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The Pattaya Otter comments on recent happenings in and around Pattaya
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A New Mayor – at last
On June 8th the citizens and other incumbents of Pattaya breathed a collective sigh of relief as it was announced that they would not after all have to endure another re-run of the mayoral and council election.
After over two month’s of legal wrangling the original election result was declared valid, and the candidate with the most votes, Khun Niran Wattanasartsathorn was duly elected as Mayor.
Unfortunately in the four months since the previous city council left office, virtually no city maintenance has taken place other than the continuance of the most basic services and as such much of the infrastructure, especially the roads, has fallen into an even worse state of repair than usual.
The Mayor announced at his inauguration that his first priority would be to refurbish the City Hall building which had also been neglected during this interregnum – may we respectfully suggest that this should come after filling some of the potholes in our streets.
However notwithstanding all that, The Pattaya Otter wishes Khun Niran and his team all the luck they will need in their formidable task of running ‘Dodgem City’ and hopes that they will continue to display the same keenness, openness and approachability as their predecessors.
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You’ll never Wai alone
Everlasting sagas are not confined to elections nor indeed to closing hours, they appear to be a way of life here.
 The latest, of which few anywhere in the world can still be ignorant is our Prime Minister’s plan to buy a stake in Liverpool football club.
Actually the saga predates this and in fact started several months ago when he announced his interest in buying Fulham but was rebuffed by the present incumbent there, Mohammed Al Fayad.
Having then switched his attention to Liverpool, Khun Taksin (PM) seemed initially to be also doomed to failure, but much to the surprise of most, Liverpool eventually responded in a favourable manner.
But the ground then rapidly became muddied when the question of who was to pay for this stake arose. Firstly the PM said it would come out of his own money (quietly glossing over the fact that he didn’t actually have any, as on assuming the office of Prime Minister he passed over all his business assets to other members of his family).
Then he appeared to change his mind and said he would be buying the share in the club on behalf of the people of Thailand and because the Nation as a whole would benefit from this (not clear exactly how) they should be expected to contribute to its purchase.
Much to the PM’s surprise this was not greeted with spontaneous outpourings of joy and euphoria, in fact quite the opposite with suggestions being made that the money could be better put to use in bolstering the national football team (whose recent results confirm the need for a great deal of bolstering), or in developing better sports facilities for the Thai public, or indeed for just about anything else.
Khun Taksin then announced a third change of plan, instead of paying with his own money or from the public purse, he would create a new national lottery to fund the purchase. There is in existence already a state national lottery, a low cost lottery, and several ‘underground’ lotteries, all notwithstanding the fact that any form of gambling is illegal in Thailand. This new lottery, he proposed, would have a much higher minimum entry fee and also a much higher maximum payout, thus keeping the majority of the populous from breaking the law by investing in it.
Again, spontaneous cheering was decidedly lacking, with this proposal being almost universally condemned, particularly by the country’s religious leaders.
So it was fairly quickly withdrawn and we now appear to be back to plan A – namely the PM funding the purchase himself.
Meanwhile at the Kop End, so to speak, silence appears to have been drawn over the entire event, presumably as they are otherwise occupied with getting themselves a new manager and also some players capable of winning something, or indeed anything.
That is not to say that the deal is a ‘dead duck’ – it may yet happen in some form or other, dead ducks are not often observed here, mostly just severely lame ones continuing to hobble on for ever and a day.
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Bank and Public Holidays
We have had a veritable spate of Bank and other Public Holidays here recently, ranging from May Day (also known as Labour Day), to Coronation Day and most recently the Buddhist festival of Vischa Bucha.
Common to all of these appears to be the determination of the Thai people to follow what used to be a particularly western trait associated with Bank Holidays, namely the urge for the entire population to board their motor cars and head out to spend the day in the nearest traffic jam.
Being a seaside resort, Pattaya is increasingly on the receiving end of this travelling (or more correctly non travelling) horde, and with the Labour day holiday held on a Monday, followed by Coronation Street (sorry I mean Day) two days later, the town over that particular five day extended weekend witnessed some of the worst traffic snarl-ups ever experienced here.
