HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Noise? Bring in on!

Security company fraud

Enjoyed recent holiday

Help

Lost track of cousin

Caged foxes

A UK man can never be too proud of his Thai wife

Correction: A fight for justice

Noise? Bring in on!

Editor;

I was put out just recently when a good neighbor packed his bags and moved on. He was always complaining about the noise in our neighborhood. I have lost many friends who have done the same. They complained about having to wear ear plugs, double glazing their doors and windows, and insulating their room within rooms to keep out the din. They said that complaining to the powers that be did no good. I told my friends that they were wasting their time, that there are many who don’t agree with them. I told them that they should learn to appreciate all the loud activity.

I used to be an advocate of peace and quiet, but found out when there is noise I feel more alive. I’ve grown used to it and have grown to love it. I am no longer bored. There is really nothing wrong with megawatt speakers, barking dogs (they are just doing what comes naturally), music coming from the street morning, noon, and all night. Nothing wrong with revving up the volume at sporting events, movies, and carnivals. I no longer feel depleted, nervous, anxious, irritated, and depressed. I’ve learned to live with it. It’s unavoidable and necessary in our present day world. It’s what keeps many tourists and expats happy.

The city has given us wonderful “water” days. I feel strongly that we should have “din” festival days. I say strike up the band, put more DVDs on the street, increase the number of mega speakers, increase the number of sound trucks roaming the streets, have a parade of Harley Davidsons down Beach Road, import loads of vuvuzelas, and increase the volume on TVs and radios. Let’s have more Rock Around the Clock. We must learn to extol the virtues of loud sound. No one should have to endure a monotonous, dreary, non-exciting existence. Life should not be as silent as a graveyard. In churches in America they say, “Make a Joyful Noise unto The Lord.” I’m ready to make to make my contribution. Pattaya must give it to the world!

Ray Standiford

Security company fraud

Editor;

I swap my Pattaya condo with friends from the four corners of the world. I have six or seven different couples a year staying for a few weeks at my condo on the beach.

Sometimes I’m not here personally to show them in, or arrange cleaning and maintenance. My solution was to install an access control door, where a PIN number could be used and the entries reported via the internet. While I was at it - I would have a smoke and intruder alarm installed - to be monitored by a security company.

I happened into a ‘security company’ office in South Pattaya. I was happy that he quickly agreed to provide my requirements. He printed a page of parts description on the computer and said it would cost Bt 52,684 and Bt 5500 a year to monitor the alarm. I explained I didn’t have a dedicated phone line, only a shared line for internet to use - or he would have to use radio connection to base.

They came and installed it and then said I was up for another 8,000 for a box to phone to his base computer. I said, “No! You can’t sell a car without a motor,” so he said, “OK worry about it later.” I paid 60,000 baht which included a monitoring fee for a year. After all I thought - a dishonest security company couldn’t survive in business.

I noticed there was no record of entries to the door as planned, and a plastic key was required to open it - and not the PIN number as ordered. He said he would change it to what I ordered.

I waited six months, reminding him constantly. A few weeks ago he said he was coming to upgrade the system. But instead he removed the box that was used to phone to his monitoring base.

I spoke to lawyers, some of which said to expect the costs of going to court to eat up all the money - even if he refunded the 60,000 baht in full. The police and city hall consumer complaints department are investigating the security equipment supplier.

So I have a completely useless system - I paid for monitoring but the system isn’t connected to anything! (I could have installed what he has done for 12, 000 baht.)

I have checked other security equipment suppliers who quoted Bt 32,000 to do what I ordered. I knew I was paying a premium at Bt 60,000 - because expected a trouble free installation.

A complaint has been filed with Pattaya police.

Best regards,
Kevin Baglow

Enjoyed recent holiday

Dear Sir

I have been holidaying in Pattaya now for over 10 years and have always enjoyed my time there. Friends of mine have complained about the prices but I think they have stayed virtually the same, it’s just the exchange rate that’s making the difference at the moment.

