Good news in Pattaya / Jomtien.

[NanLaew]

... Do any of you expats sunbathe these days? In this climate hot, sunny days are dangerous. My wife got some sunburn the other day while riding around in the midday sun with a long sleeved shirt ON... and it's only February.

Not sure if there was something particularly alluring about the weather and temperature today but I saw a whole lot of farang wrinklies wandering around shirtless. Mind you, it was mid-morning around Buakhao and Lengkee and maybe that's fairly typical. I don't frequent those areas unless I am having a cheap charlie breakfast at Retox.

[tropo]

... Do any of you expats sunbathe these days? In this climate hot, sunny days are dangerous. My wife got some sunburn the other day while riding around in the midday sun with a long sleeved shirt ON... and it's only February.

Not sure if there was something particularly alluring about the weather and temperature today but I saw a whole lot of farang wrinklies wandering around shirtless. Mind you, it was mid-morning around Buakhao and Lengkee and maybe that's fairly typical. I don't frequent those areas unless I am having a cheap charlie breakfast at Retox.

That's probably how they became "wrinklies". I ruined my skin in the sun too back in the days when suntans were in vogue back in farangland and we couldn't get enough.

[NanLaew]

... Do any of you expats sunbathe these days? In this climate hot, sunny days are dangerous. My wife got some sunburn the other day while riding around in the midday sun with a long sleeved shirt ON... and it's only February.

Not sure if there was something particularly alluring about the weather and temperature today but I saw a whole lot of farang wrinklies wandering around shirtless. Mind you, it was mid-morning around Buakhao and Lengkee and maybe that's fairly typical. I don't frequent those areas unless I am having a cheap charlie breakfast at Retox.

That's probably how they became "wrinklies". I ruined my skin in the sun too back in the days when suntans were in vogue back in farangland and we couldn't get enough.

I reckon you are more of a 'leathery' as you keep yourself fit. The Buakhao wrinklies are also blessed with being mostly pale and saggy.

[shirtless]

Its good to hear someone , who appreciates the place , its not all bad if you can see the upside,

[prk888]

best news today - the OP has publicly announced he will post no more platitudes about the Wat Boon roundabout

[Rimmer]

Good news from the traffic roundabout, I drove around it today, everyone was slowing down and behaving beautifully, some even stopped in the middle of the road to read what the sign said

[onemorechang]

Not much good news about .

But yesterday went into Krungsri bank, Jomtien. ( Yellow bank )

To open a new account,

Got to say Farang friendly staff, very efficient.

No fuss, No trying to sell insurance or stuff like that.

Great job boys and girls. well done

I would recommend that branch to anyone, ( well almost anyone )

Just before beach road. on the right coming from Pattaya.

Edited March 2, 2016 by onemorechang

[NanLaew]

Good news is that there's been a visible slackening in the amount of traffic these past couple of days. There seems to be a lot less tour buses during daytime, certainly on Sukhumvit and Beach Road. Maybe they're still clogging up Pattaya's arteries after dark but it would appear that most of the masses have dissipated.

I guess Chinese New Year and Chinese Spring IS officially over.

[prk888]

many school's holidays just started

[NanLaew]

many school's holidays just started

But many others haven't but that would explain a slight drop off in traffic volume.

I left my buddies farewell bash on Soi Post Office around 9 PM to head home and there's DEFINITELY less buses about. No gridlock on Second or Third @ Klang and managed to cross over Buakhao @ Diana without having to run the motorcycle gauntlet.

Mind you, I unusually left the house for a trip to Sukhumvit @ Naklua yesterday morning at 6.45 AM and saw 5 accidents before getting back home around 8.30 AM. Mostly locals planting motorbikes into larger, more solid, moving or immovable objects.

And no buses...

[balo]

Drop-off in traffic volume? , not today , crazy traffic from soi Chaiyapruek and Suk, all the way to Naklua, traffic hardly moving. But it's Sunday so I was expecting it.

[alofthailand]

My fiber internet speed is showing 67Mbs down, good news for me but bad news for any trolls

They are a number of one post signups who are posting non descript one-liners like 'i agree', 'you're right', 'true' and so forth…don't know if these qualify as trolls or just morons….one such new member is "orma"…I'll fill the rest in as I come across them:

orma

riecon

elprid

nitpe

Laconic

[Kerryd]

Good news for me !

I had to go to Laem Chabang to collect a parcel from Customs. Had a (Thai) friend drive me there and dump me at the entrance. I expected I was going to have a frustrating 10-15 minutes before giving up and getting my friend to come in and translate for me.

To my (pleasant) surprise, despite barely 2 words of English being spoken by anyone I encountered, I was done and gone in barely 15 minutes ! One of the Security guys at the front entrance stopped eating, jumped up and escorted me (up the stairs) to the 2nd floor and pointed me towards an office. A guy in the hallway pointed me to the door I needed to go into, a guy in that office immediately pointed me to the guy I needed to see who immediately got up to help me. A couple of minutes to sort some paperwork and open the parcel (which they didn't even bother looking in), downstairs to pay the duty at the cashier, back up to drop off the receipt and bam ! Finished and heading for the door.

Perhaps the best experience I've had yet when having to deal with local bureaucracies. Far better than the 8 hours I had to spend to get a box out of Customs at Suvarnabhumi back in 2014. 8 hours (not including the trip from/back to Pattaya) and 12,000 baht to get my box of books, used clothing and knickknacks that I'd shipped via DHL.

(Though the trip to Laem Chabang was odd because that parcel was something I'd ordered through Amazon.com and for every other shipment I've had from them, they've charged me the duties up front and reimbursed me if they charged me too much. Never had to personally clear a shipment from Amazon before and I hope this isn't going to be the situation in the future.)

[onemorechang]

I would say the removal of the Mayor was good news.

Anymore good news out there ?

[Jingthing]

The baht buses are running "on time" and most drivers still accept 10 baht as the fare.

No condo jumpers today, but the night is young.

No major travel magazine or website has named (or will name ... EVER) Pattaya as the best city in the world to live in.

So we won't have to deal with the invasion of hipster POSEURS that will now descend on old Chiang Mai!

Edited July 9, 2016 by Jingthing