tootall

I paid Siam Legal in BKK to do a police clearance for my wife. This is what they said the charges would be

As for police background check, the normal processing time is 5 weeks for 100 
THB. 
If you want it expedite for 6 business days, it will be 2,200 THB.

On 12/24/2017 at 12:44 PM, Gecko123 said:

The event the OP describes sounds like a community event. Such events, marking weddings, funerals and monk ordinations, etc. are part of life in Thailand, and you are asking for trouble to expect people to conform to your social norms of what constitutes excessive noise. You especially need to be tolerant around New Years and Songkran which are the two holidays where many Thais have enough time off from work to return home.

 

With that said, neighbors cranking up their their home and car sound systems whenever they please on a day-in day-out basis is an entirely different matter. I have had friction with my neighbors in the past by complaining about loud bass music. The thing I have absolutely learned from these confrontations is to never confront people directly when the music is playing, especially at night, when people are very likely inebriated. Using a third party intermediary is advisable, as these disputes can often be seen as a farang vs Thai cultural conflict. Guess who's going to win? I have also on occasion had success just by standing outside the offending house until someone notices me and quickly realizes why I am there. Creepy as hell, you betcha, but surprisingly effective, and it avoids in-your-face verbal confrontation. 

 

I have also had success blasting my speakers in the direction of the offending house, but before doing this I really try to find out if they're having a large party (which I'm more tolerant of) or just a few teenage kids who have decided some loud music is just what the doctor ordered to go with the lao khao or yaa baa they've just consumed. People seem to get the message. As a last resort, you can go to the police, but because of the ill-will this will generate, I don't recommend it unless you are really at your wits end. Taking a walk or drive to escape the noise is another coping technique. I also have talked to almost all my neighbors to sound out their feelings, and it turns out that many of them don't like the loud music any more than me, but don't say anything out of a spirit of greng jai. But I have the feeling that by talking to the neighbors about how much this bothers me, at least somewhat gets filtered back to the offending parties, which helps. After I explained that I do a lot of reading and writing, and that I can't think with that bass music blasting (something I sensed that many people never even considered), I really noticed that my neighbors showed a lot more consideration after they understood why it bothered me. I also leave town around Songkran, in large part to avoid the loud music.

 

Hope this helps.

I have a young Thai man who lives next door to me in a close housing community where the walls are connected to each other. He is a party boy, drinks, smokes pot and takes Jabba, plays his music too loud, has many parties that last over 12 hours. They think they are Karaoke kings, hooking up a microphone to ill equipped electronics, makes for loud feedback at the early morning hours. I have two small children and it is hard to get them to sleep much less when they wake up to loud shrills and screaming like they think they are master DJ's. I have talked to him before and asked him to lower the volume and I get the door slammed in my face. This is the true Thai man that exists today.  He has lost many jobs because he only wants to party. He only lives in this house because his Thai mom/married to farang owns the house. He exists just to party. I have called the the Pattaya police several times but they either hang up (many times) say they do not speak English, or say they sent police but they see fights and had to stop to break it up. On the aforementioned occasion, we called after a 15 hour party and police say the had to break up a Tom Boy/Tom Boy fight, we called back 30 minutes later (Thai wife made the first two calls) after 1 1/2 hours no response I called and when I talked to man and started to give the address he hung up on me. Another time time I called and Policeman said he did not speak English and hung up on me. What kind of Police is that that hangs up on an emergency line????? Pattaya Police are the worst. There needs to be some serious overhaul with them. I there two times before about another place we lived where a Chinese man assaulted us two times. we made a report  and then asked the police what they were going to do about it? Are you going out to the man's house and talk to him? The policeman taking the report told us so you want to spend more money for us to go talk to him? I said no I want you to do your job. He refused to send out police to talk to the man......You are never protected by the Pattaya police. The only time they respond to anything is if it is an accident or death. They like deaths, where they can go in and steal dead man things

