timekeeper

As for Sri Racha, when I've asked which retaurant is best to eat at, I always get the same answer...."No good!....All no good!" - the truth? or just trying to keep me out?

if you want to try three good restaurants in Siracha and all under the same group ownership try California steak at Karavel House, Intermezzo at Kameo House & The Orchard at Kantary Bay. in my humble opinion all are excellent with great service and reasonably priced food. if you ever get out of town the same company owns the fantastic Bistro 43 at Kantary Bay in Rayong. its a do not miss experience, and well worth the drive and before anyone asks no, i do not work for any of these companies, i have no interest in them except to share a recomendation with the other members although i do hold a discount card for dining in all their restaurants, which you can get too entirely for free. no japanese heritage is required. (you will find them all on google)

Obviously nobody told you that the dark side (East Pattaya) is a dump. Both for refuse and farangs.

Think about it, would you buy a house in the UK or elsewhere that was half the price of a house in a nice area??

No, because you would wonder why it was so cheap, and put 2+2 together.

Som Nam Naa keeniow

ok, i'll bite, where is your mansion located then?

my wife did a passport renewal the other day, she went early, was there when they opened at 9, it cost 1000baht and she was in & out in 30 minutes. its being sent by EMS

Recently had the ribs at Great American. I am no rib expert, but they didn't seem wonderful at all. If I could put one word to it, I would say ... leftovers. On a previous visit (not soon after they opened) I thought they were fantastic. Has this place, the Pattaya location, gone to pot? I am not saying the food wasn't edible, but I think it has dropped to poor value, considering the current quality and not cheap price. Also the side dishes are microscopic. Someone before said the manager told them you could ask for more, but the menu doesn't say that, the waiters don't tell you that, so i would never do that, they should just serve a normal side dish portion and stop playing games. Its supposed to be an American restaurant. No self respecting BBQ place in America would ever serve microscopic side dishes. For example, their BBQ beans are served in a small, shallow dipping sauce plate.

i agree with jingthing, i went when it first opened and it was a delight, i have been a few times since and its been progressively worse and seemingly more expensive each time. the last time was about two weeks ago and it will be the LAST time.

I have the understanding that the ATM/credit card requirement still exists and was only for people showing monthly income, not for full money deposited in a Thai bank. They did not require a Atm/credit card last month for my renewal with a full deposit.

the credit card requirement does not exist for any category of visa now, i did a part pension/bank deposit retirement visa with a friend today and we did not offer nor was there was any request for a credit card copy. so once i was sure it was all done, just as i did yesterday, i asked the officer and was told 'no need' i said you need for any kind of visa?, he said no, i left it at that. so hopefully thats the end of another ill conceived requirement.................until next time

i will know that for sure very soon, as i am helping my friend with his application tommorrow. his application is 80% pension and 20% bank deposit combo. i will let you know what happens.

I am not convinced there ever was such a requirement. Perhaps they used it on some dodgy looking cases, and perhaps they still will.

i had it all ready for them, colour copied and info crossed out as advised by forum members, just in case they asked for them, i kept them inside my visa preperation envelope on purpose. so when they didn't ask to see it, and only at the end when i was sure it was over and it had been stamped & passed i asked them' do you need to see copies of credit card/ atm card? he said 'No, we stop last week' i said ok and i left it at that. make of that what you will...........

Do you do your full money requirement (400/800K) in a Thai bank or did you present some other form of income?

Just something that I don't understand.

