BugJackBaron

Yes folks, Villa Market in The Avenue Shopping Centre has become more compact. Gone is the

unprofitable 24 hour restaurant but most of the imports seem to still be there, albeit in a smaller space.

No great surprise I guess.

Not sure if it's still open 24 hours.

Why is this topic in the Pattaya forum?

According to recent anthropological research, calorie intake was found to be more important than exercise.

HGH can help though. My Doctor told me it's like a "gentle push", which can make a difference.

Apart from the OP's injury and discomfort, I find this a reassuringly positive story.

The driver was sympathetic, offered water and was happy to forego the fare (I could imagine it very differently)

The Russsian passengers were equally helpful and sympathetic (again, I could imagine a very different reaction)

The pharmacist was professional and helpful.

I'm surprised more baht bus accidents don't happen.

I agree with that.

Mostly.

The Russians were great.

The pharmacist lady was amazing. Maybe that's normal here the way she acted but I didn't know that before.

I had worried she would be worried about blood stains in her shop.

I don't think it would happen that way at Boots.

I'm not so sure about the driver. He was just afraid there would be a problem. He was thrilled to see me leave without further hassle. Don't be naive

It's interesting that the local I talked to about this was adamant that even with the level of injury I had, that I SHOULD have insisted on compensation from the driver, implying any local would do that AND the driver would expect it.

He basically thought I was very stupid for not making a thing of it, which is one reason I posted about this. I am hoping we all can learn more about the culture around such incidents.

Did yoiusay "the Russians were Great"

Will wonders never cease?

I trust these 4 teenagers paid careful attention to the position of important arteries and major organs when they thrust that large knife into him. In accordance with wifey's instructions, they had to handicap him and not kill him. She is not going to get much attention from a corpse, is she?

p.s. Is "attention" a euphemism for money?

Shades of Roman Polanski's "Bitter Moon".?

Area in front of Walking Street must have been packed then.

Today they started cleaning up outside Garden Plaza , so all the hookers sitting outside waiting for customers was forced to leave the area......

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Well I couldn't imagine why that is?

Old guy - young girl... you're never going to solve the disturbance that causes in other people's minds.

That's one of the good things about living in Thailand - it doesn't raise any eyebrows.

The inability to speak Thai must be bliss.

Might not raise eyebrows, but it certainly gets tongues wagging.

You hit the nail in the head - one good reason why I have absolutely no interest in learning Thai... and another good reason to live in Pattaya - speaking Thai is not necessary.

.. and besides, Thais have seen the old Farang guy - young girl thing going on for decades. It's not a big deal.

Of course it's not necessary cause all the Thais here speak great English. . Yesterday there was a Russian trying in basic English to get the right shirt size in the Lotus Discount store on Sukhimvit. The saleslady obviously didn't understand anything more than the word "big".

He walked away frustrated.

Maybe not necessary but can be quite useful at times.

Not surprised.Last time I was there I noticed many voices of people(nationality starts with K) who have no taste and will basically

be suckers for bad food. I guess the Hilton noticed and took advantage.

Are you a profesional? If you want professional proiducts like Thinkpads or a Dell U2713HD Moinitor

then there is no choice but to go to Bangkok..

I fyou just a want a big montor to watch movies on then there may be some reasonable choices here.

More ideas:

Protect ankles with a good pair of Merril workboots + tough rubber pants. . Problem, solved?

How about that

old ad on Pattaya People TV "Dogs away" - besically a high pitched whistle inaudible to us

Do they still sell these?

grammar police here:

"Group Ladyboys" shoiuld be changed to Group of Ladyboys

I'm sorry but what "great quality shops" do they have now? What I did notice is that even the bookstore has vanished from the second floor. As for the food-court well, there is a similar thing on the third floor(?) of Central Festival.

They do have that Michael Jackson "statue guy" though,

opera browser has a built in torrent downloader however Transmission in linux will leave everything else standing for download speed.

Yes, but the opera torrent client is not very good. Download speed in transmission can come at the expense of other resources so your browsing may slow to a crawl. I found Tixati best for balanced CPU use and it will be just as fast

Works on windows too.

At a wedding. Well there was a movie about that anyways...

jbrain, well i guess that maybe so, but 2 of the wifes brother in laws worked at a place where they prepare coconuts ( chopping off the hairy crap) and both of them have been laid off.

OK, so there has been some disease hitting the Puckett area coconut trees , a Google swatch shows. That was in 2011.

But our local market charged 23 Bah now and the beach side sellers 30 so I still think there has been SOME unjustified inflation on the part of many beach side sellers - a few honest ones still charge 20 or 25.

It was never any secret that Lonely Planet never liked Pattaya. So now it seems they can't even articulate why.

The book has fallen into irrelevance with the internet anyways.

They lost a good customer!

According to you, maybe not the opinion of the guy and maybe he don't care at all if you purchase it or not.

I think if you like something and the price is OK for you, buy it, if not, don't buy it, if you think the increase of a product is OK, continue to buy it, if you consider the new price too high, walked by, not up to the customer to tell a seller what price he should ask and which one he shouldn't, eventually you can tell him why you don't purchase it anymore, but the final decision is his.

