thaibeachlovers

Just wondering what people think regards the high season ! this is the message from the mayor in Pattaya News ....

" Halloween is just the beginning of a very High "High Season" which is expected to last for 6 months, according to the Mayor of Pattaya."

At the moment, I'd say he's dreaming. I presume he's thinking of the upmarket tourists, and not mongers.

Bars with for sale signs and NO customers.

Central Festival with only food shops busy and dozens of clothes shops devoid of customers.

The Avenue, where only the night market is doing business. Great place to go to the movies- have a whole cinema to yourself!

Most hotels only a few guests.

All those Chinese tour buses half full, if that.

Considering that he doesn't seem to have spent ANY money on maintenance since elected, and Pattaya is slowly disintegrating, he's only himself to blame. I can't imagine any "upmarket" tourist going home and telling all their friends to visit Pattaya- just the reverse.

Some may not be aware (like me) but the new VT7 has a grass covered tree lined roof with helicopter pad.

That does not look like a helipad to me. They don't normally have plastic pipes sticking up!

Just a guess, but looks more like the top of a large water tank, IMO.

Heard a rumour today (from a good Arabic-speaking source) that any Saudi wishing to visit Thailand must submit an application in writing to the Saudi Gov't requesting permission. Then apply for the Thai visa.

It's been illegal for Saudis to travel to Thailand without permission for many years. Maybe only recently enforcing the rules, but even when Saudi Airlines flew to BKK (up until about 4 years ago), a Saudi couldn't go into a SA booking office and book a flight without his permission note.

It is my understanding that saudis were stopped going to Thailand after the gem scam many years ago, when a Thai worker stole millions of $ worth of gems from a saudi prince, and the Thai police returned fake ones to saudi. Since then a few saudi diplomats were assasinated in Thailand, and the police still will not apprehend the real culprits, probably as it was the police themselves involved ( one policeman is currently in jail, but doubtless there are others still out there ).

All Thai workers were expelled from saudi, with the loss of untold revenue to Thailand, showing once again the true character of some of the higher echelons of Thai society.

I didn't know that Saudia had stopped flying to Thailand. I used to fly here with them, but no saudis were allowed off, and flew on to KL.

It had to qualify as one of the worst airlines in the world, despite unlimited money. They even censored Mrs Doubtfire, completely destroying the movie! However, as hardly anyone flew with them it was almost always possible to get a full central row to sleep on.

its an interesting question. my hunch is that most just go back to being men. certainly in ladyboy capital of the world i rarely if ever see an old bird like that.

dont they marry some guy on pattaya-chat? those guys seem to really have a nut for them birds.

honestly though - i think if they make the full transition then as pblondie said they are integrated. its the sex workers thats are the curiosity. i bet many go abroad for work as showgirls, find guys and live happily ever after.

While it is true that a "ladyboy" is technically a man who appears as a woman, for whatever reason, I presume the OP is referring to the whole spectrum of transgendered males, including those that have been taking hormone treatment for many years, and those that have had partial or full surgical treatment. In the case of the last 2 categories, they actually believe themselves to be female, and therefore would be unable to simply revert to "being men".

Actually, it is an interesting question, along with "where do old bargirls go"? Surely they can't all get married to a farang?

I once saw an "old" ladyboy selling fruit in bars around Pattaya. S/he looked rather pathetic.

hey

My friend from Germany just mailed me to say that his girlfriend has a faulty breast implant and ask where the place to go in Thailand

is.

Can somebody please suggest somewhere

Is bumingrad good, does anyone know?

thanks very much

Bumrungrad, Sukhumvit Soi 4 is very good, but not cheap. I wouldn't recomend anywhere else.

Where were the originals implanted? If in Germany, surely they guarantee the result?

Having spent some time in the store over the last few days, I have to admit it's really quite an excellent facility, especially the food court and the cinemas.

I still think it's inappropriate that it was built in Pattaya, and will probably fail eventually ( just not enough customers ), but that does not detract from it being a great place to hang out in on a rainy day.

Incidentally, despite some posts a while ago about it being in imminent danger of physical collapse, it is still very much standing tall.

A lot of people have forcast failure for this place, the owners are not listening! they are building another one in Khon Kean, where it will also be doomed, or will it? They have a lot of money, maybe they know something we dont!!!!

Maybe its Chinese money, google the south china mall, its the biggest in the world but it has no customers.

I did that, and it reassures me to know that even rich people can be stupid. Central's owners should be scared. It takes more than a zillion fashion boutiques to keep a mall open.

They should put some rides in. They could build a pretty scary "death drop" ride all the way from top of the Hilton to 1st floor! Now that'd bring in the tourists.

