digbeth

The lack of black on the streets  yesterday maybe due to the fact that not all may have black shirts readily in their wardrobe

Many supermarket chains, Tesco, BigC says they're voluntarily stopping sales of alcohol for at least 2-3days now

Don't forget that Sunday 16th is end of Buddhist Lent and there'll be no alcohol sales from Midnight of Saturday 15th

This is a preexisting arrangement, nothing to do with the mourning

Although a recently new one, only since last year that the end of lent been declared 'official' Buddhist holiday

Some Thai men would abstain from alcohol during the lent period that began way back in July, so to have the 'end' day be a dry day seems a little harsh for the part time teetotaler 

Welcome to 2016

While the queue to pay in both directions can be horrible at busy times currently, for Pattaya bound traffic at least, things could improve if the payment is made closer to the actual destinations, meaning that trucks bound for Laem Chabang or earlier and traffic to Rayong and beyond is not bunched up together in the same queue to pay at Pan Thong, that's the theory anyway...

But some of the new toll booths at the exit is only a couple of booths wide! Like Bang Bueng and Chonburi some of these exits see heavy traffic in the mornings and there's the annual Chinese spring festival where every family in Bangkok visit their ancestors' grave in droves that gridlock Ban Bueng for 2 weekends in late March/April, and we know why both the Burapha Withi and the Motorway 7 is made free every Songkran and New Year's holiday is that otherwise the toll booths can not cope with that much traffic.

With the low adoption rate of the M-Pass at least you can sail through what looks like a 20-30minutes queue at the booths for now, 

Oh and with Pattaya bound traffic already bunched up at the Hwy 7 / Sukhumwit Junction with queues tailing back to where the new toll booths is already on weekends, once that toll booths is in operation, it'll be chaos.

Hope they gouge the price up a bit, that'll force some of the traffic off the highway 

When I was in the UK I like to order the fillings individually, and the staff would oblige, when I first got off the plane about 10 years ago I went into Subway in Nana, and after ordering the meat I want, the staff won't let me have a say in what vegetables and sauce get to go on the sandwich, sticking to the menu's recipee only, no can do mister....

For the same around 100 baht, even McDonald's would let you pick and choose the toppings... And staff at McDonald's look like they had a modicum of training in customer service. I haven't tried Subway in Thailand since

Maybe my first impression was a bad one, but the variety and availability of other foods here means I haven't bothered to try subway again, should I?

Dann is Thai for police checkpoint, it used to be a Thai page that give timely locations of the active police checkpoints, but it has evolved to be more local news and after police crackdown on various 'we love dann' facebook pages in Bangkok it has changed the name to 'We Love Pattaya'

TT Exchange as previously mentioned has better than bank rates, but nowhere as good as Superiches in Bangkok, but the number of branches they have all over Pattaya is convenient

Another outfit is Yenjit, but their Pattaya rates aren't as good as Bangkok also

A lot of the parking places around the area seems pretty 'influential' most motorcycle taxi guys around the area seem to be in on it, guiding you to these various parking lots for a 'fee' The number of Thais going over to Koh Larn must makes it pretty lucrative. Seems like there's a lot of 'incentives' for a modern, professionally run operation to not suceed. The way the first contractor/operator just packed up seem pretty mysterious? 

I always find the Thai menu in a non-thai especially fine dining place a bit patronizing, is it a Pattaya only practice where it is expected that one's company is of a bit less refined palate though?

Matahari makes some pretty decent Thai food like green curry, but they also have asian stuff like Nasi Goreng on the main menu anyway

The chef/cooks at Casa Pascal makes very good Thai with a Chinese twist too, fried rice, beef stir-fry, the complimentary stuff they bring between course.

Didn't somebody bemoan the lack of fine dining Thai restaurants in Pattaya? just go into any western fine dining place in Pattaya and the skilled cooks in any restaurants should be able to knock something up 

Went past 'Rubber Land' ,one of the more prominent Chinese tourist trap on Northbound Suk between south and central this morning, from the usual rows of bus that extends out and occupy a whole lane of traffic, there were only a couple parked inside.

Enjoy the lack of bus while you can,

This is probably only temporary, once an 'understanding' has been reached with the government, I'm sure they'll be back to the old arrangements pretty soon

I'd take 4-5 minivans over one big bus going down central rd, if this is the way things are developing, for Pattaya, I'd hope the traffic situation alone would improve immensely 

It's all one big organization apparently

After some high profile crackdown on the '0-dollar' Chinese tour operators by Bangkok government a couple of weeks ago, do any of you notice a drop in the number of Chinese hoards tour busses? 

Seems like the white brand new Chinese built bus that were being run , some with the red 'temporary' numberplates on has all but disappeared, now replaced with older Thai built busses of various colours now.

Anecdotally I heard that some of the 'white' busses were actually owned by the Chinese souvenir shops/tourist traps and they were lending them away for free to the tour operators(their mates) providing that they heard their flocks to these souvenir place a couple of times during their trips, prices in these tourist traps is 2-3 times what's normally charged in the regular markets

Seems like the Thai government cracked down on the fact that most of these companies are being owned and operated by Chinese nationals and funneling all the profits home, with token Thai owner as a nominee and such, a lot of the white bus were impounded in the process, leading to incoming tours now resorting to hiring the regular Thai tourbus for now

Chatter among hotels staffs is that a lot of bookings from China is being cancelled now, though the impression is that these '0-dollar' tourist rarely ventured outside their itinerary and spend /tip at least they are filling the empty rooms in hotels (maybe at a heavily discounted rate) the staff might not get the tips/service charge like when the Europeans/Americans/Russians were here in droves, at least the Chinese cheap charlies were keeping the hotels afloat and keeping the staff employed

My impression going down beach road is that there seems to indeed be less tour bus picking up/dropping off Chinese onto the speedboats than usual

How much do these events actually bring in to local businesses?