One thing they need to do in Pattaya is start enforcing the no parking zones around intersections. I live at the Village on 3rd Road Pattaya across from the Pattaya City Hospital, and everyday/all day cars are parked in no parking zones on both sides of 3rd Road. You can not see traffic because of the illegally parked vehicles. You have to pull out into traffic taking up one of the two lanes of traffic just to see the cross traffic. There have been several bad accidents in this area due to illegally parked cars. Pattaya police just drive by and never enforce the no parking zones that are clearly marked in red and white. Pattaya has a big problem with this and double parking, police just drive by. I have never seen a car towed for parking illegally. The Police would make so much revenue if they enforced this law 

Just Bergers, near the south end of Jomtien Beach Road. Great burgers and fries

12 hours ago, AlexRich said:

Excellent summary from someone who understands the system. I very much take your point about having little choice if moving to the west is not an option.

I totally agree. I live in Thailand but my boys are coming of age of attending school . I am going to take family to USA to the better schools. I can have peace of mind that my boys will not be beaten, harassed, chastised by the teachers/students. If you want any kind of education in Thailand you pay big money for the private schools. Way too much. I will take my boys to the best education they can get, with the best chance to further their education/careers. We will come back to Thailand during breaks in school, but the most important thing you have to think of is what is the best for your children

Thais will never give back money you paid for rent/deposit. In my experience I have been burned before. When I leave my rental, I will not pay the last month-as by contract you pay first and last. That is the only way you will get any money back. They will keep the deposit. The place I lived before, I upgraded it, took care of the lawn, bought a weed wacker and they kept all the money. Best you can do is not pay the last month, if you have a contract you are legit in doing this to same some loss 

46 minutes ago, connda said:

It is a fact that although Thai may have traffic laws on the books, they simply are not enforced.  Therefore Thai roads are essentially Roads of Anarchy. 
Aggressive driving, speeding, not even attempting to maintain vehicles within lane boundaries, failure to yield the right-of-way (or a complete lack of understanding of what 'right-of-way' laws are), driving the wrong way on one-way roads, failure to stop or yield at stop lights or marked intersections, passing on blind corners or on bling hilltops, failure to signal, erratic driving - I see examples of this type of driving every time I'm on the road and easily could make compilations from my webcam after each drive.
But I put the blame squarely on the Thai government.  Road blocks are ineffective measures and do not catch those engaging in dangerous moving violations.  Thailand needs patrol cars with trained patrol officers out pulling violators over and issuing citations.  But before that happens, the fines and sanctions need to be sever enough to be a determent.  Enforcement is simply a poor joke.  And the joke becomes even more ridiculous when you see a line of 10 or 20 patrol cars escorting a VIP, but the authorities will say they don't have the budget to put patrol cars on the road. 
Then, why insurance companies don't pressure the Thai government to do something is amazing in itself.
Until Thailand adopts modern standards of policing their road, this carnage will continue unabated.  

Yes I totally agree, where are the police patrols to look for violators? Why do the police not enforce illegal parking that causes many accidents due to blind spots and having to pull out in a lane of traffic just to see around the illegal cars, buses and other vehicles. All the police do is maintain traffic lights and do motorbike shake downs. It is pathetic. It is a joy when I go back to USA and people obey the traffic laws. When I am driving in Thailand I am always on the alert/worried what is the next danger is going to come from crazy Thai drivers. They get angry at you if you are in a turn lane and they want to turn from 3 lanes out and you do not let them in. A two lane road is a 4 lane road to them. They drive too fast, too erratic, too uneducated in road rules. Their mentality is to win-beat the other driver. How many times have you passed a Thai driver who now takes it his responsibility to overtake you or he is loosing face? Come on lives are at stake but they do not care. Their mentality is shit happens and if I did wrong I will run away and try and catch me

On 6/1/2017 at 7:17 AM, mark01 said:

One thing for sure, those Chinese tour busses are causing huge traffic problems on the major roads and along many smaller sois around Pattaya.

 

Did the Chinese tour company that got their busses confiscated a while ago, get their busses back?

I suspect a large amount of money passed hands and the busses were quietly driven out of the compound!

