suiging

Thai Authorities in general are not sympathetic.

Hire a decent private detective from BK ( not Pattaya, small town everyone knows someone ) if you wish to locate.

Where does all this envy come from ?

I have Paraguay in a sweep, come on you Guay's !!!!!!

Some of the most cynical tackles seen to date. Both may be able to play the beautiful game, but scratch the surface and they are all dirty $$%%^^&.

Some of the finest people I have met have been Pattaya Thai.

On topic, the majority of the desperate Thais are not from the Eastern Seaboard, where with an education work does exist, but from the Northern provinces. The men attracted to the building boom and low paid work servicing the tourist industry, the women the same. These people are treated as " labour " and are not " Looked after " by locals when times get tough. There are a lot of them about who's families back on the farm, rely or relied on the money they sent back to the family. Without the work caused by the burst construction bubble and sad political discord, they are indeed desperate and without hope.

Thai politics will dictate their fate.

The " Happy Herb " pizza sounds interesting.

Very popular way for southern chinese ( HK and surrounds ) to top themselves.

Now would be a good time to deepen and widen this reservior.

A bigger buket holds more water.

This was done...............Still dry and will be until the money set aside for redirecting the river, appears again out of the pocket it now sits in. ( and the chance of that is about as good as..................)

ok Tom

as no one else has responded, here you go

go down Pattaya Thai towards beach, left side

go past friendship, past tuk com, past starbucks, past soi day night, past big beauty shop, past whats become known as soi hairderssers

on the next corner is a big news/magazine shop, its on the forecourt of a Kodak shop

go into that little soi

look to the shophouses on the right

the fourth one down has a red shutter and chinese lanterns etc outside

a chinese family run the shop

he is a master goldsmith

he has done lots of work for me

utterly trustworthy, great work

i hope that helps

If it hasn't helped the OP, you've certainly done me a favour.............Thanks.

Which ever way you decide to go may I suggest with the local workers it is better to pay "by the job" rather than by the hour...

Sound and sensible advise which you ignore at your peril. Always pays to remember time is not measured the same way by a " casual " Thai worker. They can complete a job in "X", if paid by the job, but will surely take "Y", if paid by the hour. Same the world over, but these guys have perfected it.

my house is just round there on top of the hill. I will definitely take an interest in the centre when next in town and see what I can do to help. Thanks for the Information.

Little................................ Johnny Tnuc.....................Would have been taken round the back of the bike sheds by Charlton, Norman and Stiles and gently educated as to his responsibilities. I miss the old days.

Shirts ?

However, they lost the match and what little self-respect they had went south when their manager refused to shake hands at the end of the game.............

Perhaps it's time to close this thread. After all England and Football really don't match now do they..............

I now it's old, but if you have to ask..........Don't do it.

If some of the other Arsenal defenders were behind you on a dark night, you'd keep your speed up believe me !!!

Fix the drains and water supply in general.

On a Wolves related forum, I replied to the question who would you like to see come to our club from the WC, that any of the Korean squad looked like they would add value.

After watching England, I stand by that. I would take any one of the Koreans for their energy, technical ability and pride in their shirt above our lot of wasters

Oi

I resemble that remark ..............

Your right places are opening up,and closing down ...same-same place (places really) opening and closing down ,just like a merry go round.

Open one week ,gone the next,..opens up as another business,that closes down. Went looking for a restaurant I had a meal in 'bout 10 days ago ,gone, as though it never existed

You should have tipped.........................

For me, the allure of the inside of the bars was lost some years ago. However, sitting half way up the street on a wicker chair facing the road with a cold beer in hand, is one of the all time greatest free , freak-shows known to man. Never get bored of watching the worlds strangest walk by.

If you love golf, you have to play Siam Country Club at least once . It is a world class course and as such is still reasonable.

All I'll say is good choice mate. Nice area with decent people, both local and expat.....Good luck.