Why does a married guy have to show only 400k when he is supprting 2 people and single person needs 800k to support 1 person? Hmmm, must be Thai logic.

i do the 800k deposit, i am not married so i don't know about the other option but if its as you say, i agree it defys 'normal' logic

i have just renewed my retirement visa at Jomtien immigration and there is no longer a requirement to produce a copy of your Credit/Debit/Atm card. its probably been reported already somewhere but i thought i would let the forum know. it was a personally instrusive requirement anyway, i am pleased to see that someone saw sense.

i have seen them in the open air furniture shop behind festival park (big c) North Pattaya.

i have the premier package from maxnet its 1099baht per month, i live on the Dark side, its never a problem, i am one of ten in my ADSL group and have just now tested on Thaivisa's speedtest at 758/342. i recommend this service. it may vary in Pattaya but it works admirably for me. i hope that helps

i have had the same thing happen to me in Tuk Com and got my money back after raising merry hel_l. i now only buy cartridges from Wattana or Office World.

i just said to my thai wife (a teacher) did you see the news about the accident at Siam park, she said 'yes' in a very unconcerned manner, i said does it not surprise you? she said 'everyone knows Siam park is dangerous, government know for long time' i said you ever take kids there? she said 'no its not safe, school not want problem'. so there you go a Thais opinion of it, still very sad to hear though about the accident. i hope all concerned fully recover very soon

Plymouth..............

walk down union st at 2.30

Ahhh Unionstrasse.... that takes me back....... . Did that, I am not sure why I am still alive

Lived there for 10 years, I'm still alive (just). The same in every large town anywhere in the world. If you go out with an attitude or looking for trouble, then you will find it. I must have been in Union St 100's of times, and never had a problem. I used to take my staff out there as my bank was on Drake's Circus, and still never had a problem. I've never had a problem in Thailand either. I am sure this is all down to the way one conducts themselves, either that or I am very lucky.

i think its the latter, any thoughts on some lottery numbers??

Pros and Cons-i think you just described most of the population!

Very droll!!

May I use it as a tag line?

be my guest

Hi everyone.

As of new year I am retired and I and my wife have decided to settle in Thailand but we do not know where for the moment. My wife is Thai and from Khon Kaen (muang) and she would prefer that we chose KK. My experience from KK is that, although this place has its merits, it is very flat and dull. I do not think I would like it there.

Some information about me. I am quite familiar with the Thai culture and their history after twenty-five years of frequent visits to the country. I have been working for a large defence contractor selling combat management systems for naval warships and Thailand was one of "my countries". However, I do not speak Thai, yet, although it is an ambition of mine to at least learn the basic to start wit. My wife is a nurse and she would have no problem to get a job should we chose Pattaya to be our home. We have two kids, a daughter 14 years old and a son 9.

We have both ruled out Krabi, my wife has ruled out Hua Hin and we are now primarily focusing on Pattaya to Rayong, and possible Phuket. I am very familiar with the area around Sattahip for the obvious reason as that is the main Royal Thai Navy base. I have hence stayed many times at the Dusit on business but those stays are not enough to tell me whether Pattaya is a good place to live in.

Anyone of you who are living in Pattaya area would be very welcomed to give me some advise on how it is to live there. I am not much into bar live but in need of a social side of life with some sort of quality.

Any advice would be most welcomed. What I specifically like to hear is:

1. How is the quality of living there given the bear bars and go go places?

2. The Pattaya area is fairly large, in which part would you recommend us to look for a house with nice surroundings and not too far from good schools and shopping, and with high safety standards? It does not need to be very near the beach but if it has some sort of public transport it is a plus. Our max budget for the house would be about 10M baht.

3. I know about Regent and St. Andrews. Are there any other good schools you can recommend?

4. I read about crimes ever so often on this forum, how safe is actually Pattaya when you exclude the bar areas? I have had a house burgled once and do not want that to happen again.

5. Any other thing you like to share with me?

Göran

Moving To Thailand - Is Pattaya The Place?,

Pros and Cons-i think you just described most of the population!

I've spent a long tome in pattaya and have never seen a local attack a foreigner unprovoked. Every situation of violence I've seen (I"ve seen a lot) has some how been provoked been provoked by the foreigner. If you're chill, thais are chill. If your stir them up, then you've got a problem.

