sattahip

Someone denies Friendship is "too Asian". Well it passes one of my main tests-no fire exits. Notice 2 out of the 3 doors all of which were almost certainly needed for building safety approval are blocked/locked. Ho Hum you say but I remember the Jomtien fire where 60 odd people were turned in margarine against locked fire exits.

I know Plutaluang(Royal Thai Navy) Golf Club has opened its membership on a 15 year family membership basis but I am interested in the older "life" transferable memberships.

Anyone have an idea of the market price

Mods-transfer elsewhere if not suitable for Pattaya forum

Thank you for your prompt help above and beyond the call of duty for the Malaysian operation to pick up the thai slackness.

Good luck in what should be a stellar career

I am fitting out a small condo and would like to use or at least get a quote from Luxaflex. I have already phoned and emailed their Head Office in Bangkok to find their Pattaya agent - to NO avail. The website agent locator is kaput also! Can anyone help with contact details.

The second part is maybe readers here have current (seen old threads) recommendations to tradesmen to do roman blinds and blackout curtains.

Thanks in advance.

If there are any Hunter Douglas shareholders reading, a good rocket up the bum is needed by their Bangkok operation

2. Drifters' cafe on the beach in Na Jomtien...Wood oven, thin and crispy. Very flavourful, nice different variety. Excellent little chill out place, right on the beach with music from internet radio....Prices start at around 200 baht. Great spot and awesome pizza.

Could I please have directions to this place. I live in ban Amphur, love pizzas but don't know Drifters

I bought a condo off the plan(Stupid I know please leave that angle) in Pratamnak Soi 1 which elides into Thappraya Soi 4, the same soi as Hyde Park referred to above.

My place is in Park Royal which is nearing completion on schedule to finish October 31. I bought in this area because of the transport availability, motosai and songthaew, and shank's pony as South Pattaya is only a kilometre or so. Also builder, Wandee, has a sound reputation and the workmanship seems excellent.

That area is nice as the hillside has park or sea views, is high enough to catch whatever breeze is going but is also quiet. Pattaya Heights building in the same soi looks very good also and is complete. The developers are cloning it next door. Recommend you have a look at it.

I am planning to build a boundary wall around my property. My land and my 2 neighbours hold chanote deeds.

My questions are;

1 Can the wall be built exactly along the line-that is half in each property?

2 As the neighbour benefits/shares, are there regulations re consultation on design and especially cost sharing?

Could anyone with similar experience please advise, thanks

Mata Hari

On Chaiyapruek2 about 50m up from Sukhumvit on the left, next door to Jo Jo resturaunt, they are good. Also "Dang" at Jomtien garage on soi Watboon is good.

Avoid SO garage if you can, sorry sattahip but they are useless and expensive!!

At least you are frank. beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

can any person with knowledge or has used a reliable car mechanic in this area supply details. thanks

Until I got a new car, I used S.O. Garage on Sukhumvit opposite the Floating Market and near Chaiyapruek. It is now a PROTON dealership but I think it still does general mechancial work. I found them very professional and helpful.

As the title says. Today went to the licensing office and turned up at 10.40am Was given the number 52 at the little desk at the front.

Walked upstairs...........the screen is showing number 51. COOL !

Had my number called out 2 mins later. Handed my docs over, pictures taken. Walked out at 11.10am with two licenses in my mitts.

Docs I had were passport with two copies of ID page and Visa page with TM6. Two medical reports (100 baht each) on Soi Theprrasit.

Two letters of residence from Patts Imm. (400 baht ) and my 1 Yr licenses.

I was not asked to do any 'tests' such as perception, colour etc........basically straight in and out.

Very efficient service.

Last I heard from friends that the medical certificate was NOT required. Did they just take them because they were proferred or are the obligatory? Thanks if anyone can clarify.

i think alwso that allexx is correct only if he would have stood infront of naklua soi 5 then he would get the correct angle.

only now you can not see so much of the view in the background. but for sure he is correct.

That picture is quite well known.

Though I have only lived here for 16 years had the privilege of knowing Ed Headly(?) and Dolf Riks, pioneers of this town. Ed built the Tropicana with Thai partners and had a restaurant in South Pattaya. Dolf got here about 45 years ago and had restaurants in South and North Pattaya then Naklua. he was my neighbour for 10 years.

The photo is the junction of Beach Road and South Pattaya Road where Ed's restaurant was.

Based upon this, and an earlier post I had seen about this place, I went there yesterday to buy a new set of tires for my Honda City. I didn't deal with the owner's son; but with his son-in-law, Kuhn Jhiy, who was very pleasant, informative, professional, and speaks adequate English. The service was excellent, as well as prompt; and I was happy with my purchase of 4 Goodyear 'Assurance' tires, size 185/60 R15, at a price of 2450 THB each, which included free balancing and alignment. Their facility is quite large, with a pleasant, air-conditioned waiting room for customers.

