newnative

How fines are established is not the point. I was responding to your statement that, I quote, "there is no legal basis for charging fines".

Well, the several iterations of the Move Forward party were disbanded for a lot less.

Tougher year than the 'pandemic era'? Totally doubt that.

Talk, talk, talk. Only that.

Stocks go up and down. I followed my Dad's stock portfolio through its ups and downs. When he died in 2009, his portfolio was worth about $600,000. It was in a family trust and no stocks were bought or sold after he died; the portfolio was just maintained and the dividends helped support my Mom's nursing home care. When my Mom died the portfolio was split among the 6 children. It had taken a big drop when covid hit but by the time probate was done it had recovered and it was worth about $1,800,000. Had the portfolio not been split up, it would be worth $2,353,000 today. So, through ups and downs, but mostly ups, the portfolio went from $600,000 to $2.3 million. It's the same with real estate. The last condo I owned in the US, I bought in 2009, during one of the big real estate downturns. It was a foreclosure and I paid $170,000, patting myself on the back for what a bargain I had bought, as the previous owner had paid $292,000. Hold the back patting, as the condo continued to lose value, dropping down to around $160,000. I moved to Thailand in 2010 and rented the condo out until 2012, when I wanted to buy some more property in Thailand and I sold the condo. By 2012 the value had recovered some and I sold it for $176,000. Not much of a profit but I didn't lose any money and I had rental income of $1,500 a month for several years. Zillow tells me that it is worth $277,000 today. Not back to its all-time high, but getting there. Ups and downs for both stocks and real estate, but, long-term, an upward projectory.

Good. But, how's it going to be enforced?

Agree. One of Pattaya's biggest strengths is its huge selection of housing to buy or rent, at really all price points. Especially great is the selection of pool villas, most notably on the Darkside, both to rent or buy. There are new projects galore to choose from, plus lots of very nice established projects.

If there were no fines, there would be no use in writing condo rules--they would just be ignored. In the example I gave with laundry on the balconies, it made for a much better look for the condo. Once people were fined for violating the rule, word got around and it was rare to see laundry hanging over the balcony railings, etc. I was happy there was such a rule, and others, and they were being enforced. What I found: Yes, condominium (condo) associations in Thailand can include fines for rule violations in their bylaws, but these fines must be reasonable and align with the Condominium Act and other relevant laws. The specific rules and penalties are typically established by the condo's management or juristic person and must be approved by the unit owners.

37 million is a nice, manageable amount, in my opinion.

Condo associations can charge fines. At one condo I lived at the condo association charged fines for a number of violations, including hanging laundry above the railing on your balcony. The OP needs to check his condo's bylaws.

Put the BMW in a crusher, make it into a coffee table, and then present it to the Thai driver. Deport the BMW foreign driver. Well, it's a start. Saw sort of the same thing this morning with a BMW driver impatient with the line of cars making a U-turn and the BMW driver pulled out of the turning lane and drove to the front of the line and managed to cut in front of everyone by blocking traffic and nearly sideswiping the other cars before making the U-turn.

They needn't worry, those opposed. Just endless talk, talk, talk with no action, like everything else.

How's your grooming, use of deodorant, and dress?

I guess you didn't get past "4 bar girls stabbed" and just assumed it was Pattaya--even though "Bangkok" was also in the headline. Just goes to show that incidents like these can happen anywhere there are large numbers of tourists, and workers catering to them. Might be Pattaya or Phuket next time, all three are in the 20 most visited places in the world and can be expected to have incidents such as this.

I wonder if your Thai wife's friend had her eye procedure done at a public hospital--which, of course, would be cheaper than a private hospital such as what you used, and result in two different prices. Also, to start with, her standard lens likely cost far less than your special type of lens. My Thai spouse and I both had lasik done at a private hospital and we were both charged the same price. About 12 years after our lasik, we both had lens replcement, Supersight, done. Same private hospital. Mine cost slightly more but that was only because I required a different, more expensive lens, not because I was a farang and my partner Thai. The service was quick and easy, both of us done in one day, with both eyes done for each of us. Contrast that to my partner's Thai sister. She also wanted lens replacement but, to save money, she used her public hospital. When we saw her, she had had one eye done but was waiting to have the second one done because the public hospital had run out of the type of replacement lens she needed. Months later, she was still waiting. I think she has now had the second eye finally done. So, in this example, two different prices, for two levels of medical care, reflecting the use of a private hospital over a less expensive public one. Frankly, I don't have a problem with Thai citizens paying less at both public and private hospitals--or parks, museums, national monuments, etc., etc.

For some, such as my spouse and me, owning is more than a numbers game, no matter what our ages are. We like having our own space to do what we want with, and don't want to live in someone else's space and taste. But, the numbers have been very good for us, as owners, and we thank our lucky stars, and hard work, that we bought our first condo here in 2009, instead of renting.

We have a getaway Bangkok condo but live in Pattaya. On our Bangkok street, we mostly just see 'the old belchers'. Looking forward to when they are finally replaced.

Good to know you can survive a car running over your head, and I guess it helps if you're drunk as a skunk while it's happening.