THAIMAN i wish you had been there the night i was attacked by a sword wielding nutter off soi buckow (soi 21) becuase in his opinion my car got too close to his car. i was pulled out of my car and threatened to be run through with a sword whilst all the time he was screaming 'you scared falang? you scared? i f**king kill you!' i managed to break away, with a minor slash wound to my forearm and manged to put a parked car between him and me. after swinging his sword around a lot and trying to skewer me over the roof of the car, he threatented me that he will get me another time, he finally ran off and drove away. this was 8-30 pm, on a saturday night, there were maybe 50 witnesses and i had not had a drink for a week. i got his car number, called the police from my mobile, with the help of a thai hairdresser from a nearby shop who spoke to them. They came to the scene, i gave them the number which was now written on my bloody forearm in a pen i snatched from a phone table outside a shop and told me to go to the police station at soi 9 who initially tried to say i was at fault, maybe i was drunk, i told them i had not had a drink in a week and i offered a piss/blood test and i insisted they look at my car outside as they accused me of maybe causing an accident so then it would have been me that made him angry. after defending off many attempts by them to turn this into my problem, i told them this guy was still out there why didn't they put an alert over the radio for him? they said had to wait for boss to say so. i said wheres the boss? they said out! i said on a saturday night? can you not call him? they said he not have mobile, i said well check the assailants car number on the computer, they said it was down for the weekend in Chonburi and they could not access it until monday. i said you are joking and taking the piss, i sensed they knew more than they were letting on. my friend who had joined me by then witnesed all this and thought it best left. he said it was clear nothing was going to happen and something was amiss. i took his advise and left. i did however make some enquiries on the monday with some friends in the know and hey guess what? he was an off duty, out on the piss cop from Siracha. the most scary part of this whole deal was just before i seized the opportunity to break away from him, he looked inside the car to see if anyone else was in there hidden behind the dark tint. i knew then this was a professional of some kind. this guy knew what he was doing, had i not broke away at the point who knows what might have happened? i now have pepper spray velcro'd to the air vent near the door frame so at least i can grab something defensive on the way out if it happens again. i also make sure i lock my car doors now when out and about. has it changed me? yes, a great deal and also my opinions of Thais in general. i take great care when i am out now, i am looking for situations to avoid. it has in many ways spoilt things for me and my family. in my opinion he is a bullying, cowardly scum bag who without his sword to support his miniscule manhood, would have had the battering he thoroughly deserved and then no doubt so would i, when the rest of the cowardly scum in the area joined in to defend one of there own.then what of the aftermath of a sword wielding cop on an unharmed, non agressive, non intoxicated farang in a road rage incident in a quiet backwater of Pattaya? what would the headlines have read then? how would tat have been justified, what lies would have been told to cover it up? anyway i have said my piece, its all true so fire away flamers and doubters, i am ready for you!

Timekeeper, may I make a suggestion. You've taken a lot of time out to write a reply so if you want people to read it, use paragraphs.

sorry its the first time i have told this story since it happened 6 months ago, i got so angry and worked up about, i forgot to set the grammar, apologies if it made it hard to follow. it wasn't intended

Oh for F-sake grow up.

Spend your time in sordid little alleys anywhere in the world in the heart of the " Industry " and what do you expect ?

Why perpetuate such tales when time spent in any back alley anywhere in the world will end up with the same misery.

Down town Patters attracts some of the worst examples of any colour or creed. This is not a reflection on the life you can lead in this great city. Go live in Manchester and spend your time in the alleys of Moss side. Live in Paris in the Arab quarter and make it clear you are a racist. However, choose to enjoy what this town has to offer without lowering yourself into the gutter and you will be surprised what it can offer.

you need to get out more, i seriously doubt you are qualified to comment on the likes of downtown Pattaya after choosing to live is sleepy little Pong district, the most exciting thing happening there is a round of bingo at Khun Johns.

Well I touched down in the fair patters in 1985. Been involved in punch-ups with the Frog legion, Korean Army ( tough, take my word on that one) and just about all shades in between. One day thought what the..............and headed for Pong. I love Pong. Sorry, you have been where ?

