rinteln

Shock horror....lol

Lets hope no research or time went into that

Universe gym, on the top road. 800 baht for a month.

I think Pattaya is all about how you use it.

Ok it has its bad points and it does seem to be the haven for some scum to arrive into but on the whole it depends how you use it.

As with any place in the world I would always come down on anyone who passes opinion on a place but hasn't lived there. We all know that coming here on holiday is a totally different world from living here.

I love it here.

Sorry to say but it would probably come down to whether the pedestrian in question was a farang or a Thai. The unwritten rules I suppose are whoever has the money will be in the wrong. So most likely the farang.

Negative but realistic im afraid.

Just take a look at a typical zebra crossing any day of the week and look how annoyed Thais get when they have to stop at the crossing when there is a clear red light. Stupid farangs they shout. I mean fancy trying to cross a road safely.

It's not just Thais that get annoyed. Farangs drive right through them even if the light is red and you're 1/2 across. Lack of police enforcement is the big problem.

Well in that case its Christmas come early for the police if its a farang running over another farang. I'm sure the police could swing it so somehow they could both be in the wrong...lol

In my eyes there are 3 problems with the crossings :

1. Thais aren't used to stopping on a straight line in regards to lights, they are only used to lights at junctions

2. The job of enforcement would be REAL police work, hard work and probably not much extra cash in it so Pattaya police wont be interested in that

3. Farangs ARE used to crossing zebras safely in their home countries so they will use them without much thought

Result

Loads of tourists crossing the road thinking its business as usual with loads of Thais thinking the tourists are just walking into the road stupidly and all with no enforcement.

Rintein, I beg to differ.

I have seen a situation where a farang pedestrian was hit by a Thai motorbike rider and the rider was fined (500 baht) with the farang just warned about being careful of Thai traffic.

Oh ofcourse, I agree. There will always be exceptions but in general the farang will be blamed where possible (which is most times), unless its so obvious ! If there were 100 accidents this week with Thais and farangs then I bet at least 70% will be blamed on the farang without much investigation at all. Arrest the Thai and you are more unlikely to get the money, have loads of paperwork and have to lock him/her up. Arrest the farang and he/she will pay straight away.

To the police in Pattaya an accident is an opportunity for money. So who is likely to have more of it and more likely to part with it at short notice. The Farang !! In my opinion its as simple as that. Just like if there are 2 motorbikes approaching a stop point, 1 with a farang wearing a hat and one with a Thai not wearing a hat, they will still stop the farang. Why, more chance of money.

In my opinion this theory carries over into accidents hence my original answer. There are exceptions, but not many.

You have been reading to many TV posts. I think this attitude that farangs are always blames is a load of rubbish. I find it to be the same to each person. If you are doing something wrong you will be in trouble. if you are not then you have no worries.

Yes of course you have to be careful crossing a road no matter where you are and especially here in LOS.

No, funny enough what I said earlier was actually my own opinion and not a result of other TV posts.

"I think this attitude that farangs are always blames is a load of rubbish"

Oh dear.

Rintein, I beg to differ.

I have seen a situation where a farang pedestrian was hit by a Thai motorbike rider and the rider was fined (500 baht) with the farang just warned about being careful of Thai traffic.

Oh ofcourse, I agree. There will always be exceptions but in general the farang will be blamed where possible (which is most times), unless its so obvious ! If there were 100 accidents this week with Thais and farangs then I bet at least 70% will be blamed on the farang without much investigation at all. Arrest the Thai and you are more unlikely to get the money, have loads of paperwork and have to lock him/her up. Arrest the farang and he/she will pay straight away.

To the police in Pattaya an accident is an opportunity for money. So who is likely to have more of it and more likely to part with it at short notice. The Farang !! In my opinion its as simple as that. Just like if there are 2 motorbikes approaching a stop point, 1 with a farang wearing a hat and one with a Thai not wearing a hat, they will still stop the farang. Why, more chance of money.

