rleaton2

My son (1/2) is a member of the Thai Police.  Graduated from Police Academy

Ah yes remember well.....first went to Pattaya in 1967 before there was anything....only one hotel, The Nipa Lodge, and one restaurant on the beach at the north end that also rented out rooms!  

Working in Bangkok in 1966-1968,I used to spend my week-ends in a small and charming village,called Pattaya,even if the road Bangkok-Pattaya was difficult and dangerous...At that time,you were sure to find there:nature,,simple life and friendship...The three groups of people living there (local thai,foreigners working in Bangkok and American soldiers...)have one thing in common:to be very friendly open-minded and easy-going!A true paradise!

We may know each other....I was there in the same time frame working for Philco-Ford in Bangkok! We would take weekend jaunts to Pattaya (a quiet deserted beach)...Only places there were the Nipa Lodge hotel and a small motel and restaurant on the south end of the beach called the Nipa Hut! If you wanted to go to a bar there was only one....you had to ride up the hill on a dirt road to find it!

Making a great target for anyone wishing to do harm to Americans........

Houseboats in the Sai Yok National Park are worth visiting. Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum is excellent. River Kwai Hotel is old but comfortable and has a pool and decent breakfast. My wife's cousin lives in Kburi so we visit regularly.

Hellfire Pass is a must and can be combined with a visit to Erewan Waterfalls (if you plan a whole day out). Spend a few baht on hiring audio guide headphones at Hellfire Pass so you learn the story(s) behind the individual artifacts etc.

Ditto.......take the train up to Hell Fire Pass.....the landscape on the trip is spectacular! Trip is 45 minutes or so but very educational....you will travel part way on the railroad trestle built by the prisoners in WWII.

Easy solution........Charge all Thai's in Europe or the U.S. double for every event and/or government fee! No matter if they show citizenship....if they look Thai, charge them!

What was the bomber wearing.......oh, yea, it was a Yellow Shirt! Hello!

The old adage is surely true.........".a Fool and his money is soon parted"

Well, much too much to tell in a short post but will give you a little overview....I have lived in Thailand off and on for almost 50 years.....I have a Thai wife of 46 years, and still own a place in Chiang Mai......My first sojourn to Thailand was 1963 thru 1968 working for a U.S. company......like most places it was entirely different than today! Sukhumvit was not the place of nite spots as it is now.....actually the first location of small bars were a strip down New Petchburi Road. Patpong road was a strip of restaurants and some nice small clubs with singers and bands brought in from the Phillipines......the most popular singer of the day was a girl named Dulce Din. Over on what is now Patpong II were two small bars with hostess's. There were no pole-dancing places in Bangkok.

Pattaya was a beautiful curvature of beach with only one hotel....the Nipa Lodge. There was a small motel and restaurant, the Nipa Hut, on the south end of the beach. There were no bars on the beach....there was an open bar with a dirt floor located off the beach up in the woods....very primitive! The navy had a small detachment there along the center of the beach and showed outdoor movies in the evenings where you could walk in and sit on the grass to view.

I can give you more specifics if you like......but overall can say it was a much more enjoyable time and place.

Why are the Thais so paranoid over Taksin? He likes to tweak their noses and they react by going into a panic! If they would just move on he would slowly fade away!