Indeed from my particular vantage point overlooking the road to Jomtien Beach, I witnessed on the Saturday the traffic grind to a halt several hours earlier than it had even done during the Songkran mayhem, and it continued to barely move until well after dark.
Fortunately I did not have to venture out that day, but next morning was due to make my way to our Expats club meeting in North Pattaya. I set out earlier than usual, even before 9 AM hoping to at least have an easy time getting there even if the return journey was too awful to even contemplate – wrong!
As I approached the roundabout leading to Pattaya Beach Road I entered a solid jam and took the best part of half an hour to reach the club entrance just round the corner.
This I could see was being largely caused by people parking their cars in what was supposed to be the ‘fast lane’ of beach road in order to picnic on the beach. With the ‘slow lane’ being totally filled with parked vehicles of all manner, and the ‘Middle Lane’ being blocked in several places by huge tourist buses double parking whilst they disgorged or collected their various tour party passengers, the actual through traffic was left with nowhere to go.
The police, acting with their usual due diligence, decided the best solution to this impasse was to be totally absent and leave everyone to sort it out themselves. The amazing thing is that we did – eventually, and at least with no sign of that other Western trait – road rage – its just too hot for that here.
In the interests of those readers of a nervous disposition I shall not even begin to describe the journey home, suffice to say I lived to tell the tale – just..
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Other Imported Habits
It’s not just traffic habits that have been imported to Thailand over recent years. Many other aspects of Western Culture have over the past 10 years or so become a way of life here.
Notable amongst these are Supermarkets and indeed Shopping Malls. When I first came to Thailand about 15 years ago staying then in hotels, supermarkets or their absence wasn’t something I was aware of. It wasn’t until about 4 years later when I first tried living for a month in an apartment in Bangkok that I had to answer the question as to where to buy the food essentials I needed.
At that time, the only place I could find supplying Western style food was a small shop on Sukumvit Road called Foodland. This supplied me with staple items such as bread (a standard pretty tasteless while loaf, no other available), sterilised or powdered milk (fresh milk unheard of), and of course beer (choice of two locally brewed brands Singha and Kloster), and that was pretty well about it.
Contrast that with the Western Shopper in Pattaya today. We have two branches of the Tesco Lotus chain (yes the same Tesco as in UK), 2 branches of ‘Big C (a local food chain), a new huge Carrefour hypermarket, a second one of these is already being talked about, and of course good old Foodland which although still a lot smaller than these other newcomers, still seems to offer more of what the Western taste desires (e.g. it is the only place to buy frozen oven chips).
And as for the choice of food available, nowadays it is harder to list items unavailable than those to hand, bread now comes in all shapes and sizes, fresh daily from many local bakeries, fresh milk of course including skimmed and semi-skimmed, and umpteen brands of beer.
Whether this actually counts as progress is a matter of debate. It certainly makes adjusting to life here a lot easier than it was 20 or even 10 years ago (as of course access to English language television and the Internet also do), but it does give us the lazy option of continuing our western eating (bad) habits and also not having to really venture into the world of the Thais in order to live here.
Not that the Thais themselves do not patronise these establishments, they do and in ever increasing numbers, they also patronise the local MacDonalds KFCs, Burger Kings etc. as can be witnessed from the expanding girth of their offspring.
But as yet this has not completely led as it has in the West to the demise of the ‘Corner Shop’ or indeed here the ‘Corner Foodstall’, these still seem to be in fairly good abundance but whether they will continue this way or whether eventually they will be unable to compete price wise with the big multiples remains to be seen.
If they do fall by the wayside then this will be a great pity as a very visible part of what we see every day as ‘local culture’ and indeed ‘local colour’ will be lost from our lives – and we, yes we all, and I am probably more guilty than most, pushing our burgeoning trolleys though our sanitised air conditioned shopping malls will be to blame..
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No Fags, No Booze – No Way.
It was announced at our Expats Club recently that there was to be a government sponsored march in Pattaya next month against the evils of smoking and drinking. This would culminate with a ceremonial pouring down the drain of bottles of alcohol.
The best comment came from a member in the audience who simply asked ‘Which drain?’
And that is the end of Otter’s Tails for this edition..
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