Guderian

The tour buses, minibuses and Baht buses don't help, but the problem is simply the sheer volume of traffic, especially at weekends and on holidays, which the roads simply were never meant to handle. Of course, the dummkopfs in City Hall don't help, look at the huge mess they've created on Thepprasit which was once easily the fastest way to get to the beach from Sukhumvit. Long-term, though, I guess they'll watch what happens with the congestion charging scheme soon to be started in Bangkok and, if that's a success, we can probably expect to see something similar here.

Ye Gods! Whose mother just died? lol These sad chaps really look like they could use a good night out on the tiles!

Have they changed the address again or is it simply down full-time? I'm trying to book an appointment online, which worked fine a year ago. Google tells me the URL is: https://chonburi.imm.police.go.th/ which looks about right though the HTML code is riddled with bugs. When I try to access the Pattaya Services section it just gives me this garbage: Is there a working URL or are they having a bad week/month/year? I have another national website address, https://www.immigration.go.th/en/#serviceonline but under the book appointment section there's no mention of Jomtien/Pattaya.Chonburi. Have our noble Immigration cops on Soi 5 given up on that handy option now?

Good news, that should see the back of the 2:00 to 5:00 no booze sales rule, a few Sangsom and Cokes with lunch will make Khru's boring afternoon drawl pass much faster! lol

They missed a chance there and should have called it the Thailand Immigration Technology System. Visitors would love the acronym, lol.

Money for nothing but the chicks ain't free! lol

Meanwhile, the TMD website says there's zero chance of rain in Pattaya for the next few days....

They're probably renting out spaces to the vendors in the Soi 9 cop shop car park, lol.

Anybody who's bought a house here using the company route will understand full well that the DBD knows exactly what's going on with foreigners and nominee Thai shareholders, all this guff about building new analytical systems is just smoke and mirrors.

Forget about the beauty nonsense, there weren't enough public toilets when it opened 18 years ago and TAT has steadfastly ignored the thousands of complains every year since then as there still aren't enough public toilets. Basic functionality always trumps aesthetics.

...and a small portion, no more than 30%, used to provide ex-gratia payments to selected politicians for services rendered to Lord Thaksin the Thai people.

That sounds like half the young blokes arriving in Thailand these days. I wonder how many of them want to 'open a restaurant' but lack the cash to do so? Thailand is just a bad story and a wasted life waiting to happen for certain people.

There's a public building on Pattaya Beach Road by Soi 9, you should try setting up camp there in the car park, I'm sure they'll give you a warm welcome.

It makes a change, I suppose, from past mayors whose interest in foreign lands mainly extended to sending food parcels and money to a famous relative on the run in Cambodia, lol.

RIP. From the report, it sounds like he was a bit mentally unbalanced as well as physically disabled. Whether he really meant to drown himself or if it was a case of him not fully understanding what was going on and it ending in tragedy is probably moot. Nobody else was involved and, indeed, it sounds like quite a few people tried to help him before he met his end.