Patong - The Wake

[NamKangMan]

On 11/6/2017 at 11:12 PM, LivinginKata said:

 

I guess I don't think like a bean counter. All I wanted was my initial capital cost back just to recover what I spent. After that it was all gravy. Given how long ago we built I can tell you we got our money back more than 3 times in Patong. Kata a bit tougher as it was a really expensive land buy (3 plots) and we only built on one. But in 11 years we got our money back and we lived free. Plus we have 2 very desirable plots that would more than cover our total initial outlay if we wanted to sell.

 

Years ago I assumed we would sell out in my golden years and really cash in.  Clearly that idea went out of the window 5 years ago.  Also no way my wife would actual hand over her Chanote titles. Just telling the truth. Just 2 years ago I had a serious offer for one of our buildings of 12 full scale homes (21 bedrooms) and the price was fair. Thought about it, no idea what we would do with that much money, prefered the regular monthly rental income and something to do each day. We passed on the offer. Often when I service customer issues I prefer not to think about that offer. 

 

Just last week my wife came to me telling me a 'new business' group wanted to lease an entire building (14 homes = 20 bedrooms) for 3 years. That appeals to her as she keeps the land and building. I never took the the enquiry seriously as no hard money was discussed. Looked like just a property management outfit fronting for volume charter tours. My wife was dreaming of major key money/up front 3 year payment. They were just full of promises of a small up front payment - good bye  ... see you. 

 

In summary ... a free hold owner can always sell .... at fire sale prices.  We don't need too sell that badly and we are still making a good income.  

  

 

 

 

"Also no way my wife would actual hand over her Chanote titles." - is this for investment reasons, or sentimental reasons?

 

We all know how Thai's love land, even if it is unproductive, but does she understand property is cyclable.

 

Is she at all concerned about the rapid change taking place on Phuket?

 

"We don't need too sell that badly and we are still making a good income." - I understand that.  I never suggested you were "in the hole."  I basically asked, "If you wanted to sell, do you think you could, at a price you thought was a fair market price, considering there is so much property on the market now?"

 

As previously mentioned, I can not really comment on your land, I was more commenting on existing structures.   

  

 

[xylophone]

Whilst we are on the subject of property/land, a few observations, followed by those after a night out on Bangla just recently………..

 

FINALLY the white shop house type apartments which fronted the north end of Beach Road are being demolished and it looks like they are being replaced by a Sheraton Four Points hotel! Rumour had it that the owner wanted such a high price for that property that no one was prepared to pay it, however perhaps the wealthy Marriot group have seen a fit for their hotel in that spot.

 

There are new apartments going in alongside of the “Senses” in Nanai road, owned by Prab by all accounts, and they look to be catering for the wealthier tourists. There also seems to be some movement on the bare land at the back of Jungceylon and opposite the B-Quik building, although I have no idea what is going on at that particular spot. However behind the B-Quik building there are some more roller blind shop units being built, this within a stones throw of the other ones which were completed a few months ago and of which around 50% are empty – – go figure?

 

It would appear that Patong Bay Hill resort is still popular with Chinese investors although I doubt that these would be the same lo-so types whom I saw filling up their shopping trolleys with cheap and nasty rubbish just yesterday.

 

And therein lies the Enigma which is Patong…….a mishmash of cheap guesthouses and small hotels, constantly struggling to keep their heads above water, interspersed with a few top-class hotels. Yet quite where these wealthier tourists go is a mystery because all I ever see around the place are cheap Chinese and more and more Russians, although the Aussies are making a comeback with their black singlets and tattoos.

 

If you’re interested in buying a condo for investment here, well I’ve seen them advertised for 2.9 million baht, off the plan, and ready in 2018, and for that you get a full 28 m²!

 

Out on Bangla last Friday and one would be forgiven for thinking that high season was here, although I’ve never thought it really started until December. Having said that there was a fair number of different nationalities I encountered, those being more Russians than I’ve seen in a long, long time, quite a few Brits, more Aussies than of late, a few Kiwis and an attractive bunch of German girls. Now two tall good looking Russian guys were trying to chat them up, but these girls would have nothing to do with them and the poor guys were mystified as to why, and were even asking me and a friend what else they could do to get these girls talking to them, saying that they were nice guys and not like many other “angry Russians” that were about the place! All to no avail as the girls completely ignored them and left, leaving around  7 untouched vodkas on the counter!