 

Either way, more road trouble ahead!

These buses clog the roads, slows down the traffic to a crawl, make U-turns they can not do in more that 4 moves, blocking traffic as they do this hundreds of meters both directions, park illegally making two lane roads one lane. The police do nothing about it, they can not miss it they drive by this every day/night with their heads in the air 

On 5/9/2017 at 0:33 PM, Psimbo said:

Fascinating but this is a thread about PHUKET!

Understand, but we are talking about Thailand. The stations do not have ample parking to store all the bikes and cars they take away. Go look at the station yourself, or ask about where the bike is. They will tell you it is at another location and you have to pay the police and the storage (daily storage fee). Does not matter where in Thailand this happened

On 5/15/2017 at 1:32 PM, Ian1980 said:

Get my money 

Maybe get my money back?

every time I have made a police report about something where they need to go talk to some one who has done wrong they write the report, ask for 20 and give you a copy. I say so now what happens? Police say it will cost me more money for them to do something about it, "So you want to pay/loose baht for us to do something?" You have to pay them to do their job. It will cost you more money for them to go talk to the man and sort it out. Up to you what you want to do. I find it deplorable that the police want money to do their job

On 5/6/2017 at 1:42 PM, colinneil said:

Police recover the motorbike, take it to the police station, keep it there.

No money inlved asking 4000 baht is just another police scam.

No they do not. You can't even park in the police station to  park to make a complaint, report or pay a fine in Pattaya. You have to park on the street if you can find one. So with all the traffic accidents daily in Pattaya, you think the will take your bike to the police station and store it for you for free? Get real nothing in Thailand is free. Everyone has to get money off you. If they took it to the police station the police could not park their vehicles, which is more important to have than a falong vehicle or bike. They take your bike to a storage lot, then you pay the police to get your vehicle out, pay the storage lot more money to get it out. Good luck trying to find the correct storage lot as there are so many. Nothing about the police is free. You want them to do their job after making a report they want money to do th job they are paid to do. I miss civilization   

On 4/18/2017 at 4:18 PM, darksidedog said:

Praise God! Some sanity at last. It all used to shut down when the sun went down, but as the article says, some people just don't know when to stop.

Yes it has always been stop after sunset, but it never stopped them and it did not stop them again this year. Why does this continue to go on and the BIB is not out on the road to stop it?  Stop illegal parking of buses and cars that cause so much traffic problems?

1 minute ago, Forkinhades said:

The fish market is North Nakula, right on the beach.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

That is an option I did not think about, but looking for something closer in Pattaya hopefully thanks Forkinhades

On 4/17/2017 at 4:11 AM, webfact said:

283 killed on roads during Songkran, down by 17%
By THE NATION

 

Transport hubs were crowded with holiday-makers returning to Bangkok from their hometowns yesterday. Many, like the young man seen here carrying a rice sack at Hua Lamphong Train Station in Bangkok.

 

BANGKOK: -- A TOTAL of 283 people were killed and 3,087 others injured in 2,985 road accidents nationwide in the first five days of the so-called “seven dangerous days” of the Songkran holiday, the Road Safety Centre announced yesterday.

 

Many of the accidents resulted from drunk driving (45 per cent) and most crashes involved motorcycles (79 per cent).

 

The death toll was down by almost 17 per cent while the number of injuries and crashes rose compared to the same period during the previous Songkran when 338 deaths and 2,891 injuries were reported in 2,724 road accidents.

 

Highway Police Division chief Maj-General Somchai Kaosamran said that Nakhon Ratchasima was the province with the highest death toll, with 17 people killed during the five-day period, while Chiang Mai had both the highest number of accidents and injuries at 140 cases and 145 people respectively.

 

After five days during the road-accident monitoring period, nine provinces – Krabi, Narathiwat, Bung Kan, Phang Nga, Phuket, Mae Hong Son, Yala, Samut Songkhram and Amnat Charoen – reported no road deaths, while Chaiyaphum was the only one with no injuries related to road accidents.

