loppylugs1

I use vpn,sometimes Camelot recognises the vpn site so I switch it. won £129 for 4 numbers a while ago

If you clear the warning"it looks like etc." and actually get onto the site,place your bets and win,how is anyone going to know you were in or out of the country when purchased?. No passport but other forms of ID.

anyway the lottery buys hope,hope that one can successfully escape

Why are tyres for cars more expensive here than back home, the damned rubber trees are here,the factories are here,the 300 baht a day gang are here,bananas ,fall off the trees here yet are more expensive to buy than back home,pineapples,cars too, flights back home are a third more than the other way around just why is it,because that is the way it is.

I use vpn,sometimes Camelot recognises the vpn site so I switch it. won £129 for 4 numbers a while ago

Even Tesco seem to be on the act also,even their reduced lines are eye openers. perhaps when they get stuck with the stuff they might make adjustments,but would not hold my breath on it.

Going native seems to be the only way,noodles bar with 7/11 very near vicinity.

Makro not far off on pricing but to be honest even their prices can be on a par with the two stores above,will get pricier too with falling baht

It does take a period of time to say enough is enough,my case few years,but I would be gone now, but for the baggage,long time GF ,dogs etc. To just abandon them is heartless,taking them with me is an option which is now being actively explored

I just want to get the hell out of it and leave Thailand to the Thais (and Chinese)

If anyone is desperate enough to join family ,and this thread has been over it many times. keep an address in the UK,paid for or otherwise or Spain etc.. Frozen pension will never be lifted,have to "do it yourself"

It is a rule,not a law of frozen pensions ,OAP cannot be stopped reduced or paid back. It is no use arguing the issue it is there in DWP guidelines never mind the quoted garbage from ignorant posters.

Just do not give an address in any frozen country

Recently pension "experts" were covering this issue and conceded defeat when the facts were shown a few weeks ago

....and there is no 183 or 184 days or whatever on this issue,on tax there is on residential status but nothing to do with OAP.

..plus most if not all will now be almost 15% better off than last year with lows on currency plus increase in pensions,but it sure does not feel like it ,Thailand gets a lot more expensive,do not know how the average Thai manages. Im off to look at the Algarve soon,would be better off with the Euro methinks

Point about getting married the OAP ( if wife has NI contributions) the combined pension is reduced considerably.

Agree about earlier post on public sector pension ,out of step by a mile over private,but in past days ,when I joined,nobody wanted the jobs,poor pay,but through the 70s things picked up.Now becoming a burden ,and even more so when the govt. has to provide over half a billion more to adjust wrongly paid superannuation payments for past members.

Nobody ,not even the govt. knows the exact figure of the OAP next April,the latest figure of £148 is more than probably a myth,will tumble I'm sure to something like £143,all hell let loose,take or leave attitude from the govt. Taking everything into account just waiting to see if a "top up" for existing pensioners is worth it,and is it based on the OAP portion on the pension or included in the SERPS addition

Chinese tourists v westerners..just like oil and water. One will separate out the other ,and in this case its the westerner

Thankfully at this time they are guided,herded to wherever their 3 day stop over takes them,so can be avoided,except Naklua road,Christ those tour buses have noses squashed against the windows of the buses goggling

It sure gets lonelier,all my past friends over the years have gone,not replaced by others,feel like its going to get worse and need somewhere I feel I can call home,and this is not the place.

Starting to do a few trips to Algarve ,look around there,but it now feels like a lifesaver to seek elsewhere,just the thought of getting out,the place gives encouragement that its just got to be better than this ...is getting likened to a dump

All around me high rise,unfinished,will never sell in a million years and now 103 is back on air advertising property,gees what planet is Pattaya on

Feels good sat in bar selling good quality beer ,not endless frozen beer that if warm would taste like cough medicine.

Never went into Witherspoons for years thinking it was rough,far from it. Well used Id say ,furniture wise but friendly, good selection of daily papers,serving wenches really friendly and the foods good. All those surrounding TVs too for sports and news,really good.

Bit like 'ome,if getting a bit homesick at times,try there

...about 8 weeks in my case

God I hope Im gone soon,all the baggage though,but that now down to 3 dogs,one about to be adopted in USA another too hopefully I pay for flights etc.,take one with me then yippee free. Sorry for long time GF

You flyboys,navy types need to be thinking of those final years. Believe British Legion have a few places that are rated 5 star ,might stick my name down for a future berth

I hope it does revert to being a normal Thai provincial town rather than a hangout for £"£$!"£$.

