jackcorbett

I had my road bike shipped from the U.S. to Pattaya which cost a pretty penny but I'm glad I did. Nevertheless, I do not use it that often. Here at Wongamat Beach the traffic is much lighter than it is elsewhere and the bike could be a good form of exercise but there are other options such as running along the beach, walking or using the health club at the Long Beach hotel. Before getting the Yamaha Nouvo motorbike I found the road bike to often be faster than cars in negotiating the traffic here so in this sense it can be good transportation. However, I consider it to be very dangerous. For one thing you don't have mirrors whereas you do on a motorbike. For another thing, one is hunched over the handlebars which is not a good position from which to observe all the dangers of the road. One has to focus on pedaling and shifting which I don't need to worry about with the fully automatic Yamaha Nouvo. And the thing is very quick in its steering which means you can get into trouble pretty fast. Lastly it will not accelerate or brake with a motorbike. The motorbike is hazardous enough but the bicycle is much more so. Ironically in two days I return to the U.S. for one week before coming back to Pattaya and a good friend of mine was just talking with me on the phone (I was using Skype on the computer). We will do a little bike riding near St. Louis but there will be either no cars or very few on the trails and streets we will be going on. I told him I was looking at my bike here in the condo and he told me, "No matter, he has an extra bike he will lend me." One more thing.....I have not had an accident yet on the motobike but I have already had a minor one on the bicycle. I was coming around a ninety degree bend in the road which I was used to taking on the motorbike. There was a grate in the road right on the bend and without thinking I crossed it just as I have so many times on the motorbike. Suddenly I was thrown off the bicycle and it wound it on top of me as I was lying in the road. The skinny tires of the road bike had gone right through the grate. I had hit it parallel and not at an angle as I was not thinking. Some Thais in a pickup pulled the bike off me as I lay there laughing out loud about my own stupidity.

First step for a newcomer in Pattaya is to get these little bottles of water in his hotel or guesthouse or at the Seven Elevens and Family Marts. And then it's the larger bottles that are around one gallon. Recently I bought one of the large bottles that holds close to 5 gallons which my gf and I take back to the condo on the motorbike. So far there is no system in place to have drinking water delivered to the condo and it looks like that is going to take awhile due to lack of storage space for the large bottles and other reasons. So I'm thinking about doing something to purify the water out of the tap. At places like Carre Four one can get those filtering systems that consist of two water filters. They really are not that expensive and both my Thai gf and Anne who owns the massage place and Nitnoi Bar recommend these setups. But an English pal of mine who's been here for over 12 years thinks the water from the filters won't cut it whereas a reverse osmosis setup would. I"m not sure what a reverse osmosis setup would cost but I think it's quite a bit higher than the filtering systems sold in Carre Four, Big C, etc. Trucking these five gallon jugs on the motorbike is getting to be a bit of an inconvenience although buying this way costs just a fraction of what one gallon bottles cost at Family Mart and Seven Eleven. What are your thoughts on the subject?

Just completed a quick and dirty review section for the "Looking Glass" of Pattaya's hotels and guesthouses http://www.alphapro.com/hotels2/evaluationform.htm As on the evaluation form instructions I recommend copying and pasting the table you will find there listing the categories...eg. quality of the bed, guest fees if any, etc and then add your comments afterwards. Then just refresh your browser to see the results of what you have posted.

Thanks guys. A ranking of hotels? Now that's an idea. I go to the U.S. in three days but for just one week. Perhaps I can have my TG call hotels to ask about guest policies for one thing. A lot of hotels here charge exorbitant fees if you bring a girl to your room. We can blacklist all these places in the five star ranking system. You got me going now. In fact, perhaps I can get a little help here from some of you.

