striderman

right now there are still a lot of boats parked up by bali hai, cos i can see that area with binoculars.

about 3 weeks ago the military made them clear the boats parked up on the roadway.

on the 18th there was a visit by a high ranking officer with a party of 35/40 asstd officers/officials etc (by chance i was down there at the time) and they told the boat mob all had to be gone by the end of the month.

some boats were moved that day and others since but there is still a stack left.

the current plan as i understand it is to shift them to soi 11 and 14 jomtien.

there is a launching slope near there but of course they would use more fuel to reach bali hai every day................because there is also a move to ban chinese tour group speed boat pick ups from pattaya beach from nov 1, and make them use bali hai.

note none of the boat trailers have any lights/indicators or brakes other than whatever vehicle is towing them.

yep moving them about will be a logistical pain.

by chance i was down that way when the military visit was going on, about 35/40 strong inc 1 getting a lot of salutes.

clearly a big cheese who had a motorcy escort when he left.

none of the boat trailers have any brakes other than the vehicle doing the towing.

none of them have any lights/indicators either.

the boat guys held their own meeting after the official visit and they did not look happy.

ok took my legs up to the north end of the beach today. couple of hundred mtrs blocked off with at least 6 asstd kobelco tracked diggers up there.

sand is being pumped ashore via a rubber floating pipeline from barges offshore. it is marine sand with bigger shells than u would expect to find on pattaya beach but it is quite grey in colour. this is a big project with 4/5 barges/vessels offshore today.

i did notice some new big sandbags had been made.

going to take some time.

on the covering screens there are some artists impressions of the finished job inc 1 with the beach viewed from near the southern boardwalk. probably more chance of a donald landslide than looking anything like the artwork

4 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I was in the Beer Garden and noticed that the sand has really built up beside the big drain. Pity the not so clever people in charge don't just put barriers along the beach. The sand would soon build up without having to dredge it in.

that has gone too.

it does build up there from time to time but after heavy rain those drains (which are not normally in use) are opened and the sand is washed away.

right now there is no sand build up

3 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Sorry I didn't reply to that before, but no, the hoardings are left over from the drain construction. I guess they just couldn't be bothered to remove them. After all, why would they care? 

That is where the ugly broken sandbags are, and no people are.

the current hoardings up near the thai airways office turned up approx end of september/ beginning of october.

the drain construction was way before that.

the ugly sandbags have been removed or at least emptied

1 hour ago, Oink said:

There was a perfectly good beach there at one time.

Then the clever people built a road up to it.

Then they built a path between the road and the beach.

Then they decided to widen the road, taking up more beach.

Then they widened the path into a boardwalk over what was left of the beach.

Now they are trying to replace the beach they have built over.

All makes perfect sense to me

i have watched and have photos of the entire resurfacing of the "coconut bar" and lane extension  of the road.

they did not encroach on the beach at all other than the wooden boardwalk extensions at the south end and by mike shopping mall steps.

the current works in the bay are to do with beach replacement or as they have called it "nourishment".

some of the vessels involved have been in the bay for over 12 months but the hold up has been due to problems in sourcing suitable sand.

i believe the sand once found will be brought in by barge and pumped or whatever to the beach area

1 hour ago, manarak said:

For once, the tour buses are not to blame.

I always remember that soi having bad pavement and many potholes, which of course just get bigger and more numerous if left unrepaired.

Just repair the pavement properly.

yep the tour buses know that soi is too narrow with stuff parked left and right they don't use it.

i have seen with my own eyes some of the repair efforts and i could have done a better job myself.

ok i was reading elsewhere about the clampdown on zero dollar tour groups and a drop in chinese numbers so today i did my own survey of parachutes airbourne at any one time from the 9 platforms in pattaya bay.

the average is most times between 34 and 39 when the weather is ok between the hours of  07 30 and 11 30.

today i did 7 counts between 08 00 and 11 00 with binoculars out of my window and the average was 22.................which is down by more than a third.

while not scientific my numbers are real ones and not invented

6 hours ago, HerbalEd said:

Sounds like you don't really know what it's going to be, so why the headline that it'll be a market????

looks like one.........................

and that is only the ones that back onto soi honey

13 hours ago, rott said:

Still closed???

this is a none story.

they put up signs last week saying they would be closed for a few days and would reopen monday aug 1st which is exactly what happened.

they are trading as usual

the most southerly bench is opposite the soi 9 cop shop.

