Dag Ekeberg

Agreed, I think the police must have been fairly active giving out tickets at the entrance to Walking Street. Seems that Beach Road is not backed up all the way to Central nowadays (...nights)

Fixing some bottlenecks is good, but trying to redesign the whole transportation system for the city is another thing. Market forces have created the city and it's unique transportation system. Stop the tampering, I say.

It's now official! (after a lot of ups and downs)

I've seen this sign on a number of busses now. People who understand Thai understand what they've tried to do with this translation... others are probably a bit confused...

Anyone who read Chinese and can decipher  what it says at the bottom? More gibberish?

2 minutes ago, Airbagwill said:

There is a standard internationally accepted set of methodologies for gathering road safety stats...see WHO ... Sadly  Thailand doesn't even appear to gather or publish the two grades of injuries and the stats gathered for deaths used to be massaged by successive govts changing criteria...however it is quite possible adjust these to compensate for this and get figures that are internationally comparable 

WHO compared 180 countries in 2015. They adjusted the Thai numbers up by 72 percent...

5 minutes ago, Pungdo said:

I was told a while back that if you make it to a hospital and die there and don't die on the road, then you are not counted as being part of the road toll, so just what is the real figure ??

 

The 2015 WHO (World Health Org.) report cites 14,059 yearly deaths (2012 numbers) and has a footnote regarding the Thai government numbers that reads: "Unlimited time period following crash".

The WHO's estimate is 24.237 deaths per year

Funny... we did just that, went back in time.

http://www.thailandstidende.com/component/k2/item/3261-7-dangerous-days-no-more-dangerous-than-rest-of-year

Here are the Songkran numbers. And some information about why the Thai roads might not be the second most dangerous in the world after all. The hype is driven by both government and the media. They seem to have different objectives.
 
"7 Dangerous Days" no more dangerous than rest of year
 
The average number of daily road deaths during Songkran's "7 Dangerous Days" is 50 – based on government data for the last 10 years. The number of people who die on the roads in Thailand on an average day is somewhere between 39 and 66, depending on if you believe the government or the World Health Organization (WHO). So why the biannual hype?

Read the whole thing here:
 
http://www.thailandstidende.com/component/k2/item/3261-7-dangerous-days-no-more-dangerous-than-rest-of-year

“Pattaya hopes to begin work on Central-Sukhumvit bypass in November” (Pattaya Mail August 2011)

http://www.pattayamail.com/localnews/pattaya-hopes-to-begin-work-on-central-sukhumvit-bypass-in-november-5383

Re. the language: When you speak Thai you have to make sure that each syllable has the correct tone (it’s a tonal language). The good ambassador doesn’t do that. Probably nobody had the guts to tell her. Instead, they gave her an award…

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/480802-top-thai-language-speakers-honoured/

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Kudos to her for learning Thai, an example to all the long term ex-pats who still can't bother to learn the local language.

c'mon son that was pretty basic thai alt=laugh.png>

Sure..., wonder how many TV members can speak Thai at her level. She was fluent in less than 2 years. Prior gig was the Philippines and (I believe) Equador before that. She speaks 5 languages fluently and has been a good public servant. Stop the hating of one you know little if anything about.

Does she claim to be fluent? If so, that’s interesting, because this is far from fluent Thai. Thai is a tonal language…

I have the same exact question as the OP. Unfortunately, it hasn't been answered yet on this topic. Firebasejay, did you find out...?

I think it has been interesting to watch the General speaking seemingly without manuscript. Everybody can make mistakes in those circumstances. It would not be good for anyone to force the weekly adresses to be strictly manuscript (read: boring)

This is crazy. I haven’t seen a people more obsessed with speaking correctly than the Thais. It’s been drilled into every kid at school. You’re shunned if you don’t use the prescribed polite phrases at the right times.

The rates are about twice as expensive as in Bangkok.

Bangkok: 35 baht for first 2 km, then 5 baht per km.

A lot of people come to Pattaya to get dental work done, so I think these reports are very useful.

 

In the past I regularly visited the wonderful Dr Aree at the Pattaya International Hospital but sadly she is no longer there, so I'm also looking for a new Dentist.

 

Thanks for the recommendations.

I found Dr. Wongsapat on this forum, so time to give something back to the community…

This is the dentist recommended by Dr. Aree, and I must say I was very satisfied with him. He did a very conscientious job with the teeth cleaning and told me the pros and cons about teeth whitening. Not just out to make an easy buck like a lot of fancy dental places in Pattaya.

Pro Dent is his place, located a few hundred meters (ok, yards) up North Road from the roundabout (Naklua side). Can’t find his website, but they seem to be on call on 08-22559950

Thai, or farang, for that matter. Company or private individual. Need some work done on a website. Currently using Joomla but could be persuaded to change to other CMS.

Ideal would be in Khun Han / Kantaralak area, but I guess must be willing to travel…

Thanks, passingas, that sounds really encouraging. It’s tempting for cost reasons to go for the cinderblocks as inner wall, but you chose red brick. Any reason?

Got an interesting email from a pal who builds condos here. He said they use those smart q-blocks in their double walls, but important not to use same thickness on both inner and outer wall - has to do with the physics of sound waves apparantly. They have just air inside the walls, no insulation.

I "think" the going price for 7.5cm Superblock from Global House is around 20 baht. (?)

This is out in the wilderness of Isan, probably some transport involved... I tried to tell the guy that the price should be around 20, but he said the price had increased like crazy after the flooding in 2011 (!?)

I suggest "Superblock" which is commonly available at 7.5cm width - leaving a gap if you do a double wall. Personally, I don't like gaps unless filled with some insulated material - but I don't think we need to start that one again. If you go with q-block and something else, I would put the q-block on the outside - just b/c it will be the better insulator. A double wall of anything will probably be OK - although I just think the Superblock should be the standard choice. Noise will come through your windows - and that's another recent topic.

Thanks, I was quoted 33 baht pr q-block. That makes q-block four times more expensive than cinderblock (5.5 baht), taking into account the difference in size. You say a double wall of anything will probably be OK. Then I'm temped to go for cost saving...

I’ve been browsing threads all day but can’t quite find the answer…

I’m putting in a ground floor room underneath our Thai Style stilted house. I have 25 cm (10”) wide beams, so the thickness of the wall is given (namely 10”…)

Meaning, I’ll be putting in a double concrete wall. The cheapest is a double cinderblock (breeze block) wall. That leaves a 5 cm (2”) air gap which I’ve been told can be filled with those heat insulation mats (Chang brand) they use for roof insulation, since they also kill sound.

Questions:

1. Will a double red brick (those tiny bricks) wall have a noticably better sound isolation effect (those walls are 2-3 times more expensive including the cement), or will the difference be meaningless when the sound through the (double glazed) windows are added?

2. How about q-block outer wall and cinderblock (or red brick) inner wall?

3. Any suggestion for isolation material in the air gap? Remember, the issue is sound, foremost (village radio comes on at 6am).

Channel 3 broadcasting long-running comedy show at the moment.

The country that bypassed email. Went straight from sms to Face.

Please prove me wrong, have any of you ever gotten a reply to an email sent to a Thai company?

Pattaya made an entire new lane on Beach Road for these people. Now, they’re not coming anymore?

My experience is that Thai builders generally are honest and want to correct problems. The exception is guys who hang around tourist spots and speak a bit of English…