newnative

Yes, all so predictable. Somebody dies from negligence by the city and soon after out parades the deputy mayor and assorted flunkies to 'inspect'. Followed by a useless statement for relevant parties to make sure everything is hunky dory. And, that's that.

You, and the 'shady Indian guy', were breaking the law renting a condo for less than a month. Next time book a hotel for NYE--that's what they're there for.

Of course the cartoon was deeply racist--and not a bit funny. This is a good example of what H&M were, and are, dealing with. No wonder they fled. There are many glaring examples of how Megan was treated in the Press compared to Kate--I think 25 examples or more. Kate would do one thing--like cradling her baby bump--and it would be praised, while Megan doing the same thing was ridiculed. Many examples of the relentless and often racist coverage, most of it untrue or distorted. And, when called out, the response is always similar to yours--well, it 'wasn't done as an act of racism'. Whether intentional or not, there it is--H&M's child depicted as a monkey. Pity the Palace did as poorly with H&M as they did with Princess Diana, allowing the death of H&M's reputations by a thousand cuts, many by the Press, many by the Palace, itself.

As most have said, terrible idea. Basically, a small, cheap band-aid proposed for a large, gaping gunshot wound. Does nothing to improve the traffic bottlenecks at many of the major intersections, such as Sukumvit-North Pattaya Road. The two remaining not constructed underpasses of the three originally proposed for Sukumvit need to be done--they should be priority 1, starting with the one under Sukumvit-North Pattaya. Old, decrepit, City Hall needs to be bulldozed and a large parking garage constructed there, with the main station for a surface trolley car system. City Hall does not need to be in that prime location. Park your car there and hop on the trolley if you are going to the beach or other areas in central Pattaya. Parking needs to be eliminated entirely on Beach Road and Second Road, freeing up space for the trolley to run, and to add traffic lanes and tour bus drop-off lanes. Other parking garages in other areas, also linked to the trolley, need to be constructed, as well. Where the trolley runs, street parking needs to be eliminated. With its huge and continuing growth, the city needs to be thinking long-range, years into the future rather than coming up with these pitiful, little, short-term, unworkable ideas that are doomed to fail and do nothing to address the severe traffic problems Pattaya is already experiencing--and, with Thailand only at around one-fourth of 2019's international tourist numbers.

Yaa.

As others have pointed out, Trump has never received 50% of the vote. Only 46.1% of the voters in 2016 voted for Trump and were 'sooo du*b'. Clinton received more than 2 million more votes than Trump, so more Americans wanted Clinton to be their president. The majority of the voters rejected Trump to be their president. It's important to remember that the majority of the voters did not want him. Unfortunately, with the Electoral College, Trump is what we got in 2016. In 2020, Trump lost the popular vote even more badly, by over 7 million votes. Again, the majority of the voters did not want him.

When in reality he did more for only himself. He gets nuttier every day.

Yaa! Restores a tiny bit of respect for the voters but, as others have said, it should not have been this close. A big shout out to Trump for making the win possible. Thanks, Donald, for being the idiot you are.

Plenty to keep me busy, along with my partner. Usually swim at least once and sometimes twice a day in our pool. Several times a week we go to the gym. We enjoy movies and travel. Usually go to Bangkok once a month for a week. I also like to read and we both enjoy home renovation projects. Looking forward to doing more international travel now that things are opening up.

Hope their international tourism drops to zero.

It seems to be hit or miss with masks now. Partner and I are on a trip to Spain. First flight--Emirates--masks not mentioned at all. Second flight--also Emirates--we were told to wear masks during the flight and they were given to us when we boarded the plane.

No, mocking imaginary 'bone spurs' to cowardly get out of military service; military service being for 'suckers' and 'losers', per Trump.

So, if we have a newspaper printing Trump's 'false story' that the 2020 election was stolen from him, and then 'four other newspapers also printed the same false story, they wouldn't make the original false story true.' Good to know 2 plus 2 still equals 4 no matter how many times 5 is falsely given as the answer. Unfortunately, when you have the news outlets endlessly repeating the 'false story', you will have an ignorant and/or gullible percentage of the population believing the 'false story' to be true. And, as shown with Trump's election lie, it seems that the bigger the lie the bigger the percentage believing the lie. Sad state of affairs.

