HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Deported for borrowing a towel without permission

Sick and tired of all the rubbish

A challenge to bar owners

Dual pricing web site

Beware when buying dogs in Thailand

Dial M for phone lines with multiple personality disorder

The will to live

Deported for borrowing a towel without permission

Dear Sir,
A friend of mine who has visited Thailand a few times, retired in England and decided to take a three month break here, with a view of coming to stay permanently.

He stayed in an apartment, but enjoyed using the pool a local hotel, foolishly using their towels. He told me he would take it back to his room, wash it and use it again the next time he went.

He was due to return to the UK on Saturday, but on the Tuesday, was stopped leaving the hotel with a towel in his possession. The police were called. They tried to resolve the situation by suggesting he pay for the towel, and pay some compensation. The hotel would not hear of it and insisted it went to the courts.

He was arrested, placed in handcuffs and taken to the police station, where he was kept overnight, before going to court in Jomtien the following day. He pleaded guilty and was duly fined. As is the law in Thailand, any foreigner committing an offence in this land, he was to be deported.

He was then taken to immigration on Soi Eight to await deportation, being kept in a very small cell with thirty more detainees. He was not permitted to return to his room to pack. Something I had to do for him.

On the Friday, he was taken to Bangkok to spend a night before catching his flight home, but on arriving there, was told his paperwork was not in order. He was returned to Soi Eight immediately, missing his flight. He was kept in cells again, being treated like a criminal, till Tuesday, when he was taken to Bangkok again.

That was the last time I saw him, thinking he would email me when he got home. Not hearing from him, I contacted another friend in the UK, who had been in touch with his sister. The home office had been in touch and said he would be home on the seventh of April. He has been in custody all this time, having paid his due for taking a towel. Some justice!
Ron Simpson

Sick and tired of all the rubbish

Dear Editor;
The council land in Banglamung near Soi Nhong Yai where it crosses the railway line is becoming a huge problem for residents due to the illegal dumping of refuse. The trend is continually getting worse as more and more people are dumping rubbish all along this area. The heat is accentuating the problem as the smell from rotting garbage is becoming unbearable.

Vast armies of flies converge on the area and make it impossible for homeowners to have their doors open due to the smell and the flies. The worse it gets the more likelihood of disease being spread as the problem becomes increasingly larger.

One resident told us last week of now having instances of large snakes being attracted to the area because of all the rotten meat and food that is being dumped here.

The council needs to do something about this urgently before there is a real tragedy in the area.
Gill Chrystina Dalton

A challenge to bar owners

Editor;
I challenge bar owners to tend to their customers’ neglected musical preferences. The busiest bars invariably do it with music and reasonable beer prices. “We are the world bar” knows its clientele is older, and don’t want to hear newer i.e. worse/bad music. The live music venues are invariably better patronized, especially Thai bands with a pretty lady singer. Why must we accept the mediocrity of the DJ? How difficult is it to pop in a CD of the Eagles greatest hits? They think they are artists or something. I don’t advocate sacking them, but owners must care what they play. It is smart business when customers are happy.
Gregory Kosinski

Dual pricing web site

Dear Mailbag,
Please alert your readers that there is finally an internet website devoted to the listing of organizations in Thailand (and even abroad) that adhere to the policy of dual pricing, which is “the practice of charging more for goods and services than the price offered to a Thai on the basis of race, nationality or immigration status.” Readers may wish to check this website particularly before going to any Thai tourist attractions. All are welcome to add to the list the names of any businesses that practice dual pricing but are not yet listed. The web address is: http://www.fairprice-thailand.org
Diderot

Beware when buying dogs in Thailand

Dear Editor;
I write this as a warning to the uninformed. I was told, early in our assignment here and after having read the warnings, that investing in a pet in Thailand was an extremely risky business. There are very many unscrupulous people who sell puppies, among other animals, and long before they should be weaned from their mothers.

I did not heed the warnings of sickly animals, countless trips to the vet and in the worst cases death. We invested in a half Pug/half Shar Pei, sold to us by a “puppy farm” (read this as “puppy mill”) near Rayong. The only way to describe the breeders is to say that they are liars, thieves and dishonest to a shocking degree. We were firstly told that our “Sharpi” was 100% Pug. Her mother certainly was, for we saw her with her litter. When we asked to see the father, we were told the key to the kennels could not be found, so we stood outside a barn-like structure and listened to a multitude of caged dogs (all part of the “puppy mill”) barking at the top of their voices.