I no longer wear a watch or care what time it is.

That's my ambition! Love Thailand, my ambitions are so small here.

Let me answer this for you.

The guys with the hi-vis jackets are Foreign Police Volunteers attached to Pattaya Police Station, they are currently escorting US Navy and Air Force Officials around which is part of their regular duties when US Soldiers are here in Pattaya on a port visit.

They are seperate to the Foreign Tourist Police Assistants who are permanently stationed on Walking Street. We do not wear hi-vis jackets, just our regular black uniforms (which apparently scares some people on this forum).

Hope this helps.

Howard

Thanks Howard. Question answered.

PS. I don't think people are scared of the black uniforms. It's the association with certain other organisations ( from the past ) that makes me ( us ) uncomfortable. Easily solved by wearing some other colour.

<Snip>

what are they there to do that the Tourist Police Volunteers can't do?

<Snip>

Yawn ,this has been done to death already .Try to keep up .

Isn't the Op referring to something other than The Tourist Police Volunteers? ....

Thanks richard, nice to know that some people understand what they are reading.

This trip I've noticed a new addition to the ever increasing numbers of "officials" that seem to think it their duty to police Walking Street ( can anyone enlighten me as to why ONLY Walking Street has their "benefit", and not any of the other myriad bar areas of Pattaya, and why they allow so many obvious crimes ie child abuse to continue in full view of the public? )

Anyway, these new farang "officials" parade around in jackets with a large POLICE sign on their back, and a very small FPV at the bottom, whatever FPV means. Who are they? Are they Police? Do they have any Police powers? If they don't, what are they there to do that the Tourist Police Volunteers can't do? Perhaps it's time to put up a sign at the entrance to Walking Street saying who all these black shirts are, why they are there, and what they are allowed to do.

Does anyone else remember a time before Tourist Police Volunteers decided it would be a good idea to go and hang out on Walking Street? Everything seemed OK then.

Come to think of it, how many remember it before it was Walking Street, with motocys zipping up past Lucky Star barbeer and the Marine Disco open till 4 am followed by the other disco till long after dawn? Oh, those were the days!

Thought it was ironic the other day, while waiting to be served at Central Take Home, 4 staff behind the counter, only 1 serving. One of them even thought that her make up needed doing more than HER JOB!

Only that morning, saw an article on Al Jazira about the downturn in tourism, and some hawkers bemoaning that not enough tourists coming any more.

News flash, Thailand, get a grip and care about your customers, or you won't have any! Plenty of other countries willing to take our money.

Remember the adage, a satisfied customer tells 1 person, a dissatisfied one tells 10, or nowadays a LOT of people via the internet et al.

Must clarify, though. Take Home is in 2 sections, the savouries part is OK, the culprits were on the sweets and drinks counter. Even the Thai lady working at the savouries section seemed embarrassed by the slovenly attitude of the sweets counter staff.

I agree that addicts cause a huge amount of crime to pay for their drugs, which is why I have always believed that ALL drugs should be LEGAL! Yes, anyone can take whatever they like. I'm always told that I live in a free country, so why does any government lackey have the right to prevent me putting whatever I like into my own body? The worst drugs of all, alcohol and tobacco are legal, and till last century ( correct me if I'm wrong ) all the present banned drugs were legal. Remember Laudanum, and I understand COKa Cola got it's name from cocaine that was in it.

However, that is to digress, IMO, legalise all drugs. Misuse would be controlled by the same laws as for misuse of alcohol.

Sure there might be an initial increase in drug related deaths, but the population is too high anyway. I would even be happy to see addicts being GIVEN drugs on prescription, like they used to be in the UK.

Once things settled down, the police could do their job without having to deal with thousands of addict related minor crimes, and concentrate on the real crimes, like banker felony related to the destruction of millions of peoples lives in the pursuit of unlimited wealth at the expense of the average citizen, and government corruption.

The few bars that don't rip off the customers by over charging and padding the bills, have friendly girls who don't hassle customers for drinks, play good music at a sensible volume , and have staff who are not ignoring you because they are watching TV, etc are consequentially jammed packed, even in the current recession, and the rest struggle to survive.

Live and let live, and let them get on with it, I guess........

I seldom visit Patts nowadays . When I do its just to see some old friends. I used to have a favorite bar , didnt we all. The last few times I went to that bar the moment I sat down everyone would get a drink in, or starty hassling for a drink. Good old Richard is back! Within a few minutes the tab would be in four figures and by the time I was finishing my first beer some staff had ordered their second. The last time this happened and I had not agreed to buy anyone a beer I never went back. Now they watch me stroll bye and I never stop . I really dont think they get it. Pitty really .

