jaywalker

I must admit I don't often agree with you sorrow lot's of condecending notions on how this country should be run. But on traffic and the culture of driving here I fully agree: If the laws are lacking, it is the Governments duty to implement them, and now! And then wait and hope to survive another generation or three for them being enforced. Where are the emoticons in uniform, by the way? - A necessity in most threads these days

If you as a foreigner feel the laws are lacking you are certainly free to go to another country. I for one don't think the Thais need falang telling them how to run their own country

It's not about farangs or thais, it's about ignorant, irresponsible individuals killing innocent people. Suggest you widen your horizon and get over the "you falang don't tell me thai what I have to do". If you think it doesn't matter when your own citizens get killed (I suppose you are Thai here), then that's fine, but personally I think your attitude is deplorable.

On the subject of "Me Thai, you falang. I do what I want to do......."

Took my life in my hands last week on a moto-taxi from Bali Hai Pier (Pattaya) to Soi Khaotalo on a Saturday evening at 6:00PM.

Usually I tell them "Cha-cha"and they slow down. I had no sooner said cha-cha than his phone rings & he starts digging in his pocket, so I told him to stop. I wanted off. "Phone motorbike mai dee" He starts screaming "F&*k you! F*&k you! I do what I want!"

Fair enough, but not with me on the back.

We'd gone maybe 300 meters when this happened. I was mellow as could be and offered him 30% of his fare, even though we'd only gone 10% of the way.

He kept up his profanities. I gave him his 20 baht and politely said "Well, F&*k you too". He started trying to kick me.

I guess it's all customer service and Safety First over here.

Yeah, yeah he was one bad apple in an otherwise decent barrel, but that's all it takes to kill you.

Have been on hundreds of mot-taxi's

I had nothing against this dog till he bit me.

A soi dog bit me the other day.....I should say he nipped me as he didn't break the skin.

I immediately got aggressive towards the dog & he backed down.

Now get this. I was at the communal swimming pool & it was the pool owner's dog. How stupid is that?

Trying to run a business & you have a dog that bites your customers.

That dog deserves to die..........Sorry, but it's the truth.

I did NOTHING to that dog, and he bit me.

I told the lady and she just walks me around the dog. The dog respects her & she just takes a broom & yells at the mutt.

If I were her, I would catch that dog asleep and bash his brains in.

She is NOT getting any more business from me as long as she has that dog.

I have a friend that bought a Chinese iPhone.

He had it for 3 days, carrying it in his pocket. The cover broke & it quit working.

3,000 baht for 3 days worth of junk.

Pretty sure that'll be his last counterfeit purchase.

Gotta LOVE these "crackdowns" though.

Nobody seems to be asking the question of how all the garbage got smuggled into LOS in the first place.

Idiots.

BKKPost today.......Kamphaeng Phet.....3 dead cops because they arrested a drunk guy for drunk driving & didn't search him for weapons.

He pulled out a pistol and shot them all.....Of course he waited till they were all in the police car going 80kph on the way to the police station so the police car wrecked & broke his leg = he didn't get away.

Idiots.........

The first time I ever came to Pattaya I saw a couple kids trying to use a plastic bag as a mask (to see underwater) on the beach, so this doesn't surprise me.

Bloody hilarious to see one come up for air....DOH! Can't breathe with a plastic bag on ye olde noggin.

"because you have to understand Thaivisa is a commercial operation, first of all.

and the more CLICKS, the higher the revenue from advertisers.

so they have to "create" some kind of "breaking news" frequently, even it is just of the "What a tragedy ! Khun Somchais pet-poodle suffering from Diarrhea"

Woof! I had the mother of all diarrhea stories yesterday.

It was headline worthy. I about DIED (or so it seemed).

Its not about liking or not liking Americans, its about politics & politicians ! American foreign politics don't have a great reputation, which they do not want to change. I have family in the states & love the country, but u sure do have a great bunch of uneducated and brainwashed people over there, which makes it so easy for your politicians to pretty much do what they want & they seem to screw up this planet more & more. In the end its all of us paying the bill!

