newnative

I find myself curious about what your city has to offer that Pattaya doesn't have. Shopping centers? Pattaya has 2 major ones, with Icon Siam in the works. Golf courses? Plenty, including one that hosts the Honda LPGA tournament. Hospitals? At least 4 big ones, with a major new one under construction in association with Thammasat University. Movie theaters in English? Several to choose from. Restaurants? A huge variety, of about every kind of food imaginable, including some nice beachfront ones on the various beaches. Upscale resorts? A number of them, including Cape Dara, Centre Point Space, and Centara Grand. Car dealerships? Most of the major makes available in Thailand can be found in Pattaya. International schools? About a dozen, including Regents. Housing? Huge amount of choice, from inexpensive condos to beachfront penthouses to large villas in the 150 million baht range. Waterparks? At least three, including the newly refreshed Columbia Pictures Aquaverse. Recreation? Besides golf, there's a number of badminton facilities, scuba, snorkeling, jet skiing, parasailing, bowling, horseback riding, off-road tracks, bike and walking trails around Lake Mabprachan, and more, Other attractions? The very beautiful Nong Nooch Gardens. Area temples. Nearby islands to visit. Underwater World. The Dolphinarium. Silver Lake. Sanctuary of Truth. The Singha D'Luck Theater. Pattaya Floating Market. The Open Zoo. Old Town Naklua, Tiger Park, and more. I'm wondering if you've ever actually been to Pattaya--and why any of the above is 'hell' for you.

Boo hoo.

Blame the Senators for the delay.

What interests me is not important; focus on what your interests are, other than the bars. But since you asked, here's some of what my partner and I do. We have a gym membership at a resort on the beach and 3 times a week we drive into town and spend the morning there, then have lunch at a restaurant and do errands. We like going to the movies. We like trying new restaurants, sometimes with friends we know. We like to take drives around the Pattaya area, seeing new things--and there is always something new. We like having family visit us and spending time with them. We like to travel--our last trip was to Spain and Portugal and we hope to do a Fall trip. We like finding interesting shops to discover, especially ones with Asian art and antiques and items from Japan, one of our favorite countries. About once a month we spend time in Bangkok--nice to have a big city less than 2 hours away by a good 4-lane motorway. My partner is still working and I will sometimes assist him with his work. I like to read and enjoy mysteries and suspense novels. We are currently building a new house with a project developer and that has been taking a lot of our time this year. It's been both fun and challenging as we've been in charge of the garden and the interior, selecting floor and wall tiles, drapes, designing the kitchen and built-ins, shopping for furniture, appliances, plants, etc. A typical evening might be dinner out at one of the many restaurants Pattaya has on offer, followed by a swim when we get home. Then, maybe a Netflix movie or one of the entertaining Korean dramas--I recommend The Penthouse and The Glory as two we enjoyed. So far, I don't think we have hit a temple this year--but it's only August. Perhaps a life that many would say is not their cup of tea--and that's all to the good. Which brings me back to my first comment. It's not what interests me, focus on your interests. If you find you don't have enough, develop some.

"...I'm just drinking and doing the same old thing each time." Your quote. I don't think it's Pattaya that's the problem, I think it's you. How would living anywhere else be any different, I wonder. My partner and I used to also live in central Pattaya and we found plenty to do--and none of it involved drinking at a bar every night. We were never bored with our lives living there. Ditto for when we lived in south and central Jomtien, Pratamnak, and Wong Amat. We are now living on the Darkside and its the same--we find plenty to do every day and are never bored. In your rather short post you mention 'bars' four times, and nothing else. If your life is a bar, oops, a bore, perhaps look to yourself and not the city you are in.

As my dear old Dad used to say, don't spend it all in one place.

That's what I worry about, the cursed Electoral College. Even though Biden won by over 7 million votes, Trump could have actually won in 2020 had he embraced early voting by mail, as Biden did, rather than urging his voters to wait until Election Day to vote. Had he also started early, he may have gotten enough extra votes cast early to swing the states that he narrowly lost. Will he be just as stupid in 2024? One can only hope.

Thought the exact same thing. 600 baht a month???

Everything's relative. There are lots of homeless people in America who, I imagine, would jump at the chance to have a Nirun condo roof over their heads and live in a nice climate like Thailand year-round.

I think if it wasn't Article 112 the dinosaurs would have found something else to object to in order to justify the Senators 'no' vote. Ditto for the dinosaur parties in the House. MF wins points by standing true to what they stand for, which I think will resonate with the voters in future elections.

Sad figure, in my opinion. Desperately needs the limelight. Desperately needs to still feel relevant. Desperately needs to still feel important. Desperately needs to still feel powerful. I can't imagine why he would risk years of prison except for the previous mentioned desperate needs.

If it was 1 million dollars after taxes were paid I think you could live in a lower cost of living country like Thailand off the dividend interest if it was invested in dividend stocks paying around 5%.

He still alive?

Partner and I don't have any financial worries so we would maybe buy another property, take a nice cruise, and do some more traveling with everything upgraded.

Several news reports that I read did mention demolishing the building. Below is the headline from the July 30 issue of The Nation: The Supreme Court has ruled on the Ananda Development’ s Ashton Asoke-Rama 9 project, declaring it illegal and ordering the construction to be halted and the project to be dismantled.

Looks good. Thanks for posting!

Yet another reason to dislike this idiot. Poor Florida.

Absolutely astounding that a human being would be put to death in 2023 for possessing a banned substance. Give her a long jail sentence, if punishment is deemed warranted, but not death. Barbaric.

Pity there isn't a bit more choice here with SUVs. My partner and I were both disappointed with the new CR-V. I'm sure it will do everything just fine--we have a 2018 model--but we were both hoping it would have much fresher styling. The new model looks like what the 2020 0r 2021 model should have looked like. Too bad Hyundai and Kia so far are importing so few models. Hope they start bringing in something other than just the Creta. We are keeping our fingers crossed that Nissan will import the X-Trail. It's just the size we are looking for (Terra way too big, Kick too small) and we love the styling and interior. For the OP, seems like Cross or HR-V as best choices for that segment.

Supply and demand usually kicks in at some point.

I think some places have wheelchairs available these days. We took my partner's elderly mother to Underwater World and we wheeled her through the various rooms. She could walk but we had a lightweight, foldable wheelchair that we used depending on how much walking was involved. You can view a lot of Nong Nooch Gardens from the trams that run through the park. Likely the OP could arrange for a wheelchair there. Not a ton of walking involved with Sanctuary of Truth or, in most cases, the beachfront restaurants.

Incorrect decision, in my opinion, by the court. Then compounded by the totally inappropriate penalty of tearing the building down, with no regard whatsoever to the affected parties, especially the 500-some families who would lose their homes. The Thai legal system at its absolute worst.

They'd be done if they'd actually gotten to work instead of talking endlessly about it for endless years.

If this is an example of the school administration's thinking god help the education they are serving up.

Yes.