3 hours ago, soihok said:

Will be in Kata next week.

Been about 14 years since I was there.

the locals breath is about to be bated

On 3/10/2018 at 11:26 AM, phuketrichard said:

wow, been living on the Island 32 years+ never knew patong had an airport

If patong is so bad why than is it the ONLY place on the island busy12 months of the year

Wow. Patong doesn't have a Airport, and there's me thinking all the time i've been going to the island that the whole place was called patong. 

You know what i meant smart arse. 

And if you need to ask why it's the busiest place on the island all year around, then perhaps open your eyes a bit more. 

On 10/03/2018 at 11:30 AM, xylophone said:

Interesting post, esp from my part because I can see some of myself in it!

 

I've not been here 40 years, but did make my 1st journey here in 2004, then staying for a couple of months at a time until I retired here fully in 2006/2007.

 

I too get totally fed up with the greed, corruption and stupidity here and I have to admit that there have been a few times over the past year or so that I wonder if this is really the place I want to be.

 

However I don't get too depressed about it because I then try and focus on the things I like here and those, to a certain extent, that I can influence and control. For instance I have made some good friends here (and that is always comforting when you are in your 70s) and can enjoy an occasional meal or night out with them, and I do enjoy the restaurants and coffee shops, where I meet some other friends and chat away about everything and nothing.

 

I manage to help friends with odd jobs around the place, mainly electrical, and that keeps the grey matter a little active; the couple who own the apartment in which I live are great and there is a care and respect between us which I do value (I took the husband to hospital in the early hours of the morning when he was having difficulty breathing, and months later his wife offered to take me to hospital because I was feeling very poorly indeed). Again a very comforting situation which gets more appealing as one gets older.

 

I enjoy driving around Patong on my motorbike (dangerous though it can be) and especially like driving my little car to Phuket town or down to Chalong just to get out of the place and to give the car a run, not to mention doing some shopping.

 

Then there is the joy I derive from sponsoring/taking care of my ex-girlfriend's daughter who now lives next to her school in Phuket town, and when we meet up for the occasional lunch I am always overjoyed, even more so when she phones me a few times during the week to see how I am. I'm also keen to put her through university and see her come out the other end with a good qualification, and would just love to be there when she receives her diploma in whatever it is she studies.

 

I too think that no one is looking after the welfare of Patong or its inhabitants, but are just looking for ways to skim off much-needed public funds to fill their coffers.

 

In summary, yes I do despair about the place and what it has become and may well become in the future, however thinking about the good things, as mentioned above, keeps me sane and functioning, so I guess here is where I will be staying, for better or for worse, until I depart this mortal coil!

Tend to agree with this.  Always sounds a bit negative when I say this to friends (even though I don't mean it in glass half empty kind of way) but my outlook tends to be that there isn't anywhere you can live that hasn't got negatives to living there, I just try to chose the place that I dislike the least.  

 

Sure there's a load of things that drive me to distraction about Thailand (more so, and more recently, since the Killjoy Squad took over with a mindset and aspirations that are just beyond bizarre) but overall I still prefer it over the available options.  I really do like the neon-sparkly 'buzz' of the busier SE Asia locations and overall I still rate Thailand more highly than the regional competition when taking into account all the ingredients that go into the mix  to create that (the food, weather, culture, people, language, the 'craic' etc.).  

 

I still like Phuket a lot too, even Patong (though not sure I'd live there again if I went back), just decided that for me (being more of a night-owl) Bangkok is more suitable for what I need with a fantastic variety of nightlife, literally hundreds of venues in a great many styles and, generally, of a quality that I couldn't find in Phuket (not talking about the likes of Bangla, Cowboy and Nana that don't float my boat).  What I really, REALLY don't miss about Phuket though is the exorbitant taxi / Tuk Tuk monopoly, the ever growing influx of low-so type oikish yobs, PARTICULARLY the mostly obnoxious French Moroccans / Algerians  who just seem to be on a perpetual hunt for trouble (especially if they have enough of their hip-hop slim buddies with them) and the lack of variety in the nightlife (especially venues of any quality with a good atmosphere offering something different to a girlie bar or bar beer).

 

Like XP I've at times thought 'Have I had enough here now?' but when you look at the alternatives (the dullness of the European options REALLY don't appeal at all, neither do places such as Panama), Thailand still comes out on top, and even with the current situation, by quite some margin.  The PI don't appeal at all (especially the crap food and crime rate!) and while I've looked at Cambodia and Vietnam I just couldn't see myself living there.  While Thailand's infrastructure might not be 'A List' it's streets ahead of those two countries IMO.  

 

If I went back to Phuket I think I'd likely choose Karon /Kata, or more likely even Kamala, over Patong.  It's easy enough to avoid Bangla so what Patong 'is' doesn't bother me as much as the trend of who goes there now, folks that I generally don't want to be living alongside, encountering and trying to avoid on a daily basis (and while the 'kampung' PRC Chinese may display some infuriating and downright anti-social behaviour, alongside a COMPLETE lack of self -awareness, even they would not prevent me from wishing to return to Phuket, in stark contrast to the oikish yobs that send the 'F#@ktard Meter' into the red!) .  Affordable air travel certainly has some downsides! The beach definitely wouldn't figure for me with Patong though, it's not one that I'd consider good / clean enough for it to be on the 'which beach today' list.

On ‎3‎/‎1‎/‎2018 at 9:50 AM, phuketrichard said:

and this is Patong in 2004 after the tsunami hit, (just about from same spot)

Patong had a chance to make itself a world class resort and F#@ked it up...

I went there a while after the tsunami, but it was obvious that it was just going to be the same after, as before. Not enough was destroyed to make a fresh start possible.

Different in Phi Phi though. The isthmus was wiped clean, except for the concrete hotel, and they could have done something really good with the place instead of the <deleted> <deleted> that exists now.

 

Anyway, just be grateful you have a real beach, even if you can't swim in the sea. Pattaya is just as bad, but they don't even have something like a real beach to play on.