Bad luck Russia. Obviously America's bribes were bigger than yours.

OK, smart-ass, let's see your proof that the US bribed/coerced anyone to hand over Bout. Or are you just another one of the "Bash the US Because It's Fashionable and I Want To Be With the Cool Crowd of Ultra-Politically Correct/Nanny State Types"???

Yep..there is an over abundance of these idiots on the forums. Everybody is always right except America. Everybody holds the moral high ground except Americans.

In the minds of these nanny state morons, even Russian (the Mafia state) and the Chinese with their wonderful system of governance and sterling human right records should be supported but never America. Back the FARC, the Taliban, N. Korea., Mugabe...anybody but America....Idiots...

(PS I'm not American, but I have spend a lot of time in the US and appreciate all the good stuff that is also American, so have never found it necessary to join the whining anti US bandwagon)...

I'm American and I couldn't agree more. That's why I don't live there.

She's hot for a 65 year-old.

I found myself in the Mo-Chit bus station a couple weeks ago.

The restrooms there are at least 3 times the size of the Suvarnaboom shitters. <deleted>?

I'm happy to see that Thailand finally understand that smoking should be banned from airports and other public areas.

I just arrived from Hong Kong and they have a big problem there , its allowed to smoke almost everywhere, of course at the airport they have smoking rooms wherever you look .

I tried to enjoy a cup of coffee at Starbucks downtown Hong Kong but the place was filled with cigarette smoke.

Ummm. since when did Starbucks become a public place?

Airports, & government buildings are run by governments = public place.

Starbucks is run by a private company. Why should the government dictate what a private company can or cannot do on their own private property?

Just because you happen to agree with " some" government policies, then why think they are all proper and good?

I'll tell you why they allow smoking at the Starbucks you mentioned.

It;s because it makes sense to the OWNER of the PRIVATE PROPERTY. He sees that banning smoking in HIS PLACE will hurt business.

If he were losing business due to smoking, he would ban smoking.

Go read Orwell's 1984.

See http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt

"When I called 1337, the call was answered promptly by a female who spoke English very well."

Maybe they should have had her design those confusing signs if she speaks English so well?

They could put up signs that say "Yak cheese is the prime export of Tibet 1337" and your average tourist would be just as well informed as "Notification Clue 1337"

Well why don't you call 1337 and complain?

If I recall, there is another sign that says "Complain 1337".

I doubt your complaint will be heard here on ThaiVisa.

Who said I was complaining?

I was just stating my point of view, and I stand by my view that the signs could say "Yak Cheese is the prime export of Tibet 1337" and be just as useful as they are now.

Plain & simple fact. If it is useless, then call it useless.

"Notification Clue 1337".......Yep pretty muchly useless...kinda like the info on Tibet Yak Cheese.

Hey Chickenlegs,

Have to agree on reception anywhere North of Pattaya Klang for 88.5

My guess is government regulations limiting the power (watts?) they are allowed to use/broadcast at.

I usually can get them waaay south of Jomtien, as far as Sattahip & a bit beyond at times.

That 105 station is pretty decent also but once south of Soi Chayapruek in Jomtien, forget it.

**********MUST DO RANT about Pattaya105 FM**********

No matter what services are being offered by the Brit presenter, it will always be this, this, that and the other, and much moooooooore.

"Are you looking for a well known Filipino band, where the singer has a club foot, the guitar player has no fingers and the drummer has only one arm? If so, there's only one place for you! They offer all this and much moooooore"

"When I called 1337, the call was answered promptly by a female who spoke English very well."

Maybe they should have had her design those confusing signs if she speaks English so well?

They could put up signs that say "Yak cheese is the prime export of Tibet 1337" and your average tourist would be just as well informed as "Notification Clue 1337"

If there are any Mix88.5 Pattaya radio (administrative) folks out there.......well here's some feedback...Your website doesn't provide any links so am posting it here.

EXCELLENT tunes about 95% of the time, so thumbs up there.

Virtually zero annoying DJ's that think people give a dam_n about their glib comments.

