Editor;
Re: Nongprue targets mosquitoes in Khao Talo (PM Friday, 31 July 2015) – I visited Pats in November 2014, and stayed 12 weeks. I was disappointed in the lack of farang tourists there. Most bars were empty with Walking Street looking like a window shopper’s paradise – plenty of staff in the bars but no customers. Just the tide of people walking up and down taking pictures of the individual bars and their staff, but not spending one baht in any venue.
I returned in May 2015, booked for 2 months. But once again the lack of farang was more evident. I’ve been a frequent visitor over the last 20 years to Pattaya and I admit, I was and am a sex tourist. The women are beautiful and take care of you very well. There are women who are unscrupulous and will take the sugar out your tea at the first chance, but most provide very good service in every way for a pittance of what it would cost in European countries.
I begin to wonder now, due to the lower element that operate in Pattaya, the ladies that will drug you, rob you, the ladyboys that will mug you, the officials that will extort money from you, the daily changing of the rules for tourists in Thailand, none being to the tourists’ favour, has finally broke the camel’s back so to speak. And the western tourist has found pastures anew, i.e., Cambodia, Vietnam and Philippines. Where they don’t encounter such abundant corruption and crime, where they can buy property and have it registered in their own name giving them title to such land property. Unlike Thailand where it as to be put in a Thai name alone, giving the Thai person male/female full entitlement to that property, whereupon the real buyer farang has no recourse in the event the relationship breaks down and he/she orders him off the property he bought and paid for. The saying fools in paradise does not justify the injustice such an act of blatant robbery that as taken place, but perhaps through such acts that have happened everyday over the years in Pattaya, the curtain is finally coming down on the LOS and tourists from western countries will be few and far between.
But I shall not refrain from visiting Thailand. I don’t do relationships, I don’t buy land, and I only carry small amounts of cash, but plenty condoms at any one time, and I don’t pick up from Beach Road. Plus I always check under the bed!
Dave