The only thing that annoyed me on this years trip (June 1 to 30) is the attitude of a lot of the service staff. Their attitude is you have to tip if the service is good or bad does not matter, you have to tip. God help you if you don’t, the dirty looks you get and some times verbal abuse also is getting to be a regular occurrence.

Your regular visitor,
Robin Bailey

Help

Dear Sir,

How can it be that Discos and Karaoke bars are regulated as to their open hours, noise containment, and decibel limits, while bars, open on at least three sides, appear to do as they wish? Usually with huge speakers actually out on the sois. One last week went to 7 a.m.

Here along Soi Buakaow, and one soi away, we have open bars that at different times seem to thumb their noses at all laws and regulations, by emitting a noise level so extreme, it shakes our door and window panes, and there is nothing, absolutely nothing we do can ensure we get a reasonable night’s sleep. Some of the bars stay open until 7 a.m. We have at times noise for 8, 10, 12 hours duration, making sleep impossible.

We do not want to see them closed, but at least some enforcement, in the areas above mentioned. The deafening noise being the biggest problem. Please, the bottom line is being fair and reasonable. That is not asking too much, surely.

Some effort has been made, but when a different bar opts to have “their night”, reality is, that we get the problem night after night, and no amount of calling numbers suggested has any lasting effect.

The situation is so bad, it brings to mind what happened last year in Songala, when a family, tired of asking for the authorities to please do something about the nuisance of continual noise, took the law into their own hands and shot 3 people dead. One can imagine the high level of utter frustration that would cause someone to take such action. Also, people have packed and left, and property values suffer.

Please, can you help by at least airing this complaint, and maybe doing an article to again bring this problem to the attention of those who are charged with overseeing this problem?

Thank you in advance, of any assistance.
“Some peace”

Lost track of cousin

Editor;

I’m Marianne. I write you because you have written about my cousin Jakob Langgaard on a homepage (Pattaya Mail Features). I hope his name rings a bell!

My hope is that you know something about his whereabouts. Our family has lost contact with him some years ago. Now his parents in Denmark are ill, and I would like him to know about it. If he reads this, please email me at [email protected] or call home.

Sincerely,
Marianne Langgaard

Caged foxes

Dear Editor,

At the end of a row of small bars/restaurants opposite the Asia Hotel on Soi 4 Pratamnak adjacent to the last building are two cages housing two foxes in the most abject and deplorable conditions. The poor animals can barely stand up or turn around and just lay in their excrement suffering in the heat with barely any water. What were once beautiful animals now have filthy matted coats and they always appear to be starving.

From enquiries made with a lady living in the building next door to the foxes’ cages it would appear that the foxes were transported to Pattaya from Loie in Northern Thailand by a man who intended to farm them for profit, but he has since lost interest in them.

The sad plight of these animals has moved me to write this, hoping someone in Pattaya can help these poor and unfortunate animals.

Chris J.

A UK man can never be too proud of his Thai wife

Editor;

My Thai wife Soodsawat has done it again here in the UK, by winning the SMARTA 100 awards for operating one of the top 100 new innovative businesses and she has just heard she is one of the winners of the “Making your Mark in the Markets” Award. This award starts with 10 day’s free trading at Bolton Market, one of the UK’s leading markets. She will demonstrate how to cook with her new range of Thai cooking sauces and this week she will be in London to meet with a production company to discuss 3 x 6 part TV series called “Ooy cooks in strange places”, “Ooy cooks with strange people” and finally “Ooy cooks with Strange food”. I hope this will encourage other Thai ladies to go out there and make their mark in society and business and show the world that not all Thai girls are the same.

Yours,
John Rigg
UK

Correction: A fight for justice

In last week’s Mailbag we published a letter from Des Gillet about a meeting in Pattaya for British ex-pat pensioners, regarding pensions. We inadvertently published the contact email address. The correct address is: [email protected] (not .com).
Editor

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