jackcorbett

It's the Falang Game and everything is fair here so long as you gets the cash, and the more the better. And this applies to women as well---take this comment anyway you like. But that's not what brought me to creating a new topic here. It's what happened to two friends of mine two nights ago at the Park Beach Condo building. Both were gambling at the small bar here for 2 baht per hand. with the women working at this establishment Someone tipped off "Immigration, not from the bar, but someone working on the condominium's staff or a Thai resident, etc and the plain clothes police from Immigration came in. My two friends were taken to the police station where they were originally asked for 40,000 baht each. Eventually a price was set at 15,000 baht for each, and that was that. Needless to say, the Thai women who were gambling with them were not taken to the police station. Two weeks ago an American who owns a bar near where I live had to bail out his girlfriend of seven years who was running the bar in his absence. The police contended that his bar was playing illegally downloaded music and the price was originally set at 100,000 baht for his girlfriend's release. He wound up paying 40,000 baht. As for the illegally downloaded music the music came off CD's that he had legally purchased, but no matter, the police had gotten their illegally obtained pound of flesh. This last incident is very similar to what happened to Pete's Skytop Internet cafe. One night while staying there I went downstairs only to find all his computers gone. He wound up paying 40,000 baht to get them back from the police. Supposedly his customers had been illegally downloading music. However, it is also possible that a policeman had come in and transfered the music files from a CD or flash memory card or other removable media onto one of the internet cafe's computers so that his buddies could come in later and make the bust. But Naw, surely they wouldn't have done that now would they? But back to my two American friends who had been whiling away their time betting two baht a hand with the women in the bar. Sure, this was unwise of them. Gambling is illegal here and they should have known better. But the police didn't take the girls in. They went after the money. The same way they do with their two tier pricing. Just consider this as a Moose or Elk hunt with your being the Moose or Elk.

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Man.....That is a really loaded question. And I just asked my girlfriend what location she'd prefer if she were in your shoes after showing her the map. She more or less threw up her hands after I showed her on the map the location for Diamond D. Her first response was South Pattaya (bad because of the traffic). But I was thinking there's a lot of good stuff around that area. So after her negative comment about South Pattaya, she said, "Everyone different, some people like South Pattaya or North Pattaya, etc" as she ran off to work on her computer. I personally love living down by the beach here in Naklua. This area's going to be the Beverly Hills of Pattaya. So why not? That being said, this is not for the average guy coming here for the 2nd or 3rd time. So I need to take myself out of my own envelope (I'd prefer Plumeria if I was staying here to a short time period) and if I were wanting to rent for longer stays I'd go to someone like Mike to find a great place to rent or buy here in "Beverly Hills". But okay, I'm coming for my 2nd or 3rd visit. Well first off I'd be looking at location and when it comes to location it's each to his own. In my opinion the shoe would fit the most people somewhere near 2nd Road between North Pattaya Road and Central Pattaya Road. One could extend the South side of this envelope to South Pattaya Road. Now, knowing what I know I'd be inclined to try that new hotel at Aiyara-Palace Hotel The price of 1400 baht includes breakfast and the little I've seen of the swimming pool on the rooftop is that it's very striking with a great view of the city up there. This hotel is outside the envelope I've recommended. However, one can step just outside this hotel and get right onto a baht bus heading down Naklua Road to Dophin Circle and from there down Beach Road to wherever for only 10 baht. When you come home you can be dropped of literally at your doorstep. Walking Street is not that many minutes away, nor is Soi Six or 7 and 8. And here you are right in the heart of Little Germany where there's a good selection of bars and more modestly priced restaurants than what you are going to find down on 2nd Road for instance. But if you want the most plentiful supply of good sex right on your doorstep, Soi Six might be your best bet (Crown Victoria). But I've never stayed at Aiyara-Palace before. You've posed a question yet did not supply any parameters whatsoever for what you want in a hotel. There are many fine choices here in Pattaya, and in low season you can even stay at the four star Long Beach Hotel next door to me for the same ballpark price you would be staying at many Super Eight Motels in the U.S.

Hey...Let's all of us get together there for a beer together.

