phuketster

Esteemed ladies and gentlemen,

In a few weeks' time I will be spending 24 hours in Pattaya during a stopover. I have never visited the place before. I will be arriving around midday on a Saturday and leaving around the same time the next day. During these 24 hours I would like to experience Pattaya in all its technicolour glory. My question, then, is this: what should I do during my trip? I want to have as much fun as possible. I am not just referring to the nightlife - I'm open to all kinds of attractions and experiences. Would be grateful for your thoughts.

Thanks.

By parking illegally he positioned a large, hard, non-illuminated object on a fast-moving road. Now a young person is dead. He deserves more than a parking ticket.

I think The Pizza Company is very creative. The Italian Baked Rice is a real innovation. With that product I think they've done for risotto what they've already done for pizza. And those little detachable pizza crust bites are a world first, as far as I'm aware. Although The Pizza Company's products might not to be most Westerners' tastes, I think they deserve credit. It's clearly a very energetic company with some good people working for it.

More generally, I think Thais are doing some pretty revolutionary stuff with fast food. The Sticky Rice and Spicy Pork Burger (เบอร์เกอร์ข้าวเหนียวลาบหมู) at 7-Eleven, for example. It's a delightfully simple idea - a 'bun' made from sticky rice with a burger that tastes like laap. And it really works! The only drawback is that the rice stays hot for too long. Even ten minutes after you buy one, a Sticky Rice and Spicy Pork Burger can be too hot to eat!

There is a fantastic place in the Central Festival Phuket shopping mall. It is called 'The Pizza Company'. They are doing some really creative things with the pizza format there. For example, you can get a tom yam gung pizza or one with little weiner sausages and pineapple on top. They also do awesome crusts stuffed with cheese and weiners. It's probably a bit more pricey than the average place but I think it's worth the extra money. Most of the other places in Phuket do 'Euro' style pizza, which totally sucks.

Note the difference between the following phrases: "the world's oldest person" and "the world's oldest man".

Kama Chinen is... you guessed it! A woman.

Anyone know which clubs and hotel in Patong this article's referring to?

Great - of all the headlines they could have chosen they had to go and use this one - searches for Phuket are going to bring this one up fast because of the "Swine Flu" searches elsewhere.

If he did not get it here, he is no longer here, and there are no related cases how is this news?

Does the Gazette not get that we are in an economic downturn and we need every advantage we can to survive it - such irresponsible reporting only harms the island.

If people were being infected here for sure report it if you must but this is just an attempt at sensation journalism at its worst - only good thing to come from it is that the Gazette will probably get an increase in their hits on their website. No doubt another news story next week to say they hit XYZ number of visitors this month

There are so many nails going into the coffin wood is now the minor part

Do you believe everything the public health office tells you? Just because some guy says the Hong Kong guy definitely didn't get swine flu here, doesn't mean he's right. If he started showing symptoms while on the island, it's possible he caught it here.

Besides, the Thai authorities have an obvious interest in playing down reports of swine flu in Phuket.

The Gazette's job is to report what is of interest to its readers. If someone may have caught swine flu in Phuket, people have a right to know.

As far as I know, everyone had been drinking at the bar that night. And most of them drove home on bikes. One drunk person driving home isn't going to tell another drunk person not to do the same. Ultimately we have to take responsibility for our own decisions. Unfortunately young people (and old people) make bad decisions, and particularly so when they've had a bit to drink.

This is terribly sad. Hopefully it will serve as a reminder of what can happen to all those who drive drunk and are lucky enough to have never been in an accident.

LivingLOS has a very good point though- if there was some reasonably priced public transport on the island this kind of tragedy wouldn't happen anywhere near as often. The tuk-tuk mafia have a lot to answer for.