BugJackBaron

Been there once - good place to eat but not great. Owner is very defensive even with constructive criticism (check out their TripAdvisor postings). Once advice to the owner: the expat community is what keep most business alive especially during low season.

Yes I noticed the active posting on tripadvisor. Anyway, if its true that they have dropped the forced service charge that might indicate a management that is sensitive to criticism and that's not so bad. I doubt they'll lower their price on water though! Another funny thing is their delivery charge. It is set and it is very high. Even if you live two minutes away.

But I don't consider them a ripoff. They serve good food and the prices are on the menu. Eat there or don't.

On the tourist trap charge, again they aren't trapping anyone, there are scores of restaurants in the area to choose from. In that area it may be the majority of their customers are tourists but that's just the nature of the neighborhood.

Maybe tourist trap is too strong a phrase but a lot of the restaurants in the area survive just because of their location n- on the main road and next to big hotels.

I agree that the food isn't bad and enjoyed their eggplant lasagna when they opened. But compared to many places in Bangkok and even in Pattaya, it is just not good value for money. I know the rent is expensive but there are other places nearby that must have similar rent and seem to offer better deals For example, though it is not the greatest French restaurant in the world, the French-Thai cozy diner just down the road seems to offer cheaper choices that are still filling.

Do you mean Natans? I know that is high rated on Tripadvisor for whatever that is worth but personally I am not a fan of their food and they are an open air place, obviously much cheaper rent. It is a tourist area, yes.

OK let's compare indoor places i guess there is Pig and Whistle which is just across the road, For 225 average price of daily special I always feel full and the food is not too bad.

Been there once - good place to eat but not great. Owner is very defensive even with constructive criticism (check out their TripAdvisor postings). Once advice to the owner: the expat community is what keep most business alive especially during low season.

Yes I noticed the active posting on tripadvisor. Anyway, if its true that they have dropped the forced service charge that might indicate a management that is sensitive to criticism and that's not so bad. I doubt they'll lower their price on water though! Another funny thing is their delivery charge. It is set and it is very high. Even if you live two minutes away.

But I don't consider them a ripoff. They serve good food and the prices are on the menu. Eat there or don't.

On the tourist trap charge, again they aren't trapping anyone, there are scores of restaurants in the area to choose from. In that area it may be the majority of their customers are tourists but that's just the nature of the neighborhood.

Maybe tourist trap is too strong a phrase but a lot of the restaurants in the area survive just because of their location n- on the main road and next to big hotels.

I agree that the food isn't bad and enjoyed their eggplant lasagna when they opened. But compared to many places in Bangkok and even in Pattaya, it is just not good value for money. I know the rent is expensive but there are other places nearby that must have similar rent and seem to offer better deals For example, though it is not the greatest French restaurant in the world, the French-Thai cozy diner just down the road seems to offer cheaper choices that are still filling.

Another pricey tourist trap restaurant in Jomtien.

Choice for Italian? Bangkok , Soi Beaucow (I heard there is an unnamed one that is good but hard to find)

Chiang Mai, or anywhere else than Jomtien.

32000 a month doesn't leave much if anything after the essentials and the smaller your room, the more time you'll want to spend outside. However, if you get a house, you get way more space and the air flow means much lower air con bills.

My gut feeling is that though it is possible in theory, it isn't in reality. There is nothing for medical care and it would be far better to jump on a plane and go back to the UK in reality. Long term, the baht will likely rise against the pound, leaving even less to play with and inflation in Thailand is likely to be much more than your pension increases. Eventually you cannot match the two.

Now if you could get together a million or two baht and buy your own house or condo, you insulate yourself against future rent rises.

I will second your opinion. 32000 might be OK in boring Rayong (1 hour away) where you can still get a 20 bahjt thai meal. In Pattaya just look at how many places, even in Jomtien, have jacked up their prices to absurd levels like 40 baht for kha mon gai..

And if you want the occasional night on the town or a nice fish n chps at Simon's ...well your 32000 might not be enough

I would say 45000 minimum for Pattaya and 60000 for Bangkok. I am assuming that you live in a one bed room with air con and not a shoe-box sized room.