I only see the usual street stalls every time there's a 'fair' on the beach road, this year there seem to be commotion about police enforcing no unauthorized (paid) street vendor plying their trade in competition with the stalls that paid money to use the beach road during the concert.

Some hotels and restaurants and the minibus from Bangkok probably got some business, but my impression is that the Thai youths that visit these free concerts rarely spend.

And those that drove here there aren't enough carparks, Maybe Central appreciate having their carpark filled and people walking through... Just earlier this year when there was a privately held Maya music festival North of Naklua, they managed to find carpark and shuttle service to the event. The Annual music festival and the Christmas-Newyear concert seems to be that local businesses are supposed to 'chip in' and put up with disruptions and inconvenience

I'd be nice if city hall can justify how much they are spending in organizing these events and how much they think are bringing in to the economy.

/The promotion of the Concert seem to be less and less every year too, and It's become less 'international'

If a passenger turns up at Pattaya nua they'd just redirect the bus from Jomtien to drop in and pick them up

Rung Rueng, which runs the service from Bangkok-North Pattaya

The Airport Bus to Jomtien

And Bell travel seem to be part of the same group of companies anyway

From now on after reading this post i think I will use both..

20260 / 20150.

I will write it like this underneath my address.

That could confuse the sorting machine

writing down just 20150 will work ALL the time

20260 is for pedants who do so at their own risk

this year is the end of term for the current mayor and councilors? looking at records, it's a few months after the end of term where they elect and have new mayor sworn in, as the current political climate means elections is effectively outlawed... there might be a special appointment instead

I still feel that 20260 is the more 'correct' option since it specify a more specific area of Pattaya City as opposed to the whole Banglamung area..... even though now I know that using 20150 will have better chance of things reaching me, It still feels wrong to me..... feels like a pedant now

I also like to put 'Pattaya City' in the address too, even though that has no bearing on the deliverability by mailman

When they first opened I used them regularly, but now they have many 'shops' within the site that drop ship from places like Hongkong and for certain items there are many prices from the different shops/vendor with varying degree of description, For me it's hard to tell if which items ship from Lazada's own warehouse, which I'm fine with, or from other vendor entirely. Some vendor's entry looks a bit dodgy, makes selecting which item to buy a bit stressful

Cash on delivery option solves most of the problem though.

If that indeed is the last toll before Pattaya, looks like Nongprue residents can still continue to use the 'on ramp' just after the toll booths to get to Pattaya.

I remembered when the extension were first opened, residents there complained that they can't use the highway 7 just in their backyard to get to Pattaya, and after much wrangling, a local politician managed to get the 'on ramp' constructed by filling in the ditch with some gravel and paving over into a small road, there is one on the opposite side heading towards Soi waterworks too

Most likely some **** attempting to enter a foreign post code into a field intended for UK postcodes only !

As an international parcel company, I'm sure they know that different countries has different format address,

anyway I tried for my self, here tried putting 20260 in and it said 'no data found' while 20150 returned that the postcode is within Chonburi

I had someone trying to ship me something from the UK with DHL and they couldn't get the address entered into the system due to DHL's system not recognizing Pattaya's 20260 postcode....

I checked with Thailand Post and 20260 is still valid, but I've had cases where some of my letters had the 20260 postcode on and the postman crossed out the postcode using a pen and wrote down 20150 instead so there's a bit of mystery there...

In my decades living in Pattaya I've always use 20260, in my case with the shipment from UK, the fault is probably with DHL, but still

20150 is supposed to be for the whole of Banglamung area, and 20260 is only for Pattaya city only, so no darkside, nothing north of Naklua and south of Jomtien

Anyone had similar experience?

I'm told the best way to know the postcode is to look for what's written on the side of the post box nearest to you, buggered if I had seen any on the streets of Pattaya

For a laugh, try having the sales rep demonstrate the voice control on the Everest,

Hi Ford Fans

All what I have read here in this Forum so far is that the new Ford Everest is a good car!

However, here are two reasons why I don’t buy a Ford Everest right now:

1. The 3.2 Liter Engine (as mentioned here before a slightly modified Ford Transit engine) is outdated according to my understanding!

2. I consider it as "NEGLIGENCE" of Ford Thailand not to install a GPS Navigation System for the Customer here in Thailand!

When I asked end of last year the Ford dealer salesman why the Everest has no Navigation System he responded: "the Navigation is not important for the Thai People"!

Unbelievable reply! To my remark why Toyota, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Chevrolet installing Navigation Systems into their SUV’s I received only a smile!

Maybe by the end of 2017 something will be changed! At least I hope so!

If not back to Toyota the new Fortuner TRD!

I had navigation in my '08 Everest, works great, but I only got the map updated twice, and it is now unsupported, meaning many road that's been opened since then is not in my map

In the age where smartphones had better map and real-time traffic updates, I'd prefer system like Honda with Apple's carplay that can hand over the navigation to the phone