 

Bangla was humming and even Soi Freedom had more than its normal share of punters in it, with my friends bar at the very end, next to the band, having around 20 patrons all enjoying the music, and of course making my bar owner friend a happy man. That was until the ladyboys came on at 11:30 PM, and as always happens the customers drift away during this frilly costumed, lip syncing, silicone and cockless display, so when the band resumes playing just after midnight, they play to just a few remaining customers and this makes my friend unhappy as it almost always happens this way, depriving him of custom, and there’s not much he can do about it.

 

As has been the case for some time now, the bars with bands in were doing the best business and at 1:30 AM the queue outside of Illuzion snaked along Bangla, so I doubt if the place was going to close at 2 AM. Indeed a friends bar just down the road had been open until 5 AM the two previous nights, so a closing time/curfew of any description was not in place and it just goes to show that Patong is a law unto itself.

 

Perhaps we should promote another one of our TV members, DrDave, to be our restaurant critic because he picked out Backside Bistro quite a long time ago when it first opened and it has been gaining in popularity since it moved locations and just the other night on the way out to Bangla, it was just about packed out.

 

However things haven’t changed for the newly opened cluster of bars further south, because on the way home at about 2 AM, it still had its two musicians strumming away, but this time there was one customer in attendance, which was one more than there has been every other time I’ve gone past.

 

 

[billythehat]

On 13/11/2017 at 1:31 AM, xylophone said:

Whilst we are on the subject of property/land, a few observations, followed by those after a night out on Bangla just recently………..

 

FINALLY the white shop house type apartments which fronted the north end of Beach Road are being demolished and it looks like they are being replaced by a Sheraton Four Points hotel! Rumour had it that the owner wanted such a high price for that property that no one was prepared to pay it, however perhaps the wealthy Marriot group have seen a fit for their hotel in that spot.

 

There are new apartments going in alongside of the “Senses” in Nanai road, owned by Prab by all accounts, and they look to be catering for the wealthier tourists. There also seems to be some movement on the bare land at the back of Jungceylon and opposite the B-Quik building, although I have no idea what is going on at that particular spot. However behind the B-Quik building there are some more roller blind shop units being built, this within a stones throw of the other ones which were completed a few months ago and of which around 50% are empty – – go figure?

 

It would appear that Patong Bay Hill resort is still popular with Chinese investors although I doubt that these would be the same lo-so types whom I saw filling up their shopping trolleys with cheap and nasty rubbish just yesterday.

 

And therein lies the Enigma which is Patong…….a mishmash of cheap guesthouses and small hotels, constantly struggling to keep their heads above water, interspersed with a few top-class hotels. Yet quite where these wealthier tourists go is a mystery because all I ever see around the place are cheap Chinese and more and more Russians, although the Aussies are making a comeback with their black singlets and tattoos.

 

If you’re interested in buying a condo for investment here, well I’ve seen them advertised for 2.9 million baht, off the plan, and ready in 2018, and for that you get a full 28 m²!

 

Out on Bangla last Friday and one would be forgiven for thinking that high season was here, although I’ve never thought it really started until December. Having said that there was a fair number of different nationalities I encountered, those being more Russians than I’ve seen in a long, long time, quite a few Brits, more Aussies than of late, a few Kiwis and an attractive bunch of German girls. Now two tall good looking Russian guys were trying to chat them up, but these girls would have nothing to do with them and the poor guys were mystified as to why, and were even asking me and a friend what else they could do to get these girls talking to them, saying that they were nice guys and not like many other “angry Russians” that were about the place! All to no avail as the girls completely ignored them and left, leaving around  7 untouched vodkas on the counter!

 

Bangla was humming and even Soi Freedom had more than its normal share of punters in it, with my friends bar at the very end, next to the band, having around 20 patrons all enjoying the music, and of course making my bar owner friend a happy man. That was until the ladyboys came on at 11:30 PM, and as always happens the customers drift away during this frilly costumed, lip syncing, silicone and cockless display, so when the band resumes playing just after midnight, they play to just a few remaining customers and this makes my friend unhappy as it almost always happens this way, depriving him of custom, and there’s not much he can do about it.

 

As has been the case for some time now, the bars with bands in were doing the best business and at 1:30 AM the queue outside of Illuzion snaked along Bangla, so I doubt if the place was going to close at 2 AM. Indeed a friends bar just down the road had been open until 5 AM the two previous nights, so a closing time/curfew of any description was not in place and it just goes to show that Patong is a law unto itself.