The date on that one, with Magpie posting positive points about Skytop just happens to coincide with my staying there as I had arrived back in Pattaya on August 3, 2005 this time to stay. As I recall I remember getting on this board (from my room at Skytop) and reporting to Pete about some negative comments that we both felt were unfair. In fact, at the time, Pete was not regularly coming into this forum and it was I who strongly urged that he should. However, I do not remember Pete telling me anything about his posing as a satisfied custome. However, the things said here are true. That is he had one woman employee in particular who was rude to customers and he had sacked her around this date or a little before. Furthermore I had always obtained an in room safe from him, and I do remember his going out to buy another one since he didn't have a single one left to give a customer. Lastly, at that time I was one of two guys who had gotten laptop access in our rooms. The other man was a good friend of mine. I bought one wireless access point from Tuc com. My friend had given Pete the first access point which we had placed on the ground level of the old Skytop. My friend who was staying one floor below me got a good strong signal to his laptop whereas mine was marginal as I was on the top floor. So I moved the downstairs access point into Pete's old massage room on the 2nd level and that was enough to make my signal strong enough to consistently do the job. Meanwhile I had a separate arrangement with Pete for the unlimited in room internet access we had agreed to. As for Pete coming in here as Magpie as a satisfied customer, well. you just gotta know Pete. First, I really don't think he's active in a single Internet forum or news group. So he's not really onto the normal standards of decorum, and is therefore apt not to follow the rules to the absolute letter. Also, I will jokingly refer to Pete as the Australian leprechaun because he's quite the practical joker so he's not likely to take himself very seriously while posing as a satisfied customer. So yeah, one might contend it's not cricket to pose as a satisfied customer while actually being the owner of a guesthouse. On the other hand everything Pete posted was true if I remember correctly. His comments were in response to what I felt were some very unfair comments made about Skytop, just one example being that the Irishman who had stabbed to death the owner of the Jimmie Bar had been a resident of Skytop and that this is what could be expected of Pete's typical customers. I was appalled at that comment in particular and told Pete so. And as a matter of fact I can just imagine a couple of Pete's Aussie pals, (one of whom met me while I was staying at Skytop, then bought a condo at Wongamat Residence right after I bought mine) laughing uproariously over Pete's posts as Magpie. They are a fun loving, off the wall group and a lot of fun to be around who simply aren't the types to be crossing their T's and dotting their I's.

Denny......Hey man, let off, the numbers don't mean much to a couple of these guys. And, uh, I see something on the Pinewood site that the rates you have quoted, that are already well above Skytops, are subject to the prevailing VAT and Service Charges. Well, I don't know about the service charges except that the Long Beach Hotel next door to me charges 9 % for VAT and 10 % for service charges for all meals and beverages there--call this a 20 % increase. But on the Long Beach web site, a 7 % VAT is included in the price plus a 10 % service charge, so with respect to the Long Beach such charges are included in the rates. I can only assume until told otherwise that such charges are added here at Pinewood since this is what the web site says. Oh also, living next door to Long Beach and having stayed at Skytop for 11 months I can say without hesitation that Long Beach has superior rooms, and much better facilities......such as two great swimming pools, an exercise room, etc. But its low season rate is just over 2600 baht for the cheapest rooms here versus 450 baht for Skytops, but who cares about the numbers. That's only more than five times as much but hey....where do you get all the goodies that you get here, and just think, the toilets are even bigger here than they are at Skytop.

Andy......I tried PMing you Mike's details. Didn't seem to work. So here they are. Email is michael@pattayapropertyagents.com And the web site is Mike's web site For some reason I'm not getting any indication of outgoing messages when I pm someone. Big D...Did you get a PM from me? I did receive one from you recently.

I have just nine characters for you. 038427509 After that my rate is 500 American dollars per hour with a $1000 minimum or just wait two years for mine and Big D's upcoming book "Secrets of Pattaya revealed."

Already got that done for you, Tom. I called Pete, got the price information from him personally over the phone and then I stated them on this web site. Unfortunately for Pete, his web site does not have the information down correctly and I told him so. But......if you do need confirmation of all this work I'd done let your fingers do your walking. The same phone number applies to you as it applies to Emile. Neither Big D and I are travel agents, we are not getting paid for this, so I"m thinking of conspiring with Denny so we can co-author a book together. This can serve a dual purpose. First, our opinions will be much more respected. After all, everyone will now have to pay for what they are now getting for free from us. They have to buy the book after all. This will give us instant credibility not to mention cash, and we won't have to sit around here having to explain ourselves over and over in an endless procession of time wasting repetitious posting as if this whole exercise is a debate.

