kg1947

If they ever kick out the Shawarma stand -- I will NEVER go there anymore , let the place DIE .....

Do you know that Muhammed pays THB 45,000.- p/month for that " site " .... GREEDY LANDLORD.

the "fate" of small bus operators / independents - will not enter the equation.

whoever run the new terminal BKS-3 will determine whatever suit them best ( maximum profit ).

it's a sad reality - especially if some old-timers must be sacrificed. The TAXI MAFIA might be run

by the same consortium who owns BKS-3 , so the "public" could scream all they want .

UNLESS - you raise a stink at City Hall and Land Transport department. but you the "public"

have little choice , as is the fact in many other things ....

@ allane , your point nr. 3 - might be the main cause and TPTB must have an arrangement for

" beautification " of the area by kicking out smelly busses and common people if you get my drift.

the empty space is for building a MEGA MALL with all facilities concentrated in 1 location,

the builder must have very deep pocket and traffic congestion is not their concern.

plus the main actors have very good connection to The Authorities involved. Just watch.

Public transport to Terminal-3 ( BorKorSor SAM ) is practically NON EXISTANT, EXCEPT FOR

TAXIS and High Priced ride in a songthaew, don't let anyone tell you OTHERWISE.

THANK GOD - there's GRABTAXI , BUT I think they are not in Khon Kaen yet .

GRABTAXI , UBERTAXI , NAKORNCHAI TAXI ..... that's your alternatives ....

VOTE - with your wallet / pocket book , teach them a lesson . But I think the Mafia will never learn .

at least in Pattaya there are many alternatives in transport , dining establishment & escape route

to the Capital : Bangkok . the alternative to taxi mafia is GRABTAXI - if it is active in your area.

Get the app. GRABTAXI or similar ....

you also get set price for the trip .

Another 6 STAR. shopping mall - I presume ??

They should learn how to do it properly , like along WALKING STREET PATTAYA .

If NOT ask the General to send in. the MARINES TO CLEAN UP those thugs , maybe

4 wks basic training can smarten up these despicables .

In the meantime - just avoid Phuket , leave them to the Chinese & Indian tour groups.

And it's not just Vietnamese. My Thai gf has been coming to Singapore to spend time with me for almost 5 years. Only on her last two visits has she been hassled at the airport. Most recently, the immigration officer asked "why doesn't the guy marry you?". On her previous trip, she got the office interview. Something strange happening on the little red dot.

................................................................................................................................................

They look at the "RATIO" of ladies working in Geylang, Orchard and if a particular national

start to dominate the scene , that's what happened . kind of " population control " in the

" leisure & entertainment industry " .... Thai ladies have gone through this before .

Bye Bye Thailand. This is the straw that breaks my back. I will do my retirement extension next month for the 5th and last time.

I will move to a country that actually likes expats. This one obviously does not. What a bunch of idiots. Killing the geese that lay the golden eggs.

EXACTLY - - as if they find all kinds of reason to make it difficult for us .

Maybe they should just kick out all LEGIMATE PENSIONERS on low fixed income.

A Criminal will have NO TROUBLE depositing THB 10.- MILLION into their account and

season it for 3 months , we the pensioners receive GROSS INCOME , then have to

pay through deductions taxes, etc. - SO what we receive in our account is NET AMOUNT.

How can Thai Immigration EXPECT us to TRANSFER our GROSS INCOME into a Thai

Account ?????? somebody need to study ACCOUNTING & BANKING PROCEDURES .

Looks like somebody is " doodling procedures " while having coffee , absolutely NO

PROFESSIONALISM .

the OWNER can set a time limit per consumption , but how to enforce it ?

sone people might have NOWHERE ELSE to go , that's why they hang around Coffee Shops.

In case of business meetings & tutoring sessions - the owner just have to be firm in their

policy , but don't kick out just anybody who overstay .

Oh Boy...

His drivers must be pocketing the difference.

Somebody must be joking - right. ?? or completely out of touch with reality .....

Why not go to the crossings in Ban Laem or Pailin.

or another one : PHONG NAM RONG or similar sounding border post with Cambodia.

How retarded they must be !

And then they wonder why they have only 1 million tourists a year ?

Wish US had done the job properly to bring civilization and education there !

