pattayadude

18 hours ago, Anthony5 said:

 

 

 

As far as I can see it's twice the same picture, so unless the 2008 picture was taken 8 years in the future...............

You are wrong!.

1st photo(beach photo facing North Pattaya/ Wongamat)) is from a news article dated 2008.

the 2 photos that are same is from a news article dated 2016(Waterfront condo in background.there was no waterfront condo in 2008)

Here is the link:

http://www.pattayamail.com/news/broken-sewer-pipe-spews-garbage-across-south-pattaya-beach-58625

I divided the article into 2 screenshot photos.

Here is another screenshot without dividing:

11 minutes ago, newnative said:

That photo of a trash-filled beach--the one looking towards Naklua/Wongamat--is not a recent one judging by the buildings in the background.  Guess it was taken in 'the good old days'.

yes that's a 2008 photo...

and the attached is May 2016...

Nothing new...

2 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I wouldn't bother trying to convince a certain poster, as either he is just having fun baiting us, or he actually believes Pattaya doesn't need fixing.

 

Yes, Pattaya IS going downhill. It could be fixed if competent administrators were put in place, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

BTW. Thanks for the photos. First time I saw Beach Rd flood like it does now I laughed. They spent how many millions on that atrocity of a walkway, and couldn't put decent drains in?

 

YW.

Yes photos do tell the truth!

It never used to flood as often or at this magnitude before.

What we are doing has nothing to do with bashing a city.

On the contrary, I hope our criticism and the messages reaches out somehow and hopefully  they  try to fix some of the issues as much as they can so once again this rare city can retrieve most of it's old glory it deserves!

1 hour ago, JSixpack said:

all your shopworn concerns

12 minutes ago, The manic said:

You seem a tad sensitive. Ever done any real travelling? You also seem inured to the truth. You exagerate about conditions here. Its not how most visitors perceive Pattaya nor do we who live here. If we did we would like. I dont mean to be rude but you appear to be suffering from a form of depression. 

Manic, your last sentence/comment is off-topic but you are entitled your opinion and it's fine..

If you have noticed, I used the word "perception" and yours may differ and it's quite fine.

I barely scratched the surface btw.

I wish I was wrong with the negative parts of Pattaya.

I do enjoy nightlife, bars,restaurants, women etc. in pattaya  and definitely do travel 5-6 months out of the year in North, South America, Eastern Europe and Asia.

1 hour ago, The manic said:

gangs of Arabs making a bottle of water last three packets of cigarettes

8 hours ago, JSixpack said:

 

You came up dry, pal. The financial reports cited are only for the Thai corporate entitities. Moreover, after the ups and downs of 2015 the last quarterly report of that year--more than a year after the coup--gives much credit to Pattaya's contribution in particular to the bottom line:

 

Improved performance of existing projects e.g. at CentralWorld, CentralPlaza Lardprao, CentralPlaza Pattaya Beach, etc., supported by spending from foreign tourists mainly from China and Korea during their summer travel season. . . . On a q-o-q basis, revenues from hotel operation increased by 6% thanks mainly to higher occupancy and room rate at Hilton Pattaya Beach Hotel with occupancy high at 92% in the third quarter, enhancing RevPar up 4% q-o-q as a result of an increasing number of Chinese and Korean tourist visits during their travel season in July-August. . . . continuing growth in hotel business with higher occupancy in this quarter on the back of increasing number of foreign tourists visiting Hilton Pattaya Beach Hotel. . . . However, the food court at CentralFestival Pattaya Beach experienced revenue growth, driven by higher traffic from tourist visits in the third quarter.

Central Pattana PCL, Performance Overview: Overall economic condition in 3Q15

And of course the figures jumped before 2016--I refer all the back to 2009--reaching a peak in 2013 no doubt propelled by the epic Promenade doom thread, a bullish sign. Obviously, CPN as a whole is but a proxy yet Pattaya is a substantial piece of the whole and the figures in the reports, where it's specifically referenced, offer positive indication. As a fallback, as I noted, you may merely check the vacancy rate in the mall. A similar share price pattern can be seen, at a glance, with Big C. As you know of course, when Big C Extra took over Carrefour, our doomsayers immediately prophesied it would also fail, citing at east four of our TVF rules: the No Need, Only One, Already Have, and Fixed Pie rules. Oh, the teeth gnashing, the knickers twisting, the bed wetting. Members quickly applied the infallible Eyeballs At A Random Interval measure to confirm that nobody was shopping there!  Few cashiers open, cashiers standing around, blah, blah. They've gone strangely silent on Big C Extra. We still have a few fixated on the mall, however. Maybe it's those higher-end shops or maybe it's the displacement of a few beer bars.

