digbeth

Where are you headed for in Pattaya? That may be a factor given the works on Sukhumvit Road.

The distance from the airport to the Sukhumvit Road is 117 km and should take about an hour and a quarter.

Beware - the speed limit for most of the road should be 120 km/ph but sections (notably around Chachoengsao have restrictions of 90 km/ph and they do have cameras.

HW7 would be my preferred route from Suvarnabhumi to Pattaya.

As for the speed limit, my take on the flashing 90 km/h signs are that they are the “recommended maximum speed”, kind of a warning as they are around areas where the humps are quite bad and also along one of the sharper bends of the road. I always cruise in these “90 zones” at around 120 km/h and so far never got a speeding ticket mailed to me, even though they have cameras. If they were actual speed limit signs, when would in that case the official speed of 120 be legal again, the big boards that list the speeds for different type of vehicles are quite sparse along the road, so no obvious marker on when you could resume 120 km/h, or is there a set distance from the last sign of how far the speed is in effect? Well that's my take on it and I could be wrong here, but haven't read or heard anything to the contrary. If anyone actually have received an official speeding ticket in these "90 zones" I'd love to hear about it.

It is NOT advisory, it is the limit. The Thai Highway Code says such road are 120 km/h UNLESS otherwise indicated. Same happens on the tollway in Bangkok.

Cost me 500 Baht to find that out when a very clear picture of my car arrived in the post one day!

That said, I am sure the cameras are not permanently on.

120 is only for Highway 7 and 9

(even that, for some people they feel that the law is not quite clear if legally the limit is only 90 and there's a moratorium to not prosecute anyone going under 120)

Other highway like 331 or the 4 going south is only 90 all the way, at the regular checkpoints on these routes you'll hear the protest of 'I though the limit was 120' when the police has pulled speeders in

Expressways in Bangkok... 80-90 depending on sections, speed cameras set to 110-120,

In any case going 121+ kph anywhere means you'll likely be exceeding most speed limits by a margin wide enough that in western countries, court appearance is likely

Looks like where the new control building, a service area and (supposedly) half completed toll gates are, there will be a junction going down all the way to Ban Chang

So as it turns out I could be wrong about the rest of the toll gates being completed at later dates, and the toll gates are only for the new Pattaya-Mabtaphut/Ban Chang route.... but if that's the case they have built it too early as the lands along the route hasn't even been bought/expropriated yet

Given how car, truck and bus drivers just have no lane discipline and continually erratically cross all four lanes as it suits them.......far better no bikes on the motorway.

I'm going to assume you are trying to wind someone up with that statement but either way you are talking nonsense

Hard enough to keep an eye on all the idiots on that motorway without adding motorcycles to the mix. Rightly so no bikes allowed on the motorway. IMO of course!

I use that motorway on a regular basis on a motorbike and have yet to encounter an issue or witness one, in fact it is a much safer route than riding on the 3 , perhaps proper enforcement of traffic law and taking the people who cannot drive off the roads might be a better idea, and I have travelled some 90,000km on Thai roads over the years and the worst driving I have seen is almost always farangs - go figure

The motorways/expressways are the safest roads in Thailand

The way some idiots (nationalities/race has nothing with this) do weave left and right across all lanes of traffic, this is fact, having high powered motorcycles doing the same at 200+kph on your left where you least expect to encounter them would only lead to trouble

But the Thai traffic law were written when motorcycle are just moped and going over 60 or over bridges/flyover was a struggle, in Bangkok it is illegal for motorcycles to go over most flyover still, a traffic law reform in Thailand is badly needed, but it must come with improved education/testing

The strange thing is that if you drive direction Bangkok, then the first toll booth you will encounter is at Laem Chabang.

I'm sure the one at Chaipornwithi/Soi waterworks that exit to Nong Prue will extend to cover the whole two sides once it's in operation

Please explain how a building on the right side of the highway can be extended to the left side of the highway, when there are no toll booths at that side of the road..

Further on, all traffic direction Bangkok that enters highway 7 at the Nong Plalai intersection also doesn't pass any toll booths, and for those Laem Chabang is also the first toll booth to encounter.