Do you now, or ever, live in a "normal provincial Thai town? Sooooooooooooo boring. You are welcome to the corruption and the broken infrastructure- I'll take Pattaya as it is anytime.

You make two very valid points. The Prasat rice fields in Surin where my wife is from is either the epitomy of boring or, like the last time I was there, my wife's Aunt had died & 30 foot/10 meter tall speakers were trucked in, to about 20 feet from my bedroom window, and played as loud as they possibly could, for about 5 days straight, for 20 hours a day.

They kept playing the same thing, over and over and over too.

We had no sooner weathered that storm than they moved the speakers a few yards up the road & did the same thing for a wedding. I haven't been back.

I got stuck up there for 10 days with no internet & not even a good book to read in 2005 as my daughter was due any day.

I was ready to shoot myself out of boredom.

I never had any trouble with thugs nor ladyboys in Pattaya, but I have half a brain.

It's the gridlock traffic and overall poor infrastructure that got to me. City Hall is full of corrupt buffoons. The streets are full of lazy cops & crazy drivers.

I was forced to return to the USA & it slowly dawned upon me.

HMMM.........I've been married to a really pretty lady for over a decade, have a gorgeous hah-sip/hah-sip strawberry blonde daughter that I'll be beating the boys off of soon enough (she's almost 10 now).....Do I want them to be Thai punks with a gang behind them or farang American pimply faced punks that I can put the fear of God into? No-brainer there.

The traffic is SO civilized here too comparatively.

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My Canadian buddy has a house in East Pattaya near what used to be the Black Pearl bar....that place is S-E-E-D-Y!

Some guy pulled up in his driveway one day, saw his wife & 17 year old daughter & asked "Is this the Black Pearl?"...All this in a 'secure" housing estate.

I love Pattaya for a visit. Always will, but it's no country for my daughter.

I guess it's that "Country For Old Men" that Tommy Lee Jones couldn't seem to find.

I'm 48. Wifey is 41. Daughter will be 10 soon.

I've read a gazillion horror stories about Thai wives, and do not doubt any of them. I got lucky, lucky, lucky with mine!

14 years & not too many complaints.

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Just my opinion here, but Pattaya will GRIND YOU DOWN in one way or another.

Example: Some maniac was in the wrong lane on Threppasit road, passing a courteous big truck on the right, (at high speed, with no license & no insurance). The truck courteous truck driver had left enough room for my wife to turn right, so she pulled out right in front of the maniac in the Toyota Tiger truck I insisted she drive as it was as big of a car as I could get.

Wonder of wonders, he had a helmet on, and hit her driver's door at about 60 kph. We had insurance to take care of the retard.

Being the idiot I was back in 2001 when we got married, I had her change her surname to mine.

The cop smelled blood. "You have farang name. All farang have big money. 10,000 baht".

It was a 1,000 baht fine I think for "violation of right-of-way", PLUS the 10,000 baht......no account was taken of the license-less, no-insurance idiot in the wrong lane, that had crossed a double yellow line to pass the stopped truck....NOPE.

You have farang name. All Farangs have big money.

The only saving grace was that the moto driver broke his leg. If it had been his neck it would have cost me a lot more, but I'm quite happy the idiot broke something besides my wife's door and the dent in my wallet. His helmet left a big ding in the pillar right behind the driver's door.

I stayed well out of sight of the cops on that one. I wasn't there, so just paid up from the background.

The cop told my wife she would "have big problem" if she didn't pay the cops off for their trouble of filing the insurance paperwork & "police" report.

Those dash cams are a survival tool 650 baht I paid

Guess Pattaya will get larger, and some business will move away from Pattaya Beach.

With the decline of the European middle class, there might be less tourists and pensioners from Europe. But the pensioners that are already in Thailand will get older than ever before, and they will require more nursing and medical care. Nursing within families, and medical care ideally paid by European Health Insurances or NHS.

At the same time, there will be an emerging Thai middle class, they will have their own hotels, restaurants and bars. Not necessarily in Pattaya Beach but rather on "the dark side" of Pattaya, maybe around Pattaya City.

