lazeeboy

At last Thailand can call itself the HUB of Corruption Applause!

The arch nemesis Singapore slides in again as the least corrupt despite many board members here know the opposite to be true!!!

Honestly, it is a sad sight for Thailand to sink to such depths. we see it all around us, we see it everyday. It is not even hidden, it is in plain sight and so obvious as to have reached the level of being normal.

Police stop you for no reason other than to get some tea money.

every time im in bkk i use a lot of taxis (the ones who will put the meter on ) are always complaining about the police wanting there 100-200b maybe its the police bosses wanting from them i think everyones at it all over thailand and the world somthing we have to live with and hope it doesnt cost us to much money it seems no one knows whats going on in high places only joe public........

Public servants will do their job if you give them some baksheesh.

etc . . . .

It is sad and pathetic and the ones at the bottom of the ladder suffer the most . . . as usual, the poor.

people hv to help themselves is ur basic premise. i suggest u give money one to the many organisations and institutions in this country that can enable people to do so.

thats the biggest favour u can do.

im not interested in the they're poor coz they deserve it twaddle. and it is just that.

these are people the same as us, good point bad points, no better no worse. without our opportunities most of us would be in the same straits they are in.

Pfft.....

Please don't patronize me, thanks. I pay enough tax and alms here as it is.

if u know all this already why do u talk such crap?

i think that only 1% of thais really genuinely smile the others only smile if they are taking your money or drunk it makes no difference if they are rich or poor they only smile when it suits them

Thanks for the pictures; it really illustrates what 'a thousand words' would find difficult to do!

I hope every effort is employed to put these fires out for both humanity and the environment's sake.

just got back from up there wasnt sure why my eyes hurt so much now i know hopfully they will sort this out before sonkran as people will cancell their trip including me and i do love it up there

Welcome to the world of tourism trends!

"Big waves swamp Samui"? - can't be as bad as "Tsunami wipes out Phuket" - surely!?

Have a good year!!!!!

Mmmm... I agree, but my point was that they are lying.

And Rooo, Koh Phangan backpackers only pre-book to the extent of the next place they are headed to. If they are told that a place is flooded out and the boats aren't running then they will change their plans.

Phangan is quieter than usual as well and we hardly have the same demographic as Samui.

It is one thing to promote one's own business and another to lie to steal someone else's. After the tsunami I was encouraging our guests to go over there and spend their money.

Seems no good deed goes unpunished

its now march and the season is almost over for me it didnt begin worst for 5 years

most of the "sell all types of plastic pots etc" shops sell the "tippers"

round us ( phuket) they seem to be about 400 baht

any hardwhere store selling dustbin hammers etc very common all around thailand

Hi,

I'm James from Singapore, visiting Chiangmai next week.

Any Arsenal fans or EPL fans know where i can watch this match live?

Cheers

James

if your staying in a half decent hotel they should have it on cable its not on till 3am the bars shut at 2am unless someones having a lock in if all else fails bars and restaurants will show it around the clock the following day

Twiglets and after 8 mints.

twiglets can sometime be found in tops exspensive but ........

There's a shortage of toothbrushes in our house. Actually there's a shortage of many thing due to me being at home without the wife.

Off topic but..

Does your other half still put the toothpaste on your brush in the morning? Or did they ever?

Mine stopped about two years into our marriage.

mine stop after 2 months now everything else has stop except squeezing the tooth paste from the middle i can stand most things in this life but that gets me so #### i wonder if i could use that in a divorce court and still keep the house?

youths under 18 years of age

Does anybody know the answer ,

I thought that it was 20 nowdays ...........................

in samui its 20 all the signs say 20 issue by the government so it must be right .......

Just wondering if the south of Thailand is suffering the same 'continental haze' that we [up north] are experiencing. visability is often less than 1,000 meters. this is just a casual survey as i am considering other options to the north where i have suffered several years in the dry season because of the slash and burn haze that surrounds us.

also, what is the mosquito situation??? we are having our worst year ever up north and wondering if it is same in south??

in samui its clear blue skys very hot but jn the garden last night ive not seen so many mossies in a long time the big ones with black and white tails

I have found that pointasia.com seems to have better resolution. the site is in Thai but it's not hard to figure out

Very nice - now I can see the details in Kuchinarai in Kalasin - excellent!

Regards

Frank

inlondon the pictures our at least 4 years old my brother sold his car in 2003 but when ive look at his house on google earth it still in his drive so maybe 5 years for an up grade is wish ful thinking also koh samui is terrible must be at least 5 years out of date and cant get within 800 metres of my house

I'm considering moving to Phuket from Pattaya.