Thanks bangkapiboy. I really want to be doing more with it. More videos for instance. My video camera bit the dust. But that situation should be remedied in the next several weeks. Prettier and prettier girls down the road from the Pattaya area. Will continue with the Madame Nook restaurant reviews which will gradually comprise more and more restaurants. And whatever else I can come up with that will offer hopefully something of value to those interested in the Pattaya area.

http://www.alphapro.com/looking/index.html That's the Looking Glass Magazine which I have been doing for several years for fun but since moving to Pattaya nearly all its content now is from Pattaya and other parts of Thailand. In this issue there are pictures of Nong II, who I feel is a very beautiful Thai lady, there's the bar of the month, condo--hotel of the month, Nong Nooch Tropical Gardens for the landmark of the month, there's the Uncle Buford Go-Go bar reviews, and possibly the most fun of all, "Find the Porn" which is an interactive Internet Game that takes a few swipes at Internet companies seeking to impose their medieval codes of morals on web sites that show adult content they do not approve of. There's the Madame Nook Pattaya restaurant reviews, Madame Nook being a Thai woman who uses a five star approach for rating the restaurants in her review. Lastly there is the Best of the Best, the Looking Glass annual awards for best bar, motorcyle, restaurant, and so on. I am sure there will be many who will disagree with some of the selections here, so if you do feel free to post your thoughts. As for the game, "Find the porn", I didn't do it. That's my good friend, Mike Skymaster who created it after my web site was suspended for "adult content" by my former web hosting company for showing I suppose some naked female breasts.

Checked Topps and you are right, the sellers are gone. I've found a couple of places here in Pattaya that sell globes, an office supply store here in Naklua and Friendship but most are bilingual..that is they show the captions in both Thai and English which cuts the raw data by half while cluttering the globe up. I found small gloves in English but small won't cut it. I need one that is 12 to 14 inches in diameter. I found one or two models that were in English only but these were very poorly done. My girlfriend did an Internet Search in THai for Bangkok and although she found a couple of places she felt the models were the same ones being sold here in Pattaya and that we might be wasting our time spending a night over in Bangkok. So it looks like I might be taking the U.S. option by transporting a globe in the cargo hold of my Eva Airlines flight back from the U.S. I'm weighing a National Geographic globe against one of the Repogle models.

I want to buy a nice 14 inch diameter world globe. Option number a National Geographic globe shipped to a U.S. address and then I'd pick it up the first week of September during my brief trip back to my home country and bring it back on the plane with me. I believe the National Geographic globes are the best although they are quite expensive. However....I probably will have to pay extra shipping costs if I go this route. Option number 2 is to buy one immediately upon my return ito Bangkok by staying one night the date of my return flight. I could shop for the globe either that day or the next day, then return to Pattaya the next evening. The globes I've found so far in Pattaya (eg. at an office supply store just East of Carre Four) have been disappointing, being THai English globes or the fancy expensive models that would be lucky to have as much detail as Australia labeling the countries. I'm thinking Bangkok would have globes for sale that are a cut or two above what I've seen in Pattaya so far.