 

Perhaps we should promote another one of our TV members, DrDave, to be our restaurant critic because he picked out Backside Bistro quite a long time ago when it first opened and it has been gaining in popularity since it moved locations and just the other night on the way out to Bangla, it was just about packed out.

 

However things haven’t changed for the newly opened cluster of bars further south, because on the way home at about 2 AM, it still had its two musicians strumming away, but this time there was one customer in attendance, which was one more than there has been every other time I’ve gone past.

 

 

Keep the reports coming XP; well balanced and informative reading. 

 

I’ve heard good reports about the Backside restaurant and intend to check it out when I’m over next month. It’ll be good to grab some good chow for a change instead of the mostly dire eateries currently available.

[LaoPo]

OK, let me bite about PATONG BEACH...

 

Back in 1979 it was the first time, coming down from Patong Hill, when my eyes fell in love with the sight of a calm beautiful and serene beach, surrounded by palmtrees as far as the eyes could see.

 

My friend and I booked into the only hotel along the stretch, The Patong Beach Hotel, which was almost empty, maybe 3 or 4 other guests. It was not more than a 3*** hotel with a poor swimming pool and nothing else but the rooms were clean and the beds OK.

 

When we walked along the beach a few hours later, in the dark, we heard several times our names in a strange Thai sound (our first time in Thailand!) , something like "Hello Khun J. ----- Hello Khun J." (our first names start both with a "J"...)

How on earth did they know our names?

 

NOBODY knew we were there and internet and phones, let alone mobile phones were not available on Patong and the ONLY phone along the entire beach in these days was the radio-phone from the Patong Beach Hotel which we both used just 1 time to call back home that we were safe but no more since it was quite expensive and "home" didn't understand WHY we said: "OVER" all the time and kept talking when they shouldn't 

 

It was pure paradise and the next morning we went to the beach where we found some small deckchairs made for small Thai people but not for us, Farang; each set of 2 chairs were put some 20-30 meters apart in just a single row with a small parasol in-between the chairs.

 

The beach was almost empty with on the total stretch along the beach maybe 30-50 tourists like us.

Bangla road was already there with some smal restaurants and bars but not much special although there were already some "girlie" bars but little did we know back then about girlie bars and the system and most of them were ugly girls BTW, not very special.

 

After 2 nights we moved to the more exciting (but simple) Patong Beach Bungalows where we each booked a small bungalow ON the beach with each of us our "own" private palmtree where we could park our motorbike, is that fun or what?  

What an experience, what a life what an excitement, coming from a cold winter country in Europe.

 

I've been back for quite a number of years, including with the family and kids but after 5 or 6 years, returning from a business trip to Bangkok and Hong Kong, coming down from the same Patong Hill, I got the shock my life....it was SO CRAZY BUSY and Patong Beach was "raped' forever by the tourist- and sex-circus industry and "my" Patong Beach was totally destroyed and I never returned and doubt if I ever will.

 

Who would have known that our bungalows (including us) would not have made it when the tsunami arrived, on Christmas Boxing Day in 2004, early in the morning when we would still have been asleep....? I suppose we can call ourselves very lucky that it didn't happen back then in the late '70's and early '80's

 

Sorry guys.....but I call it "poor Patong Beach" as happened with many places in Thailand which are also destroyed by the greed of mainly Thai investors, eager to make more money and building more concrete for pleasure and businesses and hotels/guest houses.

When I came to Thailand for the first time there were less than 1 million tourists coming to Thailand and most of them day-tourists from Malaysia, going to the Bangkok of the South: Hatyai for sex.

And now..? around 30 million or so?

 

Well, sometimes it's better to cherish dreams.... but I can't understand, with my experience in 1979, that tourists nowadays "like" Patong Beach, factually an enormous sex- and entertainment circus, but not a dream.

 

But, OK, everyone is not the same and that's a good thing.

I prefer quiet places but they're harder to find nowadays.

 

 

 

 

[Old Croc]

I didn't know you were posting again LaoPo. Welcome back to the forum!

 

I may be wrong, but I seem to recall you had some old photos of Patong?

If so, I'm sure many would love to see them.

[LaoPo]

1 hour ago, Old Croc said:

I didn't know you were posting again LaoPo. Welcome back to the forum!

 

I may be wrong, but I seem to recall you had some old photos of Patong?

If so, I'm sure many would love to see them.

 

  Nice to see you too again Old Croc!

