thaibeachlovers

i never went to the full moon party, where is the fee collected, i mean when you go to the full moon, is the boat driing you to a special location or is the fee collected at the regular pier?

The fees are collected at speedboat piers some 300m from where the party is and on the opposite side of Haad Rin penisula. The piers are mostly used for party arrivals from Samui so it's hard to say they are regular. But unless one pays the fees not only the access to the party but to Hadd Rin itslef is impossible.

Thank you for all replies. I'm sorry I missed the previous post about the same issue.

Just as I thought the fee is only for people arriving from Koh Samui. But who says that people coming from Samui don't spend the same or more at KPG businesses than people staying there? But the fairness of it and the level of it aside the way fees are being collected show the lack of respect to visitors (mostly foreigners) and ruthlessness of organisers.

It's not the point that 100THB is not much for most tourists. It's a matter of principle that they are being surrounded with bariers (entrapment) and charge money if they want to leave the arrival area. But when the tickets are sold at Samui side nobody informs about additional costs to leave the pier on the other side. This leaves a sour feel amongst the visitors and should not be allowed.

As I suggested to the English speaking Thai gentelmen at the gate maybe a better way to collect the money for beach cleaning would be by some transparent surcharge on the speedboat tickets. But I guess that would require KPG mob to talk to Samui mob which is easier said than done. And the government ... is where?

Last time I went to FMP ( few years ago ) the speedboats pulled up off the party beach and people waded ashore, and visa versa. Does that no longer happen?

To attribute low numbers to an awareness of the Thai political situation is to overlook the fact that those attracted by mass marketing etc are largely unconcerned by anything very much beyond satisfying their own immediate needs.

I agree that most people don't follow politics, per se, but they do watch TV and see, on those occasions, people camped out protesting the government, hear reports of a state of emergency being declared (maybe even hearing its lifting) and perhaps hear of the change in leadership (such as it is).

People don't have to have a clear sense of the political machinations in Myanmar, for example, to feel that it might be unsafe to go there (whether that feeling is based on fact or not is immaterial).

Having said that, I think the economy is a factor as well, although I think, "The western banking system has collapsed..." must be hyperbole by the poster.

What I wonder is this: Given that the tourist numbers seem to be smaller than last year and the year before, what is going through the minds of all the people who have put a great deal of money into new construction projects that are dependent on tourists for their survival?

I get the sense that as the earlier poster said, this "travel depression" could go on for years.

After watching with despair over the past 10 years the destruction of many once wonderful beaches for pure greed ( none more so than Chaweng ) I hope the "investors" are sh***ing bricks.

I have been to Angeles City, but I gotta say I personally like Pattaya much better. Aside from my preference of Thai women to Filipina, I found the Phillipines to be a bit run down for my taste. Sure there are some that like to go there regularly, but it is not for me. I doubt I will be returning to the Phillipines anytime soon unless one of my Filipino friends invites me.

Been thinking about going there, for some time, but put off by stories of how difficult it is to get around. Can you advise me of any web sites/ forums that give good information about life in AC please. Also, is it like Pattaya, in that you can just turn up and get an hotel, and is there a high/ low season ( I understand there are a lot less tourists visiting the Phillipines than Thailand, and AC is not really a tourist destination as such?

Thanks for any advice.

The workers laying the new pavement tiles in front of The Avenue, started from farthest away from the curb and when they reached the curb, the tiles didn't line up, so have to cut every tile to fit!

Perhaps there is some technical reason for this, but can't see it offhand, as it's just a grassy bank at the back.

Woman driving a car on Sukhumvit Rd. with a dog in her lap!

the guy on koh larn with the fluro lime green g string certainly did for me

Not to split hairs here but on a woman it's a g-string, on a guy it's a thong.

Thanks for your attention.

Not in the UK it's not. They are both for women and the difference is in the design.

2, 3, 4, 6, if it's such a boring post, why were you compelled to answer? Wouldn't it have been easier to just hit return!

Your post is critical of Pattaya yet you insist on coming here from the UK year by year .What gives ?

My post is not critical of Pattaya itself, just of the idea that certain persons would like to portray Pattaya as a TOP WORLD CLASS tourist resort, which is frankly ludicrous to anyone that has been to a real top world class tourist resort.

I myself love Pattaya, and have been coming for many many years, and hopefully will continue to visit for many years to come.