Richard

Reckon you hit the nail.......

They really "don't get it".

Perhaps that's because all the posters above say find another bar, but never tell anyone in the offending bar why they are leaving. I on the other hand always tell the bar staff when I'm leaving why. Perhaps they take no notice, but at least I tried. I like to hang out in the Lucky Star bar on Walking Street, but a few days ago, the upstairs place over Lucky Star was so loud that there were no customers downstairs. I left after half a drink ( and no tip ), and told the Lucky Star staff why I was leaving ( yes, they did know ), and left the tout on the street for the upstairs place in no doubt what I thought about the volume of their speakers. The next day, the upstairs volume was at a reasonable level, so perhaps someone had a word!

Anyway, from now on, I take earplugs with me.

In any event, I like to use the volume as an excuse not to speak with those pesky bar staff trying to strike up a conversation with me so they can get a "lady drink", when I'm not interested.

Ever walked through the arab bar area on Marine plaza?Then you know what is loud music.I don't even talk about sitting down there but passing it from a distance of let say 25 meters can damage your hearing.

I know what you mean, but the last couple of times I walked past, they had turned it down to a reasonable level. Seemed quite un natural, somehow.

I'd say most of the staff that work there must have serious hearing damage, but that applies to many of the bars on Walking St too.

What I don't understand is how they have any patrons, as it hurts my ears just walking past!

Having spent some time in the store over the last few days, I have to admit it's really quite an excellent facility, especially the food court and the cinemas.

I still think it's inappropriate that it was built in Pattaya, and will probably fail eventually ( just not enough customers ), but that does not detract from it being a great place to hang out in on a rainy day.

Incidentally, despite some posts a while ago about it being in imminent danger of physical collapse, it is still very much standing tall.

in the basement parking garage pointing in the direction of the exit.

After watching a movie at Central that finished after the store closed, I was forced into the basement car park, and spent a good 15 minutes walking up and down before finally finding some people that could direct me to an exit.

If anyone from the store management is reading this, you need to put some signs directing pedestrians to the exit.

This might prevent any more farangs running around screaming "where is the ******* exit" to some unfortunate employees, in the future!

Khun Fart.... What makes you think they do not have dedicated training? I recall they have parachute jump training, marksman, first aid and dare say basic law enforcement knowledge and procedural training specifically geared towards the volunteer assistants.

Sure HM can comment on their training aspects?

From being a former volunteer medic in a Fire Brigade, I can tell you first hand the best experience one can get is from actual day to day incidents. No training is more valuable than experience itself.

We have some of the toughest vetting procedures in place here in Pattaya than any other volunteer group around Thailand. I am not willing to go into the finer details of the process, but I have to say that even these procedures are not full proof as detailed checks from Thailand and the members country of origin are easily obtained by us, but who knows what they may have done in another country! It is my responsibility in Pattaya to closely monitor everyone in the group and act when information is received by me concerning the actions of a member of the group which requires further investigation. I work very closely with my superior who is a Police Captain responsible for our group and ask him, as a Police Officer, to investigate when needed.

Regarding training, we are constantly being trained and retrained, not because the Police want this but because I, as the Group Leader of the Pattaya Branch want the group to know as much as possible and to be prepared for any eventuality. For example we will soon be holding a basic fire fighting course and a further self-defense course which will include instruction on restaining techniques. We don't publicise all training courses we attended because we don't need to. We are in no way accountable to anyone on chat forums or within the expat community, only to the Tourist Police who allow us to do what we do. However if anyone has a problem with a Tourist Police Volunteer/Assistant from Pattaya or anywhere around Thailand I urge you to make a formal complaint to your local Tourist Police Station. If you do have a complaint you must back up any claims with evidence.

We are in no way accountable to anyone on chat forums or within the expat community, only to the Tourist Police who allow us to do what we do.

Unbelievable! So the Pattaya Tourist Police can make up their own rules. The mind boggles. TIT.

However if anyone has a problem with a Tourist Police Volunteer/Assistant from Pattaya or anywhere around Thailand I urge you to make a formal complaint to your local Tourist Police Station. If you do have a complaint you must back up any claims with evidence.

Like the Tourist Police are going to do anything. I for one have no more faith in them, than I do the Royal Thai Police, which is to say, none at all ( King Power and Phuket jet ski scams ring any bells ).

I still say that I don't see why Walking Street should be the sole place requiring the presence of the black shirted ones. Does no trouble occur elsewhere?