 

Somchai also said 600 accidents (including 269 drunk driving incidents, 149 speeding cases and 88 crashes because a vehicle suddenly cutting in front of another) happened on Saturday alone, killing 53 people – 29 of whom died at the scene– and injur?ing 634 others. 

 

Many accidents on Saturday stemmed from drunk driving at 45 per cent followed by speeding at 25 per cent. Saturday’s road carnage mostly involved motorcycles (84 per cent), while 62 per cent occurred on straight sections of road, and 33 per cent took place between 4pm and 8pm, Somchai said.

 

Some 64,000 officials manning 2,041 checkpoints on Saturday cited 149,758 motorists for traffic violations – mostly for failing to wear a helmet (43,783 cases) and failing to present a driver’s licence (38,540 cases), he said. In addition, 21,708 other checkpoints were set up and manned by 170,752 community officials.

 

Somchai also reported that public transport use as of Saturday was at 8.25 million passengers – a 2.8 per cent increase from the same period during the previous Songkran.

 

It was also reported at the event that officers, enforcing the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) order number 46/2558 to seize vehicles from drunk drivers, spurred legal action against 301,425 people for drunk driving over the first five days of the Songkran break. 

 

They also impounded 3,969 motorcycles and 1,243 cars and public transport vehicles, and seized the licence of 14,170 drivers under the influence of alcohol.

 

Meanwhile, a recent poll by the ThaiHealth Promotion Foundation found that 3,218 respondents inter?viewed from April 1 to 14 had ranked the causes of motorcycle deaths as stemming from drunk driving (69 per cent), failure to wear a helmet (67 per cent), reckless or speeding driving (53 per cent), and running against traffic or making a U-turn in prohibited spot (52 per cent). 

 

Respondents also urged the gov?ernment to set up special to strictly control motorcycles at areas around schools and universities (95.5 per cent), around industrial estates and business hubs (91 per cent), at roads running parallel to expressways (90 per cent), at entertainment venues (79 per cent) and community areas (79 per cent), at civil service complex centres (74.5 per cent), at various tourist attractions (69 per cent), and at state offices (63 per cent).

 

Bangkok-bound traffic on various highways was more congested with yesterday as holidaymakers started to head back to the capital. 

 

Authorities manned checkpoints to check for traffic violations and set up rest stop tents for motorists to take a break or receive urgent mechanic services in an effort to prevent accidents.

 

Transport hubs were also crowded with travellers, many who were carrying souvenirs from the provinces such as rice and dried food to help cope with the capital’s high living costs.

 

See more photos: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/photo/view/133

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30312423

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-04-17

This is what they want you to believe

I used to go to Bali Hai Pier and buy fresh seafood. It was fresh and alive at a decent price. Now with all the new construction the few times I have gone there the venders are no longer there and their stalls have been torn down. Does anyone know where to buy daily fresh seafood, crabs, shrimp, clams and the likes? You go to the markets and the seafood is old and dead, who knows how long they have had them. Any informative info would be appreciated-thanks

HAHA-never be done-propaganda-usaula liip service-nothing will be resolved over what is a growing problem on Walking Street. Locals who live here go nowhere near there. We know if is nothing but trouble

As I have said for years, BUSES need to get out of Pattaya. Need to give them central parking locations on the DARK SIDE and have the hotels shuttle passengers into Pattaya. buses  are are a bain on traffic in Pattaya. It is a mini Bangkok. Does not have the infrastructure to handle the traffic yet they keep building. Buses cause major traffic problems, drive as if they just got behind the wheel of a bus for the first time and drive way too fast. They continually park illegally and the BIB do nothing as far as enforcing the law. I have seen convoys of buses on 3rd Road 18 in one minute. This is a major traffic problem as there are too many buses on the small roads of Pattaya 

Bottom line GUNS are illegal in Thailand. Why do so many Thai's have handguns? Need to crack down on this problem or more of this happens. With all the crazy me first Thai men drivers and I do not care about you attitude will only lead to more deaths. The police need to start cracking down on checking Thai driver cars/vans/trucks or what ever in check points instead of trying to get easy cash from farangs for trumped up charges and putting the money in their pockets