Emil.....I never said this was a bargain for a monthly stay. Big D said, "Unlike you, I've actually stayed at Sky-Top and I've compared it to other guest houses in the area, Tropical Bert's and the Queen Vic come to mind and they are all good value for the money." We are both saying is that Skytop is a very well located place and that it can be had at very reasonable cost. Now, I think I've said in here somewhere that a room can be had for as low as 400 baht per night...without air that is. And I believe this room can be had with air for 450 baht a night. That represents a very good price. Are there cheaper places in town? Why sure. My pal Ross is just up the street from me paying 6000 baht a month. He does have to pay his utilities however. And he walks up to the fourth floor. Well......you are not going to beat Ross's monthly rate at Skytop. But David will. David pays just 5000 baht a month for a place that is East of Carre Four, but I sure like Ross's setup a lot better. But I stayed a total of 11 months at Sky-Top and don't regret a single minute of it and don't mind the fact that I could have stayed elsewhere cheaper. But whatever rate Pete works out at Skytop is between him and the customer as far as discounted monthly rates. I gave my reasons once and since then I've talked to Pete about it and he agrees with me so it looks like you are going to just have to make that phone call yourself. Here's the web site Big D listed here earlier Sky-Top web site Here's the phone number 038-427509 So make that call, Emil. And here's the e-mail address for you. Skytop2003@hotmail.com The rest is up to you because believe it or not neither Big D or I are getting any commissions from Pete to do this work for you.

A. From my web site. See link to map at the Madame Nook Central Pattaya Restaurant Reviews Madame Nook B. Map came from Paint Shop Pro with the graphics arts work done by me C. Into Paint Shop Pro from the old Baht Bus map D. Numbers on map referring to the Madame Nook listings Farmer, then writer. (But trust me, the magazines I wrote for had word count limitations). Unluckily for you and the others here, Pattaya Talk doesn't.

I have nothing personally against the place, and as a matter of fact I'm rather fond of the room layout, and the fact it has in room internet access even though I've not stayed here before. And I've heard good things about the staff here, its guest policies, and I've even in a recent post said the location might be fine it one wants proximity to Jomtien or wants to be out of the way, although I had also stated one might as well be in Jomtien though. In fact, for some wanting to have two rooms, the place might be superior to a one room hotel room elsewhere. I have extolled the virtues of Plumeria which I personally think is the berries, but I have also tried to be fair here and agreed that it's not the place for someone who does not wish to rent a motorbike, car or pay higher taxi fees than he should. And although I've not stayed there I've even pointed out a new hotel on Naklua Road called Aiyara Place as as a place worth looking into as a Residence Garden alternative. And although I've never even noticed Diamond D before nor heard about it until I had followed Valentinoxxx's link, I immediately recognized the virtues of this location and took the opportunity to go so far as to alter a map I had done for my own web site so that the members of this board could see in a very objective manner how RG stacked up against it. You will have to admit that nothing can be more fair and impartial than a map and I think the relative merits of RG as represented on a map vis a vis many other potential locations that undoubtedly exist there speaks for itself. If it seems as if I've resorted to overkill by using adjectives to describe RG's location such as sucks and miserable do keep in mind several things. First, I've contended that it does for those who want a Central location. In fact, being the very fair and impartial person I'm trying to be here, if I were to point out a spot on my map, say the intersection of 3rd Road and Central Pattaya Road and were to state that this location is far superior for someone seeking a centrally located hotel than RG, I'd be spot on, and anyone here who disagreed with me would be in a state of denial. But lest I be attacked here for this last comment let me define "Centrally located hotel" as being one in a location that offers convenient and quick access to much of what Pattaya offers to someone who wants the widest choice as to shopping, good inexpensive restaurants, bars, and so on. So allow me to continue on with my point lest I be nitpicked here to an early demise. Okay, pick another location on the map, say the intersection of North Pattaya Road and 2nd Road. Is it more centrally located and hence superior to Resident Garden's for the man who values a centrally located hotel? I'll let my map to my talking here. So just continue with the exercise I've started here letting this map be your guide and I think the evidence is irrefutable to everyone except those ostriches who keep their heads in the sand. Now, I've had two good friends who have stayed at RG, both of them more than on one occasion. One of them in particular has rented vans or cars and too often I've been in one of these vented vehicles stalled in traffic going to and from RG for a variety of reasons or even heading up to RG and beyond to Jomtien. And as far as that stretch of 3rd Road Cheshire Tom mentions that starts off just North or RG and extends to South Pattaya Road, yes, I've been stuck in a van or car here more often than a couple of times heading to or from RG so I have a pretty good concept of what it's like to travel along this portion of 3rd Road. So when I'm using the kinds of adjectives I've used I'm really trying to be fair because I could say for instance that a location near Soi 2 and 2nd Road is somewhat inferior to Diamond D's location for instance, but here I'd be mincing my words if I used the same choice of words to describe the location of RG compared to either of these locations. It would be unfair to the other members of this board if I were to use the same milk toast words. I also want to point out that there is a certain knee jerk band wagon effect going on here in this forum. First......do note that at the top of this page there is an advertisement for RG. I don't think there are any advertisements for any other hotels on this page. Also notice how this thread started off with its subject being, Is this road construction around RG going to be a problem? The fact that RG is being advertised combined with the nature of this kind of thread seems to imply that RG is just about the only viable place to stay in Pattaya and that the entire world must wait with bated breath for this road construction to cease. So, considering the band wagon effect I've just described, the complete objectivity of the map I've presented, and the fact that RG is advertised at the top of this page, I think the kinds of adjectives I've used are appropriate and add a little more balance here, especially so since I've not been critical of the staff, the rooms at RG, the service there and so on. If you want milk and toast, you are not going to get it from me. Better leave that for breakfast.

