Kaoboi Bebobp

I m surprised by the bad press here about touts and cheating. I visited in Dec/Jan and even in the ghettos it was easy to handle and IMHO much less a problem than in BKK (not to mention the Indian gentlemen in Pattaya).

I did not have any bad experience and people were helpful to an extent that surprised given the attitudes of some backpackers.

Also the remarks about the traffic dont sink in with me. I had to catch a train in the evening and had to pass across town for some distance. It was rush hour but nothing in comparison to BKK and the rate was good and no attempt at ripping off. Try that in pattaya without a bulletproof west or an RPG7 to back up your point of view on pricing.

Women also seemed more level headed than in Thailand. I m not talking about working girls. Ever spoken with a Thai lady about art? Never happened to me in xmany years. In Vietnam within a few days. The people are better educated than in Thailand on average at least.

Too bad there is no Vietnamese community in Thailand of any size like in Cambodia (Nonkhai, Nakhon Phanom etc. dont really help the central and southern areas).

Hahaha! Sorry, I had to laugh at your remark about talking art with Thai ladies. I'm with you. The Viet girls are pretty savvy and definitely "more level headed."

It would be great if there were a big Viet section in Bangkok with restaurants (I miss affordable phở) and bars like in my Canadian city. Alas, I think the two cultures would not get along -- more problems from the Thai side, methinks.

FWIW, I have stopped at Home Pro, Udom Suk and On Nut on the way in. The co-pilot would always ask if I have baggage below and when I assured her I do not, that seem to satisfy her there will be no problems because I knew the rule: No unloading anywhere. If I have baggage, I always book another seat. In more than 150++ trips to Bangkok, with maybe 50-60 drop-offs at Home Pro, I have never seen the driver/copilot get out and unload from the cargo hold. But could be I wasn't on the bus when it happened.

I toured that annex twice. Didn't find much there, except some decent quality kitchen equipment. Overall, I was underwhelmed.

I had my ears cleaned there last year. They have a special machine which sucks the blockage out. That cost me ฿1800 all in.

I paid 700 baht for that at a clinic run by a Chula Uni medical prof in Bangkok. So I think 1800 was way over the top.

I've done this before but not this late in the evening. You get off at Home Pro Village (now called Market Village), which is the first stop after the motorway exit toll gate. I would definitely leave on an earlier bus. It's an hour and a half to Home Pro, but lately there have been delays. Grab a taxi outside the Home Pro mall there. It's about 140 baht to Suvarnabhumi Airport. Takes about half an hour to the airport. But you have to take your luggage in the bus cabin. As suggested, buy an extra seat for another 108 baht. They do NOT unload luggage from the undercarriage.

An inside source told me a couple of months ago the bus company is having a tough time to get and to keep drivers. I have seen many times in Bangkok the bus arriving, unloading, then pulling right into the bus bay for another run. By the way, they get a base salary and "bonus" for every run they do.

Back to the OP. As I said, I've been on virtually all the buses. I just came down from Bangkok on Tuesday. Worst trip ever! 3 hours, 15 minutes, beating my previous worst trip of 2 hours, 50 mins. It took half an hour to run on Suk from Ekamai to Phra Kanong. Sometimes we sat still for minutes on end. Into the southern bus depot, then to the motorway toll gate, which was almost an hour, when it usually takes 30-35 minutes. Torturous highway traffic and then we stopped for an NG fill-up, first time in a long time I had to stop at the 36 station. I think it was the need for a refill because of the endless delays.

Overall, with my 150 plus trips, I've only had two bus failures: crazily enough, going to BKK and returning the next day. Both buses broke down. On the return, several of us hired a taxi, which probably took just as long to get to Pattaya as the replacement bus.

There is no direct bus between Ekemai and North Pattaya.

On the way TO Bangkok it will stop at Central Bangna, HomePro BangNa, BTS UdomSuk (if needed)

On the way FROM Bangkok they often stop at Roong Ruang busstation Bang Na, Laem Chabang, Nong Yai and the intersections at Banglamung and a temple along Sukhumvit before making the U-turn back to the station.

The stop at the gas-station is not regular, but it happens.....unfortunately.

