BugJackBaron

One can only hope. Like the song went "American woman, get away from here...."

I hate all this invasion of in-your-face American modelled greed , "promotional suggestions"( we call them ads)

sickingly sacherine ads for "north point" ...

Ok I'm ranting...

Also the growing popularity of Angeles City in the Philippines, without the closing-time restrictions of Pattaya, and Subic Bay, with better seafront, and Cebu/Boracay/Palawan for family tourism - all cheaper than Patters - will not help recovery.

The only way to improve income in Pattaya is to go backwards and relax all the restrictions currently being enforced - make Fun City more fun again. I'll start a Party City Party for the nect elections.

I have been to the Philippines – Angeles City – once, back in August for one week with some friends. The first couple of days were very quiet, but after that it seemed to be buzzing for the remainder of my stay.

I have to say it was the most enjoyable week I have had in a long time.

It was such a refreshing change to get away from the petty restrictions in Pattaya, and find a place that is open for business 24/7. There are no smoking restrictions (I don't smoke but my friends do), most of the bars are run by friendly westerners who almost always buy you at least one round of drinks on the house; the bar fines are around 1,000 Baht for all night of which the girls get 50% and no need to pay any more; all the girls speak good English and you can actually have an intelligent conversation with them over breakfast; on average I would say the girls are younger, more beautiful and their bodies are in much better shape than their cousins in Pattaya – an incredibly high percentage have not had babies, and around 15% are genuine virgins. They also dress better – classier - than the Pattaya girls. Drinks are much cheaper – a beer can be as little as 30 Baht, and even ladies' drinks are quite cheap.

I found the overall atmosphere much friendlier than Pattaya, and all the mama sans and girls are absolutely charming – with each other and punters alike. The hotel staff can't do enough for you, and all speak excellent English.

Tropo may well be correct that business is down in PI too, but I have a hunch that when the disparity between Pattaya today and Angeles City today becomes more widely known, then an increasing amount of the sexpat trade will be heading out to visit the charming catholic ladies of PI rather than the bullshit Buddhist ladies of LOS.

In many ways Angeles City reminded me of Pattaya some 30 years ago, in the sense of friendliness and lack off stupid restrictions. I doubt if Pattaya is going to change much any time soon, and as a result, I suspect trade will continue to dwindle and the number of tourist related businesses will contract sharply.

Pattaya will never die, but it will probably end up as a pale shadow of its former self.

I've been wanting to go to the PI because of the good things i have heard. My only concern is my family and friends who live in Pattaya. I'm afraid I might like the PI so much that I won't come back to Pattaya. Essentially, I have two weeks holiday every four months and I work hard. When I come on holiday, I don't want to experience bar closures (for religious holidays or political elections).

My 2 satangs on Angeles and PI(pronounced closer to bye in Thai)

I was in Angeles around 2000 and found it overrated...many Philipinos - especially the lookers -

won't even talk to you unless you are an American serviceman or Japanese businessmen. You

think Thais are golddiggers? ha. (Borecai and Manila were OK)

Pattaya is a far more interesting city than Angeles.

As for Pi, I liked it but catholic ladies? More of a muslim crowd I hought. There were lots of hippy types too but the immigration changes of a couple years ago put a damper on that.

Hi there, does anyone go to these lessons?

I am arriving next week, for a five month stay and want to go there, I like the idea that for every person who pays to join the library, two underprivileged children get free membership.

I go. The students seem to come and go but, it is a congenial atmosphere and you can proceed at your own pace. 100 Bht if you're a member.

Sounds good. Some details please? Where is this library and when exactly are the lessons?

I don't have time to read this whole thread therefore I don't know if this place has been mentioned...Fatties. It's on second road and sells good burgers. I haven't had one in a while, but they were good two years ago.

Ya they had a new branch in the Villa but closed..can't say I was sorry; terrible burgers..

Maybe they were good two years ago though, there is a lot of inconsitancy in Thailand..

the Victory Executive Residence has all that

How about one for 8000-10000 baht/month?

First of all: I'm not in the Internet Cafe Business and will never do this. But how someone who owns a Internet Cafe can make any profit with a 20 Baht per hour rate, excellent connections, newest software (original because police would bring him to the justice if he use copysoftware), newest hardware, paying staff, rent, electric power, etc? Tis is a similar case when drivig a Taxi to air port for 800 Baht.

Well maybe the internet cafe is not their main business - for example it is in a hotel.

Also soi 17 is cheap.

Firefox 3 is FREE software(opensource) . It is the latest, you can download it for free.

In some ways it is better than IE.

Maybe you are thinking of the OS(windows) which is not free.

IMHO both sophon and btv are p1ss.

Sophon:3 channels of frequenly repeated <deleted> movies, always shown with a short interval half way through for pirate disc 1 to be changed to pirate disc 2..

Local news (same channels as above)of which i miss half, due to the missus asking "what happen,what happen".