Yep......as far as being Central to most locations the beach is not the best as you can see from the map, which tells it all. Most of the guys who live here at Wongamat Residence (see map...in Naklua near the ocean on Soi 16) either have a car or motorbike or both. The motorbike however for the man who lives here full time, puts the entire area within easy reach so the fact that this area of Naklua might seem to be out of the way of much of Central Pattaya becomes irrelevant.

Tom...Already been thinking about tomorrow night. I think getting to the pier area for this one is going to be faster managed by walking than by baht bus from just about anywhere. Of course tomorrow night is atypical to say the least. Hmmm.....What do you think of traveling by boat?

No Tom. You are dead wrong, so while you try to nitpick me to death let me map point you (and everyone else tuning in) to the cartographic route to true enlightenment. First, the main choke point I am refering to is just past where you would turn right onto 3rd road. This is the road that becomes 2nd road where you would turn right after the overpass at 3rd road. The roads coming together here are quite narrow and there is no light. This is what I call the stand still zone because much of the time if you are in a car or baht taxi you will stand still as vehicles vie for who gets to go first at this intersection. So the traffic backs up quite a ways in both directions. You can avoid this choke point by turning right at Third Road. Even so there still is a distance where the traffic is nearly standing still. But now you have a great deal of distance contending with the traffic on 3rd Road before you get even with Diamond D. You can of course then cut back to the West over to 2nd Road and from there head up to Sois 7, 8, or Six or wherever. And be my guest if you are a masochist. But even before that, you have all that extra distance on Third Road before you draw up even with Diamond D, and guess what, a lot of people have the same idea as you, that is of avoiding that choke point I pointed out. So there traffic is often moving very slowly. Now--when you get to South Pattaya Road and continue North on 3rd Road the traffic lightens up considerably. As you can see on this map, there is basically one direct route to Jomtien and here you are at RG smack in the middle of it. This adds considerably to the congestion in this entire area. This map shows the Residence Garden is like an army barracks stuck out in nowhere land whereas Diamond D puts you in a much more Central location that is like being placed in the center of the city compared to being off in a suburb where one is constantly facing rush hour traffic for considerable lengths of time. Note the red line I've painted in that represents Soi Bukoew. It's quite close to Diamond D. And there's two markets where it meets South Pattaya Road, there's Tuk Com. Friendship supermarket is quite close. Third Road is right there and it's the fast lane to a great deal of the city, and to Naklua. Sukamvit is close at hand. You can easily walk to 2nd Road (or take the baht bus) and continue on by baht bus to Royal Garden Plaza, the new shopping center just beyond it, up to Sois 7 and 8, Soi Six a little further on. There is simply no comparison. From the Diamond D location you can so easily and quickly fan out into all directions. But do keep in mind one thing. I'm not the guy who brought up Diamond D in the first place. And I've never even seen the place. But Diamond D does point out one thing, and that's what I've been saying all along. That is it's quite easy to beat RG's location by a magnitude of about ten to one if easy and quick access is a number one priority. If you want to limit yourself to Walking Street, well then, that's a different story, or if you want to be near Jomtien and don't care much for seeing much of Pattaya, that's another thing too. But then again, you might just as well off stay in Jomtien in the first place.