In my opinion this theory carries over into accidents hence my original answer. There are exceptions, but not many.

Sorry to say but it would probably come down to whether the pedestrian in question was a farang or a Thai. The unwritten rules I suppose are whoever has the money will be in the wrong. So most likely the farang.

Negative but realistic im afraid.

Just take a look at a typical zebra crossing any day of the week and look how annoyed Thais get when they have to stop at the crossing when there is a clear red light. Stupid farangs they shout. I mean fancy trying to cross a road safely.

It may sound weird but this forum may not of been the best place to ask this question. Why ? because most people on here either quote the rule book (really not helpful) or don't really think in practical terms. Some people just want to give the right answer on paper and not the more realistic one which is ofcourse why sites like this exist.

I would picture it this way. There are 2 parts here with 2 solutions.

1. You sending the stock and turning up at the post office everyday which may show a work style trend.

Solution, get a Thai you trust, or farang friend to go for you. Mix it up, never send the same person two days in a row, go different times to the post office etc etc. Or even get a pick up service. There are loads of ways. Do anything to make sure you are not the one at the post office.

2. You are receiving money from someone outside Thailand. Wow, big deal. There is no connection whatsoever between the goods being sent and the money you receive. It is not against the law to receive money from outside and almost impossible to connect the two. Plus using the solution to problem one makes it very hard.

Plus don't forget Thais are incredibly lazy. The police want to raid offices and bars which are simple tasks. Not follow people, investigate and spend time putting the pieces together. They want easy money. Your ex wont want to loose face in the police station when the officer cant be bothered to see it through because it requires some work.

I know it may seem a worry but I would personally think in odds. Its highly unlikely anyone would piece this together and certainly unlikely they would be motivated to. If you are the kind of guy who doesn't want to take any risk at all, even if its 1/100 chance then ofcourse stop it but if not then I would simply not worry.

I agree with Slaps earlier. Work permit my ass.

OMG please ! There are always people that weigh in with the WP line when its not needed. The chances of being caught in your own home, on an Ebay page, actually doing what they may define as work, by police is so remote its not even worth thinking of. You might aswell worry about being struck by lightning 3 times in a night. In fact you would have to be a complete fool to get caught even if someone did tell the police about you which is unlikely as you are in your own home.

Its simple, you do the internet work in your home, you send the girlfriend to the post office to do the packets, send the money from your Paypal to your bank. A transfer from Paypal could be anything. Job done.

I think there comes a point where some advice is just plain not helpful and advice on these forums should really be a bit more down to earth and realistic as opposed to just quoting the rules all the time.

qazwsx38. I suppose yes the correct answer is technically yes you would need a permit to do Ebay but there is a 99.99999999999999999999% chance you would never be get caught unless you are a complete fool.

Just get on there and sell. Good luck with the business.

Thailand might like to visit Kuala Lumpur to see how efficient passport control is there. Malaysia has abolished arrival and departure cards. You just present your passport and they scan and stamp it . Why doesn't Thailand do the same? What on earth do they do with all the paper? They could also resolve their staffing problems by abolishing passport control on departure. European airports don't check passports on the way out in most cases. In brief, it means Thailand is doing unnecessary work.

I was just in Malaysia not to long ago. They still issue arrival/departure cards. I lost my departure card and they asked for it at land border, but waived me through after a minute of me searching for it. Don't see the point in it because they issue a tag along with the entry stamp

They still issue them but you can enter without one. I went through last week and didn't enter with a card. Only had to finger scan. Its only a problem if you entered with one and lose it.

I was at the airport only a couple of days ago coming back from Singapore and by the looks of it they need to get some basics correct before any fancy machines come in.

For starters we were told on the flight there was a general shortage of immigration white forms and some airlines were out of stock due to no supply from Bangkok. So straight away you have a problem with hundreds of people trying to get forms on arrival. So given this huge flux of people arriving without forms you would expect easy availability of them at the immigration desks..or a proactive move to get them to people as soon as possible.........no !! Chaos. Everyone had to go and find them from a couple of girls just standing around with a wad in their hands as if it was business as usual.