This has been a really good thread.As others have mentioned one of the best to come along in a while. I can relate to almost every post in some way. As the last post mentions things have changed a lot upcountry in the villages. Our village has changed greatly including improved roads,more Farangs, not sure if that is a good thing or not. I have to say again I have no ill feelings towards these people. My times in the villages in lower Issan were not all bad and I have had some great experiences. Just like anywhere there are good and bad people. I actually became a bit respected because of my hardline position. I remember one incident where I was called "Jai Dom". I told my wife very early on if she wants to kiss her family's a$ that was up to her ,but I am not doing it. If anything they should be kissing mine. For me I realized I would never want or be able to live there permanently. I would like too but it is just not possible. One of the more interesting things is that when I was in the village and I spent a lot of time before we repatriated to the US. Was the attitude of the children,especially my wifes family sisters kids. They were the most respectful and accepting of me than anyone. Most had known me since they were born and others since they were very young. To them I was just that strange looking guy in the family.

LL

Looking back, it was so important that I made it clear to my wife very early that I would support her only. Not her daughter (23 then) or her son (25 then) or even her mother. It set everybody's expectations early. Upon entering a new relationship, all eyes are on you in terms of how generous you will be financially for everybody in the picture. Precedence is quickly set, so be careful. Especially now that I live near the MIL, sisters, and other family, I am very glad the precedence has already been set. They were surviving OK before I came on the scene, they can survive OK now. That's how I look at it.

In my case it wasn't that I didn't want to take care of other family members, I simply wasn't financially equipped to do so. Maybe if I had more resources I would feel differently, but I don't think so. Sometimes, not always, you're on a slippery slope once you start handing cash out. There are many stories of the proverbial black hole here. I remember some time ago reading a post about some farang who said he was supporting the family, extended family, even most of the (small) village. I can see how that can happen. He was probably Daddy Warbucks and money was no object, I don't know.

Wow, we are in such a similar situation.

Although I have made it clear to the beloved that my wallet opens only for her and me, it seems like she is always coming up with ideas that involve me "helping" the family with money, and it's becoming a bit of a drag. Does it ever get better?

As I'm a very private person, I'm not intending to become "involved" in village life, and I certainly can't afford to provide anything for anyone other than my GF and myself. Is this a recipie for disaster?

You will have no choice but be involved in the village dramas, gossip, weddings, funerals, noise, property intrusions, etc. In fact it is fair to say you will have little privacy at all. Between your vision of what you want, your apparent financial situation and their expectations of you ... you've got some prime ingredients in a recipe for disaster.

Totally disagree. There are a number of factors such as your wife and her persona. But a lot of it depends on you.

I mentioned before I have lived in remote villages around Thailand and now live far north. There is an element of involvement but the depth and frequency is your choice. I am in a remote spot by some of your standards. There is one farang that I know of within 10km and have never met him. If I do fine. The other villages there were usually 1 or 2 farangs but again they were private persons. One guy a Swiss was particularly reclusive. His choice. He was not liked by the locals that much.

As you are a private person, ditto, it becomes you to decide your involvement. There is an obligation for the household to paprticipate / help in certain events and work projects. My mother in law usually does that and when their is a communal work project I donate a small amount in agreement with the local "headman". No problems.

Thanks for your reply. Seems there may be hope for me yet.

As for not being liked by the locals, I can live with that if they leave me alone. It's the idea of being "obliged" to join in that I don't like.

I also have no problem helping out OCCASIONALLY, so long as it's physical and not financial. when I say I'm not well off financially, I mean it.

Just to clarify how "private" I am, I had a house back in the home country for 5 years, and other than saying hello to the neighbour when I moved in, never spoke to him again. Perhaps you might not think that a good thing, but that's my life, and I have no problem with it.

I guess I'll just have to go and see how it works out.

Anyway, thanks for all the information on this thread. I suppose the best thing would be to to discuss how I feel with the beloved and see what she thinks. After all, we could live in the city if we had to, and she'd still be close to her family.

Isn't it funny how some people never seem to outgrow that 'police are scum' mentality. I'm sure we all know that guy/girl who always got into trouble with the police, but it was never their fault. With the average age of thai visa members (103 +-) you'd think the troublemakers had grown up but aparantly not.

I have never met these tourist cops, but anyone who's willing to deal with british lager louts, hooligans, german fetishists and thai ladyboys on a daily basis deserves some respect!

The point that has been made many times, is that the TPVs ( assuming they are to whom you are referring ) have no authority to "deal" with anyone. They are purely a "liason" group to assist the police, not to do their job.