The latest addition to Jomtien - the Rumpho bar complex - next to Jomtien Market - is an example of how overbuilding and greed

has led to a quiet bar scene. I would say at least a third of the bars are for sale and many have just been open for just

a few months. Many restaurants that were trying to charge more than 200 Baht have closed. Cheap charlies rule here and

Jomtien will never have the same market as Bangkok.

It was more active in the low season 8 months ago than now.

With a population of 91 Million the largest export from PI is labour. because of their history their English is almost perfect abeit with an American twang. Good teachers and workers in general....Considering the state of some of the UK/USA/Dutch teachers I have seen, they are nothing more than sexpats and have to teach so they can get money to stay with their latest tilak....Fillipinos however are genuinly interested in working and take pride in what they do.

With the salary they pay Fillipinos, they can't afford to be sexpats. By the way neither can most native English teachers.

I saw one Fillipino English teacher throw a hissy fit when a British colleague corrected her English.

They are NOT the same as Western teachers and , as was mentioned, make a lot of mistakes in written work.

There you go - I fed the troll

Central Festival has the best restaurants out the other malls.

Canton House for dimsums.

Zen for your Japanese.

ETE for a mid afternoon snack.

Lebanese restaurant great setting on the beach side.

Shabushi buffet if you fancy pigging yourself.

And of course of it counts, the Hilton edge restaurant either the buffet or a la carte.

I'm sorry that I tried the lunch buffet at the Hilton - tasteless overpriced crap.

Why pay starbucks prices ?,i just cant understand the logic,the best fresh coffee i have tasted here is in The food court at tesco north Pattaya 15 baht and it tastes terrific

To me it was never about the coffee but the atmosphere. What

other coffee shop in Pattaya offers Bangkok Post and let's you use a comfy chair(woah!)

to sit in for a couple of hours in a large spacious environment while reading it at 9am?

There is Au Bon Pan I suppose but not much else.

Extra extra read all about it!

The one on the corner is now gone.

Royal Garden struggles on while the one at Central Festival thrives.

Why not?

I know this post is 5 months old but, I just bought a new Dell that came with ubuntu (also has the ubuntu logo on the machine) which wanted to update as soon as I turned it on (terrific, that's what it should do!).

I installed Linux Mint 13 cinnamon Maya in a matter of minutes as that is the distro I personally prefer and I have not had any trouble whatsoever. I would recommend anyone looking for a new system have a look here http://www.techrepub...untu-linux/3793 this year anyway but do a google search to the effect of "good laptops for running Linux" before you buy.

The worst machine I bought (and returned recently) was a Toshiba, the sales person lied to me and told me it would run Mint perfectly which the floor model did because it was connected to the internet via cable however, Toshiba clearly states on their website they will not make Linux drivers for their products so, you are pretty much stuck with asking the community to make one for you. In any event the wireless did not work and the machine was a piece of junk compared to the Dell that cost 2000B less anyway.

Interesting.. I have an old Toshiba Equix (sp?) with 256 ram...

Its a complete tired old dog with the windows XP that came with it.

When I have some time I may try a light distro like arch with openbox.

Probably the wifi will be a problem but you never know.

ASUS may be another good choice for linux.

I've tried to find decent accomodation at the $200 a month level and can't find it there. But it is easy to find good quality accomodation at that price range in Thailand. The locals are also more likely to rip you off than in Thailand($2 haircut instead of $1). And the hospitals are of very low standards.

I thought about living there for a time but given the reasons above I decided Thailand was right for me.

The only reason I would live in Cambodia is if I was a nightlife addict. It's far cheaper for that sort of thing.

I'm a little confused. I was only there once in 2007 but I seem to remember only one small street on a hill(victory beach?)

that was kind of like a mini pattaya bar scene.

Is that gone too?

It's been one year since the last post.

Any updates on this? What would be a the best 3G now

for skype in the Chonburi/Pattaya area?

Is motorola Atrix 2 a good choice? OK that's a separate issue

Cheers in advance

Well I'm not quite sure what one Russian family was thinking when they all walked into the number-one-a-gogo in Jomtien last

week. They had a 13 year old boy with them. He just seemed to be embarrassed. Didi they think he would enjoy the popcorn?