I went to immigration point 1 as 2 was so backlogged that the queue was nearly down to the main walkway. Got to immigration 1 and guess what, not all the desks were open. Maybe 3/4 were closed. Plus they thought in their wisdom that they somehow needed 2 desks open for Thai nationals only......errmmmmm.

Bottom line, over an hour to do immigration.

The airport maybe fancy, one of the best in the world and it may have all the mod cons but the end of the day it is still run by Thais and thus is and remains probably the most awkward immigration I ever go through. Actually, sorry there is worse ive been through....Havana in Cuba....lol.

Auto machines for Thai nationals will have so little impact im not sure it even deserves discussion.

I have to comment on your comparison to the UK/USA point as I see this mentioned all the time and it gets the blood going. I agree with your line "people who may not be real tourists" and im sure we could all debate about this for ages but in my opinion it is not to be compared to the UK or US. A visitor to Thailand, no matter how long they stay can never be a burden on the Thai state as there is no social system and no free health care etc etc. Whether you work, run a business, retired, lay around on beaches using Tourist beaches....whatever. You will always be a financial positive to the Thai GDP and government. If I run out of money tomorrow and I'm stuck here homeless with no money then at no time will I be a negative status financially to the Thai government and rightfully so. Even to send you home is at your expense including legal fees. Surely any intelligent government in this position must make immigration policy with this assumption. Most people that are trying to live here or stay for a long time are not going to put themselves in a position where they are homeless and/or skint on purpose. Even if they did there is still no burden on the Thai state. If this is the thinking behind the silly tourist rules and trying to limit them then it doesn't make sense unless they think that thousands of foreigners are going to invade Thailand and leave themselves homeless and die on purpose. Would be very negative thinking wouldn't it. Yes there will be some people who mess up but not enough to base your whole country's visa policy on. .

But the fact remains a tourist visa is for tourists, not for people use it as a vehicle to stay in a country on permanent or semi permanent basis, irrespective if they are are burden on a country or not..they are not tourists.

I aways thought personnally the 180 day rule was quite a good one, in one of my own countries, the ruling is, once you have done 180 days in country in they will not let you back in for a 6 month period.

Further on from that, retiree's are very welcome to come and live there provided you meet the monetary requirements and lodge and bond with the goverment, so if you manage to fall down and out while living there on retirement, there is money to repariate you back to your own country.

If you want to live somewhere on a permanent or semi permanent basis....you really should go and get a proper visa, which lets you do that and in the case of Thailand there are muliple options to choose from to do it properly

Yes I agree. The 180 day rule was actually quite good and one of only a few rules that did work because it filtered out some people but as normal the Thai government knew they were losing money. Thais want their cake and eat it.

The main problem here for me is what is the definition of "tourist" ? I used to work in the UK for 3 months and then do a month or so here. I did that for 2 years. Am I a tourist or not ?!! If someone is staying here for a year and they have their own money then that is still a tourist in my book. At what point, or who decides when someone is not a tourist. When does one lose tourist moral status...........4 months, 6, 1 year etc etc.

Yes I also agree that if you do want to stay a long time then you should get a proper visa but thats only in the interest of the foreigner. Again (as I mentioned earlier) what does it matter to the Thai government. Person A is on a 1 year multi entry for marriage and person B has done 3 tourist visa runs. What difference is person A to Thailand. Nothing.

You are correct about the retirement visa though, that is probably one of only a couple of visas that does actually have a logical aspect to it.

In general I think the only way all this will get a bit easier is when the logic being used isn't "how to get the most money out of those farangs without losing too many of them" and instead thought through immigration processes that don't encourage illegal activity.

I know, very naive. Maybe this is 50+ years.