 

Yes, I do have nice old photos of Patong Beach in the old days, including the never finished concrete submarine  (True!) but unfortunately they're stored on a different computer back home and I'm traveling now so it will be some time before I can retrieve them but I'm sure they must be stored somewhere on TV also; the big question is:...where?

Let me think about it how to find them again, OK?

 

 

 

[LaoPo]

2 hours ago, Old Croc said:

I didn't know you were posting again LaoPo. Welcome back to the forum!

 

I may be wrong, but I seem to recall you had some old photos of Patong?

If so, I'm sure many would love to see them.

 

Hi Croc.....I found a photo of the Concrete Submarine, built on Patong Beach, but this is not my own photo; I have different ones but better something than nothing and the photo is on post #3 of the first page in this link:

 

 

If I find more pics, I'll let you know, OK?

 

Now, do behave Croc  without me being around;

 

Q: are you in Phuket now?

 

 

 

[schlog]

Nice read this old topic. Made me laughing and remind about old storys. PhuketRichard was spot on about Brian and the rest. Bruno was Austrian and died 2-3 years ago back in Austria. Maybe i'm lucky my 2 best friends of the old days still here and alive. Keep rocking!

 

[Old Croc]

13 hours ago, LaoPo said:

 

Hi Croc.....I found a photo of the Concrete Submarine, built on Patong Beach, but this is not my own photo; I have different ones but better something than nothing and the photo is on post #3 of the first page in this link:

If I find more pics, I'll let you know, OK?

Now, do behave Croc  without me being around;

Q: are you in Phuket now?

Always behaving LP.

I've been living in Phuket since mid 2010. I have a place in Chalong.

If you're ever this way PM me.

TT

[LaoPo]

4 hours ago, schlog said:

Nice read this old topic. Made me laughing and remind about old storys. PhuketRichard was spot on about Brian and the rest. Bruno was Austrian and died 2-3 years ago back in Austria. Maybe i'm lucky my 2 best friends of the old days still here and alive. Keep rocking!

 

 

Thanks for the photo....memories aaahhhhhh  any idea when this was? I guess early '80s ?

[LaoPo]

1 hour ago, Old Croc said:

Always behaving LP.

I've been living in Phuket since mid 2010. I have a place in Chalong.

If you're ever this way PM me.

TT

 

Good to hear Croc and a wise decision and good location I suppose and still close enough if you want to visit the Patong circus 

I will certainly PM you when my brain says: "go visit Phuket again you old fart"  but I'm not sure if the heart will take it....seeing Phuket nowadays? But who knows?

[KarenBravo]

I can see the Expat bar sign, so, it has to be 1986, or later.

[schlog]

40 minutes ago, KarenBravo said:

I can see the Expat bar sign, so, it has to be 1986, or later.

Yup you correct. It was 1987.

[sebastion]

Yup you correct. It was 1987.

So basically they wrecked the place in a decade.
I came in 1999 and was a city.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

[LivinginKata]

10 minutes ago, sebastion said:

So basically they wrecked the place in a decade.
I came in 1999 and was a city.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk
 

 

More like 20+ years. I arrived 1996 and it was well on the way down back then ..

[phuketrichard]

moved down from Pattaya in 85, it was paradise  (which was a nice place to eat and drink  :-) ) thru the 80's

Over here in Kamala and having traveled extensively  in SE asia, it still is

Just spent 2 weeks in Bali, Phuket wins hands down!!

[sebastion]

 
More like 20+ years. I arrived 1996 and it was well on the way down back then ..

I just going by that photo of Bangla Rd from 1987. I came 12 years later and it is basically what it is now. A dump.



Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

[xylophone]

As the song goes, "take paradise and put up a parking lot".

 

But then was it really paradise or just a place where there were some bars and available girls, but nowhere near as many as now, and where the infrastructure was practically non-existent therefore being "quaint" (having said that the current infrastructure is pitiful) making it seem like some sort of out of the way "paradise"? Debates like this will always exist.

 

Whatever it is now, it is still attracting tourists, although quite how many is open for discussion and based on different stats, especially those put out by TAT.

 

Certainly the last two times out in Bangla have seen more than in previous months so perhaps the long-awaited "high season" has started, albeit in fits and starts.

 

What has amazed me is the spread of the tourists (i.e. from where) and just the other night I met more from Slovenia, Romania, USA, the UK, Kuwait, Russia and a few from the Netherlands, not to mention the usual smattering of Aussies.