Found a site where I see the prices in Phuket are about 20-30% cheaper then in Pattaya.

http://www.houseinphuket.com/houses/LTR/a0161/

What I'm looking for is a new house in a secured gated village. Here in Pattaya I can get this for 40-55k a months in East Pattaya.

Phuket seems to be a bit cheaper. Is that true?

A neighbour who also considering to Phuket told me that there everything is more expesive then here. But his sources are limited as he don't use Internet and has language problems.

a friend of mine just rented a house in kata 12k a month 2 beds 140sq metre house 200sq land wall carport nice furnishings for the kind of money your talking about you shouldnt have a problem

So the police boss is going to wipe out the police?

Doesn't make sense to bite the hand that feeds you.

I can't see it happening in my lifetime.

George and Thaivisa

Seems you got a permanent seat on this forum, leaves us to wonder what else George is up to if he does not write about Thai daily events

in this Forum.

No offence but the same news can be read in bangkokpost.net, and nationmultimedia.com.

Then again since 1987 is a long time, i can only look at Thaiaffairs hence 1976.

Just a thought, the name George pops up whenever I open the Forum.

Cheers

eerrrrr maybe because its his forum.

Well at least you understood what the OP was trying to say. I read it 3 times and I still couldnt work it out

by next month nothing will have been done as usual in 12 years in thailand i heard some great thing but never hear of the out come kind of reminds me of blighty

I have been listning to the news on pattaya people channel and the news reader is talking one word at a time with no feeling in his voice and seems to be reading from a paper with no full stops ? he's taking breath in mid sentance, I would guess his accent is a geordy or something like that ? no affence ment to goerdys or indeed to the news reader ( probably a nice guy ) but come on mate, news reading is not for you.

a girl once said to me after i said why are these people i have working for me so stupid she replied if you pay peanuts you will get monkeys........

Family's long wait for justice

As the legal wheels grind in Canada, Thais seek answers in the brutal murder of 'a very nice girl'

When Michael Joseph Charles Karas showed up at the popular Thai resort of Pattaya in 1994, he was already a fugitive from a criminal career back home in Canada.

According to federal parole records, he had failed to return to a correctional centre in Kingston, Ont., around Jan. 22 that year.

He travelled to Thailand on a false Canadian passport under the name Michael David Morgan.

Before long, he had moved in with a local woman, Suwannee Ratanaprakorn, and was said to be "into exporting jewelry to Canada."

The couple lived in modest hotels -- he rode a small motorcycle; she quit her restaurant job and went out afternoons and evenings to "beauty shops" and discos.

According to Thai investigators, in September 1996 Karas was heard quarreling with Suwannee by staff at the Bay Breeze Hotel. He was observed repeatedly hauling heavy luggage into a taxi, and checked out of the hotel around 3 a.m. Sept. 24.

Karas left Thailand the next day and returned to Canada. He was arrested in Vancouver Oct. 3, 1996, on an outstanding warrant for his earlier parole violation.

Around the same time, Suwannee's dismembered body was found dumped in a swamp. Her shorn, severed head, legs and an arm were found later in a field, now the site of a vacation hotel.

Karas has been in Lower Mainland prisons ever since, serving the remainder of a 26-year sentence that ends in 2011.

But he is also fighting a decade-old request for his extradition to Thailand on suspicion of Suwannee's murder, a crime that carries the death penalty there.

In September 2004, it appeared as though Karas would be facing his accusers when the federal justice minister in Ottawa issued an order of surrender -- essentially green-lighting his removal to Thailand.

But, a month later, his Vancouver lawyer, Glen Orris, applied to the B.C. Court of Appeal for a Judicial Review of the minister's order, and a hearing was adjourned due to Orris's other commitments.

At the same time, Karas confessed to a cold-case armed bank robbery, claiming he wanted "nothing hanging over his head" when he was eventually released.

On Dec. 12, 2005, he was sentenced to three years for the robbery, time that must be served prior to his extradition, in accordance with Canada's Extradition Act.

"A cynic could say it could also have been a strategic or a tactical plea," B.C. Provincial Court Judge J. Spence said, prior to sentencing.

In sunny Pattaya, far from the grinding machinations of Canada's extradition system, the case against Karas grows murkier.

Witnesses move away, and police move on.

The population is roughly 500,000, including 100,000 resident foreigners and nearly five million overnight visitors a year.