One factor that does often present itself with Singapore is those with local ties (citizen or resident) often report good service. Unlike the reports from Manila where all seem to get the bad hair day (although there have been a few positive reports lately).

Is maybe not more of case that certain people turn up prepared, ie documents correct etc, get there early at the front of the queue etc..eg

I have to agree that this is not at all a nice Embassy to go to if you are looking for a tourist visa and have history in your passport and /or if you are missing a couple of documents and hoping to wing it.

In cases like this...it is very obviously that persons may not be real tourist, and they know it, further if you turn up missing a couple of documents, then one would expect less that favourable reception at the desk.

Try and get visa for the UK/US with a "few documents missing"...

As mentioned have used Singapore on many occasions, turned up early to be at the front of the queue when the doors open, all paper work correct and checked...drop the paperwork off, pay the cash and then off for a day of beer & festivities on the company expenses, turn up next morning and pick up the PP...never been a single issue from any embassy staff..

.

Fair enough but basic human politeness should always be expected whatever the circumstances. Whether you are there for the 10th time or first you are still a human and customer paying for a service.

I have to comment on your comparison to the UK/USA point as I see this mentioned all the time and it gets the blood going. I agree with your line "people who may not be real tourists" and im sure we could all debate about this for ages but in my opinion it is not to be compared to the UK or US. A visitor to Thailand, no matter how long they stay can never be a burden on the Thai state as there is no social system and no free health care etc etc. Whether you work, run a business, retired, lay around on beaches using Tourist beaches....whatever. You will always be a financial positive to the Thai GDP and government. If I run out of money tomorrow and I'm stuck here homeless with no money then at no time will I be a negative status financially to the Thai government and rightfully so. Even to send you home is at your expense including legal fees. Surely any intelligent government in this position must make immigration policy with this assumption. Most people that are trying to live here or stay for a long time are not going to put themselves in a position where they are homeless and/or skint on purpose. Even if they did there is still no burden on the Thai state. If this is the thinking behind the silly tourist rules and trying to limit them then it doesn't make sense unless they think that thousands of foreigners are going to invade Thailand and leave themselves homeless and die on purpose. Would be very negative thinking wouldn't it. Yes there will be some people who mess up but not enough to base your whole country's visa policy on. .

To answer your point. In the UK an illegal immigrant or someone that overstays CAN be a burden on that state as any British person will know too well. That is the difference. If I overstay and run out of money and have no food here then I will die here with no support, simple !! In the UK you will get money, food stamps, healthcare, somewhere to sleep, basic human care etc etc. That is the difference. The UK has to be strict on visa rules and justified so as illegal workers, immigrants can be a negative on the state and they have to make sure as best they can that the risk is low of that happening. So in my opinion the whole "try getting a visa to the UK argument" is just not to be compared and I don't see what end of logic the Thai government have for it. That's even before we mention the obvious points like risk comparison etc etc. Someone with a British passport coming to Thailand is alot lower risk than vice versa.

HI,

Probably easier just to say that your idea wont work. There are so many issues. I had this situation last year and I was lucky but it involved me walking up and down between borders in no mans land at Sadao 2 or 3 times. I learnt the hard way. I didnt have a clue and tried to wing it.

The problem is your old passport will not be electronically activated as they deactivate as soon as the new passport has been applied for. Also when you leave Thailand on the old passport they will stamp this with the exit stamp and not the new passport. So whatever country you arrive into they will insist on seeing an exit stamp in the passport you want to use. Ofcourse you cant show them the exit stamp on the old passport as you cant use that to enter the new country. So its like a yo yo effect back and forth. So you have to get the Thai police at your exit to stamp the new passport with the exit stamp. Sounds simple but it may not be. I was lucky but not sure its normal procedure for them to do that.

As far as the Hull idea goes. I suppose it could be technically possible as the theory could be the same. If you can get the exiting immigration to stamp the new passport with the exit stamp and not the old passport and just get into the next country then it could technically work but very risky. As someone said, if you get a switched on immigration guy then it could go wrong. Wouldnt advise.