I've been in and out since mid-eighties. I have bought and built in the area and have watched momentous changes almost every year.

Mid-eighties still dusty streets with the hippy brigade still in evidence and a lot of left over Asia hands from " Nam " ( well they all claimed to be ) and short term trippers from HK, Singapore and the like. In general a nice time, with locals and " workers" less hardened to the experience and everyone having a good time.

Early nineties brought ( sadly from my own country ) the hooligan brigade. Loud bare chested and violent. Locals first offended, and then cynical. Not a good time with the building boom spurred on by crooks from Europe as well as locals, with the infra-structure not addressed to keep pace with the rapid, unfounded expansion. Hence floods, droughts and a dumbing down of society which to my simple mind, was not pleasant. The crash came as a typhoon that destroyed the bubble and left unfinished lumps of concrete on almost every corner, but did not wash away all the dross.

Early 2000's optimism again. Talk of casinos, horse racing, and the arrival of Russian and Asian tourists by the bucketful. The crash, (this time self-generated) in the property market has thinned out the hoardes of Estate Agents that thronged every street, but surprisingly there is still a causious optimism for the future, if you talk to the sensible " older " Thai Pattaya families, who can see at least the start of proper development from City Hall and a realisation that when ( not if ) attitudes change about gambling, Pattaya is best placed to build a Thai " Macao " in the future.

Major Hotel chains and Thai business people do not build modern hotels and large shopping complexes if they feel " long term " the place is going to fail. Just like any stock exchange the small time investor always catches a cold. The bar owner ( singular ) will come and go, never really making any form of impact. What is telling is the slow " clearing " of the streets surrounding what will become the bar area ( the only major bar area ) in the future. Someone somewhere with a bigger picture view and more money than you or I, has a positive view on the future. Remember the hotels and shopping areas are not being built with Government hand-outs, they are being built with somebodies cash. The cynic will reply " Blah blah blah, rose tinted glasses no hope etc etc ". However, not all Thai businessmen are fools, far from it, and some of the smartest are quietly buying land and planning for a better future for the area. I for one hope they are right...............I like it here.

Actually, that was a pretty good analysis/overview of what happened. I do not, however, remember "hippie brigades" in Pattaya in the mid-80s. I do remember far more Americans.......but they did not seem like hippies to me.

You are certainly right about rich people having a vision about Pattaya's future........but rich people often make mistakes, just like the rest of us (a certain wanted terrorist living abroad).

Corporations that once seemed on top of the world make mistakes (e.g. GM)

Countries make mistakes (e.g., Greece).

The problem now is not just Thailand..........it is the global economy. And that is going downhill fast because the world we have created is grossly unsustainable...........for three reasons:

1) we did not act soon enough and with a sense of urgency to curb population growth (too many people are putting too much stress on the life systems of the planet with more to come)

2) we did nothing to move the economy away from dependency on fossil fuels (this is leading to climate change and eventually to social chaos on a scale we have never witnessed)

3) we promoted the globalization of the economy (something that has clearly failed).

The optimism on the part of the so-called "insiders or powerful people or rich" assumes everything will turn around and people will start spending big money again.

I would not bet on it............sure, there will be a turnaround, but that will be followed by an even deeper economic downturn if we do not address the three challenges listed above.

Maybe I am wrong.

On the world economy, you are almost certainly right.

However, if Nero really fiddled as Rome burned to the ground, you can be sure there will be an Asian in a casino gambling away as this " new world " collapses around him.

I think this is the hardly hidden, " Insider " knowledge, the wealthy Thais claim to have as their own. The world can be in a dreadful state ( as it is now ) but Macau is booming and again is tipped very shortly, to take over from the entire USA in terms of gambling revenue. The Thai's are as fanatical as the Chinese when it comes to this issue. Build the casinos and watch locals throw away their last Satang. Add to this the rest of Asia flying in for the " other " attractions as well as the tables, and the Hoteliers and the like could still be right.