HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

How can this be?

Baht bus fury

Retirement visas made easy

No water in Chokchai Garden

How can this be?

Dear Editor;
About 16/17 months ago, the day after my 62nd birthday, I was sitting in a ladies beauty salon in South Pattaya with my back to the door playing with the new mobile telephone which I had bought myself for my birthday, waiting for my Thai girlfriend to finish having her hair done, when suddenly the door burst open and I was struck over the head several times (6 or 7 times), then my assailant ran out of the door and jumped on the back of a red motorbike and disappeared into the night.
I was driven immediately to the Pattaya International Hospital, with blood pouring down my face, where I had some of my hair shaved off and was given 4 stitches in my scalp. I was then driven to Pattaya Police Station on Beach Road, where I reported the incident. My assailant was identified by my girlfriend as being her ex-boyfriend. She informed the police of his full name (and nickname), plus his last known address and of his place of work.
Not long after we had returned to my condo that night, he telephoned my girlfriend on her mobile and said that he knew where we were living and that he had a gun and was going to shoot me.
The next day, my girlfriend visited a friend and obtained a photograph of the young Thai man in question and handed it to the police, at which time we also reported the threat in the presence of my lawyer. I also gave the policeman a small gratuity and asked him to apprehend my assailant as soon as possible and let him know that if anything further happened to me, that he would be top of their list of suspects.
We then went to Bangkok for a week and we subsequently both flew to England for a couple of weeks, hoping that the matter would all have been dealt with by the time we got back to my condo in Pattaya. But alas, the police informed us that they had been unable to find the young man in question, and to the best of my knowledge nothing has been done to-date about this cowardly attack.
How can this be?
Yours truly,
Just another farang still waiting for justice to appear to be done

Baht bus fury

Editor,
I told myself I would never write to you about a baht bus, as so many people do already but this story must be told.
Two friends and I were having a night out and we were in Soi 7 when we thought we would go to Walking Street. I had a bike parked on Beach Road at the bottom of Soi 7 so I sat on the bike and waited for them to get on a bus. They were new to Pattaya and when an empty bus came along instead of just getting on board they went to the window and asked the Thai lady in the passenger seat, “How much to Walking Street?” When they were told 100 baht I shouted to them to forget it and get on another bus and only pay 10 baht each. The driver and his Thai lady were shouting at me as I started to drive off. They were swerving all over the road trying to knock me off my bike.
You get good and bad in every walk of life but people like these are just crooks and should never be allowed to have a baht bus.
Michael
Editor’s note: When things like this happen, it is important to take note of the baht bus number and inform the authorities.

Retirement visas made easy

Dear Editor;
We have retired here and have obtained an annual retirement visa. I have a suggestion for the Immigration Office (with the greatest of respect) to reduce their costs, paperwork and administration time. Instead of everyone going to sign on every 90 days, surely they could make the visa conditional, i.e., you must immediately notify them by calling in with proof if/when you change your address and you must give them a current contact phone number for any emergencies, and any spot checks that the Immigration Office may wish to carry out.
When people go to renew the annual visa they could see if there were any changes that had not been declared and, of course they could slap on big fines for rule breakers.
If Immigration have this info on record then they could save themselves a lot of extra paperwork every 90 days from retirees calling in and cluttering up the office just to say they are still at the same address.
This must surely save hours of administration work and money for the Immigration Office and make it a lot easier for retirees living here. Good news all round. What do you think? Has it been tried before?
Faithfully C.

No water in Chokchai Garden

Dear Pattaya Mail:
Please do not print any more front page stories from the water department promising we will have “no more water shortages in Pattaya”. Every time you do, including the one in last Friday’s edition, we do not get water in the Chokchai Garden Homes on Soi Keow Noi for at least a week. For the last three days now, everyone here is having to buy water from the roving water trucks, and no promise how long it will last.
Can anyone at the water department explain why? A good job for your roving reporter to investigate.
Charlie Brown
Soi Keow Noi
Pattaya

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