I REALLY like this. Ergo - no annoying DJ's talking all over the music.

One complaint though......every time I hear an Air Asia commercial it comes out at about 3 times as loud as everything else.

Air Asia ads are played a LOT.....Fair enough. You make money from ads, but I find myself reaching for the volume knob so often, then get into doing something else, or just change the channel, that I completely forget about going back to where I was on my dial prior to AIR ASIA BLASTING MY SOCKS OFF AT FULL VOLUME.

You are effectively reducing my listening time by playing these ads so much louder than the normal volume.

I can barely hear the music (or other ads) that come on after the Air Asia ads because I have (had to) cranked my volume way down, or just gone to another station.

Just some constructive criticism.

I really like your station overall and I hope you continue to broadcast at a profit.

In safety terms, a near miss is just as dangerous as a hit.

I've been supervising a private project just south of the Ocean Marina over the past couple months. Basically spending all day about 20 meters off the edge of Sukhumvit Rd.

The BiB set up in front of me a couple weeks ago.

I'm 100% certain they were out for some tea/Mekong money, as they were pulling cars over for driving on the inside lane.

They set up their (death) trap on the low side of a rise in the road, so drivers don't see them till they've topped the rise.

Fricking maniacs almost caused a dozen accidents in 30 minutes. Cars are whizzing along at 120 kph, see all the bullshit on the left, so they go to the right lane whilst standing on their brakes, and the cops give them a ticket for driving on the inside lane. <deleted> is it there for if you're not supposed to drive in it?

I'm sure this was their reasoning for the death trap as I got a ticket for exactly the same thing just north of there a couple weeks previously. I'd just passed a car, and there was another about 300 meters beyond him that was obviously going about 60 kph & I was doing 90, so why whip in & out of the lanes? There was no traffic behind me.

Next thing I see the kamikaze BiB waving me over. What a load of horse-shit.

I have seen these guys also during the past few weeks. Funny...I drove right past them on my scooter with my friend on the back. No helmets. Didn't even get a second look. But they did have 2 or 3 cars pulled over...guess they were too busy?

A few weeks ago they were setup just north of the Ambassador. Pulling over cars. I was moving fairly fast, but with the flow. One pointed to me. I slowed down. Not sure what happened, but I think he saw I was a farang and didn't want the hassle...so he motioned for me to keep going.

Yeah that's where they popped me for 200 baht.

Be careful (no helmets) about 2.8 km South of Ocean Marina. They've been there everyday for the past 2 months pulling over every single motorcycle that goes by them.

"In safety terms, a near miss is just as dangerous as a hit."

I near miss is actually a near hit. A hit is a near miss.....according to to the late George Carlin & I have to agree it makes more sense to me.

Maybe the cops here watch too much old US television? Can't wait till they reach the CSI NY series.....Nah, that'd be too much like work.

Barney & Rosco are their role models for life.

Crimony! If you don't like hookers then stay away from beach road.

If you don't like Arabs then stay out of the Middle East.

Don't like black folks? Then stay out of Africa.

Don't like Latinos? Stay out of Mexico.

Why do people feel they have they "moral authority" to "clean up" a place?

If you don't like Pattaya then go live in Ubon-Timbuktu.

By the same logic that says hookers are annoying, well so are all the touts selling whatever they sell on the beach. Let's ban them also.

You know, Thailand would be an absolute paradise if it had no people at all.

I really don't care much for Surin. I think it should be legislated that all Pattaya hookers move to Surin to make it more lively. Just for me.

I've been supervising a private project just south of the Ocean Marina over the past couple months. Basically spending all day about 20 meters off the edge of Sukhumvit Rd.

The BiB set up in front of me a couple weeks ago.

I'm 100% certain they were out for some tea/Mekong money, as they were pulling cars over for driving on the inside lane.

They set up their (death) trap on the low side of a rise in the road, so drivers don't see them till they've topped the rise.

