newnative

Not believing a word of it. And, no, this was not a 'huge hotel scam'. Hold the hype.

If the demand wasn't there, I doubt an established developer/business would proceed. Centre Point built its large hotel on top of T21. Apparently filled the rooms and needed more rooms to offer so it built Centre Point Space across the street. That seems to be a success and now the developer has the even bigger Centre Point 3 planned for an enormous tract of land in front of Cape Dara. All 3 very big investments, likely not done without some thought. Ditto for Copacabana. Sold well enough and now a second Copacabana is planned. Same for Riviera--a number of successful projects, with the next one, Riviera Malibu, on the horizon. Whether all of the many new projects will be successful . . .we'll see. As far as the 'mess' detering visitors to Pattaya, I doubt it will have much effect. Things like road construction, the state of the sidewalks, lack of shade trees, etc., etc., are issues that are most vexing to locals living here full-time, not tourists here for a short visit. When my spouse and I recently visited China, did we inquire about the traffic before we booked the trip? No.

Agree.

Lock all of 'em up already.

Sad, especially the 380. Wonderful plane.

Yes, it does. And, the numbers will continue to grow with popular events such as the International Fireworks, and new attractions popular with Thais, such as the big water park that just opened on the Darkside, and family-oriented new hotels such as Centre Point Space.

For Pattaya, sadly, it's only going to get far worse as the massive development of a number of mega projects continues. In north Pattaya/Wongamat, you have Arom nearing completion and three huge projects, Centre Point 3, Once Wongamat, and Wyndham Grand getting started. Akara Hotel just opened and the land near it to the old Best supermarket is being cleared for new development there. In Jomtien, a second Copacabana is planned, to go with the massive first one. Plus, Skypark Lucean, also quite large. In Pratamnuk, Riviera Malibu will be joining the other Riviera projects. Across from Axis, the huge Grand Solaire will be Pattaya's tallest building at 67 stories. On the Darkside, dozens and dozens of new housing projects scattered all over. Just a small sampling. Pattaya Realty lists 138 new project developments in Pattaya. Pattaya continues to boom, but the infrastructure lags far behind, with little forward thinking being demonstrated. For several months, Sukhumvit Road by the North Pattaya Road intersection has been torn up, causing a continuing huge traffic mess that still isn't done. As long as the road is already being torn up for a lengthy period, what a great opportunity it would have been to get started on an overpass over that very busy intersection. A good start could have been made. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.

At this point in my life, continued good health and vitality.

Unhinged.

Daniel Burnham: "Make no little plans . . ."

Yaa

That whole area is being redeveloped. The new Akara Hotel just opened. Close by to it a 2-building highrise project will be going up--Once Wongamat, a second project to the first, Once Pattaya. All the one-story older stuff from there to the circle and around past the old Best has been boarded up and some of it has started to be torn down. Will be interesting to see what else new will be going into those spaces. Closer to the beach, Centre Point 3 is slated for a huge tract of land in front of Cape Dara and Wyndham Grand, another big highrise project, is planned for just down the street. Both joining Arom Wongamat, nearing completion. Centara Grand Resort has started what looks to be extensive renovations.

Spouse and I have lived in both. Of the two, we liked Wongamat more, but Jomtien checks a lot of boxes, too. We liked Wongamat for being close to T21, Central Festival, Bangkok Pattaya Hospital, Big C at Marina, Home Pro, Index, and Boonthavorn, among other stores. We're in a house on the Darkside now near Lake Mabprachan and we're liking it the best of all.

Yaa!

Anybody who could possibly think the world was safer when Trump was in charge goes into the 'dumb' column.

You can't possibly be that naive. As others have said, it won't matter how individual jurors voted; they will all be targeted if a guilty verdict is rendered. Trump and his followers have shown far too many times that they have no respect for laws.

Can we have an actual gag in his mouth? Pretty please, pretty please.

Hate to say it but . . . dumb blonde. Surprised she was ever considered PM material and even more surprised she lasted a whole 50 days.

He's right. No matter what happens in court, the movement, with whatever name, will just get stronger.

Must have rounded them up and dropped them off in Pattaya.

Yes, of course, if foreign quota is still available a condo held in Thai name can be purchased in foreign quota. I think you will find, though, that in places like Pattaya with high concentrations of foreigners, a number of the most desirable condo projects popular with foreigners no longer have foreign quota available. So, the 'scenario' comes into play fairly often here. The situation can be different in other areas, including Bangkok. When my spouse and I bought our Bangkok condo it was in a very desirable center city project steps away from an MRT station. But, its location and quality also appealed to plenty of Thai buyers, as well, and when we bought the re-sale in 2019 there was lots of foreign quota still available. Since the project opened in 2013 and there was still FQ available in abundance in 2019, this project will likely not run out of FQ anytime soon.

Totally agree. It drags on way too long. In my opinion, it should be confined to designated streets, for designated times of the day. Those who aren't interested have the option of avoiding those streets during those hours.

The advantage, as others have said, is a foreign quota condo can be easier to sell down the road than one in Thai or company name, if foreign quota is full in the condo project. This is more of a factor in places in Thailand, such as Pattaya, with higher concentrations of foreigners. Many foreign buyers want to buy a condo only in foreign quota as it allows them to have the condo title in their name. Speaking from experience, my Thai spouse and I have owned two condos at different projects that were bought in Thai name when foreign quota was full. One would have sold much faster when we went to sell it had it been in foreign quota--we had a number of buyers who told us they would have bought the condo if it was in foreign quota. The other condo was in such a sought-after project that we were able to sell it more easily to a Thai/farang couple who kept the condo in Thai name.

Supposedly, one of the reasons for having the foreign quota limited to 49% was to keep Thai owners in control of a condo project. However, there is no requirement that a project's governing condo board must have a majority of Thai owners. At the last condo project that I owned at, the condo board had a majority of foreign board members; if I remember correctly, there were only one or two Thais on the board. So, the foreign owners were in charge at that project.

And, the correct view, in my opinion.