Here's my thinking that led to my buying this condo here at Wongamat Beach. First, I loved the area as it is quiet and very colorful with many flowers on my walking/jogging routes meaning that the area's atmosphere is vastly different from the noisiness and boisterness of Central Pattaya. So if I want to immerge myself in what Central Pattaya has to offer, I can go there within minutes, but if I want more tranquil surroundings--well....that's where I will live. So I can have the best of both worlds. Moreover, Pattaya should be an excellent base out of which I can travel throughout Asia at much cheaper airfares than I can get out of the U.S. So I should never be bored through the years. Ok....so it makes sense to retire in this area where I can have the best of two worlds. Now if I would have remained in the U.S. facing rapidly increasing gasoline and health care costs, I would probably have remained in that stunning apartment I was renting in the St. Louis area. But within one year my rent would have edged up to $150 more per month than my debt service and maintainance fees are for the condo I've bought. But each year the monthly rent increases by $25.00 per month. So in 10 years I would be paying $400 more per month to live in this apartment over the condo I ultimately bought. Moreover, I am now living 200 yards from the ocean and have 200 more square feet than I had in my apartment. However, the particular apartment I had was a one of a kind unit. There was no other like it in the entire complex (eg. it was the only unit with its own heated garage) while the entire complex was of much better quality than anything else in the entire area at the kind of price levels we were paying in rent. Within two years there would be a new shopping center within one mile of the complex so it was likely that this would driven rents up even higher than they had been going up so I felt there was a good chance that my ten year rent increase projections would actually be met in five years. At 59 years of age, for me the cost of health care in the U.S. is going through the roof. Each year health insurance climbs 25 %. I had been paying $300 U.S. per month or $3600 per year and that's with a $5000 deductible. So if I required even the smallest surgery procedure, say another hernia operation, my annual medical costs for that year would be $8600. Keeping in mind that I'm currently 59, there is likely to be more and more things going wrong with me with each passing year. So by remaining in the U.S., I'm setting myself up for a grand fleecing. When I left the U.S. the price of gasoline was skyrocketing. And the cost of a replacement car for when my vehicle needed replacing was getting just a little too high. So I did a little analysis. Sure, I love the women here in Pattaya and yes, I have a keen appreciation for getting cheap access to them. But let's suppose the THais cleaned out all the go-go and beer bars and all the dancers and beer bar girls left town. Would I still prefer living in Pattaya to living in the U.S.? What? Saving all that health care money, not having to buy a car or all of that expensive gasoliine, while living just off the beach and not being very far to all those other places I want to visit in Asia isn't enough reason to want to move? So I took women right out of the equation. And after all, even if they cleaned this place up, there would still be all those beautiful ladies working in shops, hotels, etc. while American women had gotten to be so fat that hardly a one of them was worth having. So for me moving to Pattaya while never looking back made perfectlly good sense. Now....should I rent or buy? When I bought the exchange rate was about 38.5 baht to one American dollars. Over the long term I felt this exchange rate was more likely to get worse than better. I also reasoned that there was only so much beach front property in the world and that although I was not buying a condo that was directly on the ocean that I was getting the next best thing since it was just 200 meters away. Moreover, the condo I'd get, was smack right next door to the Long Beach Hotel as well as other high dollar condominiums. My gut feeling was that in a few very short years the cost for a place that had so much going for it would be out of reach. So I've done it. And I now have that special custom teak desk I've always wanted and a waterfall in my condo's entry way. I've hung a ceiling fan out above my deck so it now feels like sitting in a breezy beer bar sitting out there. And the kitchen is just the right size to fit my needs with the exact countertops and cabinets I like. I couldn't do all of this if I was a renter and I'd always be worried once I got too attached to a place that the owner wouldn't at some point in time decide to move in himself which would force me to go elsewhere.

Sammy....Please eludify the board here on what what makes you terrfic. Were you a war hero in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, etc? Were you a major cog in what made the U.S. get into Vietnam big time? The whole planet is panting, is in the middle of an orgasm to know what makes you so special that you can post the things you have been posting.

Hey Sammy Righteous...Try this one out for size. http://www.alphapro.com/magazine/fitcalvary.htm