Edited to be polite.

no need to be polite, i am not used to it especially from people like yourself. i am not going to get into a pissing contest with you over who's had the most fights or with whom, i personally do not feel the need to boast about it. in my opinion fighting is the domain of those who quickly run out of intelligent dialogue to defend themselves or their beliefs and feel the need to inflict their opinion on others with violence.

i do like Pong myself, in fact i am preparing a bid on the big empty house on the hill, you know the one?

near the waterworks? if you look to your left when you are having your mince pie and tatties at Khun johns, you can see its roof on the highest point overlooking the lake. i thought i might move over into gods waiting room for a quieter life.

Good for you, I am sure you will enjoy it.

Not meant to be a pissing contest, just a reply to your dismissive post. Certainly not in any way proud of my somewhat unfortunate past, just mentioned it as you seem to think anyone out in the sticks is a gereatric with no idea about downtown problems. Where you are quite incorrect is your " people like yourself " rant, as you have no idea about myself and thankfully now I know where you are moving to.........you never will.

hardly a 'rant' you are very sensitive if you think it was.

after reading your previous contributions to the forum i know enough about you to know that you spend a lot of time golfing, you may or not be serving police officer in HK, should be employed by Pattaya City hall as a tourist marketing officer, that you know a lot about music and composing three word stories.

i do know the area of Pong well, i have a house within 1 kilometre of the lake, its a house i rent out, i may well do the same thing with the big hill house. i do not know if could stand the jolly hockey sticks, expat know alls, rose tinted glasses, holier than though ''we live by the lake'' banter in Montys, Fishermans, John's etc.

thankfully i only have to endure it when i drive holiday renters to the lake and show them whats available for their edification.

i have no doubt seen you already pontificating to the audience, carefully avoided you and took your own families motto advise (as previously posted) 'if in doubt.....get the <deleted> out

Oh for F-sake grow up.

Spend your time in sordid little alleys anywhere in the world in the heart of the " Industry " and what do you expect ?

Why perpetuate such tales when time spent in any back alley anywhere in the world will end up with the same misery.

Down town Patters attracts some of the worst examples of any colour or creed. This is not a reflection on the life you can lead in this great city. Go live in Manchester and spend your time in the alleys of Moss side. Live in Paris in the Arab quarter and make it clear you are a racist. However, choose to enjoy what this town has to offer without lowering yourself into the gutter and you will be surprised what it can offer.

just to post script this one for your accuracy, i did this grubby little alley that i was referring to in my last post a big disservice. it is in fact known as Moo 10 and is accessable by vehicles, its a government maintained thoroughfare to Third road, it is the home to list just a few, the Casino club, the Windmill a Go Go, Diamond a Go Go and a number of eating places including a long established and highly regarded Swiss restaurant. it is adjacent to The Diamond Hotel and is used by many farangs as a shortcut through to Walking Street after being dropped on Third road.

Soi Diamond is one of the longest established entertainment areas in Pattaya, the carousel bars (rotating) have been there over 20 years. so it surprises me that having been here since 1985, no doubt had a number of fights there, you did not recognise my tongue in cheek description of this very well known area of Pattaya. its not really a grubby little alley, so apologies Moo 10 off Soi Diamond.

Sorry but Soi Diamond is nowhere near 3rd road, and I was under the impression that Moo 10 was a sub-district that covered half of Pattaya (could be wrong on this one, but definitely not wrong on first point). I can post a map if you're lost.

you are right of course, i meant 2nd road and walking street. my apologies for the slip.

Oh for F-sake grow up.

Spend your time in sordid little alleys anywhere in the world in the heart of the " Industry " and what do you expect ?

Why perpetuate such tales when time spent in any back alley anywhere in the world will end up with the same misery.

Down town Patters attracts some of the worst examples of any colour or creed. This is not a reflection on the life you can lead in this great city. Go live in Manchester and spend your time in the alleys of Moss side. Live in Paris in the Arab quarter and make it clear you are a racist. However, choose to enjoy what this town has to offer without lowering yourself into the gutter and you will be surprised what it can offer.

just to post script this one for your accuracy, i did this grubby little alley that i was referring to in my last post a big disservice. it is in fact known as Moo 10 and is accessable by vehicles, its a government maintained thoroughfare to Third road, it is the home to list just a few, the Casino club, the Windmill a Go Go, Diamond a Go Go and a number of eating places including a long established and highly regarded Swiss restaurant. it is adjacent to The Diamond Hotel and is used by many farangs as a shortcut through to Walking Street after being dropped on Third road.

