MADEINHEAVEN

I also had my card "skimmed" or whatever you call it by the staff of land of smiles national carrier at the Calcutta India airport check in counter. I had extra baggage charges, that is why staff took my card into back room to process. Couple weeks later Master Card telephoned me to ask if I had purchased expensive handbags & electronics in Singapore. I had not been to Singapore or made those purchases. Master Card without a problem removed all the Singapore charges from my credit card.

1st class trains or air conditioning & durians don't go well together: Traveled Bangkok to Singapore by day trains to see the wonderful green malay archipelago. In Penang Malaysia bought 1 expensive small uncut spiky Durian. We were traveling 1st class. Several minutes out of train station the 1st class car started to really stink. We decided to take our back packs into the non-air conditioned section for rest of the trip & the foul smell went away. Craved Japanese food upon arrival in Singapore so we found restaurant. After sitting down the staff told us we had to leave our durian outside, oh.. ok... seemed weird, but no problem...staff took the bag, we ordered our food

Checked into hotel that had cold air conditioned rooms... wow.. that same terrible stink started right up as we unpacked & my wife & I laughed about our stupidity of trying to avoid the stench of 1st class train... we/the durian were the cause of that stink.

Hope their huge roof does not collapse like another one of their stores did. Did they use their own steel in the construction? Homeowners please note that you get what you pay for. Lower prices=inferior products. No return policy for ANY DEFECTIVE tools whatsoever, even if returned same day, mint condition, with receipt & without usage.

First hand experience in 1997/1998: had money here frozen. Government passed the amount owed to their government bank KTB.

KTB had my funds on their books though I had never opened an account with that bank. I could NOT remove any money for about 3 years. Yes it was frozen, but I did get it ALL back, even had small amount of interest. The worries of it all was disheartening.

Google: temperature inversion It is major contributing cause of not only Pats poor visibility but also throughout India & the much of the rest of SE Asia at this time of year. It starts every year around Dec lasting until around rainy season in April, with intermittent good visibility days.

Usually associated with subtropical high pressure areas.

Seldom happens rest of year due to low pressure weather pattern allowing trapped lower air particles to lift & not be trapped by upper air. Next time you fly somewhere during daylight look out the planes window this time of year. About 500 meters up the sky turns clear.

2nd factor is of course pollution. Walk up to top of Buddha hill most months of the year & look towards Sukhumvit. Unless windy, a long hovering trail of vehicle pollution follows Hwy 3 (Sukhumvit) from Bang Lamung down towards Jomtien.

Would also agree with others that the foul smells could originate at refineries.

A Thai doctor told me this time of year many local people throughout Thailand get respiratory difficulties due to burning of trash/grass & mold spores being released.

2014...Weather is decent with onshore/offshore winds. Beautiful island views/sunset to west. Good value price wise: Fruit is excellent being close to Thailand's fruit growing region of Chanthaburi. 100 baht for a foot massage on soi bhuakaow. New bakeries/eating places with eager newly arrived farang owners. Like the sound of wind & look of large new palm trees on beach rd. Being old is not a problem here as the public/some girls are used to it. Enjoy the diagonal shortcut walk through beautiful Wat at 2nd & pattaya tai.

First arrived in 1975 when the town had mostly German tourists, little to do then only a couple hundred damoiselles, cow path for 2nd rd. B52 bar & Simons/Marine were the only hot spots.

Got stomach sick several times from the bottled water in GLASS bottles that are "free" in some hotels in Pattaya & Bangkok. The suppliers likely have all the empty glass bottles sitting around until being refilled with filtered water. The glass bottles themselves are not steam cleaned, so the interior damp surface attracts mold, etc. Now I only buy Nestles/Singha water & keep in hotel rooms.

Hope your still operating on the dark side. Question: do your refried beans in the tacos contain lard (pig fat ) ? There are refried beans without lard available.

Another method of thieves. Pattaya building MANAGER informed residents that his opinion of thefts often happened like this: Sometimes when female or male hookers left apts/condos after doing their service, while going to elevator/stairs the thief would turn door handles to see if any were unlocked. Security monitors on floors showed this to be occurring.

This 2000 pound theft story indicated a person also was going door to door checking locks.

Bought a Apple clone iphone for 1900. From day one had small problems. After 4 months,  stopped completely.  Heard similar stories from other owners of clone phones. 

When will it end? The red core leaders do believe their broad goals justifies the means they use. It is too much too fast. Their goals could come anyway without violence though taking much more time.

Blue shirts Saturday morning at Asean meeting in Pattaya: Earlier it was discussed who some of them were (Newin or Buri Ram connected some say). The red shirts claim they only reacted to the blues first strike... some eyewitness say the blues started the violence.

Amongst the leaders of reds on their drive from Bangkok to Sin City last Friday, they likely were fearful upon hearing of who exactly composed the blue shirts. On Friday they did not have large numbers to protect themselves. They called for back up. Hundreds of taxis drove down along with buses full of red shirts. The reds preference may have been for a peaceful demonstration, however amongst them there were those that were not going to take s..t from anyone. I saw fire in eyes.

First blood occured on Buddha hill Saturday morning and when it will stop flowing is up to the CORE people pressing for their goal. Coming from a country that had it's own civil war between south and north over exploited people (slaves in southern US), I think Thais will perfect their system in ways we will continue to be puzzeled by.

Pattaya roads at 8 pm Friday. Thapraya and Pratamnak roads open going into 2nd road Pattaya. Tempeset road open both ways. Just before red shirts mass exodus from Royal Cliff saw 6 pickup trucks with redshirts stop, picking up rocks in vacant lot, some went into woodpile, came out with sticks having NAILS protruding. Saw local Thai give redshirts the middle finger.

Not want realtors want you to know: Raw untreated sewage flows down the hill into ocean through broken concrete pipes. Wooded areas have goings on you do not want to know. With the never ending roberies & assaults of foreigners there is growing concern for personal safety. While condos are more secure, apartment doors get forced open or intruders enter from side balconies. This happens all over Pattaya, the difference is Pratumnak WAS once known for being a safe zone. No longer true.