I think the 100% best/safe way is to just get the stamps transferred in Bangkok when you have both passports. I have forgotten what the place is called but you can get them transferred for a fee. Then just get a visa from a nearby Embassy. I know its not as good as the Hull option but I would forget the Hull idea. Its risky. Remember, no one knows what checks Hull make with Bangkok when processing visas. What if it all goes wrong and you are stuck in Thailand with an old invalid passport.

Used singapore on many occassions and never had a problem, drop the paperwork/PP off one day, pick passport up next....my PP has loads of Thai stamps into and never been once queried

Lucky man then, or maybe I was there on a bad day.

When you renew your passport you have to pay for the DHL return fee also. They don't send the passport back normal post.

What I would do. When you send the application you should use a DHL office. So just arrange with that office for the return packet to be sent to them instead of your home address. Then you can either track the item online or just call that office to check when it arrives.

Thats what I did in Pattaya and all worked out good.

If you are taking the bus from Hat Yai then you will go through the Sadao border control. There is a special overstay office to the left of the immigration queues next to the toilets. Go there first, pay and then queue up. Dont queue up first as they will just send you to the office anyway. The police in there are quite chilled out and it shouldn't take any more than 5 minutes. I had this once and just as everybody says, pay the fine and everything will be ok to return back and get your 15 days.

My only tip though is let the bus company know in advance about the overstay when you are paying for the ticket. Normally on these buses there is the driver and one rep. If the road going up to the Sadao border is busy (which it normally is) then she can go out and walk with you to the office (about 100m) to get a head start before the rest of the bus arrives. Nothing worse than keeping the whole bus waiting. Just a tip

I agree with Randytimm. Avoid Singapore like the plague. These Embassy guys like to act as though they are above everybody else and take great joy in refusing/rejecting visa's.

They are arrogant Singaporeans who have been hired by the Embassy to perform "police' like activities and treat just about all clients as criminals.

Hi,

I have to agree.

I have just come back from the Singapore Embassy so I thought I would post a recent experience.

I went for a single entry Non Imm B and had all the correct paperwork so I got the visa but despite this I have to agree that this is not at all a nice Embassy to go to if you are looking for a tourist visa and have history in your passport and /or if you are missing a couple of documents and hoping to wing it.

When you first walk in there is a very aggressive looking battleaxe of a Thai/Chinese/whatever lady literally checking everybodys paperwork and almost enjoying it when she finds a problem and can send them back to the preparation desk. At one point I even heard her say to someone "make sure everything is in order before you come to MY counters next time". The guy only hadn't glued his photo onto the application form............my god......what a crime..shoot him !!!!

So as normal there was only 1 counter open out of two and the queue was very very slow. Take it this way, when I got in at 09.30 there were 16 people ahead of me. By the time I got to the counter it was nearly 11.00. Ridiculous !! So this means they have seen only 17 people in that time and the places closes in 30 minutes. The lady at the counter was so arrogant it was unreal, literally slapping documents back at me that she didn't need and never actually looking at me when she asks a question.

In the meantime while I was in the queue I listened to alot of what was going on and seems like they are very strict on tourist visas. Flight tickets, hotels, the lot.

Unless you literally have all the paperwork and don't have much history in your passport (Thai stamps) then all in all I would stay away from this Embassy. This is an Embassy that wants to do as little as possible and extremely arrogant about it. They seem to be enforcing all the rules so that they can do as little work as possible and turn people away. In fact seeing as KL and Penang are not far I would just totally avoid this Embassy for Tourist visas.

In regards to Non Imm O for marriage. I only heard one conversation and it seems like the normal documents plus 400,000 in the bank policy.

300,000 THB a day robbed from visitors, for years, in broad daylight on Pattaya Beach and the police protect the criminals.

Same thing happens in Phukett, Samui etc.

Yawn......

same as..............

Ask any Thai if they like living in Pattaya. The answer is always no.