What a joke. The Takin's one of the richest families in Thailand and the world want the poor people to give hard earned money that she profits from. why she not give Thai's more than the paltry amount she gives for publicity photo shoots????????????????????????????? What a joke and a same 

The family is one of the richest families in the world and she would consider taking money from the poor to pay for her sins. Shameful

Typical mentality, they think this so funny and what they never think about is how dangerous the jet skier's actions are. How many things can go wrong. Only think in the moment and of themselves

The Police and military went there 3 weeks ago and cleared out the boats and told them not to come back. I was there a week after and all the boats were back and the lot was full of boats. No place for a car to park. This will keep happening until they start towing away the boats and get into the pockets of the boat owners. They are mafia and hard headed and will be back as soon as the heat is off. Simple solution is put a guard police or military and have them monitor the lot on a Daly/nightly basis. This is so simple to remedy why they not do is what you and I know-deep pockets payments. If you think the boat owners are going to move down to south Jomtien, wrong. They will park the boats all over the streets until the police/military make them move again Start with a guard at the entry ways-so simple

bad idea. One large Bus with around 50 or more passenger need how many minibusses? The traffic and the parking problem will grow.

Exactly what I was thinking also. 1 large bus holding 30 to 40 passenger will be replaced by 3 to 4 minivans holding 10 passengers. How is that going to help? It will triple the numbers of vehicles on beach road and 2nd road.

You both must not live in Pattaya or tried to drive any vehicle around Pattaya. Buses are one of the biggest problems in Pattaya. There are too many of them, the are too large for the small soi's that they have to drive down to get to the cheep hotels where the tour is put up in. They can not manage turns, much less U-Turns and will block the road for 5-10 minutes trying to navigate such turns. Meanwhile to traffic backs up to create a super traffic jam. Ever been on a small soi when a bus is coming down it? You have to back up or drive up on the sidewalk if there is one.

Then let's talk about what happens after they drop their load of tourist off at the hotel. Do they park on the hotel parking lots? No they park on the street and they do not care where they park. They will park in the red no parking zone and hunker down and sleep until it is time to pick up the tourist at the hotel. They park, take up a full lane of road that is needed for the other people to use to get around town. So a two lane road is now a single lane, which adds up to twice the driving time for the other people driving. Now imagine a long line of buses parked in this way and this is Pattaya roads. Try to get out from a side soi when a bus is parked illegally at the intersection in a red no parking zone? It is dangerous as hell, with a truck or car you have to pull out into the only lane of traffic not blocked by the bus just to try and have a look if there is any traffic before you pull into the only lane of traffic-because buses are parked illegally all along the road. Yes there is cross traffic coming and fast and heavy-way too dangerous.

I have been saying for years they need to build specified bus parking lots across Sukhumvit Road on the Dark Side and ferry the tourist into Pattaya to their hotels. This is the smartest way to handle it. Three vans take as much space a one bus, on the road so it really will not change the traffic volume. The buses arrive intermittently so it is not like all busses come into Pattaya at the same time and all of a sudden you have droves of mini-buses on the road. Come on people use some common sense.

Then any bus caught in Pattaya should be fined and impounded. End of story-if you can get the corrupt MIB to do their job.

NO BUSES ALLOWED IN PATTAY=more lanes of road for traffic to use and will alleviate a lot if the traffic problems. Pattaya was not build smart with a good infrastructure of roads for the amount of people or vehicles on the road. Making it illegal and enforcing buses to stay out of Pattaya makes TOTAL SENSE

I always tell people to read the book "Private Dancer". It is a must read and good read. It explains a lot about the Thai-Farang relationship and what the Tai lady is about in values, family, and life. Read it and it will explain it all

Get a copy of the book "Private Dancer". It will give you real incite into what a farang feels and a Thai bar girl feels and the lies and deceit that goes on. It is a must read for any farang to read before or when he thinks he has a relationship with a bar girl or free lancer in Thailand REAL