A sad memory 

Dear Sir:

"Arlene Gaal remembers and mourns the loss of her 29 year old son Joe Gaal. Joe was a war reporter in Afghanistan and he documented killings, but when Joe died it wasn’t on the battle field, but as a guest at Ocean View Hotel in Pattaya, the early morning of April 30, 1989..."

Ten years is a long time to search for truth. This year in particular seems more difficult as it is an anniversary of a "murder" that remains partially cloaked in mystery.

I realize that there are those of you who know exactly what happened while Joe was a guest in your country and "why" he was chosen to die. I also know that it is difficult to come forward with the truth, but think about the release from guilt when you do. You are protecting people who already have been named as being responsible for murdering not only tourists, but perhaps some of your own friends.

My heart is heavy and still bears the wounds that were inflicted on the body of my son. There will be no release from this pain until "Justice" is resurrected to allow our family and the ‘soul of my son" find the peace we so desperately seek. Please help us in our quest for truth. Place a single rose in Joey’s memory outside the gate of Ocean View Hotel in Pattaya on April 30 to let others know that the murder of a "son or daughter" is unjustified! A single rose sits beside his picture in our home in Canada, as we remember his vibrant life.

Thank-you,

Arlene Gaal
Canada

Ignored by the tourist police

Dear Sir,

Let me tell you about my experience during the Songkran week. As the water festival normally is a gentle tradition which is celebrated for 1 day in the year, here in Pattaya they play, as you know, for at least 7 days or more. And in contrast with the traditional way, which is to use a little bit of water and powder, over here they throw buckets full of water. And if it’s possible, they fill the buckets with dirty, infected water or ice water or they use lances with high pressure or more of those filthy things. All this with no respect for others. In most cases the only intention is to hurt or damage something or somebody. In that case, I feel free not to participate in the game.

But as I’m not going to lock myself away for 7 days, I try to avoid as much as possible the places where the water throwing game is going on. So I did on April 18, the day before Songkran. On that day, in the early evening (about 5:30 p.m.), my girlfriend and I wanted to have a drink with friends in our regular bar on 3rd Road. As we live on the same road it is only a short way. When we were driving on our motorbike, I could see that a few hundred meters before the place where we had to be, people were playing with water in front of a Thai bar. As we were dressed up like normal people who go out, I signaled them by waving my hand not to throw water. They seemed to accept like it should be, but when we passed we got a full bucket of water and something more all over us. We looked like we showered with our clothes on.

I turned and asked the people, in this case the owner of the Thai bar, didn’t he understand what it means when somebody’s waving their hands to avoid water? The answer I received was, "Farang pai baan", after which he ran to his car. We thought that he ran after another bucket of water, but we saw him return after a few seconds waving and slashing an enormous knife which was at least 70 cm long. The other people in front of the bar saw this also, and looked at us with eyes that said, "please run for your lives". As I now know what small-sized brains these people have, I decided that it was time to drive on - fast. Not such a bad decision, because when I looked back after a few meters, the Thai man was standing in the middle of the road, shouting and waving the knife in a scary way.

When we arrived at the place we were heading, I phoned the tourist police to file a report. Great was my surprise when they told me that they didn’t want to file a report and that I had better make a phone call to the regular police. I told them that the regular police most of the time don’t understand English and that this was a case of a tourist who was threatened with his life by a Thai citizen. They told me again that this was not their business. When I asked the policeman what he wanted most, to file a report or read my story in the newspaper, his answer was, "up to you", after which he hung up the phone.

So, tell me please, what tourist police really stands for: helping tourists in all cases of problems or only helping them when they can blame another police subsidiary for not doing their work?

Sincerely yours,
A Belgian tourist

Discriminated against

Dear Sir,

I am a middle-aged female tourist on my first visit to Thailand from Austria. During the past twenty odd years, I have traveled the world fairly extensively to countries such as Canada, the USA, Kenya, Turkey, Greece, and Britain, as well as most continental European countries.

Thailand has made an incredible impression on me, so much so, that, after my first 6 months here, I have decided to come back again in November ’99 for another extended stay in this beautiful country.

For the record, I am a heterosexual person and I like to think of myself as a tolerant person. This is probably one of the reasons why I like Thailand and the Thai people I have met so much.

Unfortunately, the same can not be claimed with regards to some of the farangs I have encountered here in Pattaya.

Recently, a group of us (all tourists, including some gay men) went for a few drinks and a chat at a place located pretty much in the center of Boys Town. They have a lovely concrete table outside, right on the corner, which had become one of my favorite resting places in that part of town.

None of the people in my group misbehaved in any way whatever, we are all professional people with higher than average educations and most of us hold jobs of a reasonable level, back home in Europe.

After we had ordered and received our various drinks, we were rudely advised by the owner or manager of this establishment that he did not allow gay people in his place and thus we were ejected from his bar.

This farang was very intimidating and the entire experience left us with a fairly bitter aftertaste in our mouth. More so, since I have been to this same place on many occasions in the past and received extremely pleasant service from the (Thai) female partner in the same bar.

In any event, we just assumed that the owner must have been having a bad day, so a week or so later, I happened to be there with another small group of friends and acquaintances. Again, after about half an hour and having consumed a few drinks, we were categorically thrown-out of the place. "We don’t like gay people around here" was the comment from the same farang owner. Needless to say that this behavior is very un-Thai and also very inhuman. I wonder if any other people have had similar experiences in this bar?

Seems to me that this farang still has a lot to learn from his gracious Thai hosts.

Mrs. H. Klucker

Songkran losers

Dear Editor,

You may remember that I wrote last year that occupancies in our hotels were down during the Songkran period, which lasts in Pattaya 7 days, around the clock. The flowers of the night wilting - the street brats wake up and everyone is splattered in the most unpleasant manner.

I warned last year that business will get tougher - as paying guests respect a local tradition for a day, tolerate it for two and definitely move out after having all their nice dresses and suits spoilt.

This year’s revenues from April 12 until 19th were a disaster! I am convinced that we are not the only ones suffering, surely other hotels, restaurants and businesses complain about the same? Does the taxman not need the tourist dollars?

As Pattaya is getting a better image, it should be possible to limit this watery onslaught to certain hours in a certain time frame in certain areas.

Sincerely,
Losing Hotelier

Songkran - water harassment

Editor;

Another awful Songkran for the people of Pattaya. Why can we not have the same date as in Bangkok (April 13th) and finish in one day? A lot of high-spending tourists left the city because of the water harassment during the six days before the 19th. This has turned into a festival for children and drunken guests at the open bars. Instead of promoting the city it scares away the normal tourists - I am sure this was not the intention, so please change the rules next year.

Tourist who fled the scene,

Lars Ellerman

Copyright 1998 Pattaya Mail Publishing Co.Ltd.
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Created by Andy Gombaz, assisted by Chinnaporn Sungwanlek.