The Pattaya International Mardi Gras is set to take place on 23rd January 2009.

This will be the first ever Mardi Gras Festival here in Pattaya and will be based on Mardi Gras celebrations around the world.

The highlight of the festival will be an Electric Parade which will take place in the evening. It will start at Pattaya City Hall and finish on Pattaya Beach close to the Central Pattaya Road intersection.

Local Schools and Private Companies will be taking part in the parade which will be colorful and full of energy according to the organizers who are Pattaya City Hall and the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Four Regions Floating Market in Bang Lamung district of Chon Buri is the latest attraction for tourists visiting Pattaya.

On Sukhumvit Road north of Pattaya, it is spread over 67 rai and built at a cost of 350 million baht. It had a soft launch last month and will formally open to tourists shortly.

Owned by local tycoon Warida Sae-eung, it claims to be the biggest floating market in the eastern region featuring 111 shops selling food and specialties from all parts of the country.

Some 80 boats will be on standby to ferry tourists around the compound linked by a network of canals. The compound also features model farms, sunflower fields and a museum, due to open later, where on show will be rare pieces of crafted wooden products, and after dark there will be troupes performing dances native to the four regions of the country.

There is no entrance fee and the market opens daily from 10am to 11pm.

An audacious failed robbery incident failed on the morning of the 3rd December. Two ladyboys Uten Jariya and Sutad Kreepjumpa found themselves at Pattaya Police Station to be charged with theft.

The incident occurred at the traffic lights at the junction of Second Road and South Pattaya Road when Iranian tourist, Mr. Abadi was waiting on his bike at the lights, the two culprits came alongside and started their silly antics and sexual overtones by embracing the man.

No fool, Abadi realised that one of them had taken his wallet, so gave chase as the two quickly fled the scene and shouted for help from the nearby traffic police. At the station, 2,000 baht and other currencies were found hidden in one of the men’s padded brassieres. please read the Pattaya People Weekly newspaper.

Here in Pattaya, there will be a celebration at the Bali Hai Pier in South Pattaya. Everyone is invited to this event and to wear the King’s yellow color to show their respect and loyalty.

As in previous years the birthday parade will start at 5 p.m. in front of the Royal Garden Shopping Center in Pattaya and travel along Beach Road to Bali Hai Pier in South Pattaya.

Students from many schools in the educational service area will perform on stage when the parade reaches the pier at 6.30 p.m., which will be the official starting time for the ceremony of making worship offerings of Phum Thong and Phum Ngern.

All celebrants can then make homage and good wishes to the image of His Majesty the King and join the rest of the nation in the candle-lit birthday ceremony.

Not even the dancing girls provided by a local hotel could cheer thousands of travellers as they tried to flee protest-hit Thailand through this Vietnam-era airbase.

Since Friday, the U-Tapao naval base at Sattahip near Pattaya has been the nearest international airport for tourists stranded by an anti-government blockade of the capital's main airports.

Travelers who arrived here found crowds of tired and angry passengers, armed guards, piles of garbage, mountains of luggage, and an increasingly tense and surreal atmosphere.

Built in the 1960s by the US air force and equipped with just one X-ray scanner for bags, the airbase can only handle around 40 flights a day, compared to the 700-flight capacity of Bangkok's gleaming Suvarnabhumi international airport.

Some travel agents bussed passengers down to U-Tapao, which is near the tourist resort of Pattaya, but with information proving difficult to come by in Bangkok, others came on their own more in hope than expectation.

Huge traffic jams built up outside the sprawling compound. Thai soldiers with M16 rifles guarded the entrance to the airport to prevent anti-government protesters from gaining access, as travellers lugged their bags under the sun.

Once inside the terminal, it was standing room only. Travelers were unsure where they should check in. Long queues wound around the lone luggage scanner, where soldiers tried to hold back the surging crowd.

It's complete chaos and pandemonium, said Bonnie Chan from San Diego, California: We've been given incorrect information from the airlines. The US embassy says they can't help us. We're high and dry. The airlines keep giving us the run-around.

With no departures board available, airline employees held up signs that said Final boarding call, Moscow, while other staff stood inside the security area and pressed signs against a glass window calling for passengers to board a flight to Hong Kong.