Bad aircon? Probably bus 48-1.

I don't make that trip often, but bus 48 shows up more often than not. What a clapped-out unit. Usually a much nicer bus when returning to Pattaya...

48 is the route number, 1 is the bus number. The highest number I've seen is 48-67. I think I've been on virtually every bus in the fleet the past 5 + years, having done 150 to 200 round trips. I even started taking notes on them but as soon as you mark one off for bad air con, 3 months later you have to get on it because of the sked and it's been fixed.

The worst ones are the Golden Dragons, whose chassis sways with road undulations and the seats and aisle are too tight. However, they have good air con.

I prefer the old roomy Mercedes. However, sometimes the air con doesn't work too efficiently. A couple of old Scanias have been fine.

I gave up on Darkside baht buses and bought a motorcycle. I live off Nern Pub Wan, east of the railway bypass road. A red baht bus runs back and forth only every half hour. Most of the time it is packed. Rush hour, forget about it. At night, no service.

So you would have to take a Klang baht bus to Sukhumvit, cross the temporary pedestrian bridge and take a moto taxi from the corner. If you take moto taxis every day, you would spent about 200 baht/day: cheaper from the Darkside to the beach but maybe 120 to 160 baht or more from the beach side because of the long haul up to North Road and back again to Nern Pub Wan or Soi Siam or Soi Khao Noi.

It would be miserable depending on baht buses to and from the beach side and since there are no shopping centres over here, well, you can figure it out.

It would have been instructive to see a satellite image of downtown Pattaya today. The satellite image would have shown nothing but car rooftops outlining the entire road network, from major road to the back sub-sois. I was in it on 3rd Road, Soi Kopai 10 down to Thep, then left onto Thep, then south on Thep 6 to South Road then Pattaya Tai 16 through the back sois to Arunotai. I've never before seen a backup on the little road leading to Arunotai and all along Arunotai to Klang. Everywhere it was door handle to handle, bumper to bumper, mirror to mirror.

I'm thinking of staying in Bangkok for the rest of the holiday week. At least there I can take the BTS/MRT.

Sitting around and getting drunk has got to be the commonest activity, aside from eating, in the city neighbourhood sub-sois and villages around Thailand. I always give these activities a wide berth because I don't want to attract attention or set off any kind of incident where I will be hailed over, invited to drink or ultimately attacked if I somehow upset the alpha male of the group. I will lose. Look at how quickly this gang turned into murderers. I've had several former GFs tell me to stay away from this type of group, "they're no good".

I've experienced threats from a drunken Thai group three times in my time here. Fortunately, our group of Thai/farangs got the message that we should leave now and we were doing nothing but chatting, eating and having a few drinks. By the way, the signal to retreat came from our Thai hosts. From those experiences, I vowed to never set foot in a Thai club again.

A second option if you've a desire to visit Bangkok. There are two Levi's factory outlets (on Suk at Bang Chak is one) with more sensible prices. Only thing is you never know what sizes and styles will be available.

^^^Yup. Just got home on the moto to the Darkside after some of the worst traffic ever, equal or worse than the experiences that begat this thread Even Soi Siam was backed up half a klick trying to join the Suk flow, and Suk backed up southbound far north of Nua as well as northbound. Nern Pub Wan backed up 2 km eastward. Soi Yume was bumper to bumper both sides between Nua to Klang. It was like a double-barrelled rush hour.

The flood drainage system in full gear

Looks like a photo from the future Sukhumvit bypass tunnels. LOL

Got a nice wetting on Nern Pub Wan east of the railway bypass road. Maybe rained for an hour. Temps dropped 8 degrees from this morning's 33. Lovely. Haven't had the air con on in 3-4 hours.

I've spent a lot of vacation time in Saigon, not just D1. Not once did I come across faeces or the smell of urine. Vietnam has been building public toilets at a rapid pace since 2014. Look for the Viet bank signs, which I've seen in Vung Tau and SGN. Phnom Penh, on the other hand, stinks.

I think you will find those are ATM machines.

I didn't elaborate properly. Banks are sometimes sponsors of toilet facilities in parks, with an attached ATM.

