davidA

I have to say that in my position as a bi lingual teacher i have had to deal with all sorts of parents,the Russians are the most demanding and threatening.One father demanded that his offspring of 9 years old be able to speak English in 4 weeks.When he just happen to let it drop that he knew "the Russian mafia" i told him that i knew them also and suggested he take his chlld to another school.Yes,i would agree that some Russians have the idea that they will control Thailand in the future,in fact i was told this by a big mouthed inebriated Russian parent,he also told me that Russia would do this with the help of the Thai government,who were so greedy for money that they would willingly sell Thailand and their own arshol--es if the price was right. As for noisy,well, yes but then isnt any child on its first trip to a theme park?But then let us also look at our own less than lovely tourists,obese,bald,gap toothed,tatooed thugs,who,when all wearing their wife beater t shirts and unwashed shorts that end at calf level(just like clowns pants who are normally found walking the sois,carriying bottles of Chang,6.4 brain damage and sauntering across the roads daring the Thai drivers to run them over and then yelling untold filth at said drivers when they beep them beep them.Well i dont suppose Thai people get to see a herd of escappees from a Millwall game every day.

I dont know if if this is just a coincidence but every time i have travelled by bus from Pattaya bus station to where ever and have managed to sit in the seat by the front door,i have noticed that the bus's speedometer does not operate.Can someone tell me if,in Thailand, disconnecting the speedo also disconnects anything else,like a spy in the cab that would show hours of driver's driving or a speed guvenor or even times where the the driver has driven above the legal limit.,Of course this could be a ruse used by the bus company so it can sell the bus on,at a later date stating that it's low milage

Over the last 3 day's,i've had occasion to drive along beach road Pattaya,i have to say that i've seen no jet ski's being used, i hope that these greedy Bas@@##! have realised that maybe they've screwed up their own livelihood!!!!?????

I think you can get a room in the metropole in Soi Diana for that sort of money,its a beautiful hotel and a class above,as for things to do,i do'nt know if you are mobile,but there are places like,Jurassic park,crocodile farm,Lobert Lippeley's believe it or not,Alcazar and the temple of solitude to say the least.However if it's your first time here and your girlfriend is open minded,then Walking street is worth a visit...good luck and enjoy your stay

The old songkran scam as beautifully performed by the tourist police...This is how it goes...

Blue water pump seller sell's pumps in the morning to those who want to indulge in the day's activities

they go for 150 baht each, a reveller buy's 2,one for him and one for his girlie.

Seller takes his money,gives him his good,s..all seem's legal and above board.

Half way through the day,seller run's out of pump's,think,s,"dam_n! should have brought more pump's"

Seller goes to friendly tourist police and whispers in his ear.

An hour later,tourist police turn up at soi 'wet and fun and relieve all the people,who thought they legally purchased their good's of said pumps,saying they are illegal.

Conclusion

The pump's are given back to the seller and the whole songkran ballet begin's again

Now,this is criminal corruption and a wonderful way of changing the name of 'soi wet and fun'to just'Soi wet' oh! and 'miserable'

I have read the comments posted on these pages by people arguing about what is obscene and what is not obscene. about what is fun and what not is fun.About what is culture and whether it's modern or traditional.i have read about a man who stand's up in public and say's he is worried for the reputation of his country and obviously how the rest of Asia and maybe the world view's this behaviour. there are all sorts of never ending arguments over this,there is the question of corruption and prostitution which are timeless old chestnut's that will be with us (as one reader say's"where there are people") for ever and will never be stopped 100%.I have read all this on these pages,and i agree with some and disagree with others.I think out of all these question's the tricky one is the reputation of a country,as that would encompass all the others,and generally would give the consensus as how that country is viewed,my question is......What does the wrld think of a country that fiercely wants to protect it's image,culture and reputation but releases a driver (temporarily we are told) who,through speeding,kills a young girl on the road,nearly cut's her in half and all he has to do,is say sorry,the girl's family will be recompensed,will the payment be pro rata to the girl's family social standing in this country and who will work this out?will we be advised on that dreadful programme "pattaya new's" or will this,like so many other thing's be forgotten?

