JensenZ

Of course, instead of shopping in malls, you spend most of your spare time trolling on a forum, including baiting people that shop in malls. Perhaps you should get a life. Visiting a mall would be a giant step up for you.

We're talking about malls in Pattaya and I guarantee if you visit one you will see a lot of people. Is it possible that some people might shop in malls AND shop online? I can manage both - incredible as that may seem.

Are you suggesting that I should travel to the USA or Europe to do my shopping? I live in Pattaya, so I prefer to do my shopping in Pattaya. When I came here there were no decent malls - but they arrived some years after I arrived, and I was happy about that. I did not come to live here for the malls. No one drags me around a mall - I manage to do it on my own. Perhps you might have some slightly more intelligent comments to make if you feel you must reply?

I like big malls with lots of shops and choices of restaurants. Is there more to say? I attend with my wife too, and guess what she likes? Use your imagination. A lot of stuff you don't look at or even notice. I made it clear in a previous post, so I don't want repeat myself. It's not a one or the other choice to make. I do my grocery shopping at Big C Extra. I don't generally go to the big malls especially to grocery shop but often pick something up at Tops while I'm there. There seems to be a lot of people in this thread poking fun at other people's choices of shopping preferences and trying to bend them to your own point of view. If you don't like big malls, don't go to them.

But you don't spend extra money, do you? You go for cheapest you can get... so other than for argument's sake, what is the point of your comment unless you explain why you would (hypothetically) buy peanut oil, which, as you already made clear, you don't. You cannot compare coconut cooking oil with peanut cooking oil as it is about twice as expensive. Just to be clear, this discussion is about deep frying oil, and peanut oil, even if you could suggest a good reason why it's better, is too expensive (for deep frying). I might consider if for stir frying if there was a good reason for it.

Royal Garden Mall was my goto mall for 3 years until Central opened. Mike's Mall is about the worst mall I've ever seen anywhere in the world. I've always hated the place, but no one forced me to visit, and I hardly ever did.

It's quite strange that Thaibeachlovers, likely an elderly expat, requires bars for fun. I'm sure many of us have been through a stage in life where bars were considered "fun"... talking to and socializing with uneducated bargirls does wear off. I'd lost interest in bars long before I came to Pattaya. Just because there's bars in Pattaya doesn't mean one has to be in them, just as one is not forced to visit shopping malls if that's not your thing. Thaibeachlovers hasn't thought for a moment that some of us might be happily married. Each to their own.

Are you trying to back up your nonsensical arguments by suggesting that public works projects are equivalent to private developments? I thought you lived up north. I've been living in Pattaya since 2005. Central Mall was complete in January 2009, so I had to suffer through 3 years without a real mall, but have lived 13 years in the post mall era. If they didn't build Central, I might have left long ago. I'm not complaining about Pattaya. You are. You want to change Pattaya and get rid of big city malls. You're living in the past. No one is forcing YOU to live in Pattaya (although I thought you weren't). No one is actually forcing you to visit these big malls which you detest. If this new development goes ahead, you'll have at least 2 years to pack your bags.

It's around 100 baht per litre in all supermarkets. Is that too expensive for you? You know it's coconut oil because it's solid in most air conditioned stores with a freezing point of 25C. You should re-read my comment, because it should be obvious I fry my own fries in it and there is no coconut flavour in cooking coconut oil. Perhaps you're mistaking it for the much more expensive virgin coconut oil which costs over 4 times as much, and is heat sensitive. Cooking coconut oil has been deorderised. You can read more about the refining process here: https://www.goodness.com.au/blog/what-is-purified-deodorised-coconut-oil/

Why would you use such an oil when natural coconut oil is so cheap and readily avaiable? It's more stable in heat due to it's high level of saturation and doesn't burn or smoke so easily. It is also less prone to oxidation in storage. If you buy the coconut cooking oil, you will not taste any coconut flavour in your deep friend food, although coconut flavoured french fries or chips might be an interesting experiement. You'd have to use the very expensive virgin coconut oil, but that's more sensitive to heat. I found the same problem as you when I buy cheap spuds at Big C. They look burnt before going crisp. I don't know where you live, but I found the spuds in Friendship Supermarket (Pattaya) much better for frying. Also, if you go to Big C Extra, they have more expensive varieties of potatoes that might be worth testing.