most as has been mentioned were deliberately put towards the north end where there are more benches than tourists.

south of the cop shop the options are only around an artwork/sculpture opposite central festival and the steps around the wheelchair access boardwalk opposite mike shopping and that's it.

the southern artwork seating near soi 13/4 is closed off for now and has been some time

witherspoons was an open air restaurant/breakie place at first with a small bit upstairs towards the rear.

oasis was a chinese restaurant but when it was first occupied it was a steak place called something like "the buffalo" but that was a long time ago.

i have a mate who lives there.

they turned up and visited only 1 block (and there are many), found a couple of overstayers , had the local press take some pics of the great job they were doing and left.

they have been ticketing stuff and towing cars like no bodies business today.

publicity is everything

The majority of the excess rainfall which makes its way to the beach has never been sent thru the city’s water-treatment plant. its just takes the course of gravity and least resistance

yes that has always been the case with excess flood water draining directly into the bay.

under normal conditions it is pumped away for treatment.

however the lowering of the coconut bar in several places is an admission that the 3 flood relief drainage tunnels have failed to solve the beach rd problem

when the military coup first came in there was a 22.00 curfew in force in pattaya and i got stopped by an arab couple near friendship asking me where they could find halal food. like i had any clue! i said better move fast everything will shut down soon or nip into friendship and get some fruit or whatever.

he then asked me 3 unrelated dumb questions all designed to put me off guard and make him look like a harmless buffoon.

at this point he opens up his wallet and shows me a wad of folded cash and asks me if i have any.

now i knew what he was up to so i said yes but a lot more than that and i went into one swearing at him in arabic (i used to work for a jewish run company and they all used to swear in arabic)

i called him a dog , a donkey, a pig and his wife/partner a prostitute etc etc.

instead of going crazy the pair fled over the road as fast as possible with my curses ringing in their ears

From Pattayawatchdog facebook

https://www.facebook.com/PattayaWatchdog/posts/1089003807811206

apologies for my and google's translation effort.

As expected

Pattaya City has not renewed construction permits for Waterfront condominium.

According to a review due on February 13, 2559.

This news follows two main reasons.

1. Parking as described in the EIA report, was for 60 places

but developers only provided 30 places subsequently told Pataya city that

parking would be resolved by using a 2 storey hydraulic system floor height of 3.2 meters, but the city checked and found it inadequate for large vehicles.

2. Pattaya City inspected the developmnt area that permited them 3.8 thousand square meters,

and found more than five thousand square meters used without permission.

City building permit can not be renewed.

60 car park places?

i took this pic aug 2013 of the sign attached to the waterfront gate

the restaurant on the ground floor near the escalators that closed was called all seasons

california wow, it was the entire group that went bust not just the avenue branch

the only positive thing going on right now is the planned april opening of beerfest next to au bon pain near the barracuda hotel

i have never dragged my passport around with me (in case of loss or at least excessive wear and tear) but it seems to me that immigration/police whatever will be keen at least in the short term to appear to be on the case.

ie a few gogo visits etc with the media in tow to show what a fine job they are doing.

with that in mind it may be worth taking your passport for a couple of weeks till they all get bored

kittenklong other than the odd boat sometimes tied up the marina has not been used.

shoddy work installing them is the favourite and the situation is likely to get worse as time passes

some of the marina piles have begun to topple, quite an achievement as it has never actually opened so it is not down to general wear and tear

i have not noticed any work on the waterfront site or seen the main crane move since oct 2nd 2014

i last saw the crane move oct 2nd 2014

it is always possible to add a lady drink here or there which is why you should keep an eye on things.

i have myself never had a problem in any of the french group gogos which includes palace and i've been in all of them many times.

my point is the bill is in front of you all the time and stopping ordering drinks before it exceeds what cash you have on you is pretty simple stuff

^^^ It's possible they didn't realize the bill was getting that large. BTW how do two gals drink 5,000 baht worth of drinks?

palace is a run of the mill walking st gogo and in line with almost all of them a new computer print ticket is issued every time another drink or series of drinks is ordered.

the bill in there does not suddenly appear by magic at the end of the evening, it sits in front of you in a small round holder. keeping a note of what your current spend is at any point in the evening simply involves looking at that "bin"

silverado they were not in angelwitch.

that along with some other venues are more expensive.

they were in palace which has prices in line with other walking st gogos and i have been in most of them