Police Major Taweesak Suathong heads a 12-member Suppression Special Crime and Transnational Crime unit that deals specifically with the city's "foreigner cases."

If you're white and you're wanted, Pattaya is an easy place to get lost, says Suathong. His unit apprehends around 20 foreign fugitives every year.

The Karas case may still be a priority for Bangkok, he says, but on the ground his officers have more pressing concerns.

Detectives were unable to produce the case file on Suwannee's murder when requested by The Province.

But in the air-conditioned squad room, mention of the pretty girl who was dismembered and the prime suspect who disappeared sets the room abuzz.

"It was a very shocking case," says one detective. He said police identified Suwannee by her "distinct fake eyebrows."

Bay Breeze manager Phayow Sriem says Karas and Suwannee stayed for three-month stints on at least two occasions. She found it odd that the couple registered under Suwannee's name and always paid cash. But they kept to themselves, she says, and the room was clean.

Occasionally there "was fighting, shouting inside that room," she says.

"The reception call and ask. She say, 'It's okay.'"

On the day of her death, Suwannee called down for a light bulb and an "engineer" was sent to Room 805 at 5 p.m. She didn't go out that night, Sriem recalls, and at 11 o'clock Karas returned.

"He came back again and went out again, maybe three or four times. At four o'clock [in the morning] he says to reception he wants to check out of the hotel."

Later that same day, police arrived with a picture of Suwannee's severed head, her distinctive hair hacked away.

"The police come and ask has anyone seen this girl," Sriem recalls. "The regulars say, 'Oh, it's Suwannee. Oh!'"

Guido Krohl, a German expatriate who owns the Beercorner bar across the street, watched events from his regular sidewalk table.

"She was a very nice girl, very pretty," recalls Krohl. "She had very strong hair. I remember that, like everybody. Very long hair. A lot of people where shocked. No people wanted to go in the hotel for a long time."

Karas has long maintained that he fled Thailand because he feared police there would discover his criminal past and pin Suwannee's murder on him.

"I am no angel," he has said. "But I did not kill anyone."

He told a federal parole board in 1998 that Suwannee was "likely the victim of a cover-up for another murder," but he did not elaborate.

At an extradition hearing in Vancouver in 2001, B.C. Supreme Court Justice J. Lysyk determined that Thailand's case against Karas was not strong enough to support a charge of murder.

He determined that the evidence of a hotel maid who heard Karas and Suwannee quarreling, and Karas's flight from Thailand, implied some culpability, but didn't demonstrate intent to murder.

Lysyk ordered Karas committed to await surrender for extradition on the lesser charge of manslaughter.

And it was on the condition that Karas be tried only for manslaughter that the justice minister in 2004 made his order of surrender.

Thailand, however, is insisting on a murder charge, The Province discovered during a meeting at the Office of the Attorney General in Bangkok with the head of Thailand's International Affairs Department.

"We cannot guarantee against the death penalty," says Deputy Director General Piyaphant Udomsilpa. "That is at the discretion of the court. We can't interfere."

Under Thai law, a person cannot be charged in absentia. Karas is the subject of a Thai arrest warrant containing a prosecution order, and not formal charges, which will be established in court.

"We want him to come here and face the charges," Udomsilpa insists.

Udomsilpa would not release her department's file on Karas. Her position -- Thailand's position -- remains firm: It is not for Canada to dictate to Thailand what charges can and cannot be laid against offenders wanted for crimes against Thai nationals committed on Thai soil.

According to federal parole records, Karas, 54, has "not physically harmed any of [his] victims." He may be a fraud artist, a bank robber and a flight risk (he has escaped or walked away from prison four times in the past), but Karas -- university educated and reportedly from a well-to-do Ontario family -- has never been convicted of assault, let alone murder or manslaughter. His last conviction for a violent offence was in 1987.

Karas did not respond to requests through his lawyer and Corrections Canada for an interview.

Glen Orris, a veteran defence lawyer, says Karas wants his extradition case resolved "the sooner the better."

"His position throughout is that he's not responsible. There's lots of evidence of him moving body parts around, or bodies around, but the issue is, how did the death occur?

"Any country, any right-thinking country, could have to be concerned with returning anybody to Thailand at this point," Orris says.

Regardless, Orris says he is not appealing the decision of the extradition judge, but rather the order of surrender.

"Our position is that Lysyk had it right when he decided that the only evidence that was before him satisfied him only that there was manslaughter, but not murder," says Orris.

The fugitive's lawyer believes the minister is prepared to extradite his client "generally," and leave it up to Thailand what to charge him with.