IMO the Russians saved the southern end of Walking Street. After the Walking Street first came into existence, and the cars were stopped driving through, the customers at that end of the Street ( passed where Tony's is ) dropped to near zero, but with the arrival of the Russians it is booming again.

Far from ruining Pattaya, their money and custom has probably saved a lot of businesses.

Anyway, those Russian women strolling along Walking Street are gorgeous, so very welcome.

I didn't mean Tony's, sorry. More like where Soho Square is now.

Try Big C.

The baht bus queue at the corner of Second and South Rd. Rather than passengers getting on the bus that has been waiting longest, wherever it happens to be, they have to get on the one at the back of the queue, and then all the other buses start their motors to move back. Must cause a lot of wasted fuel and wear and tear.

Sending a present that cost 500 Baht and the recipient being taxed an extra 10 Euro by the Customs Department if he/she wants to receive it.

Paying extra money for everything you buy to get it recollected and processed as garbage when it doesn't work anymore (Recupbel).

Seeing how a serial child molester (Dutroux) and his pals are escaping his guards while reading how he could escape conviction.

Seeing how a speeding drunk guy in a big Mercedes crashes my mother on the doorstep, 6 meters off the road, get back on the road and stops 100 meters further away, and in court my dead mother is declared guilty because "it was evening and she was dressed in dark clothes". Thus the judge convicts the family of the defunct to pay 120,000 Baht in damages to the Mercedes.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was talking about my own (fuc_king) country ............................

(Look at your own country before complaining about another country.

Loose translation of a well known idiom.)

If I was going to complain about my own country, I'd need about 25 hours to write about all the BS PC crap!

This post wasn't started to COMPLAIN, just to make observations about really insane things.

IMO the Russians saved the southern end of Walking Street. After the Walking Street first came into existence, and the cars were stopped driving through, the customers at that end of the Street ( passed where Tony's is ) dropped to near zero, but with the arrival of the Russians it is booming again.

Far from ruining Pattaya, their money and custom has probably saved a lot of businesses.

Anyway, those Russian women strolling along Walking Street are gorgeous, so very welcome.

2, 3, 4, 6, if it's such a boring post, why were you compelled to answer? Wouldn't it have been easier to just hit return!

Went for a stroll along 3rd Rd. from North Rd. to South Rd. and there's not much evidence of anything world class, unless an average Thai town is a top tourist destination. So all there is are a few resorts in a strip between Beach and 2nd Rd. and a broken down beach walk. Talk about trying to make a silk purse from a sow's ear!

Mind you, it was interesting to see how built up it has become, as I was here when they built it through empty scrubland. I thought at the time that it was too narrow, but it doesn't seem to be a problem at present.

Before I went out, was watching a show on telly about the Egyptian resort towns of Hurguda and Sharm el Sheik. Now those are resort towns, and I hope Pattaya never ever gets as awful as them. Huge hotels with thousands of cheap package tourists, jam packed beaches and hundreds of dive boats destroying every reef in the Red Sea.

Thanks for the help.

lalana, I've been before, on a half day tour, but it wasn't enough time to see everything. I had to miss the show just to be able to have a walk around.

Regardless of entry cost, I'd like to go back for a full day, but if possible save transport cost.

Absolutely a wonderful and magical garden. I half expected to see Alice chase the white rabbit!

Other than the all inclusive tour from the Nong Nooch office on Central Road, is there any easy way of getting to Nong Nooch Gardens for a person without transport that doesn't cost the earth.

Given that the tour includes tickets to the shows, and the departure point is in a convenient location for me to get to, is there a cheaper, and just as simple, way ( I'm not going to hire a motorbike ) of getting there. I'm assuming that the cost of hiring a baht bus, plus entrance and show fees would be about the same as the official tour.

I suppose I could catch one of the songtheaws along Sukhumvit, but it's a long walk from the main road to the gardens.

Thanks for any help. With the rapidly shrinking pound, I'm having to try and save money wherever I can.

I asked the person who told me of his experience, and he said it was a big bus from Ekamai, and that they were searched before leaving Ekamai Bus Station by the Bangkok police.

I never heard of such before, but he seems quite genuine.

Thanks for the information, especially Jim Siam.

I actually need it for a medical condition ( brought a supply, with prescription, from the UK ), but will make sure to get a prescription here if I run out.