They are here for one thing only.

Sorry, confused by that. How is that relevant, they are still here and the greed is still in place. Whether they like it here or not doesnt matter and shouldnt be a reason for any change in behaviour as opposed to their normal attitude. The fact that it may not be their ideal place to live is not relevant. So really what they want is the money Pattaya brings and to be back home in the village at the same time...lol..lol

Surely isnt part of having more money by living somewhere part of enjoying it more ? I didn't like living and working in London but I did and I wouldnt use it as an excuse if i then started acting different.

Sorry, your point seems either quite naive of their greed or just a contradiction. If I'm wrong please explain further.

Today opposite Mike’s Shopping mall a big fight broke out at around 5:30pm. A group of Middle Easterners (Nationality unknown) had rented jet skis and before the police could arrive the one of the owners (wearing the long sleeve grey shirt) kicked one of them in the stomach, then several of the jet ski staff jumped in fighting the other renters. After the brief scuffle one of the renters had a big gash on his head with heavy bleeding. I believe he was hit in the head with a motorcycle battery as I saw one of them leaving the scene with it in his hand.

The jet ski owner originally claimed one of renters put a scratch on the front right of the jet ski, but from my vantage point I could see no scratch The outcome and the condition the renters is unknown as I left quickly after that.

The renter in the photo with brown shorts, no shirt and tattoo on his arm was very aggressive, he broke a beer bottle on the ground and then started threatening one of the renters and then to a bystander who told him he should no scam tourist every day like this.

The video is a big shaky.

What a shame.

Pattaya has always been rough around the edges but my last two visits there were my last. It has gone downhill so much and full of more undesirables than ever. Having gone there many, many times in the past, I've never experienced such rude behavior from the locals as I did the last two trips. It was just an overall bad experience pretty much everywhere we went. Pattaya never was a fair representation of "Thailand" and I'm sorry to say that the Mayor has lost all control of this town, or perhaps controls it, whichever, and is driving it into the ground with a quickness. The roads were also in horrible condition, pot holes everywhere and the beach was eroding in several areas. Not something to expect from such a high traffic tourist destination.

Back in the day I used to think Phnem Phen was lawless, and it was. But I've seen more violence in Pattaya in the past few years than I ever did in a lawless Cambodia 10 years ago.

I wish everyone luck who stays there. It's only going to get worse.

I totally agree. Leave Pattaya to the suckers who know no better, the Russians, Indians, Chinese etc.

The locals have become obscenely greedy, rude, aggressive and incredibly racist. The jet ski scam is just a particuliarly prominent form of abuse that in fact represents the general attitude very accurately.

I have shifted my attention to Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and other countries. They are better, they offer better value, the people are nicer and in fact, you know what, the women are nicer too.

Totally agree with this line "The jet ski scam is just a particuliarly prominent form of abuse that in fact represents the general attitude very accurately"

This was part of my general point earlier. Its not just about the physical scams, its partly the attitude and culture that Pattaya Thais now have.

Below tweet from US Embassy ACS today:

@ACSBKK

ACS Bangkok

Be very careful when renting jet skis in Pattaya. Still hearing reports about jet ski scams & aggressive behavior towards tourists who rent

Good to see some action being taken by someone.

You're being negative rinteln.

By keeping this thread alive is about the best that can be done, which is to bring it to peoples attention.

Just Google " jetski Thailand ", you will get this page which mainly about scams.

http://www.google.co...157l4.11.1l16l0

As I expected I knew someone would say I'm being negative.

Look, most people coming here on holiday are not going to preempt to search for scams or in fact anything related to that. Newcomers search for dos & donts in a country, what jabs to have, the climate for that time of year, how to say hello in Thai etc etc. They don't sit around the table with their flight tickets to visit Thailand for the first time and think......ooohh I wonder if we should check if there is a mafia system in that small City in Thailand which endorses ripping tourists off regarding jet skis.......err no !! Travel agents dont advise when booking and nor do travel insurance companies. There is no central system of being warned. The only people who are going to think to search for that kind of stuff are the people that are here already, either expats or people who have been scammed before. The mafia, police and scammers don't care about losing out on them, that's small fish. A large percentage of newcomers to this City wont know in advance. There will always be newcomers hence the scam will always work. Bottom line.