"My position is that the minister . . . must comply with the ruling of the court," says Orris, adding official, irrevocable assurances from Thailand must be received by Canada before Karas is sent anywhere.

Canada's extradition process is of cold comfort to Suwannee's family, whose home in remote Nongsang village is lit only by lanterns.

The family pores over a surviving photograph of their beloved Suwannee, remembering her bright smile and lush, dark hair.

Attractive and ambitious, she was 24 when, in late 1994, she fled peasant life for the glamour of party-town Pattaya.

There, pretty village girls can triple their families' incomes by sending home money earned in bars and restaurants.

"She never should have left," says her frail father, Prayoon Ratanaprakorn, as he sits sobbing beside his wife, Naree, on the floor of their home.

Suwannee's twin, Supaporn, says her sister left without a word.

"She was very happy, she loved children," she recalls. "She had many friends here."

Prayoon says she twice brought Karas to their home. "At that time that guy was very nice," he says. "That guy come out and say he give money so we don't have to work . . . we were waiting for them to get married and move to Canada."

After Suwannee's death, says her mother, Naree, police took her and her husband to Room 805 of the Bay Breeze Hotel.

"I saw the bloodshed on the bathroom floor," she says.

One day, she believes, the "law and the government" will uncover the truth of her daughter's death.

"One day he will be returned to Thailand," she says of the man she believes is responsible.

"We cannot forgive Karas."

THE KARAS CASE

- Jan. 22, 1994: Karas breaches parole in Canada and relocates to Thailand.

- Sept. 23, 1996: Suwannee killed and dismembered.

- Sept. 24, 1996: Police find body parts in swamp.

- Sept. 25, 1996: Karas leaves Thailand for Canada.

- Oct. 3, 1996: Arrested in Vancouver on outstanding warrant for parole violation, with Canadian passport under Michael David Morgan.

- May 1997: Thailand launches extradition.

- Oct. 25, 1999: Arrested in prison on an extradition warrant.

- June 1, 2001: Ordered committed for extradition on the offence of manslaughter.

- Sept. 14, 2004: Ordered surrendered to Thailand subject to specified assurances.

- October 2004: Confesses to cold-case bank robbery and sentenced to three years.

- November 2006: Case adjourned so DOJ can "reassess situation" in post-coup Thailand.

- Feb. 15, 2007: Case adjourned without a set date in B.C. Court of Appeal.

The Vancouver Province

if i was him i would keep coming up with crimes committed to stay in canada if hes facing a death sentance he can avoid coming back to thiland by staying in jail there thats better than dying i think no ?

I make it a policy in my business to offer financial help to staff members.

This means that if a staff member has been with our business for a certain period of time he becomes eligible to borrow money from the business. We treat this transaction as any financial institution would. They sign a contract that agrees to terms of repayment, interest, and surety.

If they leave the business for any reason the terms of the loan do not change.

Staff who have borrowed money do leave. They do not always go to other jobs. Their payments fall behind. We send the debt collectors after them. (usually a member of the local police force who keeps 30% of the received monies for his after hours work)

So I had two staff who left, fell behind in their payments, and had the police arrive to collect.

These two genius's thought they could raise the money owed by, you guessed it, selling drugs. Today the police busted them, with traficable qty's of yaba. They will probably spend 2 - 5 years in prison.

They have both called my office for assistance.

When working for me they were both reasonable staff members with good de-meanors. (They are both in their late teens, early twenties)

Should I help them?

The bail surety alone is over 200K Baht.

Feelings?

Soundman.

the money you lent them probably financed the drugs let them rot

Why Thailand has crap food.

One reason is holding temps. Food cannot be held at room temp. It will poison you. Food should be below 40F or above 135F.

Another is cross contamination. You can't use just one cutting board for chicken, pork, and so on.

Another is three compartment sinks. One to wash, one to rinse and one to sanitize. They are non existent in Thailand.

Next time you eat at a street side vendor look for the above things. When you get sick you can remember reading it here.

Why does Thailand not enforce even these basic standards? Anyone have any ideas? I don't really have a clue.

Can't really say that Thai Food is crap .....just potentially hazardous

If it wasn't for the CDC , VSP (vessel sanitation program) and Haccp than there would be many other Western Countries who would have the same "possible cross contaminations" . Fact is we survived then, and we do survive now without it too(here in thailand). I never had any foodborne illness here in Thailand ( i have been here since 3 years continuous) ....but i had one in the US , South Africa , Mexico and Uk.

