HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

All hail the new mayor

Deported for removing a towel

Poems of Easter

As Pattaya Grows

All hail the new mayor

Editor;
Congratulations to city hall and our new mayor. He has not even been inaugurated yet and already pearls of wisdom are flowing from that much-maligned establishment!

Pattaya’s engineering chief has given Songkran festivities sensible directives, but I bet our new mayor instigated them!

However, one must remember, as a previous correspondent pointed out, in Thailand, drafting a new law, passing a new law, enforcing a new law and obeying a new law are all completely separate issues and connected in no way to each other.

I know of many many farangs who have already fled Pattaya, dreading the forthcoming silliness as experienced in previous years when everything got completely out of control.

Perhaps if the new measures work they might stay next year!

Even in Bangkok Songkran lasts only 3 days, why longer here?

We might have an even more tangible sign of common sense from our new mayor if he could persuade the powers that be that the “last Wednesday of the month beach closures” starting again in May, should be abandoned on purely common sense grounds.

It’s heartbreaking watching farangs viewing the deserted beaches and asking “Why?”

“Closed for cleaning.”

“But no one is cleaning.”

“Exactly, but it’s policy, so stop whinging and go shopping you stupid farang”.

Think if Niran can pull that one off we should all club together and buy him one of the new Mercedes Maybachs, he will have deserved it!

Thank you, as always, for the delightful Pattaya Mail,
R.W. Jomtien

Deported for removing a towel

Dear Editor,
Ron Simpson’s letter (Mailbag, April 9) draws attention to the unfortunate plight of a British guy who was deported for trying to steal a towel from a Pattaya hotel. Ron identifies neither the Brit nor the hotel, so I won’t do so either in order to respect confidences.

Once a foreigner is convicted of any offence in a Thai court, no matter how seemingly minor, he or she will be deported. What happened in this case is mirrored hundreds of times a year in Pattaya across all nationalities. Another complication is that, once convicted in court, a foreigner is not eligible for bail whilst awaiting deportation. You have to serve out your time in the cells whilst the details of your repatriation are arranged.

In the case to which Ron draws attention, the deportee held a return air ticket to UK with a Middle East based airline which always refuses to accept on board people recently convicted in a Thai court. In other words, the air ticket was useless, but luckily the deportee’s relatives came up with funds to arrange the flight on a different airline.

Following his conviction in Pattaya court, the deportee was quickly transferred to the Soi 8 immigration police holding cells; more quickly than usual. These are airier and less grim than the city police lock up facility in Soi 9. The prisoner in question was not in the best of health, but the immigration police fully cooperated when I asked for a doctor to visit and the guy was allowed to take the prescribed medication. He was also allowed sandwiches, chocolate, fruit and water which I took on a daily basis.

It is true that the police’s first attempt to take the prisoner to the Bangkok immigration detention centre failed because of errors in the official paperwork. The deportee in question was not actually on visa overstay, but he almost was, and this caused the police clearance officials considerable difficulty. This kind of bureaucratic confusion is actually not uncommon. A deportee’s file is several inches thick, a quite amazing sight to behold.

In my personal opinion, the Pattaya immigration authorities went out of their way to make the deportee’s incarceration as bearable as possible. The real point, of course, is that once you get caught up in the Thai court system, expect to be miserable for a while.
Barry Kenyon
(Consular correspondent Pattaya area, British Embassy)

Poems of Easter

Dear Editor,
Thank you so much for remembering our Lord and Savior on this “special day”. Your beautiful poems certainly captured the essence of Christianity and please convey our sincere thanks to the author. The poems were beautiful and very precious to us.

Very Respectfully Yours,
Freeda and Louis Ray
Chonburi

As Pattaya Grows

Some people do not understand
That as Pattaya grows
There has to be some miseries
And residential woes

There are no baht buses where you may live
The telephone line must wait
And the sidewalks that were promised
May be a little late

The sewer pipes are still not complete
The garbage pick-ups are few
And it seems there is little the police
And firemen can do

But everything in this fabulous city takes time
As patient eyes can see
That every goal of a better life
Is reached eventually

And so the happy day will dawn
When farangs new will feel
That after all, Pattaya is
Their castle warm and real.
B. Phillip Webb Jr.

Letters published in the Mailbag of Pattaya Mail
are also on our website.