Fricking maniacs almost caused a dozen accidents in 30 minutes. Cars are whizzing along at 120 kph, see all the bullshit on the left, so they go to the right lane whilst standing on their brakes, and the cops give them a ticket for driving on the inside lane. <deleted> is it there for if you're not supposed to drive in it?

I'm sure this was their reasoning for the death trap as I got a ticket for exactly the same thing just north of there a couple weeks previously. I'd just passed a car, and there was another about 300 meters beyond him that was obviously going about 60 kph & I was doing 90, so why whip in & out of the lanes? There was no traffic behind me.

Next thing I see the kamikaze BiB waving me over. What a load of horse-shit.

"Even though I don't know if Buenos Aires is a country or a city, or where it is, that's of no consequence to me because I belong to the best nation in the world and all the other nations are mildly stupid and don't understand things so well."

Sounds like your average American back in the States.

Someone back there actually asked me if they sell rice-cookers in Thailand. Sheesh!

Yeah, sorry. It was Pattaya that I left from. I figured the references to Soi 6 would be enough info for most folks to deduct as much.

No idea why it was "so expensive". It was half the cost of driving myself & I could've slept for 7 hours worth of the ordeal in a giant cushy captain's chair with loads of room to stretch out & recline, so I was tickled shit-less with it overall.

Have done tons of visa runs to Cambo, but normally drive myself.

I decided to give the visa run companies a go this time. These days I go thru around 3,000 THB in fuel, plus the 1500 baht or so for visa fees, plus the touts bugging me to death, plus the strain of driving 7-8 hours in one day, plus I usually get at least one 200 baht ticket from the BIB for God knows what, so almost 5,000 baht if I do it myself.

Waiting till the last minute, I called up 1st Class Visa Runs (Soi 6/Queen Vic hotel) at 6:00 PM last night. I needed to checkout of LOS no later than 17 Sept.

Nice lady said they were full, but would check with her "friend" & call me back. 3 minutes later she calls me back & yes, they have a seat open for today (16th). Same departure time (arrive between 0600-departure at 0645....we got back at 1500 hrs), same price, which was 2500 baht. Included were all visa fees, breakfast, lunch, a couple jugs of water, & 1 free beer in the pub upon return.

She had me booked with 5 Star Visa Runs (Soi 13/Sportsmans Pub). We met up with another van at our first stop (1st Class Visa van I think), and it was a 6 seater, but had 3 seats in a row, with 3 seats in a row right behind it. Ours was 2 by 2 by 2 seats. Far more roomy. Also there were only 3 passengers on our van.

Nice 17-19 inch or so screen for the DVD player & a good selection of movies was played (we finished 3.9 total).

3.5 hours drive time each way & around an hour at the border, 30 minutes of which was standing in the Thai arrivals line. Several Khmer tried to jump the line, and were politely informed that the line starts at the f***king back of said line.

The driver was about 60. Spoke a smidgin of English, very careful, kept his speed to a max of about 110 kph. Nice guy and the van was super roomy and comfortable with great air-con so 5 Stars on that front.

Breakfast was a cultural thing. Set menu that was totally British. Nothing against Brits, but would prefer fried grasshoppers (almost) as opposed to sunny side eggs & baked beans & raw bacon at 0600 hrs. I wasn't hungry so no biggie. I had a bottle of water and a coffee.

Lunch was OK I suppose, but a ham & cheese sandwich could always benefit from a bit of mayonnaise at least. These were dry as a bone. Nice potato salad, a chunk of banana bread & boiled egg????? Baked beans for breakfast & a boiled egg with lunch??????????????????????????

So, if you enjoy English food, like flatulence & hate mayo, then it's great!

My food whining is minor. Completely relaxed the whole way & I'll most assuredly use this service again as it costs half the price of doing it myself at 1/10th the level of driving stress. Oh yeah they did all the paperwork as well.

Best,

Jay

I always toss my change into a big dish that happens to sit about eye-level with my 5 year old.

She's convinced that as long as she has sip baht, (enough to buy ice cream) then she's got it made in the shade.

Caught her last weekend dumping about 3 kilos of coins into her backpack that she takes to school every day.