However, the breeders continued to refuse to allow us to see the father, due to the “lost key”. The sire was a Shar Pei and was not a Pug, as we had been told. The puppies were being “sold off” at such an early age that it was impossible to determine the breeding of our now much loved dog.

After one month, our veterinarian was able to say that indeed we had a Shar Pei. (We had been charged a fairly exorbitant price for a full-blooded Pug.)

As I have pointed out, we love our Shar Pei very much. What we did not appreciate was having been lied to and cheated (money wise). The plot has now thickened. Our veterinarian tells us that our Shar Pei has a dangerous disease called Demodex - something that is very hard to cure and can be fatal. We are providing, and will continue to provide, our dog with the best of care and attention and good medical treatment, while we pray that she recovers. We cannot be certain that this disease will not reoccur until she has been “clean” of it for two years. She is only four months old, so we have a long time to wait.

We were also told, again by our reputable and highly competent veterinarian, that our dog came from the breeder with this condition, probably contracted from her mother during the early days of life. I write this to warn others not to buy a puppy from Rayong and not to buy from the market in Bangkok. Seek out a good veterinarian and ask to be referred to a reputable breeder. This is the only wise way to approach pet ownership.

Note: As I was leaving our veterinarian’s office yesterday, I met a friend from Rayong who was in tears. She and her husband had bought a puppy from the market in Bangkok. He was extremely young, but was being given only the best of care, as we, too, have provided for our dog. My friend’s dog died of heart failure during the weekend, while only a very young puppy. I am not a veterinarian, so I can only guess that the mother had been overly bred and when this happens, puppies tend to be very weak and unhealthy. Add to this equation the quick selling of a liter (weeks before they should be weaned and taken from their mother) and the situation can be highly unpleasant for both dog and owner.

A good dog in Thailand is a money maker. Over breeding is a problem. Early weaning is another problem. Buying from anyone not highly recommended by a highly reputable veterinarian can lead to a heart breaking and costly experience.
Sincerely,
Bonnie S. Oliver

Dial M for phone lines with multiple personality disorder

Dear Editor,
What is happening to our telephone system in the Banglamung district? Why is it so unreliable? Some of the TOT lines are so unpredictable I lack words and space to list all the quirks. Although TT&T lines and service are better, they are more expensive to use and they have technical problems as well. Many areas in the district are queuing for lines with both companies. I have lines from firms so I speak from experience.

Either we are going through a period of “darkest before the dawn” - which would mean extensive improvements are going on but the companies feel they owe no explanation to their customers because they have good intentions, or we are experiencing a serious decline due to overload, old equipment, poorly trained technicians (modern telecommunication trouble-shooting is very complicated, even in very advanced countries), which would mean that the problems will get worse, not better.

I have few complaints about my Loxley Internet server; however, their Pattaya and Rayong telephone numbers (TOT) have been a headache for months now. I called their technical support office in Bangkok and their technicians assured me that every line in Pattaya, including the one TT&T number they gave me, was in perfect working order and that it must be my modem.

There is a way I can check this myself. All I have to do is take my fixed line telephone and plug it into my wall-jack and dial all the numbers. If I get the FAX-signal sound, that means Loxley’s telephone lines are in working order and the problem is at my end. If I get a different response, engaged, no answer, a dead connection, or whatever, that means it is not my modem but the telephone number I am dialing. My end is okay.

To double-check I spent the money on out-station phone calls, called many Loxley numbers in different provinces and some in Bangkok. They work. The local TT&T Loxley number (to the best of my knowledge) has never answered at all!

For weeks now, I have not been able to connect at all around 5 p.m., or if I do get through the Kbps input is so low I cannot connect to the Internet, although with the fix line instrument I can call a friend and speak. Some of your readers must be experiencing the same problems. Surely I cannot be the only one in the area whose telephones are suffering from ‘multiple personality disorder’.

C. S.

P.S. To send this letter to you via email, I made 22 dialing attempts before I finally got online.

The will to live

Editor,
As a doctor, I whole-heartily agree with the poem “The Will To Live”. I have seen on numerous occasions, exactly the opposite of a person wanting to live.

Congratulations to the author of that poem.
Yours truly,
Lisa McGibbons, MD

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