northengr

I live outside, but close enough to get into Pattaya. Like I will do later today. The only bad thing for me about Pattaya is traffic in the core locations and the horrid songtau/taxicab scenario. So, driving in and parking is a hassle, but without decent other choices, I bear it a couple times a month.

But there are good venues and lots of choices on shopping, dining, places for friends of all budget ranges to stay. And some "entertainment" for those in need. But, I too do not hang out with gangs or anyone else at 3am and have always felt safe. Only place I had an altercation was Bangkok, not Pattaya.

Lots and lots of answers and comments, but at the risk of piling on, I would like to add one thing I did not see in the dozens of responses I did read, good ones and lame ones.

Consider what foreigners and foreigner services/goods you can find within reasonable travel distance. Avoiding jaded or grabby locals in tourist areas is a worthwhile goal, but an expat club and some intellectual stimulation from people with enough simililarity to you to really mess sometimes is needed. What are your pastimes? ocean, golf, bicycle, belling to the bar, tennis, movies, drinking Laokao with the locals?

Me, I need more connections to some brains still working and some interest in design, construction, world finances investing and such. Living here 1/2 time or more of the last 16 years, has proven the rarity of connections for me even in more touristy and populated places. I have known some farangs who thought they could live in the boonies here, only to see them lose $$, not because of the woman, but because they did not know themselves or the situation they would need.

Ocean is a draw for most of us that also brings you closer to the awful tourist, but people know that, what they do not know is the subtle intellectual stuff, and that has never been there for me in any of my scores of long term girlfreinds or wives.

The Russians have chosen an other destination, as numbers show the travel agencies in Russia showing no changes in travelers.

This people know exactly what dictatorship and military ruling ! This is why they will not choose a destination with martial law in place.

The only ones responsible for les economics and tourism was at first Suthep and now the Junta.

Outbound travel from Russian is increased by 23 % to $ 14.8 million.

The five most popular destinations in the period from January to September were Turkey ( 2.7 million , + 20% ), Egypt ( 1.4 million , 17 %) , Greece ( 1.1 million , 69 %) , Spain ( 887,1 thousand , 29 ), China ( 787.2 thousand , -20% ),

While your analysis is satisfying and your statistics are very interesting, I have to question if a Junta is the cause, because The top two other destinations are defacto Juntas also, and Greece seems to have no functioning govt. I would suggest arrogance and incompetence since Thailand and China seem to have the common link of Juntas and reductions in tourism from Russia. Not that Russians should be surprised by govt with arrogance and incompetence.

You've only been together a few months, so perhaps she'd rather go on holiday alone. She might be a tad embarrassed about the age gap too and needs time to adjust to that before introducing you to her long term friends. It's quite unusual for an educated Thai woman of her class to have a much older husband, especially a foreign one.

i agree with this sentiment EXCEPT high 30's female and 51 man is NOT much age difference. I never was married to a woman that close to my age in either of my two marriages

Can't be all that bright. He should know that it's best to scam foreigners or poorer Thais, certainly not the well-connected.

but they are the ones with real money, not us meager foreigners and certainly not the poor

i could not tell if its asbestos, but as others say, no big deal. If its looking frayed or you are otherwise worried about it getting into the air, paint it.Serious paint job will encapsulate it and let it give you yeard of good use

Engineer

Sadly, it is "our Adriano". He was a golf buddy of mine, not the closest friend, and I was not sure if it was him at first, not knowing his last name. But how many guys named Adriano is Pattaya, and it checked out.

He led a good life, was something of a minor diplomat. I think. Certainly he was an interesting, eductated and pleasant man, in spite of his slow playing on the golf course. Maybe the last time I played him was 2013.

Sorry to see him go, he was cultured and one of the more smiley and pleasant farangs in Pattaya. But better he should go like that than in some hospital and nursing home.

Was this the anniversery of Nelson Rockefeller going similarly?

M

The little rascals have way too much free time to set around drinking and planning assults on fellow man. Use them as fish bait and target practice while towed behind a speed boat over the coral reefs.