At one point, a group of unruly passengers pushed their way through a door to the security screening area after an airport employee announced the final boarding call for a flight to Taipei. One woman, caught in the surge, began to scream, and the soldiers forced the doors shut.

U-Tapao's only other selling point was when female employees from one enterprising Pattaya hotel, taking advantage of the captive audience, put on a traditional Thai dance performance.

The women later donned red and silver dresses with feather boas, singing: You'll fall in love in Pattaya. There's no better place to be.

Unlike his fellow passengers, Brucker was not searching for sex in Pattaya, at least not in the customary sense. Brucker had traveled there within the framework of an anthropological study of Israeli men seeking sex services in Thailand. Over the course of three months, Brucker did not leave the city, which is viewed as heaven by some and as hell by others. Today he says he will not be traveling in Thailand in the future.

Brucker stayed at the Mai Travel hotel in the city, which accommodates, almost exclusively, Israeli sex tourists. He visited sex clubs, dined with Israeli sex tourists and played pool with them. In between activities, he interviewed some 60 men.
 

...Read full article

Following the grenade attack on the People‘s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) in Bangkok in which one protester was killed and 22 others wounded, a group of the PAD from Chonburi and the surrounding district have joined in the protest against the government of Somchai Wongsawat.

At about 1:30 pm on the 20th November about 1000 PAD supporters gathered outside the Banglamung District Office. They demanded Mongkol Thamkittikoon, Banglamung district chief officer, listen to their grievances, including their claims that the earlier attack in Bangkok was connected with the current government and ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra.

The protesters were told that Mongkol was away on other duties but MPrateep Konyoo, deputy chief officer, would take care of the situation on his behalf. However the protesters were not satisfied with his response and moved their demonstration to the Banglamung Police Station.

The PAD have subsequently decided to build a protest stage and invite all PAD members in Pattaya and the surrounding areas to gather together at the site in front of Banglamung Police Station.

There is concern that this demonstration could escalate.

The long tail boat race which will take place at Lake Mabprachan on the 22nd and 23rd November.

This year it will be a spectacular international event with seven countries participating including Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore and of course Thailand; presenting a total of 40 long tail boats to compete.

These will be two fun packed days and will also include buffalo races and a Thai drum parade and competition. Open from 9am at Lake Mabprachan.

Tourist arrivals in Pattaya have decreased by more than 50% in this high season from the number this time last year and the outlook is not encouraging, according to the Pattaya Business and Tourism Association.

Asian tourists especially are staying away in droves fearing political violence. Visitors from elsewhere are also being kept away by the high price of fuel sending up air travel costs.

Thanet Supornsaharungsi, chief advisor of Pattaya Business and Tourism Association, reported that hotel reservations and occupancy were down by 50-70%, compared to the same time last year when all hotels were full for the high season.

Arrivals from the European and Russian markets have also dropped by 50% and there is no positive sign that the situation will get better, he said.

Thanet said that the total number of tourists is expected to remain at just 50-60% level this season compared to last year, if the political crisis remains and there is not serious policy to deal with the problem.

Pattaya Daily News recently reported on the unlawful killing of a young notorious criminal and, from one point of view, this meant that the streets of Pattaya might be slightly safer because the victim, Tao Pachajeen, was among the most dangerous men in town. However, this was not to be. Now Pattaya is a battleground, where the fight for succession is taking place. Only yesterday, 6 November 2008, an innocent young man was gunned down in front of his girlfriend and friends for dancing in an exhibitionist manner.

This incident was not actually a gang succession-related crime, merely an occurrence of meaningless violence perpetrated by a group of lawless youth upon a hapless victim. However, it does presage the upsurge of violence and mayhem consequent on the initial death of Tao Pachajeen, with gangs of armed youths marauding the streets of Pattaya, contending for leadership.

Pattaya Daily News tries not to report more than 2 severe crime items each day, in accordance with the council's request to downplay violence, but we have reported many similar events in the past and feel that trying to pull the wool over the public's eyes is not the way to go about reducing the senseless violence which increasingly characterizes this city. Rather, we feel that all such incidents must be reported in full to pressurize the Powers That Be into taking some constructive action.

There was a SWAT team road check on Sukhumvit Road near Boontawon ceramic shop last night.

Bikes passed through but cars were being pulled over and the SWAT team (including a Farang officer) were poking a torch into windows etc.