I disagree with you. The place you linked to does not have a "better location" than RG, it has a "Far superior location as in ten times better location. I went out drinking last night with a few of my neighbors and this includes my neighbor from Birmingham. Now Gus is on his motorbike every day, driving it typically from Wongamat Beach here in Naklua all the way down to South Pattaya Road to the very vicinity the place you just linked to is located. Gus's live in gf managed a bar-restaurant just East of the market on Soi Bukeow so if anyone's got a real handle on traffic conditions throughout the Pattaya area, Gus is the man. Last night we discussed RG together and Gus commented that it's got an absolutely wretched location, but other than that there is nothing really wrong with the hotel itself, the staff, management or the rooms. Now I haven't been to this particular location you linked to, but first off it's substantially less expensive than the RG. Secondly let's speak of location. It's just up the street from Tukcom which is the best place to buy computers and computer equipment in Pattaya and it's quite close to the Friendship supermarket where I will often park my bike. YOu have quick and easy access to Third Road which means you can very quickly get up Third Road to many excellent restaurants and other spots. YOu can take Third Road straight up to Central Pattaya Road, turn left on it and go down to Carre Four and many other places. You can no doubt easily walk to Soi Bukeow from this location and if you can't, just take a baht bus and from there you can easily amble up this street to many small shots, a number of bars and even several go go bars near Soi Diana. It is no fault of Residence Garden that it has one of the most miserable locations in Pattaya, at least for now. In fact, my girlfriend just commented that for many guys this would not be important and that for many feeling isolated is a good thing. "It's up to the individual", she said, "what's really important" Unfortunately this is what one has to deal with while staying here. For one thing there's a huge amount of traffic going from Pattaya to Jomtien and RG is right on the main route. Now say you wanted to go from Central Pattaya up to Naklua for instance. Say you want to go to Pattaya Bangkok Hospital. You can go up 2nd road and take that route and ultimately head East to the Hospital once you've gotten up a ways from Dolphin Circle. Or you can go straight up 3rd road where the traffic pretty much sails along. And you can also head straight North up Sukamvit right up to the hospital. But if you are going from Jomtien to Central Pattaya and you want to go by Residence Garden ultimately traffic must funnel down to very few lanes of traffic. Then you pass RG and you will soon come to a crossroads that angles to the right. You and the rest of the traffic going with you will have to merge onto this street and this street eventually becomes 2nd road where there is a light at South Pattaya Road. Whether you are heading to Jomtien from Pattaya or going from Jomtien to Pattaya, either way, Residence Garden is smack dab in the middle of this huge traffic bottleneck. And to top if off there's now a lot of road construction going on right here. Hopefully all of this will one day change.

I'll get back to Mike a.s.a.p. about this Andy. By the way, I have a lot of respect for Mike as every time I go downstairs from my condo I have to go by his office to get out to the street. Most of the time Mike's got his head into his laptop searching things out on the Internet. And whereas I'm part of a three person committee representing all the owners of my building here at Wongamat, Mike is on a similar owner's committee of another condo community nearby. He's also got three people working under him, so considering how hard he personally works with the help he's got I imagine he's really got a large number of alternatives at his fingertips from selling a man an expensive beach front condo to arranging affordable rentals for several weeks to a month to long term rentals of very spacious condos at higher price levels.