 

Of course the Chinese are still here as witnessed by the queues outside of the cheap and cheerful No. 6 Restaurant in Rat-Thid-Road (surely high-class tourists don't queue for 80 baht plates of rice, do they?) and those still frequenting the likes of Big C and drowning out any meaningful conversation in the large Starbucks store, not to mention gobbing on the floor inside Jungceylon.

 

Perhaps they are responsible for the slight lift in sales in Big C for this last month over the previous year, however if one's sales targets are set by virtue of the numbers which come from TAT and expected to descend upon Patong, then it's no wonder that despite a slight uplift in sales, targets are not being achieved overall.

 

The ground opposite the back of Jungceylon and the B-Quik store is still being cleared and made ready for something, but quite what I don't know – – some more ferreting required!

 

The roadworks at the junction of Soi Banzaan and Nanai have progressed and moved along a few metres, but the progression is painfully slow and peering into the large hole one afternoon (reminds me of the joke, "a large hole has appeared in Nanai road and workmen are said to be looking into it") I saw what the initial problem was.

 

At the back of the row of shops, cafes and offices where the junction is there has been building over the years, going up the hill and I have seen torrents of water gushing from the hill, carrying with them sand, mud and silt in vast quantities, and once I was standing at the doorway of one of the offices and watched as the water gushed down some sort of small klong style gully and into the drain. In no time at all the drain was absolutely solid to the top with that silt and the road quickly flooded, and this was all in a matter of minutes rather than hours, given though that there had been a few previous downpours.

 

Once the flooding had abated, the large truck with the suction proboscis would come along and suck out the silt, although leaving a lot of the silt and mud on the road. Then the water hose truck would come along and wash this mud and silt........back into the drains!

 

Anyway looking into that drainpipe which was slowly being demolished and replaced, I could see it was absolutely solid with mud, sand and silt, so that it was no wonder the road flooded as the rain had nowhere to go. Having said that surely something needs to be done about all of this muck that was being washed down, because I'm sure the sand was not a natural part of the environment, but quite possibly came from efforts to build various places over time, even being placed on driveways et cetera.

 

Wherever it came from, surely there has to be a better way to contain/divert this clogging muck – – time to get the planners and engineers brains into gear; oops, what have I said?

 

And finally for anyone who has shoes, whether they be formal type shoes or casual or even running shoes, there is a guy who will fix just about anything, and he operates out of a shop just south of where Montes restaurant was, and the shop is called "Mr Repair". I took a pair of my K-Swisse tennis shoes along, as they occasionally get used, because the front soles had started to come adrift, and he fixed them for 150 baht and they look sturdy enough, however the next time out will be the test!

 

[LaoPo]

1 hour ago, xylophone said:

As the song goes, "take paradise and put up a parking lot".

 

But then was it really paradise

 

Yes, it was PARADISE xylophone, and not about girlie bars and we didn't even have time to spend many hours behind a computer screen, typing about the experiences we had in paradise...simply because there were NO computers, no internet, no mobiles, just friendly and kind people, both local and Farang tourists  

 

We experienced and explored all the small paths and backroads on our motorbikes all over Phuket to small and larges beaches where NOBODY was, saw the pineapple plantations and no tourists around whatsoever and for instance Kamala beach was a deserted place with 2 or 3 locals, washing for pewter, driving through small villages where children ran towards us full of joy and greeted us with enthusiasm...yes, it was paradise.

Pity you never experienced Phuket paradise but concentrate yourself to the circus, changing and building daily, more greed more money; what a disaster.

 

I wonder why you spend so many hours behind your screen just writing about your present experiences in Phuket? 

You just criticise and generalising Chinese and other nationalities and I wonder what do they do to you to disturb you?

Do you have exclusivity to Patong beach and Phuket?  

Is their behaviour "not done" and is Farang behaviour the only way or have you forgotten that more than 60% of Thai inbound tourism is Asian and Farang nationalities are in a far minority ?

 

Life is short xylophone...very short; just go out and enjoy yourself and block yourself from that computer, it's too addictive and will poison your life, your mind; I know....been there done that and minimise myself to the computer nowadays.

 

Out now 

 

 

[xylophone]

I'm sure you mean well by your post LaoPo, so I will take it as constructive, however there are some things which seem to pass by your understanding.

 

I am also sure there are many other expats here who are my age, who can say exactly the same about their places of birth or places they have visited, and how they used to explore this and explore that, and saw the beauty of the native and untouched forests, beaches and so on, as you have about Phuket, so what you describe is nothing new to many of us older folks.