Being the curious type, I decided to stop at the Pattaya Bridgestone store just north of Pattaya Nua, on the east side of Sukhumvit. I parked a bit down the street, and walked into the store, asking for a price on tires. I asked specifically for the same tires that I had just purchased in SiRacha. I was quoted 2350 per tire, also including free balancing and alignment.

So, I'd suggest that, while, as I said, I have no complaints about the dealership in SiRacha, there's no reason to drive there. You can get the same, or even slightly cheaper prices, right here in Pattaya. Stories to the contrary are simply not true, based upon the experience I had yesterday.

I've been living here for 16 years and had a car or two the whole time. I have never used anybody but the Pattaya Bridgestone people and found them immensely courteous and sharp with their prices. I think the place and a number of the tyre shops on the other side of Sukhumvit are owned by 2 brothers. They speak good English and remember and value repeat customers. Highly recommended.

I built a 200 squ metre house at Ban Amphur with uPVC windows and doors. Used Euro PVC who had a sharp pencil on price but used the best materials. Super follow up service too. 1 year after installation a team from EuroPVC turned up and gave the job a thorough inspection and fixed a couple of very minor things.

Aaron was my contact there. Highly recommended

I had P & N Pools build my salt water chlorinated pool. They did a great job and Phil Gough the principal was super helpful with follow up service and advice for a newbie on how to manage the pool.

Phil also sells pool supplies at very good prices. One rip-off well advertised coy got me B800 for 50kgs of salt. Phil's price B350.

I don't think I can put his number in here because of forum rules but PM me if you wish.

Time to face up to some facts. These are not racist opinions but facts from which rational readers can draw their own conclusions

The Japanese are an insular and aloof people whose culture revolves around the premise Japan is the centre of the planet and that they are the chosen people.

Examples;

1; 3 million untouchables in Japan. Burakumin or Eta, desecendents of buthchers and the like, are effectively banned from higher education, find it almost impossible to get a job with a first class company, can only marry within their caste etc. etc.

2: Ainu people largely left in Hokkaido now were the original aboringinal people of the Japanese islands. They were slaughtered then marginalised by the invaders (what's new here I ask as an Aussie) but then denied the right to say they were the first inhabitants. The was only "officially" recognized last year!!

3: Korean forced labourers' descendents still cannot get proper papers after 3/4 generations of living continually in Japan. Japan was the vicious colonial master of Korea from 1912 to 1945 during which time it became a crime to learn and speak your own language for Koreans.

4. Have a look at the immigration statistics for Japan. Citizenship is rarely if ever granted and I mean Nil per year.

Rather redolent of Aryan purity, don't you think?

So let's forget all the niceties we are supposed to employ with our Eastern friends who have no counter duty not to see and raise, say, Australia's past White Australia policy or its miserable treatment of its indigenous people. No, they can say what they like but if we raise equivalent concerns we are racists.

Now the "some of my best friends....." Let me say the I learnt to speak Japanese so many moons ago, did good business over many years with Japanese and formed sound warm friendships but that doesn't mean I am not realistic.

So on with the debate

Thanks for that. I had not come across Wikimapia until your post. What a great tool for property vendors and the like.

So you are saying that the new gold cyber fee is 590 baht even for existing customers? What is the current promised speed for gold cyber, 1 or 2 megs? Is there a way to pay 1000 baht and get increased speeds?

Everyone in pattaya who had the original goldcyber 1 meg package at 1000 baht was automatically upgraded to 2 meg.Also on a 1 meg connection you can never recieve 1.5 meg.I also guess your speedtest was done with a server within thailand because international it will be more in the range of 100kb.

OK, so are you saying that people now paying 590 baht versus 1000 baht for goldcyber are also getting the so called 2 meg connection speeds? In that case, I suppose I should apply for a price reduction, but I don't want a speed reduction. Still confused what you are saying, if a speedtest at night sometimes does show 1.5, you are saying that proves I am already upgraded to 2 meg service?

For the speedtest I am using the testing tool on thaivisa. Is that testing international or Thai sites?

Sawatdee Krap, Jingthing.

Check your TOT monthly bill and see what it says about your ADSL service. But I think you have already been connected to the 2 mb goldcyber service.

I also have TOT Goldcyber 2 MB service around Sattahip area. I use speedtest.net for checking my speed from B

ANGKOK server (normally my ping is about 60 ms. My download speed is about 1773 kbps. My upload speed is around 422 kbps.)

TOT reps in Pattaya once told me that the 2 mb speed is "guaranteed"? only from within Thailand and if its 20 % off the 2 mb I'm paying for, it's still acceptable to them. But I told them that this is the internet, you know.....world-wide, but they didn't have a clue it seems as to what I was trying to explain to them.