Soi Diamond is one of the longest established entertainment areas in Pattaya, the carousel bars (rotating) have been there over 20 years. so it surprises me that having been here since 1985, no doubt had a number of fights there, you did not recognise my tongue in cheek description of this very well known area of Pattaya. its not really a grubby little alley, so apologies Moo 10 off Soi Diamond.

Oh for F-sake grow up.

Spend your time in sordid little alleys anywhere in the world in the heart of the " Industry " and what do you expect ?

Why perpetuate such tales when time spent in any back alley anywhere in the world will end up with the same misery.

Down town Patters attracts some of the worst examples of any colour or creed. This is not a reflection on the life you can lead in this great city. Go live in Manchester and spend your time in the alleys of Moss side. Live in Paris in the Arab quarter and make it clear you are a racist. However, choose to enjoy what this town has to offer without lowering yourself into the gutter and you will be surprised what it can offer.

you need to get out more, i seriously doubt you are qualified to comment on the likes of downtown Pattaya after choosing to live is sleepy little Pong district, the most exciting thing happening there is a round of bingo at Khun Johns.

Well I touched down in the fair patters in 1985. Been involved in punch-ups with the Frog legion, Korean Army ( tough, take my word on that one) and just about all shades in between. One day thought what the..............and headed for Pong. I love Pong. Sorry, you have been where ?

Edited to be polite.

no need to be polite, i am not used to it especially from people like yourself. i am not going to get into a pissing contest with you over who's had the most fights or with whom, i personally do not feel the need to boast about it. in my opinion fighting is the domain of those who quickly run out of intelligent dialogue to defend themselves or their beliefs and feel the need to inflict their opinion on others with violence.

i do like Pong myself, in fact i am preparing a bid on the big empty house on the hill, you know the one?

near the waterworks? if you look to your left when you are having your mince pie and tatties at Khun johns, you can see its roof on the highest point overlooking the lake. i thought i might move over into gods waiting room for a quieter life.

Oh for F-sake grow up.

Spend your time in sordid little alleys anywhere in the world in the heart of the " Industry " and what do you expect ?

Why perpetuate such tales when time spent in any back alley anywhere in the world will end up with the same misery.

Down town Patters attracts some of the worst examples of any colour or creed. This is not a reflection on the life you can lead in this great city. Go live in Manchester and spend your time in the alleys of Moss side. Live in Paris in the Arab quarter and make it clear you are a racist. However, choose to enjoy what this town has to offer without lowering yourself into the gutter and you will be surprised what it can offer.

you need to get out more, i seriously doubt you are qualified to comment on the likes of downtown Pattaya after choosing to live is sleepy little Pong district, the most exciting thing happening there is a round of bingo at Khun Johns.

I haven't found Thais to be so keen to rush out and support another Thai against a farang in a fight unless the farang is clearly in the wrong or the Thai in question is a friend of theirs. If you had already beat the guy and then just kept stomping him, someone might step in.

you are entitled to believe that but i have seen it many times especially with motorbike taxi drivers. i do not think i have ever seen a thai or anyone else discussing the merits of the farangs indiscretion with the other protaganists before steaming in and giving him a good kicking. most recently this sport was viewed personally only two weeks ago in Soi Diamond when security thugs from all four corners of the Soi overwhelmed a farang, in an up until then one on one fight with a Thai and after raining blows upon him until he could no longer stand they then collectively gave the man a good kicking whilst he was unconsious. there was no way the attackers from around the Soi could possibly have known that he was involved in an incident up the grubby, smelly little alley at the side of the Diamond Hotel that leads to Third Road that some farangs seem to find an attractive drinking area. maybe the prolifertion of ladysboys is the attraction? for the record the ''security'' guards in Soi Diamond did nothing, looked on with complete indifference and offered no help to the victim at all. before anyone asks, yes i did help albeit it was too late to really do any substantial except to stop an elderly Thai man hitting the prone, unconsious and bleeding man with a bar stool. don't read too much into that, it was not hard to stop him, he was old and by then the attack was over and most of the cowards had run away back to their respective holes.