Am i mistaken?or did i read somewhere that when the UK refused him a visa,he made some rather nasty veiled threats against ex pats living here.I seem to remember some one reading it to me

At home in the Uk i ran and owned a medium sized business,i didnt work as such but i used to go out and measure up and do all the quotations.We carried out work for quite big hotel chains and sporting outlets,my life centered around being 'social' i was always treating a client to dinner or sponsoring a golf day out,i'm sure you all know the sort of thing. Of course, alcohol (which i usually paid for was always present and in abundance.How ever it never became a problem to me because always made the excuse that i was driving or had to remain sober to see the "occasions" through.I never drank at home nor did i ever drink alone,i would,like most people walk down to my local 3/4 times a week and imbibe and at weekends my wife and i would go to a restaurant and enjoy some food and wine,but i always kept control and never went over the limits of the law. To cut to the chase i became a widower at 55 and as my daughter was grown and married i decided i would sell up(in total) and move to Thailand.then it all changed,i had no more responsibilities you see,i was able to drink as i saw fit ,and i saw fit every night,yes,i was lured by the Pattaya syndrome. I have to admit,the company of strangers was fun,the company of ladies was wonderful(although i swear i never went 'case' with a lady under 45 i had a daughter of 28) it got to the stage where i would be out til 3 a.m,up at 8 a.m and in the fridge looking for the first beer of the day at 8.05 am(chang normally) After 2 years of this i was a wreck,i realised i had to get some control back when i woke up on the outside bench of a bar on soi 6 havind wet myself and vomited all down my front,even the ladyboy trying to rob me ran away when i woke up(it was the rank odour that saved me).I got a taxi home(condio) and went to bed.when i awoke at 5 pm i went to the fridge for a beer only to see an empty fridge,in the course of one week i had drunk over 100 beers,3 bottles of sangsom,assorted bottles of vodka and even gin(i dont like gin)Over the next 3 days i had the sweats,halucination's (older readers will remember "lost weekend with Ray Milland) i saw my long dead parents and my deceased wife even paid me a vist,i was shaking and vomiting,pi$$ing and Sh!&&ing all at the same time,and i still wanted a drink. I refused entry to my cleaner,who after three days called a private doctor out to see me,the rest is history.now a year later i live as man and wife with the woman who saved my life(i thank God and Bhudda for 'Dow',my cleaner,who is 49) I have a job,i have a new house with a pool,several miles out of Pattaya,i am happy,have i stopped drinking? NO!!! but now its different,i have a few little responsibilities and i am as i was in England but i still admit,that about 5 p.m i want a beer soooo bad,so i have one,and then maybe 2 or 4 more,but thats it,there's no secret to this change,if i want a beer i have one,i am not limited to how many i can have (dont think i am under the strict control of a Thai woman) but ihave reverted back to a social drinker. I was lucky,i know that without stabilisation of the situation i would be dead by now.I been to hell and out the other side i do not fear being caught drink driving as i dont do it,my 'mea' is not scared of me and life is wonderful again.

Has anybody tried the 'New Orleans' restaurant on Pattayaland soi 2 near beach road and if so,what did you think.

i moved into a very narrow soi behind carrefoure years ago,and my neighbour,a very tough lad from yorkshire, warned me about the dogs. he told me that there were about 12 of them and they had formed a pack and actually an alpha male and female,many of the people who owned motorcycles had had encounter's of the aggressive kind,the dog's owners,mainly thai people but ,there were a few ferang's also, were asked to do something about them but no-one did.The owner of the alpha female was approached and an offer was made to pay for the spaying of the rotten animal,she refused!!After we suffered a month of dusbins being turned over,dog s##t every where and soi pedestrians being chased up the road, a saviour came(name not supplied) his daughter was scratched

by one of these animals while jumping up on her to get to the ice cream she was eating(these things had become that confident)After a week,their numbers had decreased by a third and after 2 weeks there were almost none on the soi at all and the two or three that were still still there seemed very slow and were always laying down. A few week's later whilst having drink with my neighbour,i happened to mention the lack werewolves on the soi of late,he looked at me and said "wharfarin" 8 milligram and "Zannex" in a noodle soup!

I came to Thailand(Lieland,scamland,call it what you will) 10 years ago. Pattaya was a different place then,of course, there were always the "wife/husband falls from 20th story condo balcony" "felang murdered by Thai wife 35 years his junior, ferang commits "suicide" in hotel room" and the best one's are Man comits suicide while being tied up and a plastic bag over his head' and' prisoner while handcuffed in back of police car grabs police officers gun and is shot before he can injure anybody' of course,these are laughable and ridiculous.It was bad enough then,but these sorts of incidents were accepted/ignored by us,the ferang,because this was the place we had decided to live,to us it was paradise. After years of work and problems at home,we thought we had earned this heaven for our remaining years. How ever,this scum,this filth that is rearing its head in the form of jet sea scammers(scummers) is, without doubt the most dangerous and vile scam ever introduced and the rusults just prove that the authorities in this country literally dont care if we die, they just do not care,what will happen when a family man takes his kid'(s) to the beach for a fun day out and he ends up being surrounded with violent thugs who eventualy(being so ignorant) will kill a tourist,the child is a witness!will they kill him/her too?where is our protection? these tourists go into their holiday shop back home(Thompson's Lunn Polly,The Holiday Shop and are told what a wonderful place Phuket and Samui are and Pattaya can be ok too.How many holiday sellers actualy say"well i wouldnt go to the islands or Pattaya if i were you,did you know that an English guy was stabbed there last week because he wouldnt be ripped off and he was protecting his 9 year old boy who was with him at the time"???"the police?you ask ? yes they were there,trying to negotiate a price that this perfectly innocent 35 year old family man should pay" "oh yes,the Police said how sorry they were for the 22 year old widow's loss,and the two kids aged 9 and 6,who came to "amazing Thailand for a holiday of a life time.This must be stopped now !!!!!!!! the powers that control this vile game must take a cut in thier profits(they have many more scams to attend to,surely)and through common decency(if a scammer can have such a thing) before they ruin this country through sheer greed and indifference

