HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Nothing has changed

Confused about junk 140 feet under

Big Mango is better place to start a career than Fun City

John takes another good shot

Give Sonia Gandhi a chance

Questions about baht buses and the free bus in Pattaya

Congratulations Arsenal

Pattaya, A Friendly Town

Nothing has changed

Dear Editor;

I have been travelling to the Kingdom since 1986 and I would like to say that nothing has improved. Pattaya looks like a building site; the pavements are a danger to anybody who walks on them.

I think Thai people are race-biased against foreigners. I hate the double standard the baht bus drivers have for foreigners.

I only hope Thailand one day gets its act together otherwise the foreigner will go elsewhere and Thailand will become a third world country again.

Don’t say you have not been warned.
Mr B Hudson
Liverpool England

Confused about junk 140 feet under

Greetings,

I just completed reading your weekly on-line newspaper, having been a visitor to Pattaya, and I always enjoy reading about the “happenings” in your fair city.

I found the story about the discovery of the 400 year old junk of particular interest, but I was left with some important questions. The story stated that pottery was found some 140 feet under the seabed. At what depth under water are the marine archaeologists working? As a sport diver of many years, I would be interested to learn how the divers excavated 140 feet into the ocean floor, how big a hole (diameter) they have dug and the type of equipment employed to locate small, delicate pottery under 140 feet of ocean mud and debris.

I was also alarmed after calculating that the amount of annual sediment at the dive site, dozens of miles out in the open ocean, to be .35 feet per year (140 feet of ocean sediment, divided by 400 years, equals .35 feet per year). This amount of sediment, .35 feet per year, is extremely high, only at the mouth of a river (where a river joins an ocean) would such an amount of sediment be expected, and then only rarely as such sediment would be whisked away by ocean currents and wave action, leaving the sediment to be deposited as sand on near by beaches.

I hope my inquiry will not be too much of an inconvenience, but your article has stated at least a couple of things that make the story difficult to believe, but I am keeping an open mind and I am always willing to learn something new.

Kindest regards,
Johnny Wells

P.S. How soon is the annual Water Buffalo Festival in Chonburi? I really enjoyed your coverage of this event last year.

Editor replies: This story was picked up from one of the local wire services, and we can surmise that it was a typo – more likely it should have read “under the surface”. We hope this helps you better understand the story. PS – The annual Chonburi Buffalo Races are held on the 14th full moon night of the 11th lunar month – usually in October or November.

Big Mango is better place to start a career than Fun City

Dear Editor,

I am actually residing in Bangkok. I have a lot of opportunities to travel to Pattaya City frequently. Having learnt local people’s way of life, I have come to find that the place seems to be unique in comparison to Bangkok in terms of its outlay. In Pattaya, the basic salary for fresh graduates including other inexperienced employees, focusing on educated-group workers, is unofficially fixed between 5,000 to 6,000 baht at start; meanwhile, they have to spend approximately 2,000 or 3,000 baht per month for their semi-furnished accommodations, limited amount of facilities, and various kinds of unavoidable foods. By now, I assume that you can calculate logically and easily that the imbalance of the matter can cause Thai workforces there to shoulder a tremendous burden of payment.

In contrast, Bangkok, the highly competitive capital city, offers its preliminary salary comparing in the same conditions to Pattaya at around 7,000 to 8,500 baht monthly at the moment; whilst those people consume the identical rate of expenses compared to Pattaya. Moreover, in the metropolis, I can find more reasonable cost of accommodation with entire essential requirements, affordable facilities, proper transportations, and inexpensive foods.

Wanitcha Sumanat

John takes another good shot

Editor;
Thanks for printing my lightning shot a few issues ago. Here is a shot taken May 16, 5:30 p.m. of a rainbow with the Pattaya Park Tower.

All the best,
John Cox

Give Sonia Gandhi a chance

Dear Sir,

In regards to the hype over the election victory of Sonia Gandhi and her candidacy to become the next ‘foreign born’ prime minister of India let me say that a lot of people (including Indians) don’t realise that India has been a melting pot of people of all races, creed and colour throughout the thousands of years of her history.