 

As I have travelled widely and worked in many different countries, including some very wild and yet "beautiful" places in Africa, I really don't need anything else to open my eyes to what places have been, and what they have become, because it's all too clear to see, which is what I basically write about. And agree with you about Patong/Phuket......a disaster.

 

As for my sitting behind a keyboard, well I may pose the same question to a writer – – why do you spend so much time writing, or to a footballer, why do you spend so much time kicking a ball about? You see it is what I like to do, as do the others I have mentioned, so no big deal really because I like it and I like observing people, things, change.

 

I think you'll find my main criticism is for the Chinese, and then again I only write what I see and whereas you may think it's okay for them to snot their noses out in the likes of shopping centres and also cut their toenails and feet on the tables of restaurants, but I don't. In fact I think it's disgusting behaviour and I have said so.

 

I certainly don't have exclusivity to Patong beach or Phuket nor have I ever suggested I have, and all I do is to write things as I see them, and a few folks on here seem to like my observations!

 

I'm not particularly over enamoured with the nightlife, although I do find its vibrancy somewhat stimulating, however I will only go out between once and twice a week and then mostly to eat and catch up with friends.

 

As for getting out more, well as I said, I've worked in Africa at the end of a war and been somewhat involved with it, the same in another country in Africa after a revolution; been lined up against a wall by soldiers carrying rifles and also had a very large loaded pistol put to my head by an angry soldier; worked offshore Norway where the temperature dropped to about -20 C and ice froze on the side of the oil rig, tilting it seawards which was quite alarming, and visited all of the countries I have ever wanted to see...........anyway I could probably write a book about my exploits, not all of them dangerous, many of them exciting and many pleasurable.

 

Now of course I spend my time on the Internet talking to folks I know, writing about wine, and discussing things in general, as you have seen with my posts on here. I also enjoy socialising, experimenting with cooking new dishes, helping friends with their electrical problems, exploring the island and other Asian countries, and so on. I also take care of and support a Thai family, which gives me great satisfaction.

 

Quote: Life is short xylophone...very short; just go out and enjoy yourself.

 

 I have been doing just that for almost 70 years, but thank you for the tip LaoPo.

[KarenBravo]

5 hours ago, LaoPo said:

 

Yes, it was PARADISE xylophone, and not about girlie bars and we didn't even have time to spend many hours behind a computer screen, typing about the experiences we had in paradise...simply because there were NO computers, no internet, no mobiles, just friendly and kind people, both local and Farang tourists  

 

We experienced and explored all the small paths and backroads on our motorbikes all over Phuket to small and larges beaches where NOBODY was, saw the pineapple plantations and no tourists around whatsoever and for instance Kamala beach was a deserted place with 2 or 3 locals, washing for pewter, driving through small villages where children ran towards us full of joy and greeted us with enthusiasm...yes, it was paradise.

Pity you never experienced Phuket paradise but concentrate yourself to the circus, changing and building daily, more greed more money; what a disaster.

 

I wonder why you spend so many hours behind your screen just writing about your present experiences in Phuket? 

You just criticise and generalising Chinese and other nationalities and I wonder what do they do to you to disturb you?

Do you have exclusivity to Patong beach and Phuket?  

Is their behaviour "not done" and is Farang behaviour the only way or have you forgotten that more than 60% of Thai inbound tourism is Asian and Farang nationalities are in a far minority ?

 

Life is short xylophone...very short; just go out and enjoy yourself and block yourself from that computer, it's too addictive and will poison your life, your mind; I know....been there done that and minimise myself to the computer nowadays.

 

Out now 

 

 

Wow!

Patronizing post of the year..............

[Ron19]

You need a holiday


Sent from my iris 755 using Tapatalk

[LaoPo]

20 minutes ago, xylophone said:

I'm sure you mean well by your post LaoPo, so I will take it as constructive, however there are some things which seem to pass by your understanding.

 

I am also sure there are many other expats here who are my age, who can say exactly the same about their places of birth or places they have visited, and how they used to explore this and explore that, and saw the beauty of the native and untouched forests, beaches and so on, as you have about Phuket, so what you describe is nothing new to many of us older folks.

 

As I have travelled widely and worked in many different countries, including some very wild and yet "beautiful" places in Africa, I really don't need anything else to open my eyes to what places have been, and what they have become, because it's all too clear to see, which is what I basically write about. And agree with you about Patong/Phuket......a disaster.

