Guderian

Short-stay AirBNB tourists with their noise and lack of understanding of the local culture often make life difficult for long-term residents here, Farang and Thai alike, especially those with families. People working or going to school the next day need their sleep, not be forced to listen to some gormless tourists playing loud music at 2:00 AM. Segregating the short-stay tourists from the people who actually live here full-time makes a lot of sense.

I've been using the car wash at the Shell Station on Sukhumvit in Na Jomtien since the old days BC (that's Before Covid, lol). It's a family run business, friendly staff and good prices, cheaper than most places in Pattaya. They'll do the works, inside, outside, underneath and wax. You can while away the time in the air conditioned Delicafe right by the car wash, with toilets next door. Before them I used the Easy Car Wash place on Thepprasit Soi 17, starting from when it first opened on the other side of the road. They did a good job too but were more expensive than Na Jomtien and, after moving across to the current premises, they never took less than an hour so I found it quicker and more fun just to drive down to Na Jomtien. They've recently taken over the small garden centre next door to give them easier access and more parking, it was a very cramped place. The GF, on the the hand, swears by the car wash in the Rattanakorn market on Thepprasit, but it's a bit more expensive than Na Jomtien and nothing like as nice. Then you've also got the long-established car wash on the north side of Thepprasit near the Sukhumvit junction and a new one has opened up on Third Road across from the new Arcadia Millennium Condo. I've not used either of them, the one near the Suk junction also had a one-hour wait when I stuck my nose in a few times years ago even though it didn't look busy. There's loads of them around the place, another one I haven't tried is near the Flybird condo on Soi Regional Land, it also looks busy and cramped though, just find one that suits you and does what you want at a price that suits your pocket. We really are spoilt for choice.

That's been my experience too, in that big shop on Thappraya and the smaller one on Sukhumvit not far from Lotus when he had it. Even when they claimed the bread was freshly baked it tasted stale to me. For sliced bread it's the Continental (and Villa also stocks their loaves); for soft rolls I like the Italian rolls and finger rolls from Siamburi's; and for crusty bread I usually get a Tabatiere loaf (unlike anything I ever had in France, lol, but good value and nice bread all the same) at 49 Baht or a baguette from Lotus. Big C has good bread too, but with the traffic on South Pattaya Road (the closest branch to my house) it's a pain to get back home from.

That works out at an average of 17.77 million Baht per offence. They must be some seriously large companies to be able to pay out fines of that size, not Ivan Ruskieovich acting alone as an illegal tour guide in Samui, or Joe Sixpack owning a 5 million Baht house via a Thai company.

I've asked my Relationship Manager in Barclays if they're still sending out monthly statements and she confirmed that they are. It's something going amiss at this end, unless Jersey Post are dumping them in the English Channel, lol. For several years I've been suspicious because, quite often when mail arrived here, I suddenly received a wad of half a dozen envelopes, as if one of the Sorting Offices here had been sitting on them. Maybe there's half a dozen bank statements somewhere in the Banglamung SO which will be delivered at the same time in months to come, who knows?

It's not only here, either.... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14792443/Two-boys-four-dead-e-scooter-fire-housing-block-France.html

This is obviously fake news unless they show us the pictures! lol

I come from one of the poorer parts of the UK (South Wales) and beer's been that price and above in the nicer pubs since before Covid, nothing new there.

You're lucky that you're getting anything. Barclays in Jersey sends me a bank statement every month, but historically only around two-thirds of then have ever arrived here. So far this year, I've received just a single statement, and precious little other mail from anywhere. The Thai authorities are trying to digitise everything faster than makes sense given their limited IT abilities, and I guess they're not doing much to nurture the paper mail delivery service. Mind you, it's not only at this end there are problems. My brother recently used the Royal Mail track and trace service to send a jiffy bag with birthday cards for me. It got to the Langley HWDC within 20 hours of posting and then just sat there for the next two weeks with no updates at all. Then there was an update saying the item is leaving the UK, and four days later it arrived at Lak Si in Bangkok. It eventually arrived here in Pattaya at noon on my birthday, so all's well that ends well, but given that the service cost north of £12 it wasn't exactly a great performance. Then, of course, there are the well-documented problems with postnl delivering proof of life forms for the DWP to Thailand. A few years ago they were taking over four months to reach here so a lot of people were finding their pension payments suspended as they hadn't received the form. I wish all these idiots would just use e-mail or a secure web portal and abandon paper mail.