Here's a place that might be worth checking out that is priced under the RG's price point for about 1400 baht compared to RG's high season rate of 1600 baht. I've looked over the facilities for a friend. Naklua Hotel It's in Naklua smack right on Naklua Road so it's right on the 10 baht taxi line. Restaurants galore in this area. The swimming pool is on the top floor and it affords an excellent view of the area. They just finished this place a few months ago so it's brand spanking new. From here Walking Street's about ten to fifteen minutes away by baht taxi on the average, Soi Six in ten minutes or less. Restaurants in this entire area are both cheap and good. I haven't stayed here but the swimming pool area and other accommodations appear first rate. But this pricing is on the Internet through an intermediary. I talked to an American who has his real estate office downstairs in my condo building. He stated he knew of places in Central Pattaya he considered roughly equal to or a bit better even than Residence Garden for around 1000 baht. Mike sells condos in a number of locations and rents them out as well but he's now branching out into even newer markets such as hotel accommodations. It will be interesting to see if he can get an even better price for the place I linked to above as well as some of the other places he has at his fingertips. I also recall a place just one hundred meters from Naklua Road (meaning it's right off the baht bus route) that had a nice swimming pool and facilities in general that my girlfriend and I looked at for a friend, but I can't remember what the rate was except it was a lot less than RG's. Getting back to Mike.....Depends what a person wants. Want to rent a place near the beach for 15,000 baht a month or so......I think he can get it done. That's 1000 baht a night if you only stayed fifteen days but it might not have the access of Naklua Road the first place has. Stay longer and such a place becomes even more attractive.

Valid point, Tom. And if the guy is married to Walking Street it might be an inconvenience to stay North of Walking Street any distance, but this shoe doesn't really fit most guys as there are many other places to go than just Walking Street, Sois 6, 7, and 8 being among them, Big C, Carre Four, Best Supermarket, Soi Buckets and Soi Diana, the much cheaper and better German restaurants in the Naklua area and so on. RG plugs you into Walking Street. But that's about it. For most people the location really sucks and as I've mentioned 1400 baht a night is pretty over the top compared to other places one might stay at. Here, check this one out. The Sonkiet Buri Resort Sonkiet Buri Resort on Ao Nang Beach in Krabi, just 400 meters from the ocean with a much better beach than anything in Pattaya. And I paid just 1350 baht during the low season. But do check my article and pictures out thoroughly and you will see what I mean. Here you get a fruit tray brought to your room every day, the spectacular grounds are all lit up at night, the balconies are huge, and the ambience is out of this world. There are more expensive places at Krabi--the Krabi Resort comes to mind, but none better and none even more sensational. This is what I'm talking about. If you are going to be paying 1400 baht a night this is what you should expect. This isn't the U.S., it's Thailand, so if you are going to be staying in Thailand you are going to get some fantastic deals if you really your homework. And yeah, yeah, yeah, Krabi isn't Pattaya and it's unfair to compare apples to oranges and blah blah blah, but believe me, Pattaya's got some great deals going too.

Sailfast----I have never tried the beds at RG, and of course that is a major point. The one great thing about Pattaya is that more than any other place I know of it's got so many choices. You mentioned a good laundry next to RG. We have two laundries within 100 yards of me near my condo here at Wongamat Beach. We have a Family Mart just one block up the street. Heading the other direction a little more than a block, call it a block and a half is a new Family Mart. During the last few months, a Thai lady, started a shop directly below my condo on the bottom floor of my condo building with competitive prices to Family Mart's. I can literally lower a bucket on a rope to the woman with money inside and have her fill the bucket up with beer which I can then pull up to my balcony. As if this is not enough, construction is now about half way finished on a Seven Eleven which is directly across the street from the first Family Mart I mentioned. There is one massage place I often go to now across the street from this Family Mart, but across the street from this same Family Mart in another direction are two more massage places. In the opposite direction one block away is a fourth massage establishment and if I were to walk back to the Family Mart and go down the street one quarter of a mile there is a fifth massage establishment, this one upscale but at the same price level and larger than all the rest. And the same goes for places to stay. There is so much to choose from. Been to Chiang Mai recently and just got back from Bangkok twice in the past week where I was shopping for a new laptop. Compared to Pattaya neither place even comes close at having so many laundries, massage places, Convenience Stores, restaurants and Bars, ATMS and just about everything just about everywhere you look so close to hand. So my point is there are so so many other choices if one just takes the time to check them out. The 1400 baht charged by Residence Garden is way over what many savvy guys I know who visit here time and time again, pay. For them it's over the market. As far as restaurants such as Mata Hari, I've taken a look at the place in flyers, on the web, etc and I felt that although it is no doubt a fine restaurant its prices are U.S. prices. So for Pattaya these are tourist prices. We are in Pattaya, not the U.S. When one is living just down the street from restaurants I sure as hell wouldn't want to be paying U.S. prices for breakfast, lunch and dinner everytime I'm stepping outside my door that I'm hungry and unwilling to go very far just for a quick bite. And once again, as far as location and I've already mentioned that RG has an atrocious location, one gets the true meaning of how bad it really is when you are staying at a Central location on 2nd Road, say not far from Big C, and you have a pal who's meeting you who's staying at RG and it takes him half an hour to get to the place you are meeting him because he's tied up in traffic on a baht bus. Or you are in a car rented by another friend who's staying at RG and here you are in that car tied up in traffic near Residence Garden for fifteen or twenty minutes driving just one or two kilometers. This area is the number one chokepoint I know of for traffic in the entire Pattaya area.