 

Friend of mine paid another visit to the mall on Friday and affirmed again that it's doing great business. Having visited the food court this year and last year, I think it's doing even better this year.

 

As an aside I'll point out that if businesses are doing poorly where they are then they don't have the capital to diversify elsewhere. When they're successful where they are, they have the means to expand to other countries as well. Cf. Starbucks' expansion (now making a big play in China). Oh, there are nitpicks and caveats and footnotes to this general principle but I don't see much point in debating.

These numbers frankly don't mean nothing since "going down" is a perception or an opinion based on human view of "quality of life" in a city.

In any city:

if the streets flood with rain water with high percentage of sewer/bacteria every time it rains (and it rains almost daily many months)

and that junk pours down into the very beach you are supposed to swim,

and if side-walks are legally(!) or illegally occupied by kiosks,stalls,tables and you have no choice other than stepping  into insane traffic,

if you notice hundreds of rodents among trash while taking an afternoon stroll down your favorite beachfront,

You can take your financial figures and your mile-long posts and multiply by ten and you will still not be able to convince anyone that Pattaya is going uphill !

On 11/15/2016 at 2:44 PM, thaibeachlovers said:

True, but is it better, or worse than the old era. So far it's not looking good.

if they demolish part of the walking street, we will even miss today's "not so good Pattaya"!

it's not only Pattaya that's going down or changing.I can think of 5 cities I lived in the past in various parts of the world also have gone down or changed big time.

IMO it all depends how you accept and adopt to big changes.

On 11/9/2016 at 6:31 PM, thaibeachlovers said:

Gad. They are going to demolish the premier attraction of Pattaya during high season!!!!!! Are they barking, or is there not going to be a high season?

what difference does it make if done in jan,feb, march or april if the common denominator is demolishing the promenade!

20 hours ago, fforest1 said:

Any one who thinks it would be a good idea to tear it down and build

a park needs their mental state checked out by professionals.. 

apparently there are some who think demolishing  it would "change the image" of the country! sad but true!

On 11/13/2016 at 10:27 PM, moonseeker said:

True & sad. But would rather have the old Pattaya back.  MS>

"old Pattaya" ain't coming back..unfortunately this is a new era!

9 minutes ago, Asiantravel said:

 

sorry then I misunderstood youI thought you were implying the party would never end

party just started..time to enjoy the fruits!

1 hour ago, Asiantravel said:

 

 erm.........knowing that there are at least 30,000 vacant condominiums currently on the market in Pattaya (according to Colliers International) where are the buyers going to come from? (And don't say China because they currently have 64 million vacant condominiums on their market)

 

http://www.globalresearch.ca/china-ghost-cities/5421229

who said i have intentions to do flips in Pattaya right now??

I retired long ago by doing flips (in 2000s) and I'm done, out and have no intention to risk a penny in this climate.

I seriously don't care how many condos are vacant as it doesn't interest me.

Let the condo flippers worry about that

4 hours ago, Asiantravel said:

 

  real estate flips -the greater fool theory

how do you know?

9 minutes ago, striderman said:

he must mean pattaya bay there must have been between 80/100 at anchor the other afternoon quite late on.

there would not normally be any

sounds like a cat-and-mouse-game between army/mafia boat operators

2 minutes ago, striderman said:

the chinese have not vanished but their numbers are greatly down.

temporarily

14 minutes ago, Anthony5 said:

 

The Chinese had disappeared before that reason or two even came into existence.

 

The reason they are gone is because the Thai government shut down their business, and since they don't have an intention to allow the zero Baht tours again, they will not be back anytime soon.

zero baht hotels,zero baht tours, zero baht to spend while parading up and down the WS? you don't need that kind of cheap tourist then.Kudos to the army!Time to change the ways and attract different tourists

1 hour ago, pattjock said:

When the speedboats were parked in the yard at Bali Hai they were fuelled there from plastic 20litre water cans. Now this fuelling will take place along Pattaya and Jomtien beach.

 

 

 

Even before the move you could see 10 to 20 petrol filled plastic cans stacked up on the side walk along Pattaya beach. That is 300 to 400 litres of petrol waiting to go up in flames at any time.

 

 

 

What will happen now is that beach road will be filled with pickup trucks full of unsafe petrol cans. I assume it is illegal to transport all this fuel in that way as a traffic accident could end in a disaster. There will probably be spills when hundreds of speed boats will try to refuel in the swell near the beach. There will be thousands of litres of petrol stacked up along beach road that would be a real fire hazard.

