newnative

Now let's get lots of new rail cars for MRT, BTS, and ARL to make them all 6-car trains, which should have been done years ago.

Maybe some rethinking on training: Army Secretary nominee Daniel Driscoll said during a Senate hearing on Thursday that the crash may prompt the military to reconsider conducting training operations near the busy Washington, D.C., airspace. "This seems to be preventable," Driscoll said. "I think we might need to look at where is an appropriate time to take training risk, and it may not be near an airport like Reagan."

All that money spent uselessly on free metro rides in Bangkok should have been spent on more machinery for the farmers.

Total joke. Headline should read "Thailand not enforcing burning ban. . ." I've been smelling burning the last several months, including today, and soot on my terrace most mornings. More useless blah, blah, blah.

Madness. No extra trains, no extra cars on the trains. Just idiots in charge, starting at the top.

This crackdown will last just about as long as I can hold my breath. What they need is a squad of permanent meter maids, handing out no parking/double parking tickets, with the meter maids keeping a percentage of the fines collected, with the squads patrolling all the major roads. Of course, what they really need is to eliminate parking altogether on the major roads, with the meter maids enforcing the no parking. Somewhat unrelated but I finally figured out the wacky, swoopy yellow striped lines painting scheme on Thepprasit Road by the U-Turn intersections. If you look at the parking lane by these intersections, you will see forward white arrows painted on the parking lane, indicating that it is actually a travel lane, not a parking lane. So, I think the idea was for the 2 lanes of traffic to segue to the parking lane and the adjacent traffic lane as you navigate a U-Turn intersection, neatly getting by the traffic stopped making a U-Turn. Ahh, how lovely! Now we all segue to the left and, past the intersection, now we all segue back to the original two traffic lanes. What fun and what wonderful traffic flow, segueing this way and that! Delightful! Well done, Pattaya! Screeching halt! Unfortunately, the brainless in charge never got around to marking those parking lane stretches where we are suppose to be segueing to as no parking. My car does not yet have the ability to magically travel through a parked car so all the city's work is for naught. No segueing around the cars waiting to turn. No smooth traffic flow through these awkward, congested, too narrow U-Turn intersections. Still a big mess. Still my least favorite road in Pattaya. Luckily, I no longer live in Jomtien and am not on that mess of a road too often.

And, why were they training near a very busy airport?

Those noisy big bikes should be outlawed.

JFK Jr. is dead.

Put them all down. It would be a small start.

Don't 'stay out of the big cities and tourist areas'--at least not from a crime standpoint. Spouse and I have a house in Pattaya and a condo in Bangkok--a tourist area and big city. No problems with crime in either. With Pattaya, there's no need to live right in the tourist areas unless you want to--there are a number of different neighborhoods away from those areas, with a wide variety of housing available at all price points.

After this week's free train service chaos I'm against anything that gets even more passengers on the already packed trains. Pity they did not use all the money they are spending for the free train rides to add two rail cars to all the trains, starting with the lines that are the most crowded.

If this is so terrific for tourists, why not do it year-round?

On Pattaya's Darkside there's Route 66 Diner, La Cremerie, I Steak, Jaybees, and Taco House, among others. Lots of the restaurants have western food choices on the menu.

For those posting negative comments, try being a 'glass half-full' guy or gal for a week. You might like it. Life is, indeed, beautiful. Treasure every day.

One tour boat operator's bookings being down doesn't automatically translate to 'Pattaya's tourism' taking a 'hit'. Pattaya's been plenty busy with tourists all winter, with traffic often in gridlock. Some movie star being abducted wouldn't stop me from visiting a country I wanted to visit--and I doubt it will stop many Chinese, either.

If you're on month to month you--and the landlord--can both opt out with a month's notice, leaving the other hanging. In this case, the landlord did it, rather than you. Could have been the other way around--that's the nature of month to month. Doubt you have much legal recourse. As others have said, you could offer to pay more rent, or move.

Totally useless, did more harm than good, money could have been better spent on just about anything else to curb air pollution.

And, none of it will be done anyway. Just more blah, blah, blah.

Duh!

I like Protex bar soap in the yellow, blue and white box. Better scent, I think, and holds up pretty well in the shower.

Not ASAP, only after he has served his sentence. Or, deport him but only if he will be put in prison wherever he is deported to. No way should he be walking around free right now.

Yes, I am aware of the house registration/assigned hospital system. My mother-in-law was using her assigned hospital--or initially trying to. I think one of the keys to the large hospital bill of my late MIL was your 'wait times are much longer' statement. Do you pay for treatment she needs now to remain alive now or wait until free treatment is available, but she has died waiting. I don't know all the details of my MIL's medical treatment but I know there were government hospital issues with her colon cancer operation, her follow-up treatment, beds being unavailable in the government hospital ICU, and I think issues with her dialysis treatment when her kidneys were failing. I'm glad your late wife had a better experience with her hospital medical care where she was treated.

Best post of the thread.

I don't doubt that routine medical care at low cost can be had in Bangkok at government hospitals--having an x-ray done, having a baby, getting a broken bone repaired, seeing a doctor for a bad cold, snake bite, cut needing stitches, etc., etc. It's the non-routine that can get expensive. I think you're quite right that some Thais do not know how to navigate the health care system to their best advantage, but that was not the case with my spouse's mother, with 3 educated Bangkok daughters going to bat for her, well-aware of how things work, and don't work, in Bangkok.