Yes, that's about all he accomplished while he was president--a big fat tax cut for himself. Everything else was just basically routine housekeeping--filling Supreme Court vacancies, the budget, etc. Although bragged about and promised numerous times, he never got around to that 'beautiful' health care plan he insisted would be much better than Obamacare.

Centara , already mentioned, is a terrific family resort. Amari would be another possibility for a hotel. The new addition they built is oriented towards families. Centre Point Space looks fun and very family-oriented. Plenty of family activities for a weekend in Pattaya. Nong Nooch Gardens is excellent, with several shows in addition to the extensive gardens. There are two new water parks to try, plus Underwater World and the Dolphinarium. Pattaya Floating Market. Harbor Land has opened at Terminal 21. Pattaya Beach and Jomtien Beach have both been widened. Have fun.

So, why was it only used once? Why tear it down?

Yaa!

I'm American and it might be my number 1 destination, too. Lived there for several years as a child and was back for a visit in a few years ago. Hope to go again sometime next year.

Yes, I read the news. What 'they want' is irrelevant. TAT and the tourist bureaucrats can come up with all sorts of wants and schemes to justify their jobs (look, we're working!!!) but people will travel where they want to travel, if travel is allowed--and lots of people like to travel to nearby places. USA get lots of Canadian visitors, Mexico gets lots of USA visitors. Same for Europe and Asia--lots of nearby travel. Thailand gets lots of nearby travel the same way Europe and North America does--it's just growing as people from nearby countries are increasingly able to afford to travel. Likely this will continue when economic conditions improve. The tourist bureaucrats may give lip service to wanting big spenders; they will welcome tourists of all economic strata, as they should. Anybody with a lick of sense knows Thailand needs a wide variety of tourists to fill the wide variety of hotel rooms being offered--from hostels to 5-star hotels and everything in-between. In December my partner and I will visit Spain and Portugal. Did we look at single thing by the Spain and Portugal travel departments? No. Is the Spain Tourist Board also looking for 'big spenders'? I have no idea and, like I said, not relevant.

I don't think it's a case of favorites. It's just the way things have been the past five years or so. Tourist numbers from all countries were up in 2019 except for Singapore and Australia, down very slightly. The myth that western tourist numbers were declining in the years before covid is just that--a myth. Also a myth that most of the Chinese visitors were on low-budget package tours--the majority were independent travelers. Perception does not always equal reality. Numbers from some Asian countries, however, were increasing at a higher rate, and, in some cases such as China and India, a much higher rate as more Asian travelers could afford to travel and picked nearby Thailand to visit. It's true their spending per tourist was somewhat less but the numbers were more. Does a country with a big focus on tourism want just a few big spenders from the Middle East, who spent the most per visitor, or lots of tourists of all stripes from many countries to fill all the different types of hotel rooms?

I was just going to say the same thing! Get rid of them already!

Sorry, can't remember. What we looked at was an empty shell so it needed everything. I think this concept has become less popular with buyers--most of the new condos come fully fitted and some are fully furnished, as well.

I'm not sure why. I think some of the back units have been sold, here and there. When we lived there we saw air con units on some of the balconies. We looked at buying one of the floor-thru interior back units. If I remember, it was very long with a high kitchen window by the back entrance and a set of balcony doors at the front end looking towards the ocean. The space was large but we thought awkward and the lack of windows was a drawback for us.

He is extremely lazy, read only tweets if even that, has a very short attention span, thinks he knows everything while knowing very little about anything except swindles and tax avoidance . . .

Dismal. Thailand should be rightly embarrassed by the lowest of the low ranking. Seems to get worse each year instead of improving. Maybe this big black eye will spur some movement in English education but likely not. Instead, there will be a splashy announcement that Thailand is the new hub of something or other. But, not English learning.