Presumably looking for red or yellow political protestors on their way to Bangkok.

The world’s largest evangelical body has commenced its highly-anticipated general assembly – the first in seven years – on Saturday night with invited Christian leaders from some of the most prominent Christian organisations in the world.

More than 500 leaders from the World Evangelical Alliance’s national and regional evangelical alliances, commissions, global partners and associates have convened at the Jomtien Palm Beach Hotel in Pattaya, Thailand for the general assembly, which will last from 25 to 30 October.

In a rousing address, WEA international director Dr Geoff Tunnicliffe told delegates that the five day gathering would be an opportunity to refresh their vision for integral mission.

We need a fresh vision for and commitment to the work of the body of Christ around the world that reflects our focus on integral mission, on holistic mission, on the transformation of the Gospel, We desperately need that new, fresh vision.

[Perhaps they will could find a new fresh vision by popping into Baby Dolls A-GoGo]

A heroic Danish citizen aged 71 detailed 3 lady pick pockets who attempted to rob him on a Baht bus.

Biko explained that the three Thai ladies, who were in fact sisters, had tried to rob him. The three sisters were Sunun Kiew-sa-ard (40) and Sunet Kiew-sa-ard,(42) and Pattama Um-nuoy (21).

Biko was on his way to Walking Street in the baht bus in which the three women were co-passengers. Sunun was sitting next to him and tried to pick his pocket. When he realized what was happening he grabbed her and shouted to the driver to stop the bus.

Police searched the sisters’ bags and found 2 bags of dry Ganja, 2 tablets of yaba and some cash, which police suspected had been stolen from previous victims. Police kept all the items as evidence.

Pol.Col. Noppadol said that this gang had been arrested many times previously for similar offences but the cases against them had been dropped because most victims were tourists and they didn’t stay in Pattaya long enough to be witnesses.

The three suspects denied attempting to steal Biko’s property but confessed to the possession of the ganja and yaba. They were all arrested and taken into custody for further investigation and can now expect to be brought to justice. [just like the previous times!]

Pattaya City has unveiled an ambitious plan for the construction of four-billion baht monorail public transport system in the city along the same line as the BTS in Bangkok.

The proposes transport system will be constructed in three phases for a final total distance of 27.1 kilometers.

Initially an 11-km.circuit with 9 stations will be built for 8 trains.

It will start from North Pattaya in front of city hall and travel to Pattaya Beach Road, Bali Hai Pier, South Pattaya Flyover, Pattaya 3rd Road, Central Pattaya, the junction of Pattaya 3rd Road and North Pattaya and back to the front of city hall.

The four billion baht funding target is divided into two parts: one billion baht from Pattaya City income and the remaining from bonds.

Mayor Itthipol said a world tourist destination such as Pattaya should have a mass transportation system of international standard. But in reality there are still many obstacles ahead, such as acquiring land, adjusting and moving buildings and businesses to accommodate the rail line.

This information presented the initial stage of the project, which will be explored further to the satisfaction of the public, he said.

Tourism-related operators in Pattaya are suffering a double blow from local political problems and the world economic slowdown.

They expect average hotel occupancies in 2008 to drop by 20% from last year.

During the first nine months of this year, the occupancy rate declined to 50%, when compared to 70% during the same period last year. Since the clash between PAD and riot police last Tuesday, the rates have plummeted to 30%.

Alisa Phanthusak, assistant to the managing director of Tiffany Show Pattaya, said the company had to suspend its new investment plans for the popular attraction: This is the greatest crisis for tourism businesses in Pattaya since I have been in business for more than 10 years. We are facing a lot of negative factors, both locally and globally.

South Koreans have delayed their travel due to the local political situation while the number of tourists from Europe and the United States is gradually decreasing after an increasing number of banks and financial companies have gone bankrupt.

For Tiffany Show, the number of guests has dropped by 50% and that of Korean tourists, its main customers, has plunged 90%, said Sahassawat Cholsawat, the assistant sales manager of the company.

Russians represent the only group of customers that still have some potential because they are not very sensitive to political problems, he added.

