dddave

4 minutes ago, BenStark said:

Looks as if it will be big bus then.

 

Do you know if it is possible to buy tickets a day in advance?

No advance purchase for the Ekkamai bus, I think same for Mo Chit bus but not sure.

You can exit the bus at Udom Suk (as long as no bag under) and take the BTS to Sala Daeng or Choen Nonsi, whichever is closer.

You can advance purchase the Jomtien bus, either online or at the station.

1 minute ago, bkk6060 said:

I never take either anymore, but when I did I would buy 2 seats on the big bus.  Stretch out it is not terrible.

I used to try to buy the 2 rearmost seats during the Covid years.  Very bouncy but nobody else close to you or reclining in your face.

Just now, BenStark said:

I think 6 months ago, but I pass them daily on the highway when i drive home, so I do know they are very old.

No question they do generally use older buses on the Ekkamai-Pattaya route.  I frequently see the much newer buses from Ekkamai going to other destinations like Changchonsao and Rayong.

They know they are going to fill those Pattaya buses 90% of the time so no incentive to try to attract passengers with new buses.

Not for deterrent but for easy clean-up I bought one of these inexpensive power washers on Lazada,  Works great blasting away dried bird poop. 5 minutes and I'm done.

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/2-stdb-i4079374843-s19077142458.html?

I tried netting but hated how it interfered with my view.  Old CD disks, aluminum foil on coat hangers, plastic cat...nothing worked for long.   

There are also several Van/Bus/taxi stations on S. Pattaya Rd near the temple, same side.  I often see see a small bus stopped at the stand nearest the temple, but I don't know if it has a regular schedule.  There is also the option of taking the bus from Jomtien (Foodmart on Trapaya Rd) which goes to Suvarnabhumi Airport.  Easy there to get the Airport Rail Link into the city, exit at Makkasan and take nearby MRT to Silom.

I live on Jomtien beach Rd. There are eight Family Marts on Beach Rd. within 1km of my building, 2 within 100 meters.  Makes it impossible to direct guests by saying: "Look for the Family Mart."

7-11 has been aggressively building much larger stores around Jomtien & Pattaya.

Going to be a LOT of vacant storefronts.

On 8/11/2023 at 4:18 PM, Liverpool Lou said:

So you have nothing empirical to base your claim on?

20 years using Thai Post, never a missing item, ever.

19 hours ago, 2long said:

His motorcycle veered into the opposite lane = he rode on the wrong side of the road, against oncoming traffic. Or am I misreading something?

Oh no!! The headline explicitly says it's the highway's fault and he is just another poor foreigner victim.  It's only when the driver is Thai that drivers recklessness is at fault.

Sometimes the farang press is more biased then even the worst of the thai rags.

Several years ago, a friend set himself up to make high quality courier bags.  He gave it a go but getting exactly the same quality materials you seek daunted him.  From time to time he'd find small amounts scouring Facebook but could never get consistent suppliers of specific materials or colors, genuine Codura especially.  He finally gave it up.

23 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

During the recent public holidays it was gridlocked, couldn't move or pass even on a motorbike, the solution is no cars or make it one way

One way would create it's own mess, overloading Pratumnak 5 intersection with Pratumnak Rd which is bad enough already. Cars would have no other way to get back no matter which direction the "One-Way" ran.   The only good solution would be strict no parking enforcement along the non-beach side of Dongtan Beach Rd. but that will never happen.

Just don't buy the Phillips combo unit.  Terrible design.  The small cup turns to open in the same direction one has to turn it to remove it from the blender.  The blender collar is so high, one can not grab the base, one has to twist the cup instead and if you are not super careful, it can open and spill it's contents into the blender base...which for some inexplicable reason has an opening that allows anything spilled to go right into the motor compartment...duh.

I hope this is allowed but I can understand if news of another forum is forbidden. 

Old timers who were on the old "NanaPlaza.com" forum which then became Thai360 may have noticed Thai360 has been offline the past two weeks.

Marcel (Khun Sanuk) who has been the administrator of both those forums has had a  sudden and severe medical episode and is currently hospitalized.  His condition has stabilized and he is off the critical list. 

I'm not at liberty to make any other information public at this time.    Those who know Marcel know him to be a really good person who has raised his family here in Thailand.  I know he will appreciate your thoughts and good wishes. 

1 hour ago, bob smith said:

and they say medical care in Thailand is as good as the west ???? 

 

what a joke.

Ohh, and you think Western Hospitals are perfect and don't make similar errors? What a joke.

