YAHF

Pattaya's soi 11 bars still open & very popular as well as low prices ( opposite New Metro )

Hungry Hippo eatery in soi Buakhow still doing well, keep it it up Rob and prices down.

At least in England Dick Turpin wore a mask when robbing people and Robin Hood gave back proceeds of crime back to the poor people.

Very slightly off topic and a very good app to have on your system is " Flight Radar 24 " this will show you what aircraft are moving & if you tap on the plane (presumably a touch screen) it will show all the details of it i.e. where it's come from & where it's going to.

It's a known fact by the people here that tourism is down by a very long way indeed, I can see crime souring in the near future as many have got used to their living standards but now there is a heavy shortage of money coming in, tip's to staff who rely on them are getting very little & it would seem the Thai mentality is to increase prices to make up for the loss then wonder why they have to close because the punters have moved to cheaper priced places.

Attached is a photo of beach road outside Central Festival at 23:00 hrs Chinese New Years eve, so where is everyone ???

It wasn't long ago that I walked down beach road very early in the morning where hundreds of far east tourists were waiting to board the speed boats but could not because they were being filled with petrol from 25 litre plastic containers, the very strong smell of the fumes was everywhere and it dawned on me that's probably why the smoking ban was introduced in the first place, after all nobody smokes at a filling station.

Stop smoking on the beaches.

One early morning as I walked along Pattaya's beach road I understood why smoking has been stopped, the guys who run the speedboats were filling up with petrol from umpteen 25 litre plastic containers and the fumes were making me gag, chinese people smoke as well as farages.

IMHO you cannot beat the Tequila Sunrise Sunday lunch, the place is on soi 14 in Jomtien, from the beach road walk 150 metres & its on the right, run by an English guy & there are a choice of meats with a Yorkshire pudding & loads of veg, price ( March 2018 ) for a small version 70 Baht or the belly buster 100 baht as well as loads of other meals available.

It would seem that Thailand does not want long term snowbirds but only money spending short time holiday makers & the way the Thai Baht is going against all tourist rates only short times will be affordable, Pattaya is turning into a ghost town slowly but surely, next there will be tumble weeds in the streets coming out of the so many empty bars.

PS.

This refers to March 2017 earlier this year.

When I applied for the new 6 month visa in Hull I was told I had to submit proof of £5000 in the bank for the last six months, also provide a valid airplane return ticket as well proof of where I will be staying, I had to get my mate to send me a copy of his receipt for the 2 bedroom apartment I stayed in with him 2 months helping him get over an illness, on the Etihad flight into Bangkok I filled out the immigration ticket putting the same address, I only stayed a couple of days with him & then moved back in with my long term lady friend, a couple of weeks later a friend in the UK told me about a friend of his staying in Bangkok for 2 months decided to visit Chiang Mai for 2 weeks & whilst there he was stopped by police who asked where he was staying & he told them where in Chiang Mai, they did an immigration check & said that was incorrect information as he was supposed to be in Bangkok so the spot fined him 4000 baht, I decided to register a change of address.

1st I asked my rent collector if she knew how to do this, she then said she would ask her boss, after another week she produced a thick wad of papers & told me they were the correct form but nobody knew how to fill them in, as they were all in Thai language I could not understand as well, so I told her I would go to the immigration in soi 5 in Jomtien which I did the next day.

At the reception desk I asked to register a change of address & was given a form in English which I filled in & was then told to go upstairs to the housing department where I handed the form to young woman, she looked me up & down handing me the above 2 small pieces of paper stating that there is a fine to pay if they were told within 24 hours of moving & all the items listed must be produced when registering a change of address, being shocked at this I whoa there I have not moved yet & I will come back tomorrow with all the relevant papers, also I asked that if

I visit my lady's family home do I have to inform immigration or the local police station to which she said no as you already have an address in Pattaya ( so it sounds like the cop in Chiang Mai ripped off the other guy ??? )

Obviously I did not go back there & left it until I did a visa run to Krong Poi Pet where I filled in the immigration paper putting my down present address.

On my return I called the Hull embassy asking them if they knew about this change of address law, she told me that they had never heard of it before & thanked me for the information which I emailed them the same as above.

I hope this will be useful information for all who move around Thailand

Showing his address would help tremendously I'm sure.

TALKING OF RESPECT,

In the cinema yesterday & right in the middle of standing to show respect for King in walks two couples & proceed to sit down & ignore standing, they should have been thrown out.............

We either like it or lump it but as I'm not a clever guy about these matters I can understand that if its true that the UK pays £40M/day into the EU totalling a staggering amount of £29,200,000,000 in the next two years, why can't we just stop it all now ?

As for the Thai baht rate dropping down to 42.2/£1  I'm now finding it a struggle on my meagre pension to survive as well as I did 18 months ago & very very noticeable is the lack of tourists in Pattaya even though reports are stating that tourism is up, where are the tourists or is this just the number of passengers passing through Bangkok airport???

Well done the Thai team.

Does this mean there is an app that we can download & use for self checking ?

Quite often I have a beer at a bar on a major junction on 3rd rd & witness the traffic police breathalysing drivers because who have to stop for the lights, most locals know this happens & take short cuts anyway, however I notice that most traffic turning left do NOT follow the road signs which clearly states "when turning left waiting light" its a joke as most bikers turn left then cross the traffic and turn left again, it may as well be a roundabout & if it was no doubt there will be some who turn right creating havoc. Most of the bikers do not wear helmets anyway & five on a bike is nothing unusual, so as for having headlights on most bikes come on automatically & need to.

Of course Thailand celebrates Christmas insofar as they thank all the Farange spending their holiday money here instead of at home even though £ against the TB is pi** poor at the moment and in the streets last might it seemed as though only half the amount of people as opposed to last year.

BEWARE OF THE SMALL PRINT.

As a fairly new tourist to Thailand since February 2015 I have stayed 3 times for 60 days each time then last November came for 6 months & each time got travel insurance, I'm here now for another 2 months & took out online insurance with the same company but this time I noticed that my pre-existing conditions had all been rejected, after calling the company to ask why & quoting my previous policy numbers the guy immediately said I notice that you have only been back home for 2 months, correct I said to which he replied we cannot cover you if you have NOT stayed in your country for 6 months out of the last 12, I asked him to point out where it mentioned this in the 60 pages of terms & conditions, low & behold there it was on page 5 under the heading of residency with a small light grey asterisk almost invisible & halfway down the page a one liner stating as above " must have been in the country for 6 out of the 12 months " I was now panic stricken with only a day to go, the guy told me most companies have this ruling so I will reimburse you.

After many phone calls to umpteen companies it looked as though it was going to be an insurance free trip until an old friend mentioned their daughter does everything through her bank & I ought to check, I'm glad I did & I was covered for the equvalent of 3,800 Baht but excluding my pre-existing conditions, what to do for my November 6 months stay ???