HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

What’s the logic at Pattaya Beach?

Motorcycle safety, or lack thereof

Likes twisted

Visit by American Embassy

Thappraya Road improving

Pattaya is Nightlife

Farewell Pattaya

In memory of my beloved Father

What’s the logic at Pattaya Beach?

Editor;
I sit at the beach more or less every day during the year observing life. The new regulations for beach vendors, how many meters and so on, also includes according to the police where you can place your deck chairs. I witnessed today a policeman telling two Russian ladies to take their paid for chairs back into the umbrellas area again. They could not sit outside the umbrella area, but if you have a beach towel and lay down at the same spot - no problem. I ask the authorities: what’s the logic? I believe the sun hungry Russian ladies will find another beach in Thailand next time, if they ever come back.
Jan Dalvang

Motorcycle safety, or lack thereof

Editor;
As a long term resident I should by now accept the many bizarre things that go on in this beautiful country, but I simply cannot understand why it is that people flaunt the law and risk their lives needlessly when riding motorcycles. Currently in Bangkok I think you can say that absolutely 100% of motorcyclists wear helmets of varying quality, it appears the police have successfully enforced this. However, in Pattaya it seems this is an insurmountable challenge beyond the local police powers.
What surprises me further is the number of stupid foreigners who frankly know better, but still do not obey the law or knowingly risk their lives by refusing to wear a helmet. 80% of motorcycle accidents involve head injuries, leaving in many cases the riders dead or disabled.
Risking your life, or placing a huge burden on your family is one thing, but the thing that annoys me the most is the number of motorcycles that have no lights. Around 60% of motorcycles plying the Pattaya streets at night have no rear lights and about 40% have no lights whatsoever - do they realize that cars/trucks/pickups etc. may crash into them? I believe it is a city rule that all motorcycles should have their lights on at all times and if this is the case, why can’t the police make a simple check of all the bikes when they stop at the traffic lights?
I read once that efforts to educate children in schools on road safety failed, but surely any education is better than none! If children are endlessly taught to be aware of the need for lights, helmets and max 2 people on a bike - then hopefully one day this will catch on and instead of hundreds of people being needlessly killed each year accidents will simply be limited to minor injuries. Its time our city leaders took a lead in this and began promoting a road safety campaign.
I recently brought two girls who crashed their bike to the Bangkok Pattaya Hospital to have their severely grazed legs treated (which has now left them badly scarred) and a wise paramedic at the hospital said to them that he hoped they learnt something from the experience - “wear jeans or other suitable clothing, do not ride fast and always wear a helmet.”
Concerned Resident

Likes twisted

Editor;
Mickeyfinn: I liked the way you twisted what I was trying to say without slagging me down. After reading Pattaya Mail and the letters slagging one side and then the other I tried to put forward a compromise but I give up on that. But you Brits living in Thailand try to enjoy it and live your lives in a fashion that you don’t have to whinge about it. If you’re not a man my apologies and all the best.
Wayne Hobson

Visit by American Embassy

Editor;
This also occurs, on a limited basis, in Phuket as well. As they probably will have 8/10/maybe more people who will have to surrender their passports for various reasons why can they not send just 1 representative back to Pattaya to hand the completed passport back? Makes a lot more sense than to have all the people have to go to Bangkok (some in wheelchairs) to recover their passport.
Don Aleman

Thappraya Road improving

Editor;
A few weeks ago I wrote expressing my feelings about the disgraceful condition of Thappraya Road. Coincidentally, the city has addressed the problem and there has been ongoing work to improve the road. My hat is off to the new mayor and his team.
Thank You,
Timothy