As for your first observation about the "police being scum" mentality, I've never been in trouble with them, but I wouldn't trust them an inch. Could be something to do with so many of them being pretty bad people, and not actually helping people in trouble. Without getting too far into it, in recent times in the UK they have shot an innocent man and lied to try and cover it up, raped several women, and in the latest episode of the police "soap story" refused to help a family being terrorised by feral youths so that the mother killed her daughter and herself. And why is it that when they arrest a lone middle aged man they turn up in a great gang, and are never to be seen till AFTER the crimes take place, never patrolling to prevent crimes happening?

Think its jealousy at the end of the day. Any rate before you whinge why don't you setup an appt with Howard and be an observer for the night. Of Course none of these anonymous muppets will do so for fear of being wrong.

I've spent many a night "observing" on WS; don't need to make any appointments!

As I stated before, I have no problem with TPVs that stick to assisting tourists in trouble. Problem I have with the Pattaya ones, is that they seem to think they have some sort of "powers" to do policing.

As farang "volunteers", they shouldn't be slapping anyone around, shouldn't be investigating to see if yaba is being sold from vendor carts. IMO they shouldn't be getting involved in any confrontational situation at all. The female TPVs that were on the show seemed to be doing all that they should be doing, which was helping some distressed tourist.

Perhaps that's not as exciting as being a "cop", no adrenaline rush, but that's all a TPV is supposed to do. Of course, if someone can show me written authority for a farang TPV to be laying hands on people and waving a truncheon around, I'll back off.

Personally, whenever they pass by in their black uniforms, I regard them with as being tarred with the same brush as the corrupt ones. If they want more respect, IMO, lose the uniforms.

I think much of the negativity comes from a feeling of "Us vs Them" when it comes to the Thai police (who don't exactly cover themselves in glory) that then spawns feelings that the foreign volunteers are letting "us" down by becoming one of "them". It may not be right out in the open, but I suspect it's bubbling near the surface.

I'd say you have it right.

I think you will find it is a thai driving the cranuim mobile as you put it.

Correct. There are Thai volunteers too.

I have never been able to work out why they have to drive the cranium mobile anyway. Back before they had that, if there was a requirement to transport something the police just drove a pickup down. It only takes 5 minutes to walk one end of the Street to the other.

I have frequented Walking Street since before it was a "walking street" back in the day when the discos never closed till long after sun up and the barbeers never closed, so have seen it evolve over the years. Can't understand why only it requires the presence of our "black shirt heroes" while Naklua Rd and Sois 2, 6, 7, 8, Soi Yamato, Soi Post Office, the Boystown area, Sunee Plaza and all the other myriad streets of pleasure in Pattaya are bereft of their attentions.

Incidentally, I noticed on a "trailer" for the TV programme that one of the farang TVPs was wielding a truncheon while frog marching someone along! What law allows a farang to assault anyone in Thailand? it just gets worse and worse. As if the corrupt police weren't bad enough, we now have farangs running around with truncheons to bludgeon people. Will the next thing be that they are rounding up the ladies on Beach Rd to get their "cut"?

There are TPV all over Thailand,both Thai and farang.They give a great deal of there time to help those in need.get off there backs!!!!!!~

I've no problem with those that genuinely want to help those in trouble. It's the ones that want to be "cops" that I wonder about.

An old house my ex was using as an office had a very uneven floor, so I just put a layer of concrete over the top, using wood strips to the correct level and a long piece of wood to smooth it. Worked just fine, and I was a concrete "novice" back then. Would require that you could raise the floor level though, as if the layer was too thin, it would probably break up, unless you tiled it with large tiles.

As for the bathroom, I'd say you'd really need to retile, rather than lay over the top of the old ones.

Thanks for the replies to my question ( sorry OP ). However, if that is indeed the way it is, perhaps we might need to move to my own country a lot sooner than I intended. Pity, as I was looking forward to doing some gardening.

What about the needs of your GF? What would she like to do? How would she feel about adapting to life in your home country? Also, if your funds are limited in Thailand I would hope you would have more available back home as life there would undoubtedly be considerably more expensive.

She has already agreed to move to my country, and I would never have commited to her if she did not want to. As one who has "served society" for the past 40 years ( and lost everything to the ex from hel_l ), I am not financial enough to pay indefinitely for health insurance at my age in Thailand ( previously researched on Thaivisa ), and purely for that reason must return to my land of "free health care". Were I wealthy enough, nothing would make me leave Thailand, as I have loved it more than any other country I have lived in. All this has been discussed with her in exhaustive detail ( but of course reality may change her ideas ). As for my finances, between my NHS super ( a huge £3,000 a year, not ) and the state pension, we'll just scrape through if we work.