smedly

Well the import tax must be really high as everything foreign is very expensive. I know that imported things sometimes have a premium price associated with them. However I am from the USA and many of these items are also imported into the USA and much cheaper than Thailand.

These items are mostly meant for Westerners - not a lot of Thais buy them - and are imported into the U.S. in much larger quantities which might be why they are cheaper there - Just a guess.

I eat standard food, I didn't mention imported stuff and standard food covers a lot............don't be fooled by this import tax crap some would have you believe, most of what you eat here is grown or raised in Thailand excluding speciality items like campbells soup Hienze beans and the like or where you specifically choose imported meat even then it's questionable, I went for a breakfast to a place I am not going to mention the name......it was recommended as a great breakfast for 100baht, 1 sausage 1 tiny strip of bacon 1 egg, 2x toast and tea, all the items are produced in Thailand and extremely cheap except perhaps the tea bag, this was the worst breakfast I have ever had here, the owner claims he sells it at a loss........rubbish, well I'll save him money by not going back

Guys the reality is that as fewer people visit Pattaya local crime will go up, also there is a growing drug problem which requires feeding and in most cases will also be funded by criminal means. Prices have also been going up, like I have said on many posts - there should be nothing here that is more expensive than back home, local produce is very cheap and accounts for 90% of meats and Veg served to you, if you think you should be paying 300-500baht for a meal which contains chicken, pork, local beef and Veg then you are a fool.....you are being ripped off, those that can actually see this are getting more and more disgruntled, I would also say it is mostly greedy falang that are doing the ripping off, Thais are just copying where they can, add this to the growing crime rate filthy beach corrupt Auth*******ies and all of this getting worse by the month and it's not a surprise people are leaving, Pattaya/Thailand needs to hit the reset button before it's too late.

I am staying but I find myself being more observant to my suroundings than I needed to be before, where I would have walked home I now take a MB taxi etc, I also eat at home or in local cheap thai Restaurants and drink Tiger beer for less than 50baht a bottle.......my choice

food in pattaya is generally more expensive than my home in the UK, unless of course you eat Asian then it's very cheap

post you question in the thai "visa" forum

yes could be the temp in the middle east...never thought of that.............................my initial post was simple an observation and was wondering if anyone else has noticed the same, as for peeps from Iran, well I have met quite a few recently but very few over the last 8 years

why does a thread like this degrade so badly, is it a host of business owners that trash people for shopping around, if so maybe time to look at your business and not be so greedy, charge resonable prices and you might survive, we are not fooled by the price of pork chicken and local beef and veg here in thailand, they are extrmemly cheap, a chicken meal should never be 300baht, work out your cost price and double it, that would make a chicken pie about 30baht not 100 lol

maybe just me but there seems to be more visitors from the middle east and india than anywhere else, everywhere I go around pattaya they just seem to be more prevalent than any other nationality especially Iran, didn't see too many Russians

thx for that, I usually use Bell but I don't arrive until 1800 so this option sounds promissing, pity there is no timetable I can find for pattaya bus

so is that the bus station location or a bus stop, ground floor door 8

what time would the last bus to pattaya be, is it 9pm and how frequent are they before that time

why does their service stop so early, don't they realise that many flights arrive between 6-8pm, if their business is working why not extend the service....weird

Too much red tape to function here I'd say, it's about time the hais realised that outside investment is good and they should start to make it easier, I'm sure if you looked into this in detail you would find a Thai owner making it impossible to do business here through rent charges or whatever, sound familiar to all you past and present owners.

This doesnt seem to have stopped Tesco from becoming Thailands largest retailer...

doesn't mean they are making loads of anything, I'd love to see the cash flow/balance sheet, I'd say it's pretty tight, in fact I've been in the store several times recently and customers are few, maybe tesco will be next to go

Too much red tape to function here I'd say, it's about time the hais realised that outside investment is good and they should start to make it easier, I'm sure if you looked into this in detail you would find a Thai owner making it impossible to do business here through rent charges or whatever, sound familiar to all you past and present owners.

feeling the pinch

As Phil says , like everybody at this time. I have been a sponsor of Thai Visa for about four months now and thought it about time I did a little self promoting, however I wanted something with a little humour and geared up for Thai Visa members.

If it works maybe next weeks question will be "Who won last week" If it dont work the question could be "Who gave you the black eye Bert:D !"

whatever, my eye is fine thankyou and I prefer to eat and drink without the "chance" of a bargain or being ripped off, now where did I put my fishing rod....................biteing hard....oh those where the good old days when I could be greedy and get away with it lol, keep the shutters oiled you never know

hurry back..................................................

didn't read it..................................hint hint

feeling the pinch

I installed air horns on my bike, it makes people jump

I have lived in pattaya for 5 years and been coming here for 8 and I have never once had a swim in the sea either in pattaya or jomtien day or night, the water is absolutly filthy, everything here and up the coast gets flushed right in there, I have gone swimming at Larn Island where the water is a little cleaner, they test the water all over europe and in the US and rate beaches and even close them if the water is poor, do any of you think the water off pattaya and jomtien would be passed for swimming in europe ? I don't think so, Larn Island might just make it.

so does the 1 course menu include main course ?

what puzzles me about this is the fact that the current test for HIV is an antibody test, so the people that where given the vaccine should still have antibodies in their blood if they where exposed to HIV therefore prooving that the vaccine actually worked for that group if they didn;t actually contract HIV infection, maybe I've got that completely wrong. Also even as I understand it even if you had unprotected sex with an infected person 1000 times the chance of being infected is still extremely low, something like 5, this then makes these results very vague if you ask me. The type of sex makes a difference to risk also, could it be that the group that didn't recieve the vaccine where more prone to anal sex, whats the statistic for that in the overall study ? 30%

Personally I think the best solution for HIV is to test everyone and get them on medication if tested positive as effective treatment dramatically reduces the risk of an infected person passing it to another to almost zero if not zero, it's the people who don't know they are infected that pose the greatest risk to everyone and themselves if they continue without treatment, I vote for global testing and let the drug companies pay for it as they are the ones that gain.

at 3knots the tide better be moving the same direction

can anyone seriously suggest one possible use for this waste of money, I had to do a check on the date just now, making sure it wasn't 1st April

I got an SE Satio, primary reason I don't want to carry a camera and a phone around with me and I have to say the Satio is quite superb, the 12mp camera and more importantly the proper flash just makes it the best smartphone I have ever owned, it also takes smooth 30fps video has built in GPS and simply has everything I need in a single compact device, I just can't fault it, not saying anything about the HTC desire just simply my experience with the satio, tbh it was the flash that was primary in my choice to get it, it just completely removes the need for a digital camera day or night.

You need to get out more....really!

You're entitled to your opinion and you make some good points, so I'll just address this last (facetious) comment. I shop in just about every supermarket in Pattaya. There's a good chance I get around far more than you...really!

A true bargain hunter, or 24hrs a day complulsive shopper LMAO....................you are a gem

everyone to their own........I try to keep my shopping to sub 2hrs per week, 24hrs a day is excessive...get help

funny shit this

first things i priced where fruit and veg....that wa enough

as for rip off........I don't get ripped off or at least I don't hand my money over readily without some serious consideration, identifying something as a rip off and being ripped off are two different things, as usual tropo you tend to have difficulty reading actual words and making stuff up that I didn't post, i never said I got ripped off I said it was a rip off lol

do you just hand money over at the ask, tell us all your rip off stories or maybe you are a rip off merchant lol, do you always pay the ask without question ?......................I have a condo for sale 6million baht...will you buy it please he he