mran66

Pattaya has been center of culture and arts for quite a while. I recall it was late 1980's I came here for first time, and already then there was a lot of cultural shows and acts and different artistry visible, mostly focusing on dance performances on stage. Predominantly female performers I recall. Areas of cultural shows have since expanded,, which I think is normal in places where culture is so unseparable from local life. I recall cultural activies were mostly in WS and around soi 13s where most of artist shows happened. Now spread to Buakhao and even Jomtien, so for sure Pattaya deserves to be called a hub. Gender balance also broadened, though only a bit. Modern approach to sexual orientation choise broadly accepted, including all shades of grey between the extreme genders joining the culture activities. Graphical and sculpture artistry seems to be more and more extravagant also, esp on skins/bodies of performing artists. Graphics used to be fairly small scale black-white art before, now quite large size and multicolor. Sculpture was fairly uncommon, now sculptural work visible everywhere, mostly using modern silicon and other chemical materials, not bronze or clay like in some other places. In terms of the core Thai cultural shows that include objects like fruits, pingpong balls and bottles, progress since 80's seems less - which often is the case with areas of art with long history and deep rooting in local culture, progress just slows down and things start to look like ancient culture. Thus, we have combination of ancient show culture and more progressive too. Now just call it hub (like they do for everything these days) instead of center,!

Can recommend Eastern Home Decor on Sukhumit directly opposite to Tesco (at Thepparasit junction). They have all kinds of curtains and blinds (made to measure & installed blinds for me) https://goo.gl/maps/1SNvsLa1mWrFPrfU6 I recall they also have wallpapers but no personal experience on those. Friendly and professional family business, good price compared to many other shops.

Past couple of decades have been mostly steady improvement in terms of foreign income from tourism, thus regardless of all the talk over the years about casinos, there has not been burning need to proceed from that perspective, rather more than enough work to keep infrastructure in match with tourism volumes. Now, with the developments since 2020 with covid, the war, and consequent coming recession, situation is different and I also would be pretty suprprised if casinos would not come into the toolbox. Unrealistic to expect the decisionmakers to let that money to flow to neighboring countries who have the gambling places that attract asian gamblers. I would guess those casinos would be for foreigners and maybe for rich thais, and local mass market gambling will stay underground as it has been to fund police and other goverment officials related to that.

I had some plywood cut in this shop, they had several different thicknesses. But couple of years ago already not sure if shop still there. If not, stop by a woodworking shop and ask. Thepparasit also have some. https://goo.gl/maps/F6z2oHdAB5bxCPKi9

Last time I used was in late June, about 1hr 45min. Booked so that I arrived in airport 2hrs before scheduled departure time and had plenty of time for waiting as airport still quiet compared to pre-covid times (departure was on Monday evening 9PM), only few minutes in passport control.

Better just update the Thai Coup Manual and include the emergency decree as mandatory issue in case of military coup. In case of non-military coup could be left optional but still at will of coup orchestrator. No need speculate and wonder about it after that as it is in the manual.