But then they will be setting up jetski businesses

I know its only one example, but when I was a gold member and flew back and forth so much I held several open legs, Thai stopped flying to NYC. Stopped the non-stop, but also stopped any service to NYC or East coast USA. After all the planes were always 100% full, how could you make money that way? Lost me forever, good riddance when they close.

Yeah, but if they predicted some good looking promo girls, it might help attendance

Hanoi in March when Thailand is too hot, is a pleasure. I have yet to spend time on beaches and countryside south of Hanoi, but look forward to it.

As a winter resident south of Jomtien, I would like to learn from this and widen my circle of friends and golf buddies, BUT

My experience based on seeing these guys at clubhouses or at the bars afterward really turns me off to joining the bar groups because of the drunks smoking cigarettes.

Any of these places have players walking instead of carts and not smoking?

Taxi is cheap if you live in BKK, but me, I have to drive two hours back to Sattahip. Problem is, their opinion of my being fit to drive and mine are quite different. Cost me a few thousand baht last time. Now I either skip the free beer or rent a room? or know which way to exit Brit club to not get a stop?

guess i got off easy in random stop after the Brit Club, just emptied my pocket, which usually has a few thousand in it. after some tense moments, I was driving well, but random stop was there..

Means a night out in Bangkok has to include a hotel room or 3000 in RT taxi, to avoid the greater risk.

I have done the circuit, short winter vacations, each getting longer, and then 2/3 of my time (not retired) working there on local stuff and also there on NY stuff with 4 RT per year. Now a few years doing like 3 or 4 months Thailand and the rest in NY, where the weather is pretty nice for 8 months, okay, maybe 7. well 6 months? But slow building economy has me here now worrying more about money, than the impending crappy weather. Still nice this week.

a double entry tourist visa may be good, but I have always done work permit and visa or retirement visa, but coming and going enough not to really need it.

Unless you have a good support system at each end, the leaving gets stressful, especially for those of us exactly 12 time zones away, can't dash back for stuff or repairs, but its still worth it. GO for it

I enjoyed Vietnam, but and the food was great, but it is a bit more hectic than Thailand and run by dictators. Which place was that? Oh yeah, Vietnam. Of course we have never had an american President that I voted for either, so not so different.

Maybe Putin will send a Convoy of "aid" to thailand too, to protect russian speakers

The Society of Professional Engineers meets monthly at the Brit Club and I go when in Thailand. I normally drive 4 hour round trip just for the meeting. It seems a nice place, good long pool, not too busy when i have been there. The tennis courts seem to get a lot of use at the end of the day. And pretty decent parking for us patient masochists who drive in Bangkok. But not living in Bangkok I never tried to join. Would seem to me a great place for swimming laps and maybe tennis in addition to the pub like scene.

"The scene is at a garden patch at the left turn to Asoke road near Rama 9 intersection."

Been through that intersection dozens or hundreds of times by car and even on foot. There is nothing there we can call "garden". But then a grenade that damages slightly 4 cars and leavesa a 2 cm hole, seems a tad small to "rock Capital". So maybe the reporter is talking about a different place and bomb.

I spoke early this year with a manager of a German chemical company in Thailand and he pointed out that Thailand had the STRICTEST regulations, even stricter than Germany, however locals do not have to comply, only us "ferners" have to actually worry about regulations.

Blah blah blah blah blah. And we will do double track trains. Very 21st century?

$20,000 monthly rent in NAna Plaza for some bigger venues. How do they make it with no curfew? Im sure the Nana lanlords will suspend rent for the time being.

Maybe they will install cots so the business model changes, longer short times and on premise?

Imagine Mr and Mrs average with the ankle bitters in tow ,after a twelve hour trip, standing in line to be finger printed and the signs say, Welcome To Thailand the Land of Smiles. What a introduction to Thailand . I rest my case.

12 hour? Try standing on that 2 hour line after traveling for 30 hours like most Americans do. Maybe time to sell condos?

phoned back in reservation after a couple nights in a cold empty bed looking out the slider at a foot of snow.