1 hour ago, Golden Triangle said:

With respect to spetersen and RIP to the dead boy & condolences to his family I still wonder why parents allow their schoolchildren with no licence, no insurance & no helmet to ride their bikes at night (or any time for that matter) It seriously bothers me.

 

As a teenager and later as a 20 year old patrolling the streets of Belfast I knew no fear, I was bullet proof, and unfortunately so are the rest of the youth growing up in todays world, no matter what country they come from. As a 13 year old I wanted an old moped to ride around the local park, my parents put their foot down and said "no way", That probably saved my life.

 

I'm going out in a while for a bite to eat and a couple of beers, her in doors will drive back as she doesn't drink alcohol, any one want to put a number of bikes we will see during the very short drive, maybe 5 kms, with no lights or helmets ? 

 

The responsibility lies with the parents, don't let your children who have no licence, insurance, helmet or lights on the roads.

 

Maybe we could start some sort of crowd funding event to fund buying the under privileged families helmets for their offspring along with light bulbs and proving awareness of the wrongs of driving with no insurance or licence........ Sorry that should be a government initiative shouldn't it.

 

Please parents, don't let your kids ride or drive until they are legal. A wasted plea I know, but you never know..........................   

Many Thai parents are just lazy,   and get the kids bikes,     so they can get themselves to school instead of them doing it .

But the list of things parents are guilty of with regards to there children in Thai society is

very long. 

20 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Big enough to have theaters that play movies in English. Big enough to have a wide selection of housing--both condos and homes.  Big enough for quality hospitals.  Big enough for a wide variety of restaurants and food stores.  

20 years ago Pattaya certainly had all the above. While perhaps not so many condos in Pattaya itself there were plenty over in Jomptien and up in Naklua. I was there then. Actually, other than Central, the beach front hasn't changed much, except most of the trees have gone.

Yes i can remember watching movies in English with Thai sub titles at

the Big C,   second road.    great mid week afternoon entertainment,   relaxing drinking Beer Chang and watching the latest releases for 60 baht.

Happy days 

How about coin and Note operated baht buses.

No problem with short changing you 

keep the money out the drivers hands,    Win Win 

Also think off all the old washers you could palm off on them  

it be a total riot 

13 hours ago, Classic Ray said:

It was a lot of collisions, but incredibly none my fault, according to the police who attended nearly every one. First one stopped at red light on motorcycle, rear ended by a drunken Thai motorcyclist at speed, he came off worst. Second, knocked off by red bus driver, not motorcyclist, who turned into my lane without using mirror or indicators. Third was car driver as well who turned into the road I was travelling on on my side of road, panicked and accelerated into me instead of braking. The rest were all motorcycles hitting my car one way or another, most often when I was stationary or nearly so. I am afraid Chiang Mai has a large proportion of unskilled drivers and motorcyclists, usually no helmets, many from hill tribes or Myanmar, lots of students and schoolchildren riders and zero training or enforcement. Average traffic speeds are higher in CM than BKK due to less traffic, which also leads to more collisions. I wouldn't describe any as accidents, all down to carelessness, impatience or excess speed. My skills have been honed by over forty years of experience and training as a UK police driver, but nothing prepares you for Thai madness and lack of proper road engineering, signage etc.

Ok fair enough,  still a bit high. 

Thai riders and drivers are the worst,  they even kill there own children with there 

100% selfish  attitude towards others.  

I dont want to hear one more western song murdered.

Thais are great at Thai songs and i love that.

but stay away from our songs,   its just an awful  din.

As for the Filipino singers , no thank you. 

17 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

17 years driving here... 3 accidents... well, 5 if you count the 2 motorcycles that left a scratch on the sides of my bumper but just waived their hand to apologise and rode off !... 

 

The point there is that motorbikes weaving through the traffic can easily scratch your car, especially when as in my case the traffic is very slow moving and they weave through gaps at your bumper which are hardly there... 

 

So, if you have been driving here any length of time 7 minor scratches from motorcycles weaving through traffic is not excessive... 

Well,  a scratch down the car dont count.

I must be a incredibly,  lucky lucky lucky bugger,    as 20 years, 5 as a tourist and 15 full time here, and over 150,000 km driving and riding here,   i dont have a number near yours.

i wont tempt fate ,  but we are miles  apart on the score card.

accidents do happen ,   but 7 is a lot, i would say.

if it was 7 consisting of being T- boned or rear ended,   fair enough , but if not,    i would question peoples driving or riding skills with a number like that.

14 minutes ago, newnative said:

It may not raise your quality of life but it will raise mine--and certainly more than another bar.

Well if hanging out in malls and eating chain restaurant food is raising the bar

im happy well  below the bar,    there are great restaurants around town

you should try some. 