Pattaya may well get larger,but emptier too,swathes of houses ,shophouses,business premises empty

Older pensioners will leave,not stay,medical care is atrocious and expensive. To be honest it ain't just Pattaya but Thailand generally,surrounding countries will leave Thailand in its wake

I met a guy last week who says that happened to his friend. 30 days, then off to the airport and kicked out. I'm trying to get more info and when I do, I'll try to relate it back on this thread. I hope to be meeting with the guy again on Friday.

I've heard many reports of people being stuck in the slammer for the entire weekend. Bribes were not accepted. You just never know.

My friend was at a checkpoint recently and the cop showed him how the device worked. It blew positive! He knew he was stuffed....

If they're going by the book, I think you have to pay 20,000 bail (not a bribe) to be released and appear in court the next day. If you can't / won't pay, you're locked up until the court appearance. So, if it's Friday night you'll be there until Monday morning.

I do believe you are right! I remember a thread from several years ago about this. Did a search, but can't find it. A guy was arrested on Friday and spent the weekend in jail. Not sure why he couldn't get out. The post was quite detailed about his arrest and time in jail. Scary.

That is why most of the testing is done Friday and Saturday

The beers here especially Thai beers taste foul ,brewed with rice. Agree though ice cold you get no flavour but is refreshing and cheap,so have to keep looking

Warm beer is for taste,'cept Thai beers, have to try the likes of Witherspoons,for quality beer

Chang Classic is brewed at 5.8% abv for the local market. It is 5% abv for export. The two "versions" are in fact very different. Chang Export is a 100% malt beer, while Chang Classic sold in-country is brewed with rice

Wheat growing in Thailand will not be on large scale,Barley do not think so,too hot. Might be brewed elsewhere than Thailand and imported,supposed the wheat and barley could be too....Malaysian Guinness suggested to have better taste than Irish produced Guinness

Is there any basis to the rumor going around that if you fail the test you go straight to jail for 30 days ?

I met a guy last week who says that happened to his friend. 30 days, then off to the airport and kicked out. I'm trying to get more info and when I do, I'll try to relate it back on this thread. I hope to be meeting with the guy again on Friday.

I've heard many reports of people being stuck in the slammer for the entire weekend. Bribes were not accepted. You just never know.

My friend was at a checkpoint recently and the cop showed him how the device worked. It blew positive! He knew he was stuffed....

If that is the case,a new name (deed poll) new passport . supposed to be cheaper than changing a name on an air ticket Yes did happen booked air tix only realised he made mistake one letter, airline stated new tix required....he changed his name and new passport and that was for a flight UK to Spain

Once the subject of beer is understood and not just quaffed ,it is fascinating. Types of barley ,hops too,fermentation,anyone remember barley wine?,just a strong ABV beer. Never could stand too bitter beer almost like vinegar,mild a bit lower that bitter is good beer to drink.

Gees I miss standing at a bar tasting it properly

How anybody can drink Thai bottled beer warm beats me,it is just the foulest tasting drink imaginable,Do not think Chang Draught or Tiger is brewed the same way,tastes different. San Miguel left to get a bit of warmth tastes OK ,that I think is brewed with barley and not rice

bought a bottle,pint sized ,of Tuborg at 7/11 a while ago 74 baht,now that is good larger. Witherspoons sell wheat beers too,not a great fan of them wheat for bread,barley for beer

Think the limit here is .50 1 pint

Ive been breathalised once ,but cleared,friend put 500 baht in a bag for the cop to search Nice if an app was put on the phone"they are here" sort of stuff

East pattaya seems to checked far more often than Patts itself

Got a tix for u turn,licence taken off me, left it like that,after a few months decided to get it back, lost the paper by then, not on the comp at the cop shop(guess they wipe them regularly,too many tourists clogging the system),so had to getter from police it was lost and went for new licence

State pension top up has 18 months to run,decreases by over over £500 py to gain £25 for existing OAP,now it would be a good plan if it held on for 4 or 5 years,the lump sum would reduce considerably, have to do the sums on this one

There is a new built road ,a small one,past Tesco that has just been completed,good place to avoid railway crossings. Usually did them Fri Sat so pay to stay out of jail until court opens on Wan Jan

Demographics change,western tourists are way down,the Chinese are definitely up,will not finish Pattaya off but not doing it any good,not in western eyes,the Chinese do not mix or want to.

Whether western Joe wants to stay here is another matter,some of us have had way too much of it and the baggage is all to difficult to move with,at the moment

Low seasons seem to get lower and lower,just how low can it get without going under