The camera is a Nikon D-1 X. Considering its extremely high cost and that it is a completely professional camera there is no such thing as a cheap photo coming out of this camera. Furthermore I was going to get the girl a 20 by 30 inch photo which would have been done for me by Kodak out of the U.S. costing me with shipping over $30.00. Although I gave the Little Angel several 5 by 7 pictures and one 8 by 10 inch picture, I was unable to get the 20 by 30 inch picture to her. The reason is she disappeared from where she was staying, and although she told me the name of a Soi 6 Bar I was unable to find her there. I did not blackout from drinking too much. I was very tired and made the mistake of lying down in one of those beach recliners where I PASSED OUT. And where do you come up with my missing meetings? I made a date with the waitress to meet me on the beach. She misunderstood me because her English was atrocious. She couldn't meet me on the beach because she was working at Greg's restaurant at that time. As for my "somehow losing my key", I was doing a three mile run on the beach when the key wore a hole in my front front pants pocket and fell out. When I found I was locked out of Skytop and was unable to call anyone because I did not have my cell phone on me, I decided short of getting a room elsewhere my best recourse was to bite the bullet, have a great time, and drink until the place closed. If you read my story more closely you would have seen that I took the little angel out to lunch on two occasions. I never did ask sex from this girl nor did I receive any. As for my drinking, at 59 I am just three pounds heavier than what I weighed as a College Sophomore earning my letter on the Varsity Cross Country team. So the alcholism you have diagnosed me as having is not quite as bad as your initial diagnosis Herr Doctor. If it were I'd be quite a bit heavier than my 168 pounds. The reason Herr Doctor that I am being so defensive in this post is that I somehow detect you have some very fine credentials under your belt that qualifies you to call either me or anybody else in this forum a sad and sorry excuse as an individual and as the kind of man who gives falang a bad name. Hey, Sammy, from early childhood I was a Christian. Would you please provide me with as many details about yourself so that I can switch religions. I might call it Sammyism and with luck perhaps I can convince some of the other members here into forming a cult to worship YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Here's a classic about getting drunk on Beach Road. Was I lucky? I'm sure. http://www.alphapro.com/octoberlooking05/beachangel.htm

I just spent nearly a week at the newly constructed Plumeria Serviced Apartments http://www.plumeriapattaya.com/ just prior to moving into my new condo here at Wongamat Residence. The German company constructing the condos had last minute problems resulting in my not being able to move in on April 1st as paid for my gf and me at Plumeria which I had never taken a look at before. The normal room rate is 1800 baht per night which includes breakfast. However, a month here is 20,000 baht while one can get three month or longer stays for 18,000 baht. Plumeria has an excellent pool and jacuzzi, good dining for around 100 baht, quiet atmosphere with lush tropical plants lining the walk back to the rooms. It even has peacocks running about, which although you won't see them that often, you will often hear. And less than a hundred feet away is a Family Mart. Plumeria is a couple of miles from Pattaya Central in the Wongamat Beach area. The atmosphere here is much quieter than Pattaya itself as there are no beer bars close by. I can definitely recommend this place to those wishing to take a breather from the frenetic pace of Pattaya but who wish to sample it whenever the mood strikes.

I was here last March through May 10th when I bought a condo in April. Although I now have the retirement visa back then I was on only a two month visa. Went to a Thai lawyer. This is Ponthep who often does a column for the paper and his office girl went across the street with me to Commercial Bank of Siam where she helped me set up a savings account which I used to faciliate the purhase of the condo. So I have two ATM cards now, one for my American Bank and the other for the Commercial Bank of Siam which is good for a thousand dollars withdrawal per day if I need it.

Whenever I think that either I or many others here might be considered low lifes I simply rise above it all and ride my bike up to the top of Buddha Hill and other nearby heights to take in the greater picture. http://www.alphapro.com/showcase

About three to four weeks before my first trip to Thailand while moving from one apartment to another, I suddenly injured my lower back. It was so bad, I'd use crutches just to get off the couch. If I had to take a leak, with the bathroom being just 20 feet from the couch, I'd have to ask myself, "Now just badly do I really have to go", just because the pain was that bad. I went to a doctor and that set me back over $200 for the emergency visit to the clinic plus seven days of medecine that had absolutely no effect whatsoever, but the pain was so bad I could not do an easy six mile drive by myself. I took a cab. It was looking like I'd have to cancel the trip to Thailand when I saw a chiropractor. I hobbled into the chiropractor's office on those crutches and after that first visit the chiropractor told me, "You won't need those crutches again." And I walked out of there. Initially I went nearly every day for my adjustments but I was able to make it to Thailand, and from then on I've been (knock on wood) able to maintain my lower back by getting Thai massages. The diagnosis was that my vertebrae through the ravages of getting older had worn the cartilage spacers down a condition oftentimes called a slipped disk. And the nerves were getting pinched due to the lack of enough of a buffer and too narrow a space between the vertebrae. In my case I'd call the M.D. the quack. The chiropractor, who seemed too young in the face to be for real, proved to be most effective, and at relatively low cost.