Why would a bunch of Cambodian, Burmese and Karen youths want to attack Walking Street, that makes no sense??? It's more likely they were preparing for a confrontation with another gang of (probably Thai) youths who stayed hidden when the RTP put in an appearance. Or maybe they informed the RTP that the other gang would be by the pier?

If the SRT allowed booze on its trains then they might both have got drunk and been sleeping soundly instead of annoying and assaulting each other.

Uncle Xi in Beijing pays no attention to the ICJ (and most other international bodies unless it suits him or he's bought them off, like the WHO), so why should his children?

Maybe I'm overly cautious, but I've never transferred more than about one million Baht at a time into Thailand in the last two decades, just in case something goes wrong with the transfer. I know the remitting bank is supposed to indemnify you, but I've had enough bad experiences with officialdom here and back at home over the years that I don't trust any of them. For small £1,000 living expenses transfers I use Wise, but for large amounts like £20K it's often cheaper to use my Barclays UK account as there's no transfer fee. I get a slightly poorer exchange rate from SCB here than I'd get from Wise, but avoid their own fee (maybe £140 on £20K). If you time it right then using the bank is cheaper than using Wise, but only for large sums.

Every day for weeks there seems to be a morning cop checkpoint on Suk, heading south only, just before the Huay Yai flyover. I've been delayed by this thing five times now, but never once have I seen them actually pull a car over or check driving licences or whatever else they should be doing. It's a bit late in the day for drink driving checks, and they disband it at noon anyway so wouldn't catch the types who enjoy a few bottles of Chang with their Corn Flakes. Does anyone know what they're doing exactly?

The 8-storey height in Pattaya is to do with EIA rules. Eight floors and less, there's no need to carry out an expensive EIA which might kybosh the whole project, or at least lead to lots of bribes having to be paid to get around it. Above 8 floors and the EIA is mandatory, and the developer will be expected to make a significant contribution to the local infrastructure (e.g. pay for new drains), and there's a good chance they'll get stuck with the green rooftop nonsense, which is why you often see 20- or 30-storey towers with scraggy, wind-blasted palm trees waving about on the roof, lol. It's why the building trend in many places like Jomtien these days is either 8 floors or 50, there's not much point in the in-between sizes.

@Crossy did you never try the Bolt Shop on Thepprasit? More choice than you'll ever see online, nuts and bolts and loads of other building and DIY connectors, the mom & pop owners speak reasonable English and will measure up any samples you bring to find exactly the right choice. One of my favourite shops in all of Thailand!

I bought one from Lazada last year, about 2,500 Baht and it looked very comfortable in the photos. It arrived from China and turned out to be a complete piece of excrement. Very cheaply made, plastic instead of fabric, and the wrong colour. Thank Buddha for that last one as it gave me the excuse to return it and get a full refund. I'll never buy a chair again online, you really need to see them in person and try them out before buying.

Everything's going to be fine. They've given the cops a nice, humble wai, so a 500 Baht fine and a warning not to be naughty again and they'll be off.

What amazes me is that this guy isn't in the next cell in The Hague to Duterte.

If you've got a reasonably modern infotainment system in your car then you can always go to the radio station live website on your phone: https://alwayspattaya.com/radiochannel/fabulous-103-fm/ and play it on your car's speakers. As 103 FM has a limited range, when I'm driving further away than Nong Nuch or Laem Chabang that's what I usually do. Of course, you can play almost any radio station that way, but I find keeping up with the Pattaya news and the same old music as always is kind of comforting when I'm driving in Isaan or Surat Thani.

103 FM was very much on the air between 11:00 and 13:00 today when I was driving around the area.

The village where I've lived for the last 14 years has had a number of foreign Chairmen of the HOA. I know them all well and none of them has ever had a work permit simply to act as Chairman of the HOA. One of them, though, did like to do various jobs around the village himself, partly for exercise, but he was advised by several owners and, I think, the Juristic Person, that he should not do things like painting or gardening in the public spaces as they do require a work permit.

We all know what he means.... lol

I haven't tried it since the times BC (Before Covid, lol), but using 004 instead of 001 as the international access code gave a cheaper rate with AIS 1-2-Call. The downside was that the call quality was poorer. Someone told me it still works, so it may be worth a try?

It sounds like half of Pattaya attended this long meeting, presumably including some people with actual powers to sort things out, yet nothing happened. Why? Was it a case of the officials seeing who could come up with the best offer, but none of it was enough for them, Thai officialdom at its finest?