More dishonest jet ski operators in Thailand

Editor;

In Bangkok Post’s Letters, Saturday February 4, ‘A real Thai experience’ by Siritip Helton told of their family’s unfortunate experience with one of the jet-ski operators on Jomtien Beach.

It is disgusting that after all the publicity there has been about these bandits, both in Jomtien and Phuket, that no action has been taken to curb these criminals who give Thailand a bad name.

One can only assume that the officials in charge are in cahoots with the bandits and do not want to lose out on their ‘Tea Money’. There is no other explanation as to why these crooks continue to operate with impunity!

There should be big signs on Pattaya Beach and Jomtien Beach saying “Renting a Jet-ski could seriously damage your finances and your enjoyment of your vacation in Thailand” but that is expecting too much in the land of backhanders, innitt! If everyone boycotted the bandits perhaps they might get the message, but then again… Keep dreaming

RW

Paranoid at the ATM

Editor;

Perhaps I’m just being paranoid, given all the news I’ve been seeing about international credit card and ATM theft gangs. But I was at the ATM just now, taking out some money to pay my electric bill. Two strange looking guys were just kind of loitering nearby. One was fiddling with the ATM machine right next to me, the other was behind me, sort of over my right shoulder. I made sure to cover my hands when putting in my PIN code, but as soon as I got off the machine, they moved right over to the same one I was on. I stopped and looked at them for a moment, and they stopped what they were doing and looked at me. (Maybe they were paranoid of me, too.)

I walked across the street to the 7-11 to pay my bill, and kept a watch on them. As soon as I went inside, they went back to the same ATM I had been on. I didn’t see them taking any cash away, but after a minute or two they left. I went back and took out 500 baht just to check my balance, and everything seemed ok - my balance amount was correct. This time, I used the other ATM, next to the one I used originally, causing me to believe there was nothing wrong with the ATM the guy has been fiddling with before switching to “my” ATM (i.e., if there was nothing wrong with the other machine, why did he switch to mine as soon as I left?).

So, again, hopefully it’s nothing. But I marked the date and time in case money went missing later so I can have the bank check the ATM cameras in front of the Bangkok Bank South Pattaya Branch.

Just call me,

Paranoid at the ATM

An Anglophile’s view of the German Film Festival

Editor;

I, as an anglophile, have a well entrenched idea of the German psyche. German people are remote, distant, aloof and have no sense of humor. After one evening of the Pattaya Rooftop Film Festival last Friday, I have had to seriously alter my opinion.

My wife and I attended the opening night at the dusit D2 baraquda and saw a movie called “Good Bye, Lenin”, by Wolfgang Becker. One of the most moving, humorous and yet poignant pieces of cinematography it has been my fortune to watch.

In essence a woman in Communist East Germany lapses into a coma, from which she recovers, but only after the Berlin Wall has come down. Having been told by the doctors that she must not be stressed, her family attempts to shield her from the awful knowledge that the socialist experiment did not work, and capitalism was now ruling in East Germany. This they did, even producing false TV news bulletins to say that it was not the East Germans defecting to the west, but it was all the West Germans defecting to the east. In the middle of all that were the family members with their own agendas, who kept up the deceit until the mother dies.

A complete range of German films has been brought to Pattaya by Dr. Norbert Spitz the director of the Goethe Institute, and they will be shown each Friday night for the next eight weeks at the dusit D2 baraquda in their rooftop lounge. The films are (naturally) in German, but all have English sub-titles.

I do recommend you book (038 769 999 or email [email protected]).

Dr. Iain Corness

Public buses

To the Editor;

This is our 8th winter in Jomtien and my husband and I were full of anticipation that a normal public bus service was in the offing, as along the new road brand-new bus shelters were being completed earlier this year. The previous bus stops all over 2nd Road, Jomtien Beach Road, and Thepprasit Road did not result in any bus services.

A couple of years ago or so there was a Red Line bus that left Jomtien and went all the way along to North Pattaya and Banglamung and the Outlet Stores and then back along Sukhumvit to Chaiyapruek Road and Jomtien Beach Road. We never could find out where/if the yellow and green line ran and from where to where. Now none of them are running.

However, there is a bus to the Floating Market but when I called at the tourist office to enquire about the time table the girl there did not have any information except to tell me that it ran 5 times daily but not when it started in the morning or the time of the last trip.

One would have thought that a town of ฝ million inhabitants or so would have public transport laid on like other “normal” towns in Thailand as tourists have to depend on overcrowded baht taxis and sometimes have to wait a long time to even be able to get on one. Increasingly these taxi drivers only take private fares and will not stop for us ordinary mortals who will/or can not afford the 150 baht they demand.

When will this city wake up to provide public services likes buses, and clear up the increasing amount of rubbish?

Yours faithfully,

Rose Marie Hammond

Good grace of car drivers

Dear Editor,

Jerry S. (Mailbag Feb 3 2012) says that “cars intentionally drive dangerously close to bully” poor defenceless motorcycle riders! It is very difficult to avoid kamikaze motorcyclists who cut in from the inside, outside and from the opposite direction and deliberately nose ahead at every traffic light and junction. I would suggest to Jerry S. that on the contrary it is only through the patience and good grace of car drivers that more of his ilk are not killed and injured every day.

Richard Turpin

More dishonest jet ski operators in Thailand

Paranoid at the ATM

An Anglophile’s view of the German Film Festival

Public buses

Good grace of car drivers