I'm wondering whether school resumes soon and parents are out buying back-to-school stuff for the kids.

I'm on the Darkside. I was out on the moto Saturday, which I normally won't do, and Sunday for necessities. It was bloody awful. On Sunday, early afternoon, the backup on the railway bypass road northbound was like a rush hour. Barely moving. Same thing northbound on Suk. Not that many buses really. On the return southbound on Suk was backed up past Hwy 7, 5-6 lanes wide.

I agree, it was some of the worst traffic I've ever seen here.

I've spent a lot of vacation time in Saigon, not just D1. Not once did I come across faeces or the smell of urine. Vietnam has been building public toilets at a rapid pace since 2014. Look for the Viet bank signs, which I've seen in Vung Tau and SGN. Phnom Penh, on the other hand, stinks.

Full credit to the co-pilot ladies.

If you're driving and people in the car are yacking, it's very distracting from the job at hand, namely getting to the destination safely. I insist on quiet while concentrating on reading traffic near, mid-distance and far distance. Driving is not a passive activity, it's very active. Sudden loud retorts inside the cabin are highly annoying and serve to degrade concentration. Bus drivers are the same and don't want to be distracted by passengers chatting loudly, playing smartphone games and hearing phone conversations. Thai passengers are very good about keeping quiet. Foreigners are the biggest problem, especially certain European nationalities who just can't shut the heck up.

There should also be a warning with the TV post of immediately visible gruesome photos in the link. No, I never look for accident photos but I wanted to read this story since it's in my district.

So that Hawaiian restaurant increased their offer from 30 to 40% now .

I hope the food is any good , I will check it out soon, the other restaurants do not interest me , (except for Coffee Club) .

How long is the promotion going on?

I suppose their regular prices must be quite high then?

Maybe suggest they sign up for EATIGO.

Look at post 103, OMG's second photo shows the regular prices on the promo card. You are correct.

I'm in Bangkok at the moment, but a friend in Pattaya now says the water throwing must stop by 7 pm and in fact it did last night, he said.

Visited the Harbor Mall. A claustrophobic place. One is constantly having to duck and dive people because of the narrow corridors, special feature displays and outside store promo signs and tables.

I quite liked the Aeon Max Value supermarket for all the take-out meals and various other groceries. But nothing really special (unless you're Japanese) and I found it wanting in the meats department. But I go to the Prime Meats outlet on Nern Pub Wan if I want variety and quality.

I will be living about a 10-minute walk from there so if the ice rink ever comes about, I will visit. And there will be the occasional shopping at Max Value.

From one resident expat's point of view: Take away the Max Value, then Harbor Mall wouldn't add up to much of destination unless you wanted to meet a friend at Coffee Club or Au Bon Pain. I'm now thinking Big C Extra doesn't have to worry too much, except it could do with a renovation. Foodland will lose a bit maybe but it still has one of the best import food setups and is really easy to shop since it's a square floor area, unlike the long, long Aeon market, which takes an equally long walk from the mall entrance.

What is this Aeon Market you refer to? Is that the Max Value supermarket? I didn't find that long at all.

Aeon of Japan owns the brand Max Value, which can be found in standalone shops in Bangkok.

Visited the Harbor Mall. A claustrophobic place. One is constantly having to duck and dive people because of the narrow corridors, special feature displays and outside store promo signs and tables.

I quite liked the Aeon Max Value supermarket for all the take-out meals and various other groceries. But nothing really special (unless you're Japanese) and I found it wanting in the meats department. But I go to the Prime Meats outlet on Nern Pub Wan if I want variety and quality.

I will be living about a 10-minute walk from there so if the ice rink ever comes about, I will visit. And there will be the occasional shopping at Max Value.

From one resident expat's point of view: Take away the Max Value, then Harbor Mall wouldn't add up to much of destination unless you wanted to meet a friend at Coffee Club or Au Bon Pain. I'm now thinking Big C Extra doesn't have to worry too much, except it could do with a renovation. Foodland will lose a bit maybe but it still has one of the best import food setups and is really easy to shop since it's a square floor area, unlike the long, long Aeon market, which takes an equally long walk from the mall entrance.