 

As for my sitting behind a keyboard, well I may pose the same question to a writer – – why do you spend so much time writing, or to a footballer, why do you spend so much time kicking a ball about? You see it is what I like to do, as do the others I have mentioned, so no big deal really because I like it and I like observing people, things, change.

 

I think you'll find my main criticism is for the Chinese, and then again I only write what I see and whereas you may think it's okay for them to snot their noses out in the likes of shopping centres and also cut their toenails and feet on the tables of restaurants, but I don't. In fact I think it's disgusting behaviour and I have said so.

 

I certainly don't have exclusivity to Patong beach or Phuket nor have I ever suggested I have, and all I do is to write things as I see them, and a few folks on here seem to like my observations!

 

I'm not particularly over enamoured with the nightlife, although I do find its vibrancy somewhat stimulating, however I will only go out between once and twice a week and then mostly to eat and catch up with friends.

 

As for getting out more, well as I said, I've worked in Africa at the end of a war and been somewhat involved with it, the same in another country in Africa after a revolution; been lined up against a wall by soldiers carrying rifles and also had a very large loaded pistol put to my head by an angry soldier; worked offshore Norway where the temperature dropped to about -20 C and ice froze on the side of the oil rig, tilting it seawards which was quite alarming, and visited all of the countries I have ever wanted to see...........anyway I could probably write a book about my exploits, not all of them dangerous, many of them exciting and many pleasurable.

 

Now of course I spend my time on the Internet talking to folks I know, writing about wine, and discussing things in general, as you have seen with my posts on here. I also enjoy socialising, experimenting with cooking new dishes, helping friends with their electrical problems, exploring the island and other Asian countries, and so on. I also take care of and support a Thai family, which gives me great satisfaction.

 

Quote: Life is short xylophone...very short; just go out and enjoy yourself.

 

 I have been doing just that for almost 70 years, but thank you for the tip LaoPo.

 

 I'm older than you...

[LaoPo]

6 minutes ago, KarenBravo said:

Wow!

Patronizing post of the year..............

 

Who's patronising ?; read better perhaps?

[KarenBravo]

24 minutes ago, LaoPo said:

 

Who's patronising ?; read better perhaps?

Errrrrrm...........you.

In fact, it's pretty blatant.

[xylophone]

17 minutes ago, KarenBravo said:

Errrrrrm...........you.

In fact, it's pretty blatant.

Agree with you on that..........and then as if to qualify/support it, states, "I'm older than you"!!

[Here It Is]

6 hours ago, LaoPo said:

Life is short xylophone...very short; just go out and enjoy yourself and block yourself from that computer, it's too addictive and will poison your life, your mind;

13,219 posts?

[LaoPo]

2 hours ago, Here It Is said:

13,219 posts?

 

Yes, since 2004, and I'm man enough to admit to tell I was addicted to TV, but not anymore.

If you've been trough hell like me, health wise, you can live without TV, believe me.

 

The number of 13.219 posts were actually many more but many posts were deleted (not just with me but quite a number of members) at some stage, many years ago, for kind of "unknown/known" reasons and decisions by the board which had to be respected, of course 

 

 

[Old Croc]

Yes, I lost about 3,000 posts in that forum rejig way back then.

Some stopped posting altogether, others slowed their contributions significantly.

[billythehat]

18 hours ago, xylophone said:

As the song goes, "take paradise and put up a parking lot".

 

But then was it really paradise or just a place where there were some bars and available girls, but nowhere near as many as now, and where the infrastructure was practically non-existent therefore being "quaint" (having said that the current infrastructure is pitiful) making it seem like some sort of out of the way "paradise"? Debates like this will always exist.

 

Whatever it is now, it is still attracting tourists, although quite how many is open for discussion and based on different stats, especially those put out by TAT.

 

Certainly the last two times out in Bangla have seen more than in previous months so perhaps the long-awaited "high season" has started, albeit in fits and starts.

 

What has amazed me is the spread of the tourists (i.e. from where) and just the other night I met more from Slovenia, Romania, USA, the UK, Kuwait, Russia and a few from the Netherlands, not to mention the usual smattering of Aussies.

 

Of course the Chinese are still here as witnessed by the queues outside of the cheap and cheerful No. 6 Restaurant in Rat-Thid-Road (surely high-class tourists don't queue for 80 baht plates of rice, do they?) and those still frequenting the likes of Big C and drowning out any meaningful conversation in the large Starbucks store, not to mention gobbing on the floor inside Jungceylon.