There is enough shopping opportunities around town now days.

BTW index have been here years.

2 hours ago, Classic Ray said:

in Chiang Mai when none of the seven motorcyclists who have collided with me had documents.

That's a lot of accidents, 7 is a big number

maybe you need to do some rider  training yourself.

Are you just that unlucky ?

another mall isn't going to raise your quality of life 

26 minutes ago, Kaoboi Bebobp said:

I just paid 300 for very quick service a couple of weeks ago. In fact, I can only ever remember paying 300 over the last several years and don't recall it ever being 200 baht.

Thank you

3 minutes ago, bbi1 said:

OMG no beef burgers, what a tragedy!! Almost as bad as when someone else started a thread about no Chocolate ice cream at Swensens lol. Someone please call up the General and bring in military intervention asap lol.

This is serious stuff about beef,   if the day comes when no beef curtains

are available in Pattaya ,   im on the first available  flight out.

44 minutes ago, ThaiBob said:

It was two hundred baht last time I did it, over a year ago. 

Thanks for that

1 hour ago, couchpotato said:

Thanks for info so far.

Yes before I believed it not necessary to obtain the book and probably a waste of time, but as the 'farang Pink ID' card" process is so simple once you have the yellow book, then I believe its time (and because of I have loads of time on my hands to follow the process thru). Hey the more legal docs we can obtain as farang can only be a good thing in the long run.

Yes if you got the time and dont mind the leg work

go for it,    i decided not to.

Thing is,   the rules can  change so much at any point in time,

that what you have now will not be excepted tomorrow.

i think that is the case for the yellow book at the driving license  center now in pattaya

could be wrong,   but think i have read that,   on Tv.

Also some Thai people will only treat things like the  yellow book with suspicion as they have no knowledge of it,  so it still maybe not excepted when you try and use it.

good luck, with it.

Is it honestly worth all  the leg work ?

i dont think so,     it may get used  once every 2-3 years.

and may well be refused when you think it fits the bill. 

1 minute ago, pattayadude said:

I am not qualified to comment whether or not Pattaya is going uphill or downhill but I still haven't been able to make sense of what happened to the new marina project near Bali Hai pier. It's mind boggling how  a billion baht project has been totally abandoned, let to rot and literally to be washed away right before it was almost completed.No one has taken responsibility! the area is in shambles! The least they could do is make an effort to fix it or dismantle it all together...I wonder if they realized that it's too expensive if they try to do anything so they may have decided that the nature should take care of it in a few hundred years just like in "Life after people" series.

Maybe the gravy boat was emptied,   before it was all finished.

i was thinking about 300,    but not sure as not needed one for some time now.

34 minutes ago, newnative said:

 Unfortunately, a huge chunk of critical  infrastructure money is being spent on the very poorly planned tunnel project.

Heavens forbid,   we cant have the pattaya  gravy boat starved of money.

what ever next. 

21 hours ago, OMGImInPattaya said:

If it didn't have the pool I might be tempted...pools are a pita...with the maintence and electric filter runnings costs. Besides, SP5 has one of the largest communal pools of any moobaan I've seen...never understood why people have tomhave their own.

Turn it into a fish pond.

Hi

Whats the cost now days for a residence cert

at jomtien immigration ?

Need to change bank ,   as K-Bank at lotus jomtien is way to busy

now days,     tried to see member of staff 4 times over the last week,

15 people waiting each time,    to long a queue for me. 

Think there staff earn there money there,    very busy shifts. 

Thanks

give you 2.5 cash tomorrow .

you can keep the furniture .

Not seen it in pattaya before,  but not to say its not here.

Last time i saw this was at Asiatique area  in Bangkok. 

was very nice ,  but not so good for the waist line !!!!!!!!!!!! 

This is the get up , 100%

score every time.

this may work

Used these before ,  work very well,   no mess like oil stones

put an edge on in seconds. not sure of there life span. but its cheap

http://www.lazada.co.th/whetstone-3pcs-portable-diamond-sharpen-hone-set-stone-block-outhunting-kitchen-2338853.html 

or

http://www.lazada.co.th/taidea-ceramic-sharpening-rod-with-abs-handle-honing-knifesharpener-for-kitchen-knives-81012-2616420.html

Never used this one, but looks ok

30 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Yeah, could be.

I had thought of that but this was a rough concept thing. Devil is in the details.

Perhaps do it by prompt pay on mobiles.

A 15 "token" or some other way / 20 if paying by cash would in effect be a very substantial raise in fares as many people would just pay the 20, even for short rides. 

So any overhead / risk with the 15 system could be well worth it for the baht bus operators. 

Think if it was a token system

the drivers would try and give tokens as change to people.

effectively the system  getting payed in advance  ?