Pattaya is Nightlife

Dear Editor,
Why do tourists visit Pattaya? Not a difficult question but one that I suggest few of our city fathers could answer!
Do they (city fathers) think the foreigners come to look at the dirty beaches or maybe to swim in the still polluted waters of Pattaya Bay? Do they think that tourists come to be amazed by the dirtiness of the streets, the unevenness of the pavements, to be run over by uncaring drivers, or to be harangued and threatened by baht bus drivers? Perhaps, or so they might think, foreign tourists travel half way around the world to be robbed, cheated, conned and abused, or maybe they come, as the authorities would have us believed, to study “Thai Culture and Buddhism” (just as Thais might travel to Zimbabwe to study Zimbabwean culture and maybe Christianity?).
“No!” I would respectfully suggest that 90%, maybe more travel to Pattaya as opposed to other destinations or countries in order to partake of what was, although unfortunately no longer is, an international centre for entertainment, and that means nightlife! Everything else is secondary and cannot stand alone in order to attract or retain tourists.
Certainly, gambling would help as other surrounding countries have already found out and once again those in charge have proved to be slow learners.
So, the mantle of responsibility to attract tourists (mainly foreign) lies at the feet of the very entertainment industry which they (the authorities) so very much constrict, restrict and destroy.
I would remind you of other people’s experiences, that when the nightlife was curtailed (in a nightlife city/resort), all the other businesses (hotels, restaurants, money changers, beauty parlours, taxis, gold shops, etc.) very soon felt “the pinch” often leading to the mass closures of all the ancillary businesses.
And of course crime then flourishes, and social disorder rapidly follows and nobody is spared, falling prices of real estate, rentals, hotel rooms and more.
Maybe, our town’s movers and shakers should reassess the options for Pattaya’s survival and look again at what made this city “great” at its very conception.
Pattaya is nightlife!
Yours truly,
Jennifer Coleman

Farewell Pattaya

Dear Editor,
My wife and I have been visiting Pattaya and the rest of the Kingdom for the last ten years. Sadly, the levels of greed, early closing times, prejudice directed at farangs, police indifference, crimes against persons and raising prices with reduced service have helped make our decision to go elsewhere for our holidays.
I can’t say that all is bad in the Kingdom. Issan is a kinder, gentler place, but lacks the ocean sea-breezes, shopping, dining and “lights of the big city” that attracts us to Pattaya. Koh Samui and Phuket are nice, but captive and pricey to get to.
I’ve yet to figure out why a government that relies so heavily of tourism cannot grasp the concept that competition from surrounding countries is a reality.
With that thought, we say farewell to Thailand and we will cherish the fond memories of our Thai friends and experiences from holidays past.
Goodbye Thailand. Our money is going elsewhere.
Ben and Ruth Martinez

In memory of my beloved Father

Kim and I would like to express our humble thanks to all of you, our family, our friends and our employees! During that very difficult time in our lives, you supported us with great love and care, sympathy, as well through your gestures and deeds! This will always be in our hearts and memories.
Thank you.
Kim & Pascal Schnyder
Our humble thanks to :
Ms. Aew - Asst Mgr Casa Pascal Khun Kai Buenchen - CEO Champion Tour
Mr. Alban Boeck - BKK Meat Ball Khun Kukuk - Ex Employee Casa Pascal
Mr. Alexander Haeusler - GM Royal Cliff Mrs. Lela Aukes - Niemer
All Employees of Casa Pascal & Poseidon Mrs. Lindsay Morrison
Mr. Amorn Malhotra Mrs. Loran Davidson
Ms. Annalis Balmer Schnyder – Switzerland Mr. Louis Noll - Matahari Restaurant
Mr. Athapong - Manager Poseidon Mr. Mana - Ex Employee Casa Pascal
Mrs. Av Khanjou - Indian by Nature Mr. Marcel Peter, Swiss Helping Point BKK
Bangkok Hospital Pattaya Mrs. Marianne & Mr. Daniel Biel
Baron Jean Jacques de La Motte Mr. Markus Ganz, WOHRT Presse Agentur Zurich
Mr. Bernd & Daeng Knieriem - Champion Tour Mrs. Marliese & Mr. Heinz Fritz
Mr. Bernd Winkler Mrs. Martha Buehlmann, Inkasso & Immobilien AG Wolhusen
Mr. Bruno & Mrs. Erika Keller, Pattaya Television Mr. Martin Brands
Mr. Bruno Wagner - Rotary Club Pattaya Marina Mr. Martin Ruegsegger, CEO Der Farang Magazin
Chesa Restaurant Bangkok Ms. May - Ex Employee Casa Pascal
Comittee of Chaine des Rotisseurs, Pattaya Mr. Michael J. Franklin, Pattaya Mail TV
Mrs. Damina & Patrick Balmer Hoegger-Switzerland Mrs. Monika Podleska
Dr. Peter & Grethe Riedo – Switzerland Mr. Willi & Ursula Schwotzer – Switzerland
Mr. Christa Koller – Wolhusen, Switzerland Mrs. Pia Portman – Wolhusen, Switzerland

Letters published in the Mailbag of Pattaya Mail
are also published here.