At least that's my way of thinking and doing, and one can agree with it or not.

I agree with the OP. The issue is hyperinflation. At what point will YOU notice? how about a 100 baht small coconut?

I wanted to buy one at the beach and they aIsked for 30 Baht. It was 20 Baht a year ago. This is absurd unless there has been

a coconut tree pandemic. I walked away,

I've also noticed that nobody seems to be selling them any more so maybe people have just had enough and stopped buying them.

Hopefully they will lower the price as happened with chicken price hyperinflation in Argentina.

Had bad experience with Buffalo products dying myself.

Suspect you'll just have to wave bye bye.

Do you hear any crunching or clicking noises when it tries to start up?

Best bet is USB powered Seagate or Weston external HDs .

Look at the Beatles; "I SOAR a film today Oh Boy" There's no R in SAW but that's considered proper English. English is almost impossible to define.

I agree with you. How do you say the number that comes after 39? Most English speakers would pronounce it fourdee, with no hint of a T. Or the word sweet - most would say sweedt with no aspirated T as it should be correctly spoken.

English is a very bastardised language. But as to the OP's original question, he's probably best to consider using a "middle English" (dare I say Oxford English?) accent as this will more uniformly conform to written English and word/letter structure.

. The "T" in sweet is aspirated if he word is spoken alone - try it.

In the phrase " sweet bun" , the T would have the aspiration "absorbed" by the "b" in bun. This

is well-known phonetics.

Um.... I was wondering if there is any official documentation on the web that clarifies the actual process by which the baht bus system actually operates as regards ownership of vehicles, issuing of permits to operate, leases paid (for vehicle ownership to a finance company?) annual tendering process (if any), price setting, responsibility for vehicle maintenance etc? I've searched but cannot find anything. Maybe somebody knows of a Pattaya City site that I cannot see?

Because it seems to me that much of the dialogue in these threads is somewhat speculative and I suspect assumptions are being made that may be only partially correct or skewed in some way. My main reason for saying that is that transport (of any kind) requires a return on investment for the operator otherwise the operator would not be operating.

Assuming the operator is the driver, then he/she will be paying for operating costs - if we know the structure of these costs (paid to whom and for what), then we have a chance at understanding who in the chain is making what income/profit, for what risk, and for what input.

I think if we had a definitive clarification of the business process regarding the ownership/licencing structure then posters would have the opportunity to comment on facts rather than speculation.

So if anybody had documentation that explains this, we'd all be better off. or am I being naïve? (rhetorical question).

Unlikely. There was a picture on some Baht buses a few years ago that showed prices based on distance zones but that seems to have vanished in the wind. It was the only time I ever saw something written about this and even then it seemed to be only about taxi use rates.

Why not ask that knowledgeable team at Pattaya People or Pattaya One - ?

Is there a baht bus going up Thepprasit Rd to Sukhumvit ? I think I have seen them .

Yes. Limited service.

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Forget it in the early mornings., They will kick in when Tesco.Lotus on Sukimvit opens around 10 AM .l Loads of Russians will go shopping at this time.

In fact, this is something that is done in low season but only at certain times of the day. Go early morning and chances are

you can get to Central road or even farther.

If you are not sure you can always ask. In fact if you need to go up North road you would have to change anyways so it would be another 10 baht.

In contrast, Bangkok has buses that go just about everywhere for as low as 8 Baht a trip.

I agree it's annoying though.

Bistro Oscar breakfast buffet- Jomtien Complex.

Are they still open, because the link to their website does not work?

http://bistro-oscar.com/

My Avira Premium is ringing all kind of bells while trying to enter the website.

But if you mean Oscar's in Jomtien Complex.....it's still there. Fabulous BF-buffet.

For the Dutch breakfast lovers: Ons Moeder (map can be found here: http://www.ons-moeder-pattaya.nl/contact-10)

Then of course there's Papa David near the Anuman Statue with a wide variety of international breakfasts.

Of course there's a lot more on offer.

Anyone recommending Papa David has lost their credibility with me.

A place like that wouldn't last one day anywhere where there are standards.

None of the places above hold a candle to the West or even to Phucket or Chiang Mai.

I call 'em as I see 'em.

One more that follows the View talay model may be Central condos in Jomtien. The one with two lots on either side of new second road and a swimming pool in each one. Strangely, most condos are unoccupied and unsold.

Buddty of mine has been there 5 years and no complaints.

So View talay are the only reliable around ? It seems that they have finished their 8 buildings !

View Talay buildings are somewhat unique on the Pattaya property scene.

They build using their own money. They build before having sold everything. They dont use agents or pay huge commissions. They dont employ high-pressure salespeople or farangs. They dont spend a huge percentage of the build budget on marketing. They dont finish or furnish units with shiny but low-quality products bought in cheap job-lots, designed to appeal to magpies. They dont equip their buildings with ritzy air-conditioned lobbies, or provide expensive common features that few people actually want.

They do sell empty shells for buyers to finish as they wish, thus allowing for some taste, imagination and individuality in the interiors (or indeed for a complete lack of all three, but that's the price you pay for breaking the mould).

They are correct . Insects are almost pure protein. Silkworms are also consumed in Korea(bundaegi)

I kinda like em!