newnative

Per the article, I'm not seeing any infrastructure improvements being made in booming Pattaya. Meanwhile, there are maybe a dozen mega projects under construction or on the drawing boards--with seemingly a new one announced every other day. When completed, these huge projects will be dumping even more vehicles on to the already severely congested roads. Pattaya really needs to be doing massive road improvements but, instead, is doing very little, with the do-nothing administration in place now.

Agree. The biggest argument always put out against casinos is they will harm Thais who will gamble their money away. Easy solution, bar Thais from entering any casino unless they can meet high thresholds of wealth, as this proposal does. Nothing new, some other countries bar locals from their casinos. The 5000 baht entrance fee for the super-rich Thais who qualify should be scrapped, though. Spouse and I were just at the Genting Resorts World project in Malaysia the other day. I think Thailand envisions something like this for its gambling/amusements entertainment project. The place was absolutely packed--on a week day--with lots of Muslims and Chinese. Some westerners but probably 80 to 90% Asian--and lots of families with children. The project has both outdoor and indoor amusement parks, lots of shopping, cable car rides, and concert halls, among other attractions. It was clear to see that this project, with all it had on offer, was attracting lots of non-gamblers as well as gamblers. A well-done project such as this one, if executed as well in Thailand, should also be popular with both gamblers and non-gamblers in Thailand.

Bangkok. One has a good job and the other is currently working in the US in a clerk job.

What was the 'harrowing' part? The other gym members must all be breathing a big sigh of relief.

'Timely government interventions'. 5555555555555 That'll be the day.

Huh? Why in the world would this policy encourage Thai nationals to send their money back to Thailand to have it taxed? Likely many will do just the opposite--leave the money abroad, and untaxed.

Always near the very bottom--and sinking every year rather than rising. I'm always reminded of the cave rescue of the student soccer players. Of all the players, only one, a non-Thai, could speak English and communicate with the rescuers. That world-wide bad publicity should have been completely embarrassing to the Thai government and a loud wake-up call to mount a crash program to shake things up and improve. But, instead, years later nothing has improved and Thailand's ranking continues its plunge to the bottom in the rankings.

Tried other products, nothing comes close to Gillette. To the poster who wondered what your skin has to do with a shave, your hair grows out of your skin so how your skin reacts to a shave is actually at least as important as the hair. Gillette gives me a very close, fast, comfortable shave with no skin irritation, rashes, etc. And, many times I have been saved from cutting myself with the razor's good, forgiving design. For me, well worth the cost.

Walk it off. You'll live.

Thanks for the recommendation. Just watched the first episode and liked it a lot.

I'm neither 'shocked' nor 'scandalized' by this minor crime incident.

"35.5 million tourists next year." How about 2025, this year? AI writer seems to have a problem with time, recently referring to Trump several times as the 'former president' and, now, apparently still thinking it is 2024.

Totally agree. Yes, a cliche, but you do only go around once. Not for me a 'crappy apartment'--especially one owned and furnished--likely badly--by someone else.

Easily fixed by eliminating the parking on the shops side, widening the sidewalks, and adding shade trees--or making a covered walkway to provide shade and rain protection, lit festively at night.

Finally! I, for one, will be quite happy not to have someone walking towards me with terribly disfigured legs--which I assume to be the result of perhaps running through a burning house with the floor on fire, or the result of a horrible, dragging motorcycle accident. Only to discover as they get closer that, no, those are really ugly tattoos, not horrific, healed leg injuries. Ditto for arms. Someone chose to brutally disfigure themselves. As the OP said, nobody looks better with a tattoo--including Angelina Jolie. And, they only look uglier and more ridiculous as the person ages--and sags.

I have two Thai nieces, both in their early 40s, beautiful, educated. Neither has ever married, neither seems to have marriage in their immediate future. They have dated but so far it seems they have found their Thai male suitors to be lacking. My sole male Thai nephew, also in his 40s, finally did marry so maybe there is hope for the nieces. Meanwhile, gay marriages can take up some of the slack for the Thai marriage businesses.

Police presence being reduced at intersections. What a joke. I've lived in Pattaya for 14 years and I have never seen any police presence at any intersections--ever. The only police I have ever seen is police at the front of Central Festival by the beach side. Now and then you see them collecting for their retirement fund from helmetless riders but certainly no traffic enforcement being done.

I'm in Bangkok and the air has been lousy every day--including the 10th--and is especially bad today, the 12th. As a previous poster said, joke of the day. But, lungs not laughing.

MRT is awful, too. And ARL. They are all getting to be filled to the rim during non-rush hours, as well, making for a miserable experience. If they want to get more people out of their cars, they need 6-car trains and faster frequency between trains.

Dumbest idea to come down the pike. They can move the seat of government--very costly--but they still have to spend tons of money on top of that to protect the trillions of baht spent on Bangkok property. And, building is still going on furiously. Instead of building new, protect what is already here. Somebody posted a good idea--hire the Dutch. Money well-spent.

I don't know that area but I agree with the above post. I would check with 3 or 4 agents to get a little guidance on pricing. I haven't found any consensus on what is considered when calculating house area. I think probably more add in the outdoor areas than don't. We don't really use base price as such but with some agents we will tell them the minimum amount we want to net so they have a figure to work with. I don't know what the agent situation is there but we always, always list with as many agencies as we possibly can, as there is no MLS in Thailand. Good luck with your sale.

Just another example of the incompetent, inactive, ineffective city administration.

Let's change the headline to "Thailand steps up recruitment of good foreign teachers, especially to teach English."

Newnative here, Reporting in that I slept ok and was not 'terrified'. As others have said, some of our neighborhood dogs are likely louder.

Just another useless scheme--like free metro rides the other week, which squandered a fortune that could have been actually put to good use--like making metro better with longer trains. It's all just publicity to mask that they aren't doing anything, aren't making tough decisions. Let's not forget some years ago they were aiming fire hoses at the sky. Absolutely no progress since then.