Banglamung:same but with outrageous thai dubbing over the <deleted> movies and no local 'felang news'only its thai counterpart.

I do quite like the A1 channel though(when its not a repeat)

All in all they are both crap IMO.

All the more reason to get out of the house and find new s/time bars!!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thats what makes me think they are using VCD's,as they tend to be on 2 discs, for the movies not DVD's.Mostly they are totally unwatchable.

They certainly are on VCD most of the time, and what's worse is that

the VCDs are often scratched or marred thus ruining the viewing experience.

Occasionally they have good movies..(usually in the 5am slot!) - Taxi Driver

was actually shown uncut a couple of weeks ago..

Average 30 Baht an hour ,depends on connectivity for speed of downloads

On soi 17 Pattaya there is one with 20 baht an hour and

superfast connections, fast computer and all the greatest

software like firefox 3 and opera.

at the corner of the 7-11 at Soi Bau khao(sp?) and soi lenkeenwon(sp?) there are two

excellent ones , one with adsl and hdsl, 5/1 2/2 across from sutus court

at 30 baht an hour.

Unfortunately the ones in Jomtien are either overpriced(1 baht per min )

or have poor connections and software...

some moron decided to remake the emporium international food court which is a sin as it was perfect before. i am not sure what they have done exactly but the food court now appears to the eye to be much much smaller and there are individual restaurants all cramped together similar to the food court at paragon. its more like eating in a cheap food court now than it was before when you had room to spread out. the Chinese and Korean restaurants are gone.

i ordered three tacos. it might have been mind over matter but they felt significantly smaller than they were previously. it took maybe 2 and a half minutes to consume them and the tub of sour cream and salsa were not even half empty whereas i previously remember using all of both. the staff was friendly.

in the section of the paper where it says lettuce, cilantro, onion and jalapeno, unless my eyes deceived me, i didn't see jalapeno as an option and it slipped my mind as i would find out upon arriving home. perhaps it was there and i just missed it or perhaps you have to make a special request for jalapeno's now.

my slice of apple pie had a piece of a small paper towel in it.

apple pie + 3 tacos came to about 320 baht.

thanks for the report, re the sour cream, better let dotcommie know about this as I know it's high on his list of priorities vis-a-vis sunrise, that, and the fly thing. How was the paper towel? Overcooked I bet?

This is a disturbing trend..the reduction of all individual restaurants with chains and eateries....

It swept Korea in the last 5 years -hitting both foreign and local cuisine - and now is hitting here.

I hope people resist and vote with their feet..the worst of western culture seems to be making

a storm, but like all storms it will pass.

jingthing - thats the super burger mate. Try the smaller brothers and I'm sure you won't be disappointed at the Vic.

Queen Vic is OK but much better IMHO is Maggies(sp?) on the road connecting Thepprasit road just off

Thapharaya at the junction. Cook is a western woman and all the stuff has a home made feel to it.

I'm surprised noonehas mentioned this place before.

Problem is that it is open only untill 2pm and then again from 6pm to about 10. I missed it

before because of this.

They are all utter rubbish.

The absolute worst was the one near View Talay 1 who could not have made it any worse. Threw it all away. If they have moved to Soi Buakhow then ............ !!!

I've had curries in the Fishermans before but am not sure if that was just from the regular menu. Are you saying there is now a dedicated curry house next to it ? The ones at the Fishermans were edible but like packet curries back in the UK, lacking somewhat.

Indian by Nature is over sauced and trying to be too clever. Some dishes very good but others sickly.

As for the delivery services, then the restaurants themselves should be bloody well shot for the shit they send out when their in house meals are ok. The delivery services themselves are good but way way overpriced.

Don't sugar coat it, tell it as it is!

Ok for my vote for worst, try the small shack inside Jomtien complex. Rotten fish and chicken

covered in yougurt or spices.

As for an OK one - the Pakastan one mentioned before on soi Beocow near Suwasdee hotel is not bad...

I looked over a few of the usual hotels and don't see much price lowering going on. They still seem to be holding on to their concept of "high season" around November 1. These guys don't get it. They are going to get slaughtered tourist wise if they keep raising prices as usual. They need to roll out the welcome mat and keep prices right where they are in the off season.

I talked to one hote on Buddha hill; they said they will keep there room rates 800-1200.

The hotels you see on the internet are not budget or even middle level hotels but usually

high end(2000 baht + per night). I wonder if the economics

is different for them as opposed to budget and medium priced places.

Apex at 550 baht a night for example usually does not change their

price according to season.(speaking as a former Apex stayer)

The new shenanigans at jomtien is very good, it is buffet but with a chef cutting a choice of 5 meats and many veg choices,. fresh prawns for a starter if required,.we have tried many and have found this one best, so far !