I have been wondering about this too...but I've been wondering for the past 5 years and they still keep throwing up new condos, hotels, shophouse rows, shopping malls, and housing estates...so there must still be plenty of money in it. Of course, that's what everybody said about the (in hindsight) real estate bubbles in the US, Britain, Japan, and Spain too...until the bottoms fell out of all of them also.

And you didn't even mention the proposed huge Waterfront and South Point developments on the drawing boards for the Bali Hai pier area, the (I guess it's still around) Ocean 1 Tower in Jomtien, the next VT project wherever it might spring up, and all the other stuff we don't even know about. Is there demand now for what's already built and will there be demand for all the stuff coming down the line?

The other nite, I spent some time in the entertainment area at the top of sois 1,2 & 3...the beer bars in that area and it was a mess. I had not been down there in maybe 9 months and it was completely dead! Of course, it didn't help matters that it seems half the street frontage from sois 1-4 beachside is in the process of being torn down and rebuild as condos or what-have-you. I quickly left and came on home as the area lacked anything of interest.

This brings up the question that interests me of when the tipping point is reached that they tear down enough of the entertainment areas to build condos that the tourists that come for the nitelife don't have enough to interest them anymore and stop coming and then there is no one to sell all the newly built condos too. I wonder if we could be getting near that point?

I don't think there's any danger of that at present, as as fast as they tear down one block of bars another springs up somewhere else. More of a "danger", IMO, is that if the pound continues to sink, and the airfares continue to rise, us middle income earners just won't be able to come any more, and it'll all become up market and too expensive anyway.

There's nothing to stop them jumping on the Japanese retirement bandwagon, selling Pattaya as a retirement centre for oldies, and the BGs will all become home helps!

Actually I think my rant was kinda refreshing. Im not talking about retirement, Im not talking about tourism strength, Im not talking about the currency, I'm not talking about apartment prices, Im not talking about quality of visitors. Im simply saying, for two young guys from Bangkok, Pattaya was NO FUN, despite having a FUN reputation. If it is perenniel then the reputation should be adjusted to "FUN (so long as you visit between X and Y)". Hope this turns up in SERPS under "is pattaya really that fun".

I'm not saying its boring. Im saying it doesnt DESERVE its reputation as FUN CENTRAL.

Gottit?

p.s. In the hope of being proved wrong, I titled this thread "what did I miss". Thank you to the 0.004% of you who didnt take this thread personally and actually suggested a couple of places to visit.

I don't think anyone could just turn up in Pattaya and expect to have "fun" without a bit of serious looking around. Also depends on what you term fun. However, I guarantee that the opportunity existed for you to have "fun", you just didn't look hard enough. The first time I went to Bangkok, I didn't have fun either, but the second time I went, I did.

As for suggestions, without more of an idea of what you classify as "fun", I'd be loathe to make any.

I know you can buy Viagra over the counter at pharmacies, but is it legal without a prescription, should the police find it on you?

I was talking to a guy in the hotel who told me that his bus had been stopped by the police, on the way to Pattaya, and all single farangs taken off, luggage searched, and then fitted up for bribes.

Anyone else had this experience?

Well, enjoy your journey. I always prefer the train, too.

When you're there, make sure to visit the southern end of the beach. Songtheaws go down along the main highway from time to time, or if you're energetic, you could walk down the beach at low tide.

Have to return by dusk though, as the songtheaws stop then.

Be sure and let us know how you find the place.

Guys, can we please not discuss BGs, as the thread will just get terminated.

Another one:

The farang strolling around Walking Street in a Cheong Sam.

Visited Pattaya Park the other day, and noticed a large hotel development next door that appears to have been abandoned mid build. There is also the very large concrete building near Alcazar on Second Road ( with the Sushi restaurant on ground level ) that remains mainly empty after at least a year.

With the present very low level of tourists ( even for low season ), and the deteriorating world economy, rising air fares etc etc, are the new big developments ( Central Festival, the condo next to it, the new place currently building next to The Avenue ), and indeed The Avenue itself, destined to become "ghost buildings" like all those ones in Bangkok after the '97 crash?

There are still loads of Asian tourists ,and that demographic is increasing as far as i can tell .The building next to the Avenue is going to be a high class Hotel by the way .

If your "loads of Asian tourists" is referring to the ones that go around in huge tour buses, I have yet to see them shop anywhere other than Mike's Shopping Mall.

Just what Pattaya needs, another high class hotel!