Families eh?

One thing that surprised me about Mike's is that it is apparantly a Japanese

Fast food chain witha single branch in Thailand. Maybe that's why I was not so impressed.

Sam's has no ++ and gives pretty good special deals now. Good, friendly service too.

There is no such thing as an international driving license . However there is

an International Driving Permit - essentially a copy of driving information from your home country license - which may or may not be acceptable in

Thailand. For motorbike rental I never had an issue.

You can get LEGAL permits from Ko San road.(Mod take note)

Any open bar in walking street relatively quiet ?

yes, Beer Garden is.

If you get the cattle truck baht buss at the Pattaya Tai intersection and Second Road it is ten baht. If you flag one down going to to Jomtien, it is twenty baht, same price as going from Jomtien to Pattaya.

I pay ten baht when I flag one down going to Jomtien. Never would sit in a parked one on Second Road.

If I travel a long distance like from Big C North (the baht bus that takes the small soi going west) then down Beach Road and (if they continue on Pattaya Tai) further east, I usually give them 20 baht. No one has complained to me or asked for more in either situation.

It seems like rates should be raised, but they are what they are. Some still have remnants of the old rate schedule posted at the front, at least I think I've seen a few fairly recently. It's been 10 baht for ages, but in the distant past Thais often paid 5 baht.

These days I more often go with a friend in a car or on a motorbike because it's convenient, but have never had a problem with a bus driver. I would say the percentage who are "horrible people" is very, very small.

The problem with raising the rates is that there is no transfer system in Thailand(Bangkok may have one now between MRT and BTS)

so anyone going a nonlinear route, say Jomtien to Foodland, will have to pay 20 baht anyways. And 20 Baht back.

Keep in mind that in Bangkok there are buses that will go a comparable route for about 8 baht.

No problems here but I use linux. Mac OS X should be fine too.

Slight of hand it may be, but it is still quite amazing and far better than the obvious

magic rope tricks I've seen here.

These baht bus drivers have very good memories. I lived in Jomtien for a few years and refused to pay the 20 baht from Jomtien to Pattaya.

I think the drivers passed out pictures of me ( ) because they got to the point that they wouldn't stop when I tried to flag them down.

I got the message and now pay the 20

baht except from the school in Pattaya. Up to you if you like walking.

That probably just means they are working as a taxi or are off duty.

I started the thread with the intention of starting a CIVIL discussion about a demographic phenom that anyone with eyes in Pattaya and especially Jomtien can plainly see. There are REAL consequences to it and I still think it's a very legitimate areas of discussion for the Pattaya forum.

no it's not JT and i told you that months ago. it's a thinly disguised poll with an (your) agenda, meant to invite racist remarks (as this thread proves) from "holier than thou" poor boys who have no pots to piss in but try hard to compensate their frustration and inferiority complexes by hitting on a certain group.

there is no "phenomena", nothing is out of the normal! Russians come to Pattaya and spend their holidays or buy immobile property. any consequences are nobody's bloody business. neither your, nor mine or anybody else's.

and as far as "legitimate" is concerned i claim that this "poll" is clearly a violation of TV forum rules, it should be closed, made unaccessible and you should get a stern warning!

Sounds pretty reactionary to me. As expatriates we have the right to discuss any change to our environment including changing demographics.

Personally I would rather have the russians here than the xenophobic. Koreans.

Zdractvuyte Antaray and have a good time here.

Unlike the other two branches this one is not open 24 hours.

Really? I recall for a while they had a sign up saying they were going to be. I didn't see the point in that location. I was also a regular at Mr. Moo. Convenient to the market.

Well, they were closed ast night. I don't think it makes much sense for them to stay open 24 hours either as

there just aren't that many tourists or customers around,

Motorolo Atrix 2

has had good camera reviews.

Blackberry 10 sounds great but time will tell when it comes out.

On general grounds I avoid Samsung - too much cutting of QA to get cheap prices.

Unlike the other two branches this one is not open 24 hours.