I liked it the first time, the second(today) much less so. Not sure why that is but maybe it's the lack of consistancy thing so common

in Thailand. Other things: the turkey is overcooked and has no dark meat(the best part!). The roast beef

has no rare part..again the tastiest part. The pumpkin soup tasted more of milk than pumpkin.

I am putting my hope in Jameson's Irish pub with its far less hype - I have heard it's better.

Drove by today on the way to big C..it looked like  business as usual, this was around 3:00..

Yes, the cinemas at The Avenue are all alive and well. Thank goodness as I have vowed never to go to the two in the Ryal Garden again. Too many cock-ups, lousy sound, blank screens for my limited patience.

Sure but at 70 to 80 baht a movie in Royal Garden, by God, the price is right

Another thing I like is the Heiniken beer they serve there...not sure if Avenue has that..

Surprised nobody's mentioned La O'livers in Jomtien Complex. one of my favorite, and excellent value

I only tried their buffet once and was greatly disapointed. The pate was not

real pate - you could tell just by looking at it.

The rest of the stuff was just so-so.

If you are going to do a buffet at a cheap price you shoudn't try to hoodwink the customers.

On a positive note you could try the newest

restaurant in Jomtien complex run by an older Brit...

Really good with specials of

275-350 baht for three courses(take THAT Manhatten's)

I forget the name but it is besides the orange tree and across from the mini mart by the south entrance

I used to eat alot of tamarind paste when I was younger, loved the stuff.

Tamarind is good for treating flatulance it is said..

Was in the avenue today and saw that they were loading the interior from Miss Saigon into a truck.Is it just me or can you hear an echo when you walk around in the shopping area.For sure there isn't much left anymore then a couple of ex-pole dancers who have been upgraded to real estate salespersons on the ground floor.

Wondering how long it will take before it gets demolished.

Another thing I noticed yesterday as I shopped in the Villa

food market looking for rice milk..they are out of stock and have been for

weeks.

Seems like many other "specialty items" were also "temporally out of stock"

Not a good sign....

Nobody mentioned that the Philippines has better

psychic surgery!

Only been to Manila and Boracai...they were OK but woudn't want

to live there...and I didn't notice any difference in breast size from LOS

on average

I would have voted Korean.

But no option.

I loooove Korean food. I never get sick of it.

It's also healthy.

I want to vote Korean, too.

As someone who worked there for 10+ years I can only say that some of it is

healthy and some not so healthy(processed ham and canned tuna rolled with old veggies in rice).

Kim chi, though thought of as healthy by many, has its doubters even by Koreans..

Unfortunately the healthy stuff is usually expensive and ironically is often better overseas

due to the poor quality of Korean meat...( my Korean friends have meade the same comment)

A lot of these choices in general depend on how the food is prepared, quality of ingredients, etc..

Kids are getting a two week term break and planning to drive down to Krabi , anywhere notable worth stopping in between ?

The Lonely Planet is your friend....Hua Hin...so many....

I agree. Don't go....just take a 7 day break from posting and then you might wish to come back again.

I agree. Don't go. I was mulling over whether to rant a bit

over a rag tourist bronchure/magazine "beyong rayong" published from Bangkok

which is so full of grammatical and spelling mistakes that one

might wonder if it wasn't a machine translation of Thai(though I think

machines can at least spell right).

If it is aiming for English speaking tourists then it is an insult to publish

such a rag.

I'd take the MRT over the BTS anytime these days. Nice and cool, far less crowded outside peak times and just a generally all-round better vibe. The BTS is becoming increasingly intolerable. I know a few people who've moved from On Nut up to Rachada because the BTS is becoming so mental and personally I prefer the area to On Nut (just my opinion - please don't get all bent out of shape if you live in On Nut)...

Thanks for all the replies. All I know of Bangkok is just from short tourist visits so

I have no preset opinion about any area....

Hey folks. Looks like I'll be moving to Bankok in November and I would

like to find an apartment which is close to the Koh San area (or Victory monument)

with a GOOD internet connection in the room possible.

I mean ADSL or HDSL so I can get decent bittorrent speed

So shared Wi-Fi is probably out.

Is such a beast possible while spending no more than 10000 baht a month?

I don't care to be in the center of Bangkok so maybe that helps.(.. I will even consider as

far as On Nut station if no other choice...)

Sorry but for all Ali Baba supporters out there, their food is the worst I have ever tried in Thailand, despite the hype from some T.V members.

For great Pakistani/Indian/Arabic food, I recommend some of the Arab places in Arab town. Never had a bad meal and the prices are spot on. They offer several menus, you just need to tell them which of the menus you're interested in.

Had a great Indian dinner in Samui once, but cannot recall the name.

Indian By Nature, Jomtien area is expensive but atleast it tastes and looks authentic.

Cheers

I will back you up on the Ali Baba...tried it a couple of years ago...even then it was expensive for relatively

small portions and without any taste..but hey, great atmosphere if that's more important...