Cutting Boards with color coding and preferably not made of wood (which than changed back to be wooden being preferred as per VSP) is a valid point . But are they used accordingly in the west? same applies to the 3 compartment sink. I am not saying they don't exist in the US or elsewhere.....but are they really used the way they were meant too? Not to mention the chlorine solution(sanitation sink ...) how many follow the right ppm's and use it in the correct sink too?

The fact that Thai food is cooked and eaten with almost no timegap doesn't give it much chance to create much harmful bacteria or leaves those which are harmful on a "relative" safe level.

It certainly would be better to enforce Food sanitation a little but it shouldn't be as crazy as the CDC (center of Disease Control) outlines things and only applies it to everyone else, except their own soil.

rcm

i delivered chickens to indian restaurants in the 80s there kitchens fall way below even the soup man on his bike been here 13years only been sick from singha

I went the company route and the lawyer reckons it will cost 15,000baht a year to show that the company is trading, i.e. " creative accounting " btw still seeing the haidresser

hope shes not on your company otherwise good bye home

Couple found hung

BANGKOK: -- A couple were found hung inside their home in which police believed to be a murder by the husband who later hung himself.

Prachak Lertrat, 46, and his wife, Massarin Sithisarn, 34, were found hung inside their home in Bangkok's Min Buri district at 7 am by their relatives.

Relatives told police that the couple engaged in a big quarrel Saturday night before they were found dead.

Police suspected that the husband hung his wife before hanging himself.

-- The Nation 2007-03-04

maybe the wife hung the husband then hung herself some wives are bigger than there husbands sad waste all the same

It's bad everywhere in the north this time of year, and in fact the smoke is worse in small valley towns populated mainly by farmers.

its not much better in the south either except we have dust too face masks are a good idea at least you wouldnt be able to see how ugly my wife has become

On Friday night the Salsa Kitchen opened a new annex called, Jerk Island. They are serving up caribean based food. On Friday I had Jerk Pork, it was so good that I came back on Saturday to have something else!

The Jerk Pork came with potato salad, corn on the cob, sweet potato mash, dirty rice, pineapple relish and a couple of dips. It was so good, and being the Salsa Kitchen, the portions were massive!

I went back again last night and had Mango Chicken which was served with all of the above. I am not sure about which I preferred, as they were both so good.

For sure I will be going back later in the week to try something else.

I also think after posting this that my next meal should be free!

be in chiang mai 2 days time fancy that where is it please? thanks in advance.....

Cheers Lazeeboy - I have got the bus to Surathani twice. Once i think it took me to the bus station, and another time it droped me at the top of a soi which lead to the pier. Any idea where i will end up this time? Either way, its not too far to the pier, is it?

To be honest, both times i have done it i take sleeping pills. When i wake up at Surrathani the first 20 minutes is a complete blur, as my mind is so twisted up from a 10 hour pill induced kip. Thats why i cant realy remember the procedure... Just kinda, find myself on a boat somehow, with no recalection of how i got there.

Any idea how frequently the boats leave Surathani? And does the Surathani boat arive at nathon or the other pier just south? I ask as i need to grab a songtheaw into Chaweng.

Also, if i decide to go to Donsak.... you mentioned bus? You can bus to Donsak?

stick they leave every 2 hours from 6am buses to donsak can be book in bkk travel agent ie kowsang road etc or in surattani it self there an office in the high st next to the big department store cant remember the name off hand though and the ferry arrives in nathon town .........

Samui has a "State of the Art" garbage incinerator built by the Japanese about 10-15 years ago. I visited the facility 5 years ago to assess a smell problem for the T.B. at the plant. it is truly state of the art well trained staff. The biggest problem was and evidently still is "Lack of Garbage" Hopefully this plant is still working and being used. Getting the garbage to the plant is and always was a problem, the type of vehicles and containers to fit the dump doors, along with many other (easly solved) problems.

No one likes garbage, this plane costs $3 million a year to operate, used or not.

If the fees were charged by type of collection point, residence, store, restaurant, resort, hotel, ------and so on the Sanitation people would know what type of garbage truck to use. Residents and hotels ect. need to purchase or lease proper containers (with lids) from the "Sanitation Department" that are compatible with

the type of pick up vehicle.

My observations of the present garbage pick up operation is very bad, the Sanitation Crew pick and sorts through the Garbage on the side of the road as the truck drips foul water behind it. The picking and cleaning is good for the Sanitation workers and good for the incenerator plant. "Green Peace would be proud".

The sorting could be done at or near the plant, as there is plenty of room there.