I entirely agree with you about just how dangerous driving a motorbike here is. The classic occurred yesterday when one of my pals and I were walking on the sidewalk to Tuk Com and a Thai woman came up behind us on her motorbike and tooted her horn for use to get out of the way. Now just imagine someone driving on the same streets as you are who's this brain dead And unfortunately tremendous numbers of these people have nothing going on upstairs and no one's (the police for instance) reining them in. That's why when I drive my bike I'm preoccupied with self preservation and limiting my risk which I consider to be nearly unacceptable. Fortunately for you there are a huge number of choices that do not require you to risk becoming mash potatoes and gravy simply because too many Thai drivers need to be put into reeducation camps.

I'd say ten minutes or so, assuming you were at Naklua Road to start with and that's about a quarter of a mile from Plumeria but here's the rub. One has to get to Naklua Road first. This means either walking or using other means. Now you can walk down the street just a ways to the Long Beach Hotel where the baht taxis are lined up but here the drivers prey on the tourists, particularly the Russians and try and get 150 baht. More and more of them are coming down the street past Plumeria now as well and it's going to get busier and busier. I own a motorbike. Some of my friends who do not live here full time rent motorbikes. With a motorbike you can very easily and quickly get anywhere you want. But I do not go drinking very far away expecting to ride my motorbike home without incurring a lot of risk to life and limb. So what I'll do is drive my motorbike up to one of my favorite bars close to Naklua Road and park it there. Then I'll just jump on the first 10 baht taxi I see and take it down to wherever I'm going. Living at Wongamat Beach which is supposedly far away from places such as Soi 6, Sois 7 and 8 and Walking Street, and Plumeria's quite close to Wongamat Beach is actually better located than Residence Garden which is neither fish nor fowl as it's not in Jomtien and it's not in Pattaya. I play it safer than a lot of my friends who just take off on their bikes whenever they choose for a night's wenching and drinking and head straight to the bars wherever they are. I'd say Plumeria is not for the person who's not wanting to rent a motorbike unless he's willing to pay a premium price for taxi service. But the gardens and pool areas in the Plumeria complex are magnificent and it's so quiet here that you forget you are anywhere near Pattaya. Plumeria advertises itself as "Service Apartments". Naklua (Wongamat Beach is in Naklua) is just North of Pattaya and once you are on Naklua Road you can get to most places far faster than you can from RG. There are many places either on Naklua Road or within a couple of blocks. Also, the restaurants in this area are for the most part substantially less expensive than they are in Pattaya. I have one American friend staying right up the street from me and he's here for 2 months. He's staying at a spanking brand new motel that is Thai owned and managed for 6000 baht per month. The floors in the hallways and balconies are kept so clean you can eat on them, and he's just 200 meters from Naklua Road so he can walk that in about the same time it takes to cross the street to grab a taxi from the Residence Garden. This place has security cameras and you cannot get to the stairways without an electronic key card. But it, like Plumeria, is not for everyone as there is no elevator. But so many other choices in this area abound. The reason I'm posting to this thread is I'm pretty tired of hearing Residence Garden continuously extolled as a great value with a viable location. It has the crappiest location I know of in the area and at 1400 baht a premium price tag is attached to it. Don't get me wrong, the rooms there are not bad and the staff might be accommodating and yes, there's a pool but if you are going to go spending this kind of money when you compare it to places like Plumeria it is comparatively a dump, the key word here being "comparatively" because it's not really a dump and it is upscale compared to places like Skytop at more than twice the cost, but compared to Skytop it has just 10 percent of the location.

