newnative

Except many condos were there before the advent of Airbnb, so it's more a case of they were there first and then the airport got built. And, it is illegal to rent for less than 30 days.

I like Hipflat to search Pattaya and Bangkok. It allows you to narrow your search to different neighborhoods and you can further narrow down the search by choosing studios, 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, etc. When you click on a project, it gives you information on the project, usually the number of units. when the project was built, the amenities, etc. Then you can click on individual listings by agencies both for sale or rent, usually with photos. Most rentals here in Thailand come furnished. Bangkok is huge so I think your first step would to be to chose some areas you are interested in living at and then check with rentals on Hipflat to give you some idea of what is available and the pricing. From past experience, I would suggest selecting a project that is not too far a walk from a metro station.

As always, a good plan ruined by being too restrictive and too expensive to attract many takers. Just totally clueless. Should have been around 5 million baht. Instead of a few takers for the 40 million plan, you would get far more going for the 5MB plan, which would result in far more people importing their foreign money into Thailand and spending that money in Thailand, with a much bigger benefit in the long run.

As always, crushing any new ideas from others while moving glacially slow with everything else.

Never mind cars; get cracking on the horribly loud motorcycles.

I think there are a number of interpretations of 'farang'--even including how it is spelled. Farang? Falang? I interpret it as meaning a foreigner, someone who is not a Thai citizen. The nurse could have done a better job in explaining the hospital policy but used the shorthand of 'farang'. The doctor may well have used 'non-Thais' and the nurse the word she is familiar with. There may have been a misinterpretation of hospital policy regarding the administration of covid drugs but if there was I don't think it was motivated by race; rather by whether the patient was a Thai citizen or a non-Thai who did not qualify. You mention Burmese, Cambodian, and Vietnamese patients. If the hospital had an ASEAN agreement that requires it to treat citizens of ASEAN countries, again, this would not be racist if a person who is not a Thai citizen and is not a citizen of the covered ASEAN countries is denied service. If there was no such agreement and an Asian Cambodian national was given service while a Black Canadian national or a White American national (or a White Cambodian national, for that matter) standing next to him was denied service, this, indeed, would be racism.

Again, you were turned away due to a nationalistic, not a racist, policy regarding medical care at a government hospital. The debate should be on whether this was medically ethical on the part of the hospital, given your health condition when you were there. In what circumstances should a non-Thai citizen be treated if there is a policy to treat only citizens? Should your case have fallen under the exceptions? I do believe the word 'racist' is used far too often, thus cheapening it, when something is actually not racist, but is another form of discrimination. You make my point best when, in your previous response, you called me 'racist' because I posted that you were not turned away because of your race but because you were not a Thai citizen. See my point? If every action is deemed 'racist' when it is not, what word will we use when something actually is racist? Soon we will have: Johnny: 2 + 2 = 5. Mary: Actually, it equals 4. Johnny: That is so racist to disagree with me! Looking at your previous post, probably we're already there.

I'm fully aware of what racism is. You were not a victim of racism, sorry. Your experience had nothing to do with race or ethnicity. Being a non-citizen is neither a race or an ethnicity. You may have been discriminated against, but it was not racial discrimination. I do not subscribe to the 'dumbing down' of language; nor the excuse of being lazy--writers using 'racist' when they are just too lazy to actually find the correct word. I'm also well-aware that you are not the only one miss-using the word. These days, the slightest offense and out comes 'racist' to describe the experience. "That old dude got a discount on his movie ticket and I didn't! That's so racist!" Unfortunately, this results in the word losing its force and being devalued. It's a very important, powerful word and should not be cheapened by being carelessly used without thought to describe anything remotely offensive. When you're actually a victim of racism, you'll know it.

You were not discriminated against because of your race. Foreigners, and Thai citizens for that matter, can be of any race. You were turned away because the medicine was apparently only being provided to Thai nationals. This is not racism. It's nationalism; citizens sometimes given preferential treatment over non-citizens at government facilities. It's the same thing as a national park having one price for citizens and a different price for non-citizens. Not racist as both citizens and non-citizens can be any race--the focus is not on race, it's on citizen or non-citizen. Now, if a national park had one price for Asian Thai citizens and higher prices for White and Black Thai citizens, that would be racist.