The toll booth on the other side of the road will appear through the magic that place them on the right side.... construction

You can apply for a brew-pub licence and the tax office will happily tax you from the meter connected to your vat, but you can't bottle the brew, cap it and sell it legally (yet).

Such is the red tape that some of the Thai craft brewers have found that it's easier to set up a brewery in Cambodia and export the bottle back to Thailand... hence you'll see some 'Thai' beers (like Phuket or Pattaya is the easy one to find, there are many more craft brews about) coming from brewery in Cambodia.

But for homebrew... go right ahead, there are many selling supplies too,

Technically it's only illegal if you bottle and distribute it

Does the Jomtien bus drops in to North Pattaya? or only on request? taking the Airport Rail Link from the city to the airport is just as easy as taking the Skytrain to Ekamai, I guess at the Airport the bus doesn't have to go through the traffic to leave the city... it could be quite convenient.

I'd hate to be the only one guy that makes the bus detour into Pattaya instead of straight to Jomtien though; Just as annoying in the regular bus upon entering Pattaya on the 36Hwy, turn left and head north to drop a few people off at Rong Po somewhere.

Even if it's possible to book ahead and make the bus come in to North Pattaya to pick you up/drop off, I wouldn't want to inconvenience other passengers since Jomtien isn't too far out of the way for me...

Is it okay to use the Airport bus for regular commute? On North Pattaya there's a good paid parking option for Motorcycle and Cars, anything near the Jomtien dropoff/pickup point Don't say sneak into ViewTalay 2

The strange thing is that if you drive direction Bangkok, then the first toll booth you will encounter is at Laem Chabang.

I'm sure the one at Chaipornwithi/Soi waterworks that exit to Nong Prue will extend to cover the whole two sides once it's in operation

Time for the government to allow large bikes on Toll roads and highways, I can understand for this rule being applied to small scooters etc, a limit set at 600cc wouldn't be far away - time for change, touring in Thailand could be made so much easier and could open up a whole new tourism sector making all roads available to certain classes of motorbikes

They fail at policing a set of traffic lights so how would they make that work ?

I think you'll find that big bikes are allowed to use it.

To the tune of 1,000.- baht per offence, at the moment, how's that for a toll?

All the 'big bikes' vendors need to get together and lobby the government

With the toll booths going in certain direction only, looks like they are only half completed, and they could detour traffic through the already constructed booths while constructing the remainder of the booths in the middle of the road.

If they do a closed-system where you take a ticket/card and pay by the distance at the exit, most of the exits would have to close.

Previously the 'Motorway' Highway 7 between Bangkok and Chonburi used to be open-system where you pay 30 baht once at the first toll, and another 30 at the last toll, entering and exiting any exits between the tolls is free, only recently did they move to a closed system and install toll booth at all the exits along the way.

Around Laem Chabang where there's a big PTT service stations on both sides and a Homepro any many other shops, if you can't exit there there'll be chaos. But I don't see toll booth before and after there if they're making it a closed-system

Is the 36 into Pattaya being blocked forcing people to use this new toll road ?

No , but the whole highway 7 is, so in order to get to the 36, you have to come down on the 7 and it looks like there will be a toll at Laem Chabang

So the only way to get to Pattaya without paying more tolls is through Highway 3 the Sukumvit road, pass god knows how many traffic lights and rush hours in Chonburi is pretty bad,

Or go down on 331 take a detour to Rayong, that works too

Too bad the Buraphawithi expressway( The one from Bang Na) extention is being blocked by NIMBYS in Chonburi/Sriracha, the eastern seaboard badly need an alternative route, especially with all these Just-In-Time manufacturing practice that results in having loads of trucks on the road between the various Industrial estates, any delays in the road networks just cost money.

As you may have seen the various construction for toll booths along the Highway 7 (Motorway) extension from Chonburi all the way to the recently completed bits that ended in Sukhumvit road in Pattaya between North and Central road.... The stretch of road is turning into toll road.

When the most recently finished stretch between the International school and Sukhumvit was built, there was a sign (and stil is ) saying that the road is for use toll free temporarily only, and change to toll system is coming later.... well later is this year.

Most of exits from SriRacha to Pattaya has been blocked off at one point in the past year but now reopened with signs saying that the exit was temporary and will be closed once the toll system is in operation in August 2016, so look out for sign with lots of writing in Thai on the exit, if you use those exit regularly, better plan for alternative route.