 

 

 

The only place anywhere near Pattaya where there is a petrol pump on the dock is in Ocean Marina, Na Jomtien. No speed boat will go all the way down there to fuel as it will take those 30 minutes to go down and back and cost them around 300Baht per trip. The fuel there is also more expensive than at a normal petrol station.

 

you are right with your analogy as far as how petrol for all of these boats is being stored and the dangers as a result of this. it's also a fact that beaches of Pattaya are filthy and thousands of tourists need to make daily trips to nearby islands where the water is clean.When there is such huge demand , it's the duty of a government, ministry of tourism to start looking for another solution such as scheduled ferries. Because the way this is being handled, some 500 boats and problems associated with such number including docking,transportation, public safety, boat safety standards,traffic, environmental hazards and pollution etc would eventually become unbearable.

5 minutes ago, Anthony5 said:

 

 

Where are those thousands of Chinese tourists? Haven't noticed them for a while, unless they these days walk from China to Pattaya.

tourists may be staying away for a while for a reason or two, but it doesn't mean they are not coming back very soon

300 or more  boats will constitute a nightmare wherever they end up for loading/unloading.The daily commute of thousands of (mainly Chinese) tourists to a nearby island would naturally be a logistical nightmare for any city!.  The solution is a few scheduled ferries every day.That will eliminate most if not all of the problems.

When mafia boats started their business 10+ years ago, there were only handful of tourists going back and forth to Koh larn.Today it's a different story.The problem turned into "the elephant in the room" and army had to intervene.

Nothing in Pattaya is designed for this kind of population.

That's the reason why you see thousand of overhead electrical wires hanging!

Street flooding is a daily occurrence!

Beach erosion which was under control for decades, can not be controlled anymore.

Trash,insects,rats is further results of this.

Condemn me ,I don't care.I will still do my warning.

Westerners aren't coming back in near future and if nothing is done, you can even kiss the Chinese good-bye soon!

On 10/30/2016 at 4:35 PM, Asiantravel said:

there will be even less customers now for the automated car park because how many drivers will be prepared to pay to go through the hassle of using that facility when there will be so much free street parking available?

you just revealed  a solution to "Waterfront building vs The City of Pattaya" ongoing parking  disagreement and the search for the extra parking space

10 hours ago, brucec64 said:

I am now sitting on a balcony between soi 4 and soi 5. At least 40 boats moored along the beach and in two more rows. None yesterday. Engine revving has not stopped since 3pm. The army has just swatted the hornets nest and spread the swarm across the length of the beach.

 

The army only knows how to swing a big stick, not actually come up with a comprehensive solution to a complex problem.

soi 4 and 5 in jomtien?(sorry but it wasn't too clear for me)

10 hours ago, Mike West said:

umm yes it does to both. 

your argument does not make sense. Most early retired people(like myself at age 38) did it as a result of real estate flips( several in Pattaya),mid-long term investments,rental income  etc.Real estate is not recommended  for those(like yourself) who think it's "stupid" to risk in this trade.I have never lost money in real estate.As a matter of fact ,my worst performance was "doubling" my investment in the past.thanks for reading it

3 hours ago, SheungWan said:

 

More beautiful? I'll drink what he's drinking. Waiter!

they seem to be more beautiful after a sixpack!

if the horse is dead...why beat it?

8 hours ago, toenail said:

I like the improvements that have occurred in Pattaya since I have been here; yet, very disappointed how the city council failed in  their jobs by not being more focused on city planning, zoning, and keeping up the infrastructure. The amount of city tax Pattaya collects is incredible for a small size city; yet, it has been wasted on city projects with amateur employees doing the job or money for city projects being skimmed off the top by the city "engineers" or managers. The attractive parts of the city (buildings or nice smooth sidewalks) has not been done by the city, but by private ownership of the hotels, restaurants, or shopping centers.

Officials are practically "looting" the city in every way they can.Total chaos is the norm now comparing to the past.Many mall-fronts,sidewalks,public parking,international franchise restaurant-fronts get  invaded by street vendors,make-shift kiosks,motorized or stationary food carts and motorbike rental businesses almost immediately with complete impunity and irresponsibility and it's nearly impossible to take a stroll down the WS also invaded by pushy and sketchy characters trying to shove advertorial flyers  in your face and never-ending groups of 100 and sometimes more Chinese  walking towards you in a "medieval army" fashion.

I can't even find words strong enough to describe the new "state-of-art" mafia boat marina and the surrounding area infested by debris, junk and vicious looking packs of stray dogs ready to sample some of your flesh...

The overhead street wire "traffic" probably doubled or tripled in the past 10 years and I have noticed that some of the poles will "give in" any day now as they aren't engineered(just like the most of the city) to carry such loads or being pulled in every direction.

Utter chaos!