It's not necessarily a 'huge downside' having a neighboring house close by. My single-story house and my neighbor's 2-story house only have about 5 meters separating them, with a tall privacy fence in the middle. Even though the houses are close, I'm not really bothered by the closeness due to how my house was designed and oriented. That is key. My house is a wide U-shape with the major rooms oriented in the opposite direction from my neighbor, with 5 large sets of sliding doors facing the pool area in the middle of the wide 'U'. There are some tall, narrow windows facing his house for sunlight but no big windows. Looking out in that direction from the narrow windows, you see only plantings and the privacy wall. Although the neighbor's house is 2-stories and close, my partner and I are not aware of it much because all of our outdoor activities are either on the other side with our pool/patio area, or at a backyard lawn area, also looking in a different direction. We can't even see his house when we are out in the large pool/patio area--the bulk of our house blocks his house and gives us complete privacy. If you really like this land plot, it could be worth meeting with an architect to see what sort of build options you might have. There may be a way to site your house on the land plot to minimize the impact of the house next door.

Same here. Made a profit on every property sold; mostly seaview condos but also 1 house on Pattaya's Darkside. Nothing wrong with renting if that suits but buying can have some advantages. Partner and I like owning our own space to do with what we want to, while saving on rent--with a likely profit as an extra benefit when we sell.

2am is plenty late enough.

I'm curious where this condo is that it's a 'total loss'.

Agree. I don't think noise is much of an issue for most. My partner and I have lived at 15 different condo complexes in Thailand. One in Rayong, 2 in Bangkok, and the rest in Pattaya. Some were big projects of over 1000 units, some were smaller projects of 200 units or less. Most were highrises, one was only 6 stories. Some were long corridor buildings with 30 or more units on a floor, some were compact footprint projects with less than a dozen units on a floor. Some were older projects, some were brand new. We never had a significant problem with noise at any of them. At the long corridor View Talay projects we owned at we did occasionally hear a door slam and sometimes people talking as they walked by. Not a big deal. Had it been, we would have installed one of those Scorpion doors that you mentioned. A friend of ours has Scorpion doors on his condos and they are like vaults. Great product. One of the nice things about Pattaya is there are so many options with housing; and a lot of it is so affordable, whether you are renting or buying. There's a big variety of condos in all types and sizes, with a half dozen beaches to choose from for your location. We've lived in big studios at Jomtien Beach, 1 and 2-bedrooms at Pattaya Beach, and a 3-bedroom beachfront condo at Wong Amat Beach, among a number of others. Each project and area was interesting and different. You can choose to be in busy Pattaya Beach or a quieter area if that suits you better. Whether highrise, lowrise, townhouse, or single-family, every area offers a variety of price points. The Darkside is a whole other area and offers many different housing projects, also at all price points, both in rentals and housing for sale. If you want the privacy of a single-family home, there's lots of choice, both in rentals and houses for sale. If potential noise is a concern, go the rental route first.

Yes, fraud, with the school meal program. Not murder. They chose to count it as 77 cases. It could just as easily have been seen as 1 case of fraud in the misuse of school funds in regard to the meal program. As I said, he should receive jail time for his fraud but 192 years is far too harsh.

Lame.

Seems to be getting a little testy on the embarrassing story that won't go away. Good.

Ridiculous sentence. Nobody died. Kids got a skimpy school meal. Should he be punished? Certainly, and with some jail time. But, 192 years for skimming some money? Makes no sense to me when other far more serious crimes are given much lighter sentences. 25 people dead in that club fire and the owners walking around free.

There were (are?) actually plans for 3 underpasses; my partner and I saw a table layout at City Hall some years ago that showed the 3 underpasses. One underpass was to go under North Pattaya Road and a longer one was to go under Pattaya Tai and Thepprasit. Unfortunately, only one has been built so far, the Klang one you mentioned. If I am remembering correctly, these underpass projects were under the purview of one of the highway departments, rather than Pattaya City, although City Hall would likely be quite involved. Pity they didn't seize the day and work on them during the quieter covid years. The North Pattaya/Sukumvit intersection is going to be an even bigger problem once tourism really gets going again. Things seem fairly busy now with probably around 8 million visitors to Thailand this year. What's it going to be like with 5 times that amount if we get back to 40 million in a few years?

Darn it all. I thought they might have been building an overpass for thru traffic to avoid some of the intersections, like they have done in Si Racha.

Finally a marketing campaign that makes sense.

Desperate? Nope. T21 has the most interesting and nicest, not to mention cleanest, bathrooms of any mall I've ever been to, each one keeping to the theme of the floor you are on. As someone interested in design, I am always admiring the very close attention to detail that the T21 designers put into every aspect of the mall, with no area overlooked. When you head for the 'Hollywood' bathrooms you literally 'walk the red carpet', in this case red tile on the floor. Love it. I almost always find something new I hadn't noticed with every visit--which makes shopping and eating out there fun.

'effectively solve'. Yeah, right. And, now on to cancer . . .

Also not coming: the Easter Bunny, Santa, the Tooth Fairy, and Godot.

I was thinking the exact same thing. What???