With the toll... that means another 20-30 baht to get to Pattaya... possible queues during busy times

and no more riding motorcycles on the highway! so from August on(If they can get the toll booths open in time), if you travel on Motorcycles, it's either by Sukhumvit (Highway 3) or 331 to get to Bangkok and beyond (The old Hwy7 Extention only let you ride motorcycles up to Chonburi where you have to take the Chonburi bypass and get on the Highway 3 anyway)

Depending on how good the service road on the side is, you might still be able to ride motorcycles all the way to Chonburi still, but parts of it look under construction still.

For Pattaya residents, I remember there was a furors that from Chaiyapornwithi (Soi Waterworks, Road no 3240) that it was exit from the highway only and residents in those area can't use the highway to get to Pattaya, after much lobbying by local politician, a turnpike was constructed by filling in the drainage canal and small slip road made to merge with the highway.... who knows what the status of the 'entrance' will be after the toll road is in operation, but it looks like it's just after the last toll booths, with the big office building for the highway already constructed there on the exit.

Does anyone else notice how this will affect you?

For me I like to travel to Sriracha once every couple of week to the Japanese mall J-Park and to BangPhra reservoir sometime, and the exit I use is definitely closing, so I would have to exit the Highway 7 somewhere around Laem Chabang probably where the toll booths are being constructed and take the service road alongside all the way to my usual exit.

It's gonna be chaos for sure, but hopefully if they manage to force out local traffic from the motorway, it'll be better for the paying customer.

Looks like many of the restaurants people want to move here seem to be along beach road...

For those of you that prefers Buraphawithi Elevated toll way or Hwy 3 but don't travel to Bangkok often....

At the moment there are roadworks on the Chonburi Bypass on the last bit before the new bridge/flyover that joins you to highway 7, they are constructing a toll gate in the middle of the road, forcing you to detour using the side road and joins the Highway 7 on the side road instead... during busy hours there are quite a queue on the bottleneck;

and as the trucks slow down as they climb the bridge, and sometime the truck overtake each occupying both lanes and you are stuck behind them for ages. (it mostly affect outbound, towards Pattaya traffic, so going to Bangkok is no problem)

In my experience, people driving on the Buraphawithi expressway generally behave themselves better than on the 'motorway' Highway 7, especially on big holidays or long weekends, but any accidents or broken down car could easily block all traffics on the expressway for hours

<and not for a slightly related comment/rant>

As a regular driver to Bangkok, without the easy-pass and the m-pass motorway, getting stuck behind queues to pay at the toll gate would be unpleasant, during the holidays, they would be unable to cope with the extra traffic, hence making the roads free during New Year and Songkran Holidays, or else the queue would be tens of kilometers long... and now they are constructing more toll gates on the stretch of highway 7 all the way to Pattaya!

Sailor Bar soi 8 for the food, good portion size...

Can't be bothered to find places to park and walk through all the beer bars to get there sometime

Being a bar too, they probably wouldn't work if they're on 3rd road or somewhere in Naklua, but I wish just their kitchen could make a nice restaurant somewhere a bit more sedated

Does it look obvious that is is being run as a hotel with walk in clients?

Do they register as a hotel or apartment?

Do they prance around naked around the pool and have big orgies?

If they are being discreet and not make a nuisance of themselves to other neighbors, there's nothing to stop people having 'guests' over and what consenting adults do in the privacy of their rooms is not illegal.

IF they don't register as a hotel, having foreigner over straight off the plane and not reporting is illegal, and if money changed hands and solicitation for sex can be proven, that is illegal too... do you want to see how chummy they are with the local police? try tipping the police and see what happens

Went there today. Zero designated parking, parked on soi 13 and walked down. You have to wait at the entrance to be seated, nobody there. When a girls shows up together with a manager the manger said they do not have staff enough to let anybody more in. The place was far from half full.

Interesting, but understandable. They are having problems finding women willing to work such hours and conditions for low wages, share(I assume) tips, etc.. Why would a lady work at Hooters when she can make a lot more money being someone's sugarbaby or even on a GoGo stage? Promises promises but show me the money! Even in Bangkok they are often seen on the street with brochures inviting passers by(female) to apply for positions. There is no middle ground for all this. Either you provide your man sexual favors and give up your pride and face, or you don't. Most Thai women don't. "All farang think Thai lady easy" is the saying.

