disgruntled ‘Thai bashing’, but a sober reflection on reality. When a pickup truck stuffed with over a dozen people (all singing and drinking beers) pulls in front of a wobbly lorry piled eight meters high with a cargo of bamboo, and very narrowly misses getting flattened, and it then continues on with no apparent concern on anyone’s part that isn’t a calm ‘mai-pen-lai’ attitude, it’s gross ignorance on everyone’s part.

While perhaps the government actually recognizes there is a ‘problem’ and has decided to institute a penalty points system and supposedly will require motorcycle passengers to also wear helmets, those are merely pretty band-aids on a terminal ill situation. A family of five (no helmets) plus groceries and dog, on their 100cc scooter should be of greater concern than if a car stops in the crosswalk at a red light. But if the police were to be serious about traffic safety, doing so would take up one hundred and ten percent of their time.

Driving education is likely the best solution given that no matter how many times an uneducated driver is penalized, if he doesn’t know how to drive safely he is likely to repeat his actions. Simple instructions such as: don’t drive into oncoming traffic to pass the vehicle ahead of you, don’t drive on the wrong side of the road, when entering traffic from a side road be sure there is ample room between you and the oncoming traffic, and generally definitions of the proper right of way in a variety of traffic situations. Other possible considerations may be, that if one is too drunk to walk, then they are too drunk to drive, the right of way isn’t a divine right for the largest vehicle, and having functioning taillights is a very good idea for night driving.

Perhaps even the King could endorse a non-political “Drive Smart” education campaign aimed at the safety of all his subjects.

Regards,

A concerned driver

Gates now close at walkway to Dong Tan Beach

Dear Sir,

Congratulations on the power that you wield! The gates are now closed from 10.00 till 17.00 and 4-wheeled vehicles can no longer mow us down. However, those inventive motorcyclists have managed to circumvent the obstacle. They now ride into the car park and exit between the flower pots back onto the walkway. Let’s hope your reader(s) in City Hall can supply a few extra pots or slabs of concrete to block that route!

John Davis

Jomtien

Another moan about UBC

Dear Sir:

UBC is the worst! They’re overpriced, they play the same movies over and over again - how many times can we watch Colombo Goes to College and The Chippendale Murders? And now they’ve dropped Turner Classic Movies. For all that money you have to watch censored movies and lately they have even started censoring smoking! Worst of all they wont let you see the commercials, which are informational and often interesting. They make you sit through endless slides of Thai Hotels and Hospitals while they play dreadful music. What they need desperately is some viable competition.

Kevin F. Cleary

Pattaya

The photograph was truly chilling

Hello:

I am a long-term visitor to Pattaya, and now married to a Thai lady and living here year round. I felt I had to write concerning the latest absurd attempt by government to “improve” the environment - the military precision that will be required in the placement of the chairs and tables on Jomtien Beach. Your photograph (08 Feb) is truly chilling; instead of the informality of people having fun in the outdoors it reminds me of a military parade ground. And this rigidity is supposed to entice more visitors? Are they supposed to sit in neat rows in exaggerated postures, smiling only at the proper time?

The way it was when the tide was “allowed” to go out.

Add this to the regulation of the tide by bulldozing sand. When I left for my visit to America last fall, the tide went in and the tide went out. At low tide, wide vistas for walking, people raking for clams, children playing ball. When I got back, the machines had done their work. Now we have high tide and very high tide, the water is never more than a few feet from the front row of chairs, barely leaving a space for two people to walk along the beach side by side.

Of course, I could have predicted what was coming a few months ago when the great minds in government proposed that all night entertainment spots be only allowed on side streets, since then the impressionable youth would not see them and be corrupted. Of course, we know that young people only walk on the main thoroughfares; no youth has ever been seen on a side street. Then after the result of this penetrating study was made public, it was all rescinded a week later, when a NEW map was published showing these dens of iniquity now being allowed only on the main streets.

At least it’s no surprise to see that the same kind of empty suits that pretend to be public servants in America are becoming more abundant here as the years go by in Thailand.

Orin Hood

Turning back the clock

Dear Pattaya Mail;

I read with utter disbelief at the front page article in the Pattaya Mail about the governor of Chonburi and his working parties. While the rest of the world is becoming liberalized it seems the governor of Chonburi wants to turn back the clock in Pattaya. Pattaya is a unique and wonderful place, there is hardly any serious crime, everyone seems happy - not so in many European cities. I say leave the street vendors and prostitutes alone. As for the drug problem, sorry but I wonder how much beer is consumed in Pattaya each night? And international research shows that alcohol is far more deadly than other illegal substances. If you take away the nightlife, you will have no tourists. You will not be able to turn Pattaya into a benidorm, its too long a haul for families. It attracts fun people, both couples and singles who want some excitement.

I am told that Pattaya has the second biggest income for Thailand. Surely trying to clean up? Clean up what exactly? The falangs who contribute so much to the Thai economy? If you take away the fun, excitement, bars and bright lights of Pattaya no one will come here. Surely the governor and his working party can see that these ‘ideas’ are out of touch with reality and amount to political suicide.

If the governor and his working party really want to do something to improve the quality of life for the people of Pattaya, why not start a campaign to clean up the air and clean up Pattaya’s dirty sea? Why not build a treatment plant for sewage? Why not bring in emission testing for vehicles as in Europe? I can hardly breath sometimes the pollution is so bad. Why not enforce crash helmet wearing and save a few lives? Instead of this populist posturing which is so dogmatic it is unbelievable. Pattaya is already suffering from the impact of Sept. 11th, do you really want to lose more tourists/income and destroy a unique and beautiful place?

Anonymous

New visa requirements at Royal Thai Consulate in Los Angeles

Editor;

I recently returned from my annual trip to the U.S. While in the states I tried to re-new my “Non-Immigrant B Visa” for another year of multi-entries. It was always issued in the past (14 years) by me submitting a letter of introduction from my company of employment in the states. As of 04 January 2002, the rules have changed and I was not issued a new “B” visa.

I was told by the consulate they were not happy with the new regulations as the paper work to process a “Non-Immigrant” visa was quite extensive and difficult to obtain from a Thai company.

Arriving without a visa, you will have to show a return ticket with “No Extension”. Arriving with a “Tourist” visa you will not have to show a return ticket, good for 60 days and an extension.

The consulate also told me the regulations are to be changed within the next six months.

I hope this information is of some use to you and your readers.

Best Regards,

Charles Grady

Elliott Field Service Engineer

Pattaya would be nothing without the nightlife

Dear Editor,

I admire Pattaya for wanting to “clean up its image” but I think if it weren’t for Pattaya’s exciting nightlife, it would not have grown to its current size. I have to be honest. Call me what you will, but I would see no reason for traveling half way around the world to Pattaya if it did not have the nightlife it does. There are far prettier (and closer) beachside communities to travel to if it’s merely a pretty locale I’m looking to visit.

Michael Fremgen

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