Years ago complaints came from near by residents that on foggy days a smell came from the plant, this occurred when the dump pit chamber doors were opened, the pressure difference let the smell waft out, the chamber doors are designed to have the truck tilt and seal against the door before it is opened, but I digress.

The point is we have a "State of the Art" non polluting, fantastic resource here on Samui, we need to use it.

We also need to Charge for Garbage Pick-up and enforce it, if they don't pay a fine needs to be assessed against the OCCUPANT of the property.

Littering also needs to be enforced, lets put those Cops who set up road blocks for NO Helmats and put them on the street on their motor bikes and ticket the litter bugs.

LETS Keep SAMUI CLEAN, for all of our sakes, and impress our visitors the right way.

Just look at the roads to and from the Airport, the "First Impression a Visitor gets of Samui" If it weren't for the charm of the airport (minus the touts) we would really leave a worse impression. The New Terminals will really impress the visitors, Ambiance and Charm.

Weather we know it or not Bangkok Airways is the best thing that happened to Samui, with out Bangkok Airways there would be no Samui as we know it.

Just ask a tourist, it is not expensive. If you live here or have a company here and qualify get a "Samui Residents Card" you get 20% discount on flights as well as 100 baht off the airport fee.

I did check a return flight from Surat Thani to Bangkok and the total price was Baht 7,390. An equivalent fare with Bangkok Airways was Baht 8,030 so the additional Baht 640 saves a bus, ferry and bus trip to Surat. The Bangkok Airways promotional fare is only Baht 5,265. A flight from Bangkok to Phuket return was Baht 8,160 and to Krabi was Baht 7,830 so it seems that Bangkok Airways are once again being made the whipping boy for Koh Samui's problems in not attracting tourists over the recent high season when the bad publicity last year and hotel prices probably had as much to do with that as did the much cheaper general packages to the Andaman Resort areas working hard to regain custom after the tsunami. So once again we are seeing calls for a second airport but there seems to be no evidence that this would produce cheaper fares and unless the hotels are prepared to compete on price with the Andaman

Just some food for thought

Have a great weekend

totally agree with you onbangkok airways you can also join there frequant flyer bonus scheme i did 2 more return flights to bkk and i get 1 return flight to bkk for free i know nothing to do with garbage but people should know bangkok air are one of the reasons we have tourist here they invested huge amounts here took a chance and made it ...............

Hi all

Can i ask what may be a silly question?

I arive at Surrathani in a few days time, early in the morning (around 6am) and will obviously need to catch the ferry to Samui. Is it worth getting the ferry from Surrathani which is only a short distance from the bus station, or should i go the extra 60 miles and taxi to Donsak?

I have used the ferry from Donsak dozens of times, on organised visa runs. Never used the ferry from Surathani though (apart from the night boat once), and this is the first time i arive in surathani not realy knowing what is best to do.

Im thinking its about an hour to Donsak from Surrathani, and to avoid getting ripped off by a taxi driver, i may aswell just get the boat from Surrathani?

not much difference in the price from surattani takes 2.5 hours 1.5 from donsak but the bus can take 1 hour personnally i prefer surat as the buses do tend to go to fast a bit nerv racking at times .going from surat the boat is smaller and noisier and dont carry a lot of refreshments but 7/11 opposite so get a drink in there the fjrst hour or so goes along the river bank so a few things to look at to pass the time also only been approach by bungalow reps touts a gouple of times the long bus ride from bkk thats all you need donsak is full of reps ...............

I've lived in Pattaya for the last 8 months (unfortunately) and you're pretty much spot on with your comments.

IMO, the Thai people of Pattaya are the worst in Thailand. The Farang here aren't much better. Mainly Lager louts from the UK. Now you have the Russian mafia moving in just to add to the scum.

I'm moving out soon. It's a dump.

Phuket isn't that much better. Expensive and inhabited by greedy, rip-off merchants.

I would suggest Hua Hin, Chiang Mai and even Bangkok before I'd recommend Pattaya.

these problems in pattaya are no different to any holiday resorts in the world take a tourist give him some money drag him in the bar get him drunk when he wakes up he has no memory of how he got his black eye so he will go home and tell all he was mugged lynch etc ive been to pattaya many times commom sense will keep you out of trouble dont drink so much and you will enjoy your stay a lot more unfortunatly pattaya has had some bad press ie the poor russian girls theres no where worse than spain but people keep going these problems are far and few between so why dont we start talking something nice about pattaya instead of doom and gloom as you can tell im a pattaya fan ........