I don't see what the big deal is, She is buried at Trump's golf course so why is Trump offended with a remark saying that she's buried at his golf course. Talk about thin-skinned. I guess she was also an immigrant, but perhaps not a GENIUS VISA immigrant like his current grifter wife.

"While it's not clear when these electric buses will start operating..." I think it's pretty darn clear from the article that the answer is not any time soon, as has always been the case with Bangkok and its terrible buses. Just 368 million baht has been allocated, according to the article, and each component costs far more than that, with several costing billions of baht. The bus lease alone is 10 billion baht. They're not going to get very far with their measely 368 MB. Back to the belching diesels, which my Thai spouse, now in his late 50s, tells me are the same ones he rode as a child.

My thought, too--a lot of BS. Thai retirement visa hasn't changed for me in 10 years except I now need health insurance, which I have anyway. The dual pricing thing supposedly being a big issue is a total joke--I can't remember the last time I paid more for something than a Thai, and it certainly would not factor in when I was thinking where I want to live. Ridiculous--oh, dear, I have to pay an extra 100 baht to visit the park! How dare they! I'm outta here! And, as others have mentioned, the article conveniently left out the fact that Vietnam has no retirement visa. Umm, that's sort of important to retirees.

Right, and walkable streets with lots of interesting shops along the street is not one of Pattaya's strong points. Spouse and I could have done more walking than we did when we lived at Centric Sea and Northshore--but we ended up driving most of the time when we were going somewhere as we were usually buying stuff--and it's hot! Let's not forget that! We did walk to Festival and T21 a number of times, and sometimes we'd walk the promenade in the evening around sunset, but we do like our comfortable car with AC.

Nailed it. You can easily live a very good life in Pattaya without ever setting foot on any of the streets you mentioned, which are also such a small part of greater Pattaya. In 15 years, I walked on Walking Street once, never on Soi 6--although we did cut through it a few times by car to get to Beach Road when we lived at Centric Sea. Went to Soi Buakhao a few times years ago to go to the Canterbury used book store, now I download all the books I want to read for free so no need to ever go back to that street.

Everyone says the Indian problem is nothing because the Indian problem is nothing, at least for year-round residents here living their normal lives. As I said in another post, a resident year-round lifestyle is normally quite different from what a short-time visiting tourist would be doing--and where. The last time I can remember my spouse and I having any interaction with any Indian was when we bought fabric maybe 6 or 8 months ago at the fabric store near Tukcom, run by Indians. Sure, you see them, and lots of other nationalities, when you're walking around the mall or at one of the big grocery stores near the tourist areas but that's to be expected when you live in a city popular with tourists. Yes, we see them out on the streets doing their 3 and 4 abreast walking if we are driving in the south Pattaya area. No big deal--we're in a tourist area. We also see them, and tourists from other countries, when we are out and about in Bangkok when we are at our Bangkok condo, and also have no interaction with them there, either. Again, no big deal. Ditto for Russians, Chinese, and the occasional blue Martian.

From your post, it seems you are still experiencing Pattaya as a tourist, rather than as someone who lives here year-round. As residents living on the Darkside, spouse and I are living normal, non-tourist lives, doing normal, non-tourist everyday things. Our resident lifestyle never brings us into much interaction with tourists, other than the ones we see walking around in the malls, big box stores, hospital, restaurants, etc. Being residents, we go in our car to Terminal 21, Central Festival, Home Pro, Index, Boonthavorn, Bangkok Pattaya Hospital, Lotus's, Big C, car dealership, etc., as needed and we park in the parking garages, go into the mall, store, hospital, etc., do what we came for, get back in the car, and either go back home or go somewhere else and do the same thing--perhaps we'll stop at a freestanding restaurant, or so on. We're not walking around outside of Festival or T21 in the heat gawking at the ocean and we're not interacting with the tourists hanging around outside those areas. This, I might add, is pretty much what we did in the US. Get in the car, drive to the mall, do shopping, see a movie, eat at a restaurant, get back in the car, and go home. This is also exactly what we did when we lived in town, whether it was at Lumpini Park Beach condo in south Jomtien, Garden Cliff condo in Wongamat in the north, or Northshore condo right on Pattaya Beach. We did occasionally walk the beach promenade when we lived at Northshore and never had any problems with anyone--but the north part of the beach walking north is nicer than the part close to Festival and further south--at least it was when we lived there several years ago. As a resident, you learn these things. On the Darkside, we take walks around our housing project and there's the big trail around Mabprachan Lake, and also another park nearby for us to use. Spouse goes to a local badminton facility. We also have our home gym and pool to help us keep fit. When we meet friends to socialize we'll meet at their house or ours or we'll arrange to meet at a restaurant somewhere, either at one of the malls or a freestanding restaurant like View Ang. Again, not a lot of interaction with the tourists, other than those that might also be dining if we are at a restaurant. Checked my phone and from my house on the Darkside Google tells me it's 1 hour and 20 minutes to Suvarnabhumi at this time of the day. Not bad, I think, and not a single traffic light along the way. You didn't mention what private schools you checked but I doubt all the 18 Pattaya has are massive, although we don't have kids and I admit I don't know that much about them. I did check that Rugby has 1200 students--but that does cover kindergarten thru high school, so I don't think each grade would be super large. Just my take as a resident on some of your observations. And now on to my day. Good luck wherever you end up.