I think there is a danger of being positive just for positive sake, thus wasting time and energy and at times with risk also. Even the guy who is paid to sort it out (The Mayor) is not interested. He knows only a few a photos of him pretending to talk with the chief of police for a meeting about jet skis every 6 months is enough to keep us naive farangs at bay while the scams run and run. I've seen all the pics and the same people are in them all the time and continue to be. How many pics of the same people do these dumb police need to make an arrest or prevent it. The answer is unlimited as they don't want to stop it because its a multi million baht business.This has been going on for years and will go on for years. This wont stop by anything that any of us can/will/have done. This will only stop when 1. the general mentality/endorsement changes and huge peer pressure is made (as I said before thats at least 50-100 years) or 2. Jet skis are totally banned (in my opinion the only way)

Yes the work on forums, word of mouth etc etc may have a small impact for some individuals and is good but I'm afraid your not going to change the general problem and the proof of that is how long the scams have been going on for. To my knowledge at least 7 years. So this means at least 7 years without prevention of the same crime being committed in the same place, by the same people, in the same manner, with masses of evidence and witnesses on standby but despite this has been allowed to happen for all this time and your telling me don't be negative....lol ! Realistic is the keyword.

Where can one even start on this subject. This has been going on for so long its enough to make a cat laugh.

You only need to ask your self one question....How can a crime that is conducted everyday, in the same place, by the same people and in the same manner survive for years and years without being stopped. Now even for Pattaya police (who I think are possibly the worst force I have ever come across) it should be easy to catch these people. So the fact they don't can only lead us to the conclusion that this is a big money business where everyone benefits. The operators, police and I would say perhaps even City Hall itself. I say City Hall because the government must be in on it somewhere as something this big and public and isolated just wouldn't survive if the government really really wanted it to go. We are talking about crimes committed along a 2/3 KM beach with plenty of evidence already and alot of publicity, not exactly FBI stuff is it. Now I know there will always be people who come across this for the first time and will have the same first instincts as the rest of us had. They will want to be positive, constructive and think of ways to sort it out in our very western way. We are naive !! This scam wont stop for a long time to come and any efforts or stress are futile. You are battling with ignorance and a big money business.

Now I might be accused of being negative but I think there is a thin line between that and the facts. Who in this world is going to convince the police, operators and City Hall that it is a good idea to lose what is probably between a 100-200 thousand baht weekly business here in Pattaya. No way !! Our western values and logical thinking don't mean sh*t. We are human ATMs, we have the money so they think its ok to steal it from us. The same mentality as when you pay 10 baht more for your chicken and rice or when a policeman lets 3 kids on a bike with no hats drive past but stops you because you are a farang. The list goes on and anyone who has been here for only even a few days will probably have an example of being treated differently. Now we laugh it off and no doubt someone will accuse me of being a bit petty about it because most of the time we are talking small things so we don't mind too much but my point is this kind of thinking reflects also in the jet ski scams and its allowance to continue.

2 fundamental things would have to happen before you even get to the logistics and practice of stopping Jet Ski scams.

1. Convince the fat cats on the beach, Pattaya police and City Hall to close down their multi million baht a year business and take Jet Skis off the beach (errr......not gonna happen)

2. The mentality that farangs are equal and not to be treated different, robbed, scammed etc just because they have more money (50-100 years minimum)

I think anyone who has any knowledge of these scams will agree that both are a long way off. Bottom line for me is I will make sure I never use the Jet Skis personally and everyone else I know. Apart from that you cant do a thing and will never be able to.

Saw him last night, 2nd Road opposite The Avenue