-------------

Vietnam need to upgrade a lot of things before they can draw mass tourism

like in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia. Their ENTRY VISA system looks simple

but once you arrived at the airport - unless you have paid for VIP SERVICE,

YOU WAIT IN LINE for a long time . TV - don't have English News program ,

so you're basically BLIND about the outside world after arriving here .

COST of living at the tourist level is high, SERVICE at the stores sully &

non interested, maybe high end is different or just a language barrier.

Double tier pricing exist everywhere, don't kid yourself. People seems not

happy or suspicious to Asians , don't know if that's because they're jealous.

Public transport is way behind what Thailand & Singapore offered, taxi is

MORE expensive than in BKK and their knowledge level doubtful - get ready

with your Google Earth app. you need that a lot. .... and I am traveling with

my Vietnam girlfriend around !!!

added to above : Water & excessive rain water flows back to Lake Mabprachan , NO NEED to worry about the beach.

Erosion is the fault of the rain , not the engineers . the size of pipes & drainage does not matter - most of the time

they are empty & idle . The walking path is strong - it's the damn water that caused damage , not the people that

walk on it .... so that's not the responsibility of the Public Works department . Blame on the Climate change .

The city officials either have no engineers with any experience in dealing with the enormous amounts of water you get in Pattaya 2, 3, 4 or more times a year or they do not have a willingness to do what it will really take to fix the problem. They have never accepted what they really have to do to drain away the floods quickly, safely and properly. It boils down to massive drainage pipes to quickly carry the water away and take it out far enough into the ocean so it does not undermine the beaches.

All that takes precious money they are not willing to spend. It also means huge disruptions to businesses and the tourist industry.

So what do they do...they put band-aids on it again and again and again and that gives you the wonderful looking beaches we have today.

Yes and in the meantime their busy killing the duck who lais the golden eggs even more with not at least cleaning the beaches.... I went down to Jomtien beach early morning last week and ohh man.....what n freaking mess....looks like a garbage dumping ground.. Who ( specially tourist ) want to sit between empty beer bottles and plastic bags and all the other shit laying around there ??

Absolutely disgusting...

I've said and thought this a 1000 times. It would be soooooooooooooo easy and sooooooooooooo cheap to hire a crew of workers to start early in the morning cleaning up the beaches before the day starts. They can manage to spend millions of baht on a useless crosswalk system throughout the city that someone got a lot of kickbacks on, but not a few baht on a daily clean-up crew for both Pattaya and Jomtien.

Be even easier if they borrowed this one from Songkla....

Songkla beach clean.jpg

THAIS - seem to be too proud to accept recommendations from local EXPAT Advisory Board

about what needed to be done locally to make TOURIST more at ease .

I'm sure the 2 Clubs that meet at Tavern by the Sea and Mercure Hotel can save them

Millions of Baht is " STUDIES " on how to increase Tourist quantity & revenue.

But - NNOOOOOO - they would NOT act on any logical solution/-s , they prever to listen to

a panel WHO. has never lived abroad to understand the psychological make up of a

creature called " FARANG " ..... what a pity .....

I'm looking to go to Vietnam hopefully in the near future.Would you care to say how Saigan is now,and Hanoi also?

Saigon- won't miss it a bit, have to do Old Town Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hoi An - it is a MUST ,

add Mekong Delta ( Can Tho ) if you can .

buy Lao Khao and lots of Som Tam ..... you'll be the darling of the MooBaan ... good luck laddy ....

do not make enemies with your neighbors , instead buy CHILI POWDER and spread along the front of your house

the dogs will sneeze and hate to come back . also leave previous droppings for a couple of days but saturate with

strong smelling eucalyptus oil plus chili powder, cheaper than buying cameras.

the dog owners usually don't give a hoot where their pooch crap . repeat every week until the dogs are

conditioned to " hate " your area . another trick is leaving " food " that they like , so they will not crap there.

but this is more expensive solution - but you get friends for life guarding your premises .

When dropped off at Sukhumvit High Way @ the end of Pattaya Klang , BEWARE
of that group . Regular rate to Pattaya Klang / 2nd Road intersection is 50 Baht,
as a foreigner they will charge you min. 80 Baht and they are rather arrogant .
But it's only 1.- USD more and YOU have no other choice if there's baggage involved.
Otherwise, just walk across the Foot Bridge and catch Songthaew going to 2nd Road
for 10 Baht. At night this route is NOT so frequent .