Well I am idling for weeks on 56k speed with my Maxnet Indy 1 Mbps package. It just sucks. All was good before the doubled the line speed for free.

Is CAT really an alternative. What is their English website, what are their options, and where is their office?

Thanks.

if you want to solve your Maxnet problem then change your package to Premier from Indy, its 90 bath a month extra for less published speed than Indy but its on a different server and undersubscribed. its always fast, nearly achieves its advertised speed and never presents any problems, you will be one of 10 on premier rather than one of 20 on indy. trust me , sounds daft i know but it works, if it doesn't i will pay your 90 baht upgrade!

I've spent a long tome in pattaya and have never seen a local attack a foreigner unprovoked. Every situation of violence I've seen (I"ve seen a lot) has some how been provoked been provoked by the foreigner. If you're chill, thais are chill. If your stir them up, then you've got a problem.

THAIMAN i wish you had been there the night i was attacked by a sword wielding nutter off soi buckow (soi 21) becuase in his opinion my car got too close to his car. i was pulled out of my car and threatened to be run through with a sword whilst all the time he was screaming 'you scared falang? you scared? i f**king kill you!' i managed to break away, with a minor slash wound to my forearm and manged to put a parked car between him and me. after swinging his sword around a lot and trying to skewer me over the roof of the car, he threatented me that he will get me another time, he finally ran off and drove away. this was 8-30 pm, on a saturday night, there were maybe 50 witnesses and i had not had a drink for a week. i got his car number, called the police from my mobile, with the help of a thai hairdresser from a nearby shop who spoke to them. They came to the scene, i gave them the number which was now written on my bloody forearm in a pen i snatched from a phone table outside a shop and told me to go to the police station at soi 9 who initially tried to say i was at fault, maybe i was drunk, i told them i had not had a drink in a week and i offered a piss/blood test and i insisted they look at my car outside as they accused me of maybe causing an accident so then it would have been me that made him angry. after defending off many attempts by them to turn this into my problem, i told them this guy was still out there why didn't they put an alert over the radio for him? they said had to wait for boss to say so. i said wheres the boss? they said out! i said on a saturday night? can you not call him? they said he not have mobile, i said well check the assailants car number on the computer, they said it was down for the weekend in Chonburi and they could not access it until monday. i said you are joking and taking the piss, i sensed they knew more than they were letting on. my friend who had joined me by then witnesed all this and thought it best left. he said it was clear nothing was going to happen and something was amiss. i took his advise and left. i did however make some enquiries on the monday with some friends in the know and hey guess what? he was an off duty, out on the piss cop from Siracha. the most scary part of this whole deal was just before i seized the opportunity to break away from him, he looked inside the car to see if anyone else was in there hidden behind the dark tint. i knew then this was a professional of some kind. this guy knew what he was doing, had i not broke away at the point who knows what might have happened? i now have pepper spray velcro'd to the air vent near the door frame so at least i can grab something defensive on the way out if it happens again. i also make sure i lock my car doors now when out and about. has it changed me? yes, a great deal and also my opinions of Thais in general. i take great care when i am out now, i am looking for situations to avoid. it has in many ways spoilt things for me and my family. in my opinion he is a bullying, cowardly scum bag who without his sword to support his miniscule manhood, would have had the battering he thoroughly deserved and then no doubt so would i, when the rest of the cowardly scum in the area joined in to defend one of there own.then what of the aftermath of a sword wielding cop on an unharmed, non agressive, non intoxicated farang in a road rage incident in a quiet backwater of Pattaya? what would the headlines have read then? how would tat have been justified, what lies would have been told to cover it up? anyway i have said my piece, its all true so fire away flamers and doubters, i am ready for you!