My family had a cabin in the woods of Maine when I was growing up.  Access was by a 1/4 mile dirt path like yours. Spring thaw always made it a nearly impassable mud hole.  My dad and granddad dumped countless loads of crushed shells,  gravel, planks, everything they could think of but all eventually got swallowed by the mud.  

He finally found a fellow with a proper grader and access to sand and gravel.  The man dug a roadbed almost 2' deep, installed drainage pipe, then laid a base of rock, then gravel and sand on top, all properly graded  We finally had useable access but I remember it cost a bundle, even using a local guy who dug his own material. 

Mud swallows everything.  Unless OP can afford to construct a well drained roadbed, the mud will eventually win.

On 8/5/2023 at 8:36 AM, Andrew65 said:

Wasn't a Spanish guy convicted of a similar crime in Bangkok some years ago?

Yes. Maybe 3 years ago.  Another dismemberment as well.  Stuffed the victim into a freezer.

On 8/5/2023 at 4:49 AM, NemoH said:

looks like a ‘not so smart serial killer’

Not to be pedantic but a "serial killer" is a person who kills multiple victims, usually three or more.  This dude appears to have a way to go to reach that status.

20 hours ago, JimTripper said:

I used to have a pic of an dead end staircase in the tower building with an old dirty toilet seat at the bottom. I lived in Nirun for a month in an AirBNB one time. I lost the picture, but the seat is probably still there. I will take a pic and post if I go buy there. If it's still there it would be a year or two. I wonder who owns Nirun some Chinese company or Thai? Not sure if they care about defamation, probably not. When I lived there the dark hallways were pretty errie with all the locked metal security grates on the apartment doors. Made me wonder about the possibility of fire. Would probably not make it out if there was a lot of smoke on the higher floors. Had it been any other country I would be careful in the hallways, but since it's Thailand was not worried about personal safety.

 

Now, I did not mind much being there in that I was leaving in a month with a firm exit date. However, if I'm stuck there long term I would need to get right with God a bit and dig in.

 

My room in fact had a great view as it was on a high floor facing the sea, but if you slip on that balcony your a gonner, no chance of survival if you fall off.

 

My neighbor was some european guy who used to bbq on his small balcony with a hibatchi type deal. Always had his shirt off in boxers, etc. looked pretty low class to me. some guy scraping by on a small pension. i wonder if he's still there???

"I wonder who owns Nirun some Chinese company or Thai?"

Huge Thai company, Several similar but larger Nirun developments around.  A Thai friend lives in one in Prawat, near Mega BangNa outside of Bangkok.  In this case, 10 buildings with units that are exactly the same as the Pattaya location.  She pays B2200/Mo. for rent.   Definetly working class.  Dingy,

poorly lit hallways, a lot of vacant units. Some 29 sm units for sale for less than B250,000. 

A friend recently tried to sell his 2017 Honda Click 125 with less than 8000 km a few months ago for 32,000 and didn't get many responses on Marketplace.  He later decided to keep it.

People are suspicious of very low mileage because many here disconnect the speedometer.  Having Yamaha documentation will help.  Between 25 & 30,000.

Where is the bike located?

6 hours ago, findlay13 said:

All this racing and making a disturbance was happening 20 yrs ago.I remember being woken up  in The Montien hotel by these clowns racing up and down beach road at 2.00am.The only difference is  that it has intensified.

Exactly; going on for many years.  These Kuwaiti youth gangs seem pretty entrenched to be the kids of tourists.  Is there a large Kuwaiti expat community in Pattaya?  Perhaps traders who ship Thai goods to Kuwait?  There seem to be a lot of them and they seem to be well "protected" as the kids have been getting away with this for a long time.  

On 7/31/2023 at 5:35 AM, rwill said:

When you give someone something for free they often feel it is a 'right' of thiers to have it now.

Had it happen to me in my Bangkok apartment building.  My then GF unwittingly gave our wifi password to a woman who we did not know well who lived down the hallway from us.  There is an unused lobby in front of my entryway and I began to notice her and her friends always hanging there, engaged in long phone calls.  One day they were there when I arrived home so as soon as I got inside, I powered-down the router.  "Hello? Hello? Hello-hello"...immediately clear they had lost their connections.  I changed the PW to a much more complex one and admonished my GF to never give it out.  Later the woman showed up at the door asking for the new PW...got to hand it to her for outright chutzpah.  She got really angry when we refused to give it to her..."You're rich man and we are poor..blah-blah"  She made a big mistake when she threatened my GF.  She had a lot of friends including the building manager and within a month, the lady was gone.

I've noticed Lazada seems to have upped it's security policies in the last few months.  I get far more requests for two-step verification these days than I used to, especially when shipping to a 3rd party address.