Just recently I've started trying to get rid of all the change I have by digging it out of my pockets & actually using it when I pay for things & guess what?

I busted a couple of Dingbat cashiers who (accidentally I'm sure) screwed up on my change due.....one for 87 baht at Homeworks next to S. Pattaya Big C & one at S. Pattaya Tesco Lotus for an even 100 baht.

I never really looked at my change before...just pay & go, and in less than 2 weeks I've had to say "Whoa, This ain't right" twice, so am kind of getting into this change game.....Price is 812 baht....give them 1012 baht. Often times I get a look of utter confusion.

Make 'em think a bit, & the change back to me seems to be accurate.

Gotta say my head is often as far into the clouds as theirs seems to be, so tossing a bit of change into the routine keeps us all more accurate.

I was in Makro last week looking at catering equipment,and they have one there.I am not sure of the price,I believe it was around 2000B

Yep,

Makro has them. 3690 baht, came with a roll to make the bags & yes they also sell replacement rolls.

Fairly simple to use. I managed to do up a dozen + bags tonight......Was expecting it to break down on the 5th or 6th one, but it's still trucking.

Amazing.....This thing is typical Chinese with the brand name of "Champs"........

Wish me luck on its continued longevity.

Thanks for the tips on where to find it.

Jay

Hi Nemo,

A bit of a late reply, but there is a yard on Sukhumvit 3 km south of Ocean Marina with decent security.

I would NOT recommend that you use their repair staff though as there is zero supervision there.

I have my boat there & it has decent security. I pulled in there at 0530 AM a couple days ago & the guard almost tackled me when I got out of my truck.

I also have a trailer that can most likely move your boat. It was built to move my 42 foot cat & is best suited for moving catamarans, but we could probably cobble something together for a monohull. It's designed for various platforms to be bolted to the main trailer structure.

You pay for (& get to keep) the extra cobbling/custom trailer platform for your boat & can rent the trailer for 5K each way to & from the water.

You need to rent the travel lift from the marina.

My guess would be around 8,000 baht per month storage fees on a 36 foot mono hull boat at the above mentioned yard....waaaaaaay less than what Ocean Marina wants. I have a few friends that may be able to help you find some decent freelance labor with boat repair experience.

My experience has been that you HAVE TO BE THERE everyday to provide leadership, direction & motivation to the local labor, treat them with respect, have a fluent translator (my wife does for me), & pay them on time. Buy them a coffee in the mornings & a Coke in the afternoons. Drop another 300-400 baht a week on some stir fried rice & som tam for lunch....pay them 10-12K baht per month & they'll work their tails off for you & cry when the job is finished.

They don't mind hard work. They are quite keen to work hard as long as they feel appreciated

Shoot me an email at Pattayaboat at gmail.com

The farang owner of this yard is a bit flaky & is difficult to get a hold of. From what I hear he hits the jug a lot & has accident/traffic jug related $$$ problems. Rumor mill is that his wife (she used to help run the business) is fed up with his butterfly activities as well, so she is never there either....pretty muchly a ghost town.

Am waiting to pounce on this lease & buy the business for a song myself. Have just moved back over here from the mid east & can see that he has problems that I doubt he'll ever overcome.

A simple storage yard is all it should be with friendly management that can show you where to buy marine paint & stainless hardware & other such essentials nearby, plus provide launching/haulage/transportation.

Provide electricity & tool rental as well......Need to spray paint your boat? Put your name on the list & guess what? you get the sprayer & compressor on the date you booked it.

Need sandpaper, paint, filler, stainless hardware etc...? Need stainless or aluminum welding?

Just go grab a vendor of such from 200 meters down the street & set them up with a piss-willy shed in the yard & tack on 2-3%......make it EASY for the guy with the LARGE head-aches.....Better yet get price lists from the vendors & just have a catalogue & a kid with a motorbike that can go get & be back in 15 minutes.

Anyhow, have been there, am doing that. Shoot me a a PM or email pattayaboat at gmail

Regards,

Jay