T21 and Central were not "development for the sake of development". They were a very beneficial addition to Pattaya, and although the foreign tourists are still absent, it brings a lot of day and weekend Thai tourists from Bangkok and other areas... who do appreciate a large air conditioned shopping/restaurant environment. Who doesn't? Only some expats living in the past and missing the old Fishing Village vibe of decades past. Could you please explain what "development for the sake of development" is. No one invests a huge sum of money (billions of baht) on something they know will fail. Failure is part of speculation, but know one plans on it. These investors with money to spend became rich by investing wisely, but they also know it's never a sure thing. No one has a reliable crystal ball they can use to predict the future. Who would have predicted the world would be in lockdown for nearly 2 years?.. and that Thailand would have no International tourists for nearly 2 years and counting. Suggesting the "officials" should step in to stop these huge developments is ridiculous. They are the main cheer leaders, as am I.

Announced just over a week ago, but by the time it was announced, it was already in America and most other countries, including Thailand.

He did say "could end the pandemic", not will end it. There's a big difference.

I have to confess, since Central and T21 opened, my life has started to revolve around them. Occasionally I will go to Royal Garden and smaller malls, but if I want to buy some electrical goods, or an iPhone, do some banking, get a cover or new SIM for my phone, some cosmetics for the wife, have a nice restaurant meal, grab a coffee, do some grocery shopping etc, I'm going to go to Central and do it all under one roof.

I'm telling it like it is. Whether I feel empathy or not for small business owners who took a risk and lost is irrelevant. Big business usually destroys small business in the end, not only in Pattaya. Royal Garden, the old Big C and Mike Mall are small town malls. They have been pushed aside by big city malls as Pattaya expanded. I have to say, when I go out shopping, I'm looking for the malls that I enjoy the most with the most shops and they are Central and T21. I don't run my life around trying to support this business or that because they might be doing it tough. Most people think like me in this regard. I do feel sorry for them, though, but that doesn't help much.

It is called enterprise. Competition. Developers/investors don't concern themselves with the success or failure of existng businesses. They plan to do better, by building something superior. The non profitable existing enterprises will fail and eventually disappear if they cannot compete. This is just the way capitalism works in a free market. A lot of older expats that have lived in Pattaya forever are living in the past, clinging to memories of a bygone era. Pattaya only has 2 real shopping malls (Central and T21), and only 1 department store at Central Festivial. They don't build new malls based on the current covid retricted market. They are looking to the future. That's what all succesful investors do. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose - it's all part of the game.

I think that's been a vacant lot for as long as I've been here (2005). I noticed they have planted banana trees on it recently. If land is not developed, they have to pay a special tax (based on land value), so the bill on that property would be huge. I think that's why the banana trees are there.

Obviously a project of this size will take many years to complete, so hopefully if and when it is completed, there will once again be a healthy tourist industry. We can hope. I have my doubts the project will go ahead. Why would people go to a mall a few times? Malls have special value in hot tropical climates. They are an oasis where people can relax in a cool air conditioned environment. Tourists love this too after they have been roasting in the hot tropical sun.

This is how you get tourists. Better places to stay, better shopping malls. It's progress.

Why not do it the easy way and stay single? If you're constantly on the hunt for younger, lighter models, it doesn't make much sense to commit your resources to one.

The paving is in an horrific state. They should have used the down time to repave it all. I can just imagine the accidents people will have with ladies breaking their heels and other stubbing their toes and triping on an extremaly uneven surface.

Since when did any big business anywhere in the world care about what's good for customers. That's where government intervention becomes necessary even in the freest of nations. Big business has one goal - to make as much profit as possible, so the closer they can get to being a monopoly, the better for business.

I have a True SIM and a DTac SIM, always offereing me very competitive deals. If they merge, the price is bound to go up if they are not competing. I had no idea AIS was way ahead in subscriber numbers. AIS seems to be the least foreigner-friendly service, with DTac in first place.

Thank you! I stir fry the bok choi with oyster sauce, so I should be able to do the same with this.

I picked up this vegetable by mistake yesterday. I meant to buy Bok Choy. Could someone please tell me what is it, and how I should cook it? I don't like wasting food, but it doesn't look very edible to me.