My sister and her husband and 3 other couples had planned a trip to "amazing" Thailand this year,they saved for nearly two years,they are people of around the ages of fifty and far from stupid,they read Thai visa and they are aware what goes on, because i live here i always keep her up to date with the weekly goings on and i often send her a "Pattaya People or Pattaya times or such"the idea of the trip was to have a last "time together" with one of their number whom is in the early stages of terminal breast cancer.The idea was to "do" Bangkok,Phuket,samui,Chang and if they had time,Pattaya.It was planned that my wife (Thai) and i were to meet up with them on Phuket.When one of the couples read about the drugs in Pattaya and what was'nt being done about it,the Phuket surf runner scams,reports of people being ripped off every where they go, chain snatching by thieves that are no more than thug kids,Marines having guns pulled on them, even non Thais hacking into peoples bank accounts(i was going to put some money in a savings account for her to use while she was here to avoid the percentage charge on travellers cheques(another rip off).To make it worse, a girl who works at my sisters company,having just returned from an island tour of Thailand couldnt wait to tell her how filthy,smelly,intimidating and downright disgusting(health and safety wise not sleeze) Pattaya was(and the revue of the islands wasnt much better)After a long conversation by email with my sister and my attempts to change her mind,th upshot of it is,that they are not,now coming to Thailand,my sister has decided that Disney world Florida is more deserving of her money and her sick friends peace of mind,the pity of it all is,that my sister is a big spender and with her friends(all in high paying employment)would have spent a small fortune here,once again Thailand loses because of its peoples behaviour. saying all this,i was very amused when it was stated that so many millions of tourists had visited Thailand last summer and so many billions of Baht had been made,a simple adding up on the calculator showed that each tourist had spent 37.5 baht...Welcome to Thailand,you sons and daughters of Russia and Iran

Government to clear up the mafia??? half of the government are in it!!!!Ahh poor taxi drivers,poor tuk tuk operators,no work,no income??No one to rip off more like,no one to quickly divert to their uncles jewelery shop for a quick percentage earner. Amazing Thailand??only in the adverts,dont these thugs on wheels think?The way these idiots are acting,tourists will only feel safe in vans provided by a pucker travel operator and will refuse to visit Phuket.some of these voyagers are elderly people who would be terrified by these drivers demanding ridiculous amounts of money.therefore,the once tourist friendlt Phuket becomes just another Thailand hell hole to cross off the list of places to visit.Only Phuket loses in this farce.

to the person who said they'd never seen any siamese cats here,i reckon,when you think about it,they're all siamese cats ???

sorry mons,didnt realise you were the forum police

I am a 57 year old English teacher living in Thailand with my 45 year old partner of 3 years now.My partner is not only my friend but a devoted and loyal wife in all but name.We have a comfortable life style and a nice house and pool,My partner has a daughter of 13 who is not allowed ,by her father to visit us because i am a ferang and obviously a raving pervert,although we have had it intimated to us that we could have her daughter full time if i pay the alcoholic,violent cretin 30,000 baht. I take care of my wifes,blind,83 year old mother and the daughter because the "father" cannot.Am i being told that because of some rediculous (copy cat) law that my partner is to be denied the luxury of being legal. Can someone tell me where the cut off line for this age this is? Its not like i'm 60 and my partner is 23..This is just spur of the moment law making without thought or justification.

I read in the full story section that lady Isobel committed suicide 4 days after being convicted of stealing a tin of Tuna and a carton of Milk at a magistrates court??? what?did she steal a barristers lunch or something? or should that have read..Lady isobel committed suicide,4 days after being convicted at a magistrates court for stealing a tin of Tuna and a carton of milk??????

its a shame the electricity was turned off AFTER someone was electricuted, i was always taught that water and electrics dont mix,might have been a good idea to turn it off a bit earlier.

4,ooo Thais still missing in Japan.Hmmmmm,partial cull? because no more has been heard about the Thais missing in Libya!!!