I do think it's time to give certain Westerners their just do in the driving deportment. Yesterday I took Soi Six on my motorbike in order to travel down Beach Road to Mike's Shopping Mall. Well, there are all these speed bumps down Soi Six. Moreover there are food vendor's carts and all sorts of foot traffic that includes both girls and lady boys running after their falang prospects. Suddenly a motorbike cuts across my path from my left as I'm coming down the Soi about as far right as I can go. The bike comes in front of me at about a 45 degree angle and winds up just eight feet in front of me, the driver apparently thinking he has a divine right to whatever the hell he wants to do and damn the torpedos. Okay---I had just slowed down for a speed bump and it's just after my crossing it that this Westerner pulls this. At the end of the Soi I'm abreast of him. So I turn into the left lane of Beach Road--very carefully since there's no telling what this idiot is going to do when Voila, he pulls the same stunt again, careening from my left right in front of me as he twists his head from one side to the other to indicate---"Fuck it, I'm taking my chances." Then he immediately zooms over a lane to his right without even looking. There is a Western woman behind him which shows he has bad taste along with his bad manners.

Actually entering, then driving up Second Road is much easier to do and I believe safer on a bike than crossing it as a pedestrian. Think about it---when you are crossing it you are traveling either East or West so your ground speed is 0 miles an hour but the traffic headed North is typically going anywhere from 15 to 30 miles an hour. And you have to register in your brain the difference between your speed which is zero and the speed of all that traffic and that traffic is moving down four lanes at once. But when I enter Second Road on my bike I'm focusing on just one lane of traffic at a time. So say I'm coming out of the guest house I'm staying at which is on the East side of 2nd Road. There really isn't that much to contend with in that far right lane as I enter it. And when I'm up to 15 to 30 miles an hour I can merge into the traffic on the next lane and so on as very few people are passing me at this point. But say I'm coming out of Royal Garden Plaza or a street near it on Second Road. This time I'll apply the same strategy only this time I'm coming into 2nd Road from the left or West side rather than the East. However, at this point there are a lot of baht buses on the right side of 2nd road or pulling out from a stop. Here one has to use common sense. If the taxi is moving down 2nd road down the second lane from left to right it is possible he's going to pull over to pick up passengers. So if one is passing to the taxi's left it is important to be very careful and to pull all the way over to the curb or to come to a complete stop behind the taxi--not matter what the taxi driver tries to pull. And if the taxi is already stopped it is often best to pass him on his left as he's "probably' not going to turn left before venturing out another lane to the right--but don't put even this past him. But unlike driving a car you don't need a traffic lane to pass him on the left. You only need 3 feet on a bike.

A friend just called me who now has a pinched nerve in his back. What is the name and phone number of the chiropractor some of you recommended here earlier? Can't find the posts so I'm thinking it's been deleted.

I am finding that Yamaha Nouvo to be a money saver in more ways than I anticipated. There is the obvious cost savings from not having to use taxis including motorbike taxis nearly as much. But recently I've noticed that my food bill has probably dropped to half. My gf and I instead of heading to a next door restaurant that will typically set up back from 300 to 450 baht, will instead go on the bike to places such as Carre Four. Here one can get a plastic card. A meal for the two of us runs from 100 to 125 baht so figure we are saving around 200 baht each time we take this election. There is also a very inexpensive retaurant in Big C which is just down the street from us. Transportion costs plus savings in meals are probably 1500 baht per week. That's $150.00 U.S. per month or $1800 a year for a bike that costs just $1350 brand new. Gasoline costs are approximately 100 baht per week or 400 baht per month.

keep in mind that College graduates will often earn just $160.00 a month so that should give you an idea of what the price of labor is. My Thai girlfriend will squat in the middle of the bathroom floor (less than four feet by five) to do laundry by hand in a plastic tub. She cleans the wax out of my ears often, cuts both my toenails and fingernails, massages my back while also walking up and down my lower spine (which is where my back troubles are), cleans the place upon first waking up, cooks excellent Thai meals once or twice a day, does the dishes (without ever asking for help), and cuts my hair to boot. She is also a competent motorbike driver. Also, if we are carrying bags of stuff we have just bought throughout a store or down the street, she thinks it's perfectly all right for her to be my pack animal instead of my being hers. Name one American girl who is willing to do all of this? As already mentioned here in the posts, medical care here is much cheaper than it is in the U.S. And one isn't always waiting in these long lines to get it. This is definitely a good place to get old in.