What does an Indian look like? Just look at them closely. You’ll see that they are not all the same. Light skinned to very dark skinned. Same with the hair colour, blond-blue-eyed to black and dark eyed, to the varying facial features and especially the various religions.

Wanderers from the old world such as the Greeks, Jews, Egyptians, Persians, Mongolian and even Italians have made India their home over the centuries. Goa was Portuguese and still maintains very much their culture and lifestyle. This is most obvious in their family names.

I think, it might do some good to have a ‘foreign born’ prime minister. The Indians want to be part of the global family and enjoy the ‘Angrezee’ life style of the ‘sahibs’. This is their chance to do it. A little more discipline and a bit of western style thinking will do us a world of good.

I see and hear so many negative comments about Sonia Gandhi being Italian that it makes me sick. This gentle woman has dedicated her whole life and the future of her family to India. After having suffered the tragedies that befell her family, with the assassination of her husband, the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, it would not have been wrong for her to pack her bags and leave India with her children. But no, that would have been the easy way out. As difficult and painful as it was, Sonia decided to stay on in the country she loved and called home. She wanted her children to grow up in the land of their forefathers and possibly when the time came, to carry on the good work of their forebears. Political ambitions she had none, but as fate may have it, she was drawn into the political fray because the people of India wanted her. And so, without recourse she has decided to dedicate herself for the cause of the Indian people. Sonia Gandhi has earned her right to be an Indian and should be treated as a true daughter of the soil.

What about the ‘true born and bred’ Indians who live overseas and pretend to be modern? They have contributed absolutely nothing to their motherland, but have the right to hold public office in a country they don’t even consider home.

Being Indian is not the way you look or believing in one of the religions of the mighty country. Being Indian is feeling and living Indian in your heart. Give this lady a chance. I think she can do wonders for the world’s largest democracy.

Signed,
A foreign born Indian

Questions about baht buses and the free bus in Pattaya

Dear Editor,

I recently visited Pattaya for a one month vacation. This is my 37th visit to Thailand since 1978. I read Pattaya Mail every week and I cannot see that anybody has mentioned what is happening to the so called “free bus services” the city council provided for a period.

I have been around the route of the free bus and have noticed that on all official bus stops along the route there are 3 or 4 baht buses parked in the route, creating an obstacle to the bus from stopping to take on new passengers.

Therefore the free buses are driving around with 2 to 5 passengers instead of being loaded to full capacity.

What are the police doing about this? How can they let this happen every day? Do the baht bus drivers have so much power and influence that no one dares to take action against them?

If anything like this happened in my country the drivers would be heavily fined and if they where caught a second time they would lose their licence.

I have also heard that drivers of the free buses have been threatened by baht bus drivers.

Traffic police must put a stop to this terrible behaviour from baht buses and set some examples to improve their manners.
Confused
JOS

Congratulations Arsenal

Dear Sir,

Please congratulate the four staunch Arsenal supporters, and avid readers of the Pattaya Mail, on their team’s victory in the football league championship in 2004.

Perhaps they will now be sporting enough to honour last year’s commitments?

Many thanks,
Peter
Peter’s Bar
South Pattaya

Pattaya, A Friendly Town

Pattaya, has many charms
With which to gather fame
And make its people extra proud
To mention it by name
And more than all its other traits
And qualities combined
Is that of being friendly
Considerate and kind
Of being sympathetic in
A manner warm and true
Not only in its circle but
To every stranger too
Pattaya, smiles and says good-morning and
Good-evening and good-night
And in so many other ways
It strives to be polite
It welcomes everybody with
Its friendly, open arms
And proves Pattaya can be
A place of many charms
B. Phillip Webb Jr.

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

It is noticed that the letters herein in no way reflect the opinions of the editor or writers for Pattaya Mail, but are unsolicited letters from our readers, expressing their own opinions. No anonymous letters or those without genuine addresses are printed, and, whilst we do not object to the use of a nom de plume, preference will be given to those signed.