Personally I was shocked, was expecting Clinton to come out and nominate Ron Paul.

He mentioned the " Change of Rules " during RNC that EXCLUDED many

Ron Paul candidates so it's INDIRECT mention about Ron Paul.

At Jay Leno's show RP said : NO third party for him. So it's up to Gary Johnson

to include him later. Not sure how that will work out, the system is rigid.

Thinking outside the box :

There are MORE poor people in Thailand than rich people , so percentage wise

IF : ALL the poor people exercise their right to vote and DO vote , they will

achieve a MAJORITY - right ?

So : despite all the mud being thrown around , ANY politician WHO utilize this

reality and work to take advantage of this statistic - MUST in the end become

the WINNER ( mathematical & logical conclusion ) - agree ?

So : now it doesn't matter WHICH group/color/party who take advantage of this

fact must be recognized as THE WINNER - UNLESS there's interference from

dissatisfied group/color/party & organization who then use their OWN method

to force a CHANGE in the natural outcome.

To FORCE a change, it will cost MONEY, lots of money !!

So : its been known that to FIND the real reason WHY certain things happen,

you MUST FOLLOW the money trail and forget about slogans & speeches.

I think the POOR people are more EDUCATED now - thanks to the INTERNET &

other media that allows instant communication - UNLESS it's CENSORED !!

This is called the AWAKENING and you see that happening in many countries

around the world , even in Europe and later in North America.

GET USED TO IT , it will happen sooner or later.

Been there shortly after opening.

If you have travelled anywhere internationally

and seen Disney, Universal, Summer Fairs in

Europe & North America, then this attraction

will be a downer !!

This is set up for LOCALS only with

limited travel exposure and cost a lot by local standard ( a clerk will have a hard time to take

his/her family of 2 adults & say 2 children to

enjoy ALL the attractions. he will have to spend

more than half his monthly income !! )

YES it is very pleasant INSIDE, air conditioned

under one roof, plenty of parking and additional facilities & attractions must be finished by now.

Let's say this is too expensive for the common

folk - so its only for upper middle class and

above - to enjoy this attraction.

Having seen once is more than enough.

This project is feasible even at the present cost level - due to the sheer volume of potential

customers around the City of Makassar.

BTW the beautiful Pantai Losari / Losari Beach Boulevard is thoroughly destroyed by the indiscriminate construction of incompatible

buildings by the elite who hold the power

& purse strings locally. I am not impressed

to say the least.

I have travelled widely to voice this assessment fairly.

Just dumped True myself..Had the gold package..waste of money.I had the HD channels sd well.Thats only 2 channels..I only had it for the footy and the news but at 1800 baht not good value.When I cancelled they then offered.me the same package for 1150 baht!..They must be getting desperate....True is such a old fashioned system to watch tv.I want to watch programs when I want to watch them not when they devide to air them So its torrent dowmloafs all the way now.I will do without te footy or go to a bar to watch..Picture quality is so poor unlrss its on the HD channels.As for the news I waych Live station.Its got the BBC CNN AND ALJAZZERA.. Bye bye True..no regrets. Lol

For those living in KHON KAEN area ..........

I have had a VERY satisfactory service from KTV / KhonKaen Cable TV .........

80+ ch. THB 350.- p/mo., additional discount if you pay 3,6,9,12 mos in advance.

WHY is it good compared to ALL satellite packages ??

If there's interruption, you call them and its usually fixed within 1 hr. daytime.

If the weather sucks, they'll adjust the signal strength/stability.

As a foreigner I got : Al Jazeera, Fox, France24 English, FranceTV French, Japanese NHK,

German DW, Singapore CNA English, Australia, Korea KBS, VTV Vietnam, CCTV English,

many SPORTS channel, many entertainment ch. choice, BUT NO Nat.Geo. unfortunaly.

Their office is located not far from the BAR areas of ex Sofitel/ now Pullman hotel

going toward the TRAIN station. Hope this helps and I am NOT benefiting from this

recommendation in any way. Good Luck in Khon Kaen.

ps: AGREE - stay away from SATELLITE craps. wasted a lot of money trying it & now

abandoned as dry leaves catcher during windy weather !!!