Tell you what guys, RG has one of the worse locations in all Pattaya. It's a real bottle neck for traffic in this area, and particularly at certain times it can take you 15 minutes just to get from RG to South Pattaya Road in a baht taxi or car. Of course if you have a motorbike you can slice and dice through the traffic of piled up cars. And it's pretty tough even crossing the street in front of RG. And there's not much around it for decent restaurants that are really close by. And the price at 1400 baht...well, fine.....those are pretty high. Certainly no bargain. YOu can stay at Plumeria managed apartments here at Wongamat Beach and these go for 1800 baht a night. But say you stay for just two weeks. The monthly rate is 21,000 baht (16,000 if you stay for three months or more). Do the math. That's 1500 baht a night and you are really staying at a very quiet, first class place with a great swimming pool. Stay three weeks and your price goes down to 1000 baht a night. Now this is for superior accommodations. Now you might not hear the traffic in your room at RG but with the swimming pool in front of the place, I'll bet you are going to be hearing it loud and clear and the road construction as you go through the motions of thinking you are relaxing at pool side. But if you really look around you can find some really good deals with a lot quicker access to most places than this "road blocked" establishment.

Emil.....I don't know if Pete wants my rate to be blabbed all over the universe or not. Perhaps he doesn't care at all. In any case, I would think you or anyone here can get as good a rate as I did. Perhaps not. Perhaps he sees me as a man who is always true to his word, pays his bills on time and is a straight shooter. A lot of people won't. And of course there's always the people who don't give a damn about anyone else or doing what would be considered a reasonable request. Example in point.....in the condo building I bought into I have a Norwegian friend up on the 5th floor. He runs his air conditioner all the time. He will sit on his deck with his pals drinking beer with his air conditioner running full tilt with the doors to his deck wide open thus air conditioning the entire outdoors. I can only imagine how horrendous his power bill is. So suppose you were like my Norwegian pal and ran your air conditioner full on with all your windows open. Pete was absorbing my power bill and he would be absorbing yours also. You might be costing Pete $100 more in power bills simply because you are not as responsible as I am. Or perhaps you won't be running the air conditioner at all and be a cheaper guest than me. Or perhaps I have a live in girlfriend who always keeps my room neat for me. So Pete does not have to have his cleaning help clean my room. So he saves money there. Or perhaps he has had a guest stay at his place before and the guy is a real pig and Pete's having to tie his cleaning help up cleaning the room far more than is necessary. Go ahead and call Pete about any discounted prices he might give you. That will between you two. But I think he'd prefer that I keep my business with him quiet for the excellent reasons I've just mentioned above.

I had the largest room at the old Sky-Top. This room normally went for 650 baht per night but as I was paying by the month I got a modest discount, not earthshaking but definitely worthwhile. I did not pay for my power (including air) (many places charging a monthly rate do), and to top things off I got from Pete free internet in my room. Pete of course has the Internet cafe downstairs, so what I did is I attached a wireless access point to his his hub and then I put another wireless access point in my room on the top floor. I attached a desktop computer to this and also used the wireless access point with my laptop computer. No one else had this arrangement with Pete, but had I not made this deal with Pete my monthly rate would have been discounted substantially more. I also want to mention that my particular room was actually two rooms, a bedroom with a doorway that was curtained off from my living room. I'd say the whole thing was approximately 40 square meters, the same size as many "condos" some guys are getting, and that I had some cooking facilities, a microwave provided, and an in-room safe. I lived here for one month, then went back to the U.S. for several months, came back to stay two months during which time I purchased the condo here at Wongamat Beach, went back to the U.S. to sell most of my guns, my car and pickup, furniture, etc and after three months I moved back to Pattaya intending to stay several months while the condo was getting completed. But it was not completed in November. I had to wait until early April before I was able to move in so I had a much longer stay at Sky-Top and with Pete than I intended. So guys, trust me, Sky-Top was a pretty comfortable existence for me. On the last stint of living there I stayed from August 3rd until April 1 and had moved a substantial portion of my book collection there from the U.S. which included an entire set of Encyclopedia Britannica, the Time Life Series of World War II, the Time Life series on the American Civil War and a lot more. So you can imagine me surrounded by my personal library, my two computers (both online), staying for long long time, and as for Pete, well, let me just say this, we are still very good friends, so what more is there to be said about him--at least from me?