I remember seeing the ads in the local papers around the middle of last year saying that the wages is around 30,000 baht, that's a lot more than the 12-15,000 normal places like KFCs or any other food service industry is paying.... is it enough for a decent hard working girls to suffer the indignity of wearing that uniform and being ogle at? who knows...

If they only manage to hire from the pools of bar girls for now... service ain't gonna be at the level of Starbucks or even McDonald's

Their reviews on Facebook is hillarious

Looks like there's still teething problems to sort out still

"My father, a friend and I decided to check out the new Hooters as it opened the night before and we were curious. We decided to offset a jug of beer to share at 320 baht. It took sound 20minutes to get the attention of a staff and after waiting another 15 minutes without a drink and noticing the tiny sizes of the jugs on a corresponding table, we decided to leave. What a waste of time!"

"I waited for 30 minutes for a coke and ask another waitress to get me coke she asked who did i order it with! They dont have name tags and not introducing their names! So i guess im supposed to ask for every damn name! Also i was the only table who she asked to pay before we finish our meals! Can they be anymore rude! You charges american price so im expecting american services! Not coming back again!"

The Central "Center" where big C is on 2nd road between north and central used to be called Central Festival and is indeed owned by the Central Group, even though they never had a Central department store in there.

When the Central 'proper' on Soi 9 opened, they transferred the name over, so old Pattaya hands might still cling to the old name

I saw they do conduct drills like landings on the beach, they probably wouldn't want to hassle of having to announce / have signs in language other than Thai if they are conducting live fire exercise and such

It's okay, even the thais confuses Sen Mee (the white thinnest one) and Bamee (the yellow egg ones) often in the noodle place, when ordering these two, the cook/shop people would have to confirm if you are indeed ordering the yellow one or the fine thin one

Guay Tiao is an umbrealla term like 'pasta' all the noodle sizes are Guay Tiao

Guay Tiao is Chinese in origin, Thai Chinese are predominantly Taechiw and from that part of China, the noodle soup are fish balls based,

But not Kanom Jin, Kanom Jin is fermented rice noodle local to south east asia, Despite having the word 'Jin' or China in the name, it has nothing to do with China but is of one of the ethnic languages around here. 'Khao Pun' is also the name used in NorthEastern Isan area of Thailand.

Enough about being pedantic though, back to the original poster's question? Where's the best Kanom Jin place in Pattaya?

And what about the sauce/curry? what's your favorite? Which shop is good for what? I am not adventurous enough to try the fish ones, I only go for the plain old green curry. What about all you can eat buffet style? Are there any in Pattaya? even with the a la carte place, when loaded up with vegetables and boiled eggs I find that it's quite filling already. Kanom Jin must have been devised as a vegetable delivery system.

Oh the difference between Kanom Jin and normal white noodle soup which also comes in vermicelli size (Sen Mi) is that Kanom Jin is fermented

I think 'sen mii' just means 'medium sized strand'.

I think ordinary noodles are called 'gway-tiiao' (choose your own transliteration). And usually there's a choice of 3 sizes of strand: yai (large), mii (medium) and lek (small).

I think vermicalli-size is 'lek'.

No, lek is fetuccini sized

Ruen Khao Pun on third road south of central road opposite Access Inn, 'Khao Pun' is north/norteastern thai for Kanom Jin, literally the name of the place is house of Kanom Jin

A little shop on south Pattaya opposite the market right next to the temple is also pretty good, it's just a little shophouse with a row of table with vegetables haning on top of it. This shop is a bit more 'rustic' than Ruen Khao Pun above

Oh the difference between Kanom Jin and normal white noodle soup which also comes in vermicelli size (Sen Mi) is that Kanom Jin is fermented

With regards to coming out of the tunnel and hittting a redlight, there is a South Pattaya tunnel in the pipeline, probably will start as soon as the Klang one is finished, so look forward of another decade of gridlock

What harbor (sic) are they referring to?

Looking over the construction site during heavy rain and looks like they could be referring to their basement