Rungthip Suksrikarn, the vice-president of Sunbeam Hotel in Pattaya, said foreign tourists were changing their trips to other countries such as Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Hong Kong: We are losing out because of our internal conflicts. Everybody here feels hopeless and we expect an even harder time in the second quarter of next year when the world economic recession bottoms out.

Pattaya City officials have urgently started a damage limitation initiative to counteract negative publicity in the Belgian press, which dubbed Pattaya a sex destination, with one third of the citizens actively involved in the sex trade.

This is in line with Itthipol Khun-pluem, the new Pattaya Mayor‘s policy of redefining the international image of Pattaya as a wholesome, up-market destination.

At the meeting of the Pattaya City Council Itthipol Khun-pluem, relayed the contents of the report from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Pattaya Office, which had been gleaned from recent news published in the Belgian press. The news specifically alleged that one-third of Pattaya citizens were selling sex, with sex service fees ranging from 5-20 Euros.

Such negative publicity, Mr.Ittipol said, was certain to affect the tourism industry, unless counteractive measures were not taken immediately. To this end, Pattaya City will immediately set up a public relations team to monitor negative publicity about Pattaya in the international news and will also create a new website to promote a positive image of Pattaya, providing a funding budget for this project.

Wattana Juntanawaranon, Pattaya Deputy Mayor, said Pattaya, itself, has to clean up its image by encouraging all bars and entertainment venues to have stricter rules for the girls, and discourage them from dressing provocatively, or actively soliciting custom.

Ittipol also said the city also needs the co-operation of the Pattaya and Banglamung Police to accompany the officials to check up on the bars. If there were any bars or venues that were not co-operating in this initiative, their licences would be revoked as this was a serious matter.

If you see the movie cameras around Pattaya, they are filming a new Jean-Claude Van Damme film to be titled Full Love.

It is Thailand/Hong Kong/USA production starring Bianca Van Varenberg, Claudia Bassols, John Colton & Josef Cannon. It will be released around autumn 2009.

The main man was apparently spotted in Living Dolls Showcase (at least someone can afford the drinks there)

An unusual sight caught the attention of Tourists and Ex-pats around the Jomtien Area on Thursday Evening. Journalists were called to the location to record what some called a Tornado forming in the Pattaya Gulf.

We arrived and identified the so-called Tornado as a Waterspout which is common in tropical environments.

The Spout was approximately 30 stories in Height and lasted for approximately 30 minutes and did not appear to move from its original formation position.

We asked a number of local residents who claimed never to have seen a Waterspout before off the coast of Pattaya or Jomtien and we were unable to find any records of such a phenomenon occurring in the recent past.

The Communication Commission of the Senate has agreed that a proposed tramway system for Pattaya and a tunnel under the Sukhumvit intersections would be of great benefit to the city.

Jaruk Anupong, chairman of the Communication Commission and a team of more than 30 people conducted an educational visit to Pattaya on August 18 to discuss development plans with Pattaya bigwigs.

Pichet Uthaivatananon, director of the Pattaya City Public Works Office described the traffic situation in the city, saying that congestion was bad at certain times, especially weekends.
A long-term solution to the traffic jams that are such a feature of Sukhumvit Road is a tunnel under the intersections, with a study being undertaken at present to draw up a concept plan.

Another project would be the development of a tramway system, which would encourage residents to use public transport rather than automobiles, and be more convenient for tourists.

Jaruk also mentioned the development of a railway that would run between Suvarnabhumi Airport and Pattaya, which he said would support international aims to conserve the world’s energy resources by reducing fuel wasted on land transportation.

He said that the tramway should be developed, because it would be a beneficial step for Pattaya, but that a full-scale study needs to be undertaken first to determine the effects such a system would have.

Every year, thousands of Britons living outwardly respectable lives travel to holiday resorts such as Pattaya in Thailand or Goa in India, known for their thriving sex industries, or to Vietnam, Cambodia or former Eastern Bloc countries such as the Czech Republic and Estonia, to buy sexual gratification. A proportion will be paedophiles looking for boys and girls to abuse far away from their domestic moral strictures. It is not difficult for tourists to find poverty-stricken children willing to spend a few hours in a cheap hotel room for the price of dinner.

A report from the International Labour Office in the late 1990s found that in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, the "sex sector" accounted for anywhere between 2% and 14% of national income. Child sex tourism accounted for up to half of that revenue.