Agreed about their being most selfish while driving not to mention a total unconcern for risk taking. Example in point---there is a winding road in front of Bangkok Bank that ultimately leads to Central Pattaya Road--which is my normal path to Carre Four. Another winding street feeds into this one. Normally the traffic heading straight has the right away before the vehicles that have to turn into this street, but most Thais pay no attention to this whatsoever prefering to simply dive right in and to let the other person sort things out even if this includes bodies. Here's another good one. Thais especially while driving motorbikes upon approaching a busy intersection, say with four lane traffic will cross all four lanes to get to the other side. Doesn't it make a lot more sense to focus on one of two lanes immediately ahead of you, then make a left turn. You are not going the way you want to go but at this point if you want to reverse your direction or enter the street you were driving on that crossed the intersection. However, you now only have to focus on what's happening in two lanes instead of four while you were contemplating crossing four busy lanes. So simply turn right and pull a U turn or head to the curb and then pull out to head the opposite way. This is far safer since I believe the average human mind cannot account for what four lanes of traffic are doing all at the same time. One would think the Thais would do this but I've never seen it done. But cheer up. You can always get a motorbike and do as nearly all Thais do. When all those cars start piling up in front of you inching their way along just take any continuing free space around them--three feet is enough and zoom to the head of the line. While Thais are very selfish drivers they fully expect you to return the favor and don't seem to mind. Try this maneuver in New York City and you are going to get all kinds of horns blasting at you and very possibly a few motorists trying to run you and your motorbike over. The Buddhist concept of tolerance cuts both ways.

I nearly brought my cat with me to Pattaya last August 3rd after getting a retirement visa and planning on moving here permanently. First off, transporting her here would have cost me over $200.00 on Eva airlines. Second was the matter of shots. I took her to a vet for two barrages of shots which set me back over $100.00. But so far she was going. Then a problem surfaced with the U.S. airlines. The cat would have to go by air from St. Louis to San Francisco. I had to cancel my domestic flight because of an indefinite heat advisory. Animals could not go in the cargo hold because of the heat and they couldn't go in the passenger compartment either. So I switched to a different airline. However, I would have to transport the cat in a small plastic cat carrier that could only be something like 14 inches long. I could just imagine the cat having virtually no room whatsoever in that small container for the 4 hour flight from St. Louis to SF, waiting for hours between flights at St. Louis, SF, and Taipei, the 4 hour flight between Taipei and Bangkok and the 13-14 hour flight from SF to Taipei. She'd be crapping all over herself, lying in her excrement, etc. And then what really happens to her when I finally arrive at the Bangkok airport? Will she be quarantined. I was informed there would really be no problems, but would there really? And what about airport policy in Taiwan? One might be told one thing but actually experience something else entirely including the cat remaining behind while I made my flights. I hated giving my cat up who had been the most loyal pet I ever had. But a very good friend offered to take care of her for me. Amazingly she's gotten along very well in her new home.

After driving a motorbike here for a month now, I'll have to agree with the statements made here. It is complete insanity on the road due to a complete lack of respect for the rules of the road---any rules of the road that is. However, I will have to rate the Thai women drivers as being infinitely superior to the men. For the most part they drive much slower and seem to be much more respectful, have greater common sense, and exercise some degree of knowledge of proper driving habits. Many men are so full of testocerone and out to impress with their blistering speed antics on a 125 cc. bike. Westerners on the other hand are a varied lot. More than 50 % are pretty decent. However, a good percentage is obviously pretty drunk and still another substantual percentage are emulating the appalling driving habits of the Thai males.