With speedtest.net, you can check your actual speeds from anywhere in the world. Just select the region by clicking on the box next to the round speed dial and move to the server location, example USA, San Francisco. Amazingly, I just tried it and the ping from San Francisco was 486 msm download speed was 2025 kbps and upload speed was 238 kbps. Normally the download from San Francisco is under 400 kbps. But perhaps not many people using the internet at 6:55 am here in Thailand day after Songkron. It all depends on the time of day, traffic, etc.

Hope this info helped.

I am in Ban Amphur, at the northern end of amphur Sattahip, and just got at 10am almost the same results as above. I am a very happy customer.

Capable doctoring, first class equipment and reasonable prices.

I, unfortuneately, have had the following there;

Quadruple heart bypass April 2000. Emergency after a series of heart attacks. Operation 36 hours only after admission. Result-super Cost Baht420,000

4 Angioplasties over 8 years for diagnosis and in 2 stents. Result-very good Cost about Baht65,000 plus stent costs.

Kidney stone removal by sound Lithoscopy, I think.-result -no more fear of sudden debilitating pain.

Surgery for anal abscess. result-fine

Treatment for a fungal ear infection-result-fixed in 3 days.

There have been other uses based on my catching up on years of neglect of my health. I have found all treatments to be professionally given and effective. I can't comment on other Bangkok hospitals but can say that Bumrungrad is cheaper than its Pattaya cpoycats and miles ahead in honest medicine.

The sad thing about this sort of topic is it brings out all those who have complaints of which, I am sure, some are legitimate but seldom draws a response from people such as me who thank G-- for such a wonderful and affordable facility.

HoJo, Thank you for your kindness to the little one. made my week!

S.O. Garage between Chaiyapreuk and Huay Yai roads on Sukhumvit has a banner which seem to indicate it has become a Proton dealer.

This is also the reputed best garage for LPG and NGV fittings. I have used them many times with good results.

A couple of other landmarks for S.O. 200metres from PTT NGV garage and 500 metres north of Lake View Rest and new floating market

Good luck

Mr Summerland has given the wrong post code and I have some mail of his as our addesses coincide except for the code.

If you have his contact phone number message me and I will reunite him with his letters

Thanks

Sattahip

Gian's Restaurant on Thappraya Road in the same complex as Brunos and Indian by Nature is superb.

You can establish the quality of condo management ;

1. Ask to see the most recent audited accounts of the condominium juristic person. That is the association in Thai law which owns the structure. These accounts should be audited, though with accounting standards such as they are in Thailand, this is no absolute guarantee of accuracy. In any building catering well to expatriate owners there will be an English language copy. Use your common sense to review income and outgo, accumulated net worth, presence of reserve funds etc. Ask to see a list detailing maintenance arrears. Be careful if the developer is the major creditor or arrears are substantial/chronic.

2. Ask for a copy of the minutes of the most recent Annual General Meeting. As with the accounts, any well managed building will have these in English translation. Review this to see if key issues like financial viability, management quality, maintenance planning and the like are discussed. See also how election of board is conducted, if it is!. Many condominiums here are autocratically run by the developers as a cash cow with no real ownership input/control.

3. Ask for a copy of the insurance policy covering the building. This will likely be in Thai but check with your lawyer what is covered,who is the beneficiary, for how much and with whom. Often insurance is completely inadequate, covers only fire and is with a company even for major buildings no-one has ever heard of. Strangely such companies often pay brokerage of some substance to the "manager" which should not be done for obvious reasons re independent assessment. Thailand has many reputable brokers in Bangkok who can arrange the right policy with the financially capable insurers plus advise on coverage amount which will increase over time to cover replacement costs. Check there is 3rd party insurance also though this will be rare. Good insurance companies will also offer staff fire training.

4 See a utility bill for a condo and check the unit costs of electricity and water against those an independent householder would pay. These items should not be a "profit centre" for management.

5. Ask for a copy of the association,s land deed which of course should be in its name (e.g. "name of condo" Juristic Association). In many cases the association will own only the footprint of the building and you can have a fun park or shophouses next year on what you thought were your clubhouse grounds or gardens. This is common. One building mentioned above as an exemplar has allocated only 2.5 rai(about an acre) for its new 33 storey twin tower. Now tell me that makes sense!

6. Walk down the fire stairs as you leave. A sign of good management is that these will be completely clear, properly emergency lit etc. Check the maintenance plate in the elevators. Is the manufacturer the maintaining coy? Shoddy lift maintenance is a time bomb. Again commonsense viewing will give you an idea of overall tidiness and housekeeping quality.''[/b]

My post originally. The exemplar I mention is being occupied this month. Cheers Hugh

Perhaps the 2007 Replacement Costs Estimates by the Thai Appraisal Foundation would be of interest.

They cover all types of buiding and appear on a simple grid with allowances for finish quality variations.

Look here; <http://www.thaiappraisal.org/English/The2001/Default.htm>