 

Perhaps they are responsible for the slight lift in sales in Big C for this last month over the previous year, however if one's sales targets are set by virtue of the numbers which come from TAT and expected to descend upon Patong, then it's no wonder that despite a slight uplift in sales, targets are not being achieved overall.

 

The ground opposite the back of Jungceylon and the B-Quik store is still being cleared and made ready for something, but quite what I don't know – – some more ferreting required!

 

The roadworks at the junction of Soi Banzaan and Nanai have progressed and moved along a few metres, but the progression is painfully slow and peering into the large hole one afternoon (reminds me of the joke, "a large hole has appeared in Nanai road and workmen are said to be looking into it") I saw what the initial problem was.

 

At the back of the row of shops, cafes and offices where the junction is there has been building over the years, going up the hill and I have seen torrents of water gushing from the hill, carrying with them sand, mud and silt in vast quantities, and once I was standing at the doorway of one of the offices and watched as the water gushed down some sort of small klong style gully and into the drain. In no time at all the drain was absolutely solid to the top with that silt and the road quickly flooded, and this was all in a matter of minutes rather than hours, given though that there had been a few previous downpours.

 

Once the flooding had abated, the large truck with the suction proboscis would come along and suck out the silt, although leaving a lot of the silt and mud on the road. Then the water hose truck would come along and wash this mud and silt........back into the drains!

 

Anyway looking into that drainpipe which was slowly being demolished and replaced, I could see it was absolutely solid with mud, sand and silt, so that it was no wonder the road flooded as the rain had nowhere to go. Having said that surely something needs to be done about all of this muck that was being washed down, because I'm sure the sand was not a natural part of the environment, but quite possibly came from efforts to build various places over time, even being placed on driveways et cetera.

 

Wherever it came from, surely there has to be a better way to contain/divert this clogging muck – – time to get the planners and engineers brains into gear; oops, what have I said?

 

And finally for anyone who has shoes, whether they be formal type shoes or casual or even running shoes, there is a guy who will fix just about anything, and he operates out of a shop just south of where Montes restaurant was, and the shop is called "Mr Repair". I took a pair of my K-Swisse tennis shoes along, as they occasionally get used, because the front soles had started to come adrift, and he fixed them for 150 baht and they look sturdy enough, however the next time out will be the test!

 

Most of you young at heart gentlemen have at least 25 years or more on me so I won’t even try to top anyone on the “older than thee and still have no need for a stair chairlift” stuff! 

 

On the drainage item, I can comment that with the main carrier sewer drainage pipelines, whilst appearing to be of sufficient diameter, have been laid with woefully inadequate gradient to discharge the flow from all the lateral drains connected into them. Drainage gradients are specified to allow a flow that is not too fast, not too slow, and to allow an optimum flow speed which performs a self-cleansing function. Silting up will always be a problem where the network is seriously flawed, not by design but by poor supervision and construction. It is what it is I suppose…

 

On the subject of the Chinese, I wondered what they thought/said about their own experiences whilst on a first holiday outside of rural China…maybe a postcard…

 

My dear Chin Too Fat,

 

Arrived in Patong late as our plane was diverted to Bangkok due to a fight on the plane resulting in 50 of our family being returned back to China, leaving only 20 of us to continue here. The hotel is very nice and our window opens right onto an open sewer and reminds me of home. The bathrooms are clean and stocked with free toiletries and, I assume, are the big towels which will look nice back in our house. The town has many capitalist round eyes who complain about us shouting and spitting not realizing that these things are considered a polite pastime back home. Shopping’s good here too and you know those disgusting dry green leaves we have back in the village, you know, the one’s even a starving dog won’t touch but we find delicious? Well, you can buy them here too and I’ll bring some back for you. I’ll make sure we throw grandma’s clothes away on the last day to make room in her suitcase for them. Talking of Grandma, we thought we’d lost her yesterday but it turned out okay when policemen came to our hotel to say she’d been arrested for nude bathing and doing her washing in the fountain by the Jung Ceylon. We said it was just a misunderstanding and the policeman agreed as they too often used the same excuse and therefore no real problem here. The western hotel owner was unusually friendly today and informed us that when we see red flags flying down by the beach it means it’s the best time to go swimming. Not such a bad guy after all!

 

Cheers!

 

One Hung Lo.