...Read full article from scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com

The Good Old Days

Pattaya's new Walking Street sign was said to be operational but frankly it is a huge disappointment. The old sign was a landmark but this new monstrosity can only be described as an eyesore.

The Korean built (and financed?) sign features a large digital (LED?) screen which I am told does nothing but advertise the products of various Korean companies.

Recently new road signs were installed along Walking Street following changes to parking regulations.

Between the hours of 9am and 7pm parking is not permitted on one side of the street depending if it is an odd or even day. If it is an even day parking is not permitted on the left side of the street as you look down the street from the entrance and on odd days parking is not permitted on the right side.

From what we saw, many seem to be disregarding these new parking regulations maybe because the signs are in Thai language only.

We understand that a petition has been signed by every business owner along the street, who are not happy with these new regulations and want parking on both sides every day.

A good friend and his wife travelled from the UK to spend their summer vacation in Thailand whilst visiting me and the family.

Once they had settled into their hotel they were both keen to take a stroll along the Pattaya beach. Mid way through our stroll I could see they weren't at all impressed. The beach itself was heavily littered with all kinds of rubbish, and the promenade was mostly impassable due to puddles of water from last nights heavy rain. There was electrical wiring hanging out of - what I think must have been lamp stands which have been removed. Many of the new fixtures were broken and numerous tiles were cracked and broken.

The fountain at Pattaya Klang area wasn't working and the surface coating is peeling - and generally looks a mess. At the end of the beach by the Thai airways office, the fountain is also broken and looks a complete eyesore. To add to this they were approached a number of times by time share touts, and couldn't help but notice the hookers soliciting passing farangs.

To cut a long story short - they said they had never, in all their travels, seen such a disgusting mess. I felt quite ashamed!

Considering the TAT heavily promotes Pattaya as 'Pattaya Clean City' I was wondering if they feel any shame. Especially since 'face' is a prominent aspect of Thai culture!

July 1 will be D-Day for the new beach bed and umbrella concessions, Chonburi Governor Pracha Taerat has announced.

Governor Pracha Taerat is adamant that the new beach concession arrangements would start on July 1.

He said that the existing licenses would expire on June 24, and that Chonburi Province had ordered Pattaya City not to renew them.

The layout for the new concession areas allows only one operator to have only one lot, measuring 7 x 7 meters. This is in accordance with the goal of returning 50% of the area currently occupied by the sprawl of vendors back into public usage.

An earlier survey had revealed there are 278 entrepreneurs on Pattaya Beach, with several of them occupying more than one lot.

The mayor of Pattaya City has asked Chonburi to allow the 18 vendors who currently occupy more than four lots to have a total of two lots under the new arrangement, rather than one. Those occupants that have less than four lots should have only one lot, or a global usage area of 36.5% he said.

Governor Pracha said he was directing Pattaya City to cancel all of the former arrangements, and the new arrangements would start on July 1. Following the implementation on Pattaya Beach, the new arrangements would be expanded to Jomtien Beach and Koh Larn.
In the event of anyone infringing upon the rules, the city would take legal action, warned the governor.

British consular officials are investigating the circumstances of the death of a British tourist who died from an electric shock.

Incessant rain triggered flooding in low-lying Pattaya, damaging houses and shops.

The tourist was killed in an apparent freak accident from an electric shock while he was wading through flood to return his room.

Sukhumvit Road in Southern Pattaya was under one metre of water Thursday morning causing traffic disruption for small vehicles.

Houses and shops in the town were hit by flooding as deep as two metres.

Local sources indicated that the severity of the flooding was caused in part by garbage-clogged drainage pipes and ditches.

Pattaya City Council and interested parties met to discuss plans to construct a parking facility for cars and boats at Bali Hai Pier, South Pattaya.

The authorities are intent on making the building environmentally-friendly and will use high-tech architectural methods to this end. When it is approved, the project should be completed within 2 years. The budget has been set for Bt735 million in total.

Sithiparb Muengkum, Pattaya Deputy Chief, stated that with Pattaya City constantly growing as an important, tourist venue both, locally and internationally, it is currently facing increasing problems as regards car and boat parking facilities. Each day, many tourists come by car for holidays, quickly filling up existing parking spaces. This especially for tourists who want to go to Koh Larn (Coral Island) and