kinyara

One other point, if you catch the 7.00 am bus from Jomtien Foodland to airport you will more than likely arrive at MBK before it opens at 10 am

You're living right next to the Jomtien bus station, I honestly think any time saving going from there to the airport, airport link + bts versus going to North Pattaya bus station to Ekkamai or earlier + bts is going to be minimal. There is no bus to Ekkamai from the Jomtien Foodmart, it's solely to the airport. I do the airport route into the center once a month and I would say it's around 2 hours 30 ish all in.

thaienquirer.com - " Thais once again have to fork out for indecisiveness of military govt "

Thailand was offered the same package by FIFA back in June for $20.8m but turned it down.

I think that will be the line taken by those seeking to lessen the recovery of tourism in Thailand.

1) The length of stay figures have been skewed by the timing of the lifting of restrictions, the long-haul and long stay market are coming back now through the coming months so that situation should improve. 2) Chinese were 28% of the market not 10%. Zero dollar tours are a small fraction of their overall demographic. Headline grabbing news stories over emphasize their significance. 3) There is no such thing as a classical tourist, Thailand attracts a diverse mix given the variety of regional offerings. It's strength lies in its diversity.

Referring to the repeating of the seasoning rules by him again, ( for the 3rd time in the thread ), do people submitting their own extensions need to be told, I certainly don't and he was addressing the point to me. Never saw any confusion from anyone on that point in the thread. He mentioned being intimidated by the reporting submission in the OP, I said it's a 2 minute walk in and out job, ( in the immigration office ), which has been my experience. No idea how long it takes people to get to Jomtien Immigration office, never said I did.

Yes, yes, yes we all know that, no need to reinvent the wheel.

Much ado about nothing, it's a 2 minute walk in walk out job even if choose to you follow it. Don't sweat the small stuff.

Yes

Thought we'd seen the back of the heavy storms but this one just now was pretty severe thunder and lightening wise.

At the top end quality wise a 20,000 Anker seems to be going for 2,400 on Central's online site, I use Anker and Aukey for powerbank, chargers and cables. Work down from there price wise if you're not fussed about top brands. You might want to consider Fortune Town at Phra Ram 9 MRT, which has good choice of tech stuff under one roof.

Repetition, points raised and addressed numerous times previously throughout the course of the thread. " Is your favourite ? " - I've always stayed on topic and written from my direct experience per the thread title. " The Russians won't be back anytime soon " was I believe what you said, see my reply above.

From your very first post you started this thread with, I quote : 1) " Is the closure of your favourite bar or restaurant imminent " - No and it didn't happen to any of mine, we've seen places make it through, reopen and the current level of new openings. The industry got battered, the weaker businesses went under but overall it survived pretty well I think given the drastic circumstances and lack of government support. 2) " Have you noticed more staff than customers lately " - Never noticed that, I think the common theme now is places are advertising for more staff to meet the rising level of customers, that says to me they downsized previously to make it through the lean period. 3) " Is your favourite bar or restaurant struggling " - No they made it through and are now enjoying the benefits of an improving situation. 4) " Can they hold out until high season ? Will there even be a high season ? - Yes they did and yes there will, look at what we are seeing now. Never in doubt for me. Weird comment about no Russians, noticeable increase where I am and as mentioned by another poster it was reported in the news the other day they were the biggest arrivals in Phuket lately.

Definately not, and the well run favourites are welcoming back the high season regulars from around the world. Pattaya is bouncing and it's only early November. Sorry Leaver you got it wrong as usual.

Lol, as if his potential customers are immune to rising inflation and increased costs.

I place importance on suitable I.D. carrying from the far more likely scenario of a potential accident/emergency situation, nothing to do with the remote possibility of a police venue raid. Even if a tourist is only here for a couple of weeks having a laminated credit card sized copy of passport I.D. page with you at all times is such a simple no brainer for any or worst case scenario. Always the final part of my annual extension renewal. Don't mind targeted police raids with solid intel, but cynical towards the reactive media showboating clampdowns that happen after an adverse event hits the headlines which lets face it tends to be the norm.

Everyone's on a budget, the goal with experience is to get the maximum enjoyment out of your own level of budget. Never understood why people automatically connect the word budget with cheap as in a lot of the posts above. As I've got older my spend seems to have naturally decreased, I wonder what the hell I used to spend my money on because I feel like my quality of life has increased.

Great atmosphere this afternoon and tonight along Jomtien Beach Road. ????

Thanks for clarifying, that's what I thought you meant. I've been based part-time/lived full-time here 20/7 years and I think I live a fairly normal balanced expat life. Central Pattaya is tourist central so I live in Jomtien, Jomtien is busy every weekend with local tourists so that's the 2 days of the week when I prefer to relax around my condo pool rather than having a 10km walk along the beachfront. I don't mind popping down for a sundowner, it's a nice vibe without the full-on zoo that is central Pattaya. The many holiday weekends when Pattaya/Naklua/Jomtien get packed are the same, the successful recipe for me enjoying a laid back lifestyle is to go out socially the day after they have all left. One of the reasons I've always enjoyed Pattaya since my first trip as a youngster 25 years ago is that you can be sat on a barstool and literally meet anyone from around the world, and because they are on holiday and enjoying themselves it's an incredibly sociable place. There is no stereotypical expat or tourist, that's why it's such an interesting and enjoyable place to live, the haters and disparagers thankfully live elsewhere and don't understand what makes Pattaya a great place to live as an expat. It's a tourist city, embrace the positives and manage the negatives same as anywhere else in the world.

Is the question asked of expats living in Pattaya or those living elsewhere in Thailand who've never been here, despise it but spend every day posting on the Pattaya section of the forum ?

If I want to find out information about a country I'll go to a forum that is that country specific. I don't know whether the rebranding has proved commercially successful but looking at the other Asean country sub-forums and lack of discussion traffic I'd say it's been a bit pointless in expanding membership.

I wish you'd seen 2.

Well on Tuesday in response to the queues at immigration a Police Chief spokesman was quoted as saying they were handling 45,000-50,000 arrivals through Suvarnabunmi immigration a day now, which is significantly less than the 2.2 million quoted by the Transport Minister in the article. 3.1 million tourists is more than they got in October 2019 and that included over 1 million Chinese and Russians. The previous month's official foreign tourist arrivals was 1.3 million which was only 45% of 2019's numbers. He has to be talking total volume of passengers landing and not foreign tourists arriving.

Exactly that is the explanation, he is the Minister for Transport so will be quoting the entire number of airport traffic supplied by AOT. The actual tourist statistics are supplied by the Ministry of Sports and Tourism at the end of the following month after they have analysed the visa status of arrivals from the immigration system. 2 entirely different numbers. For the number to be that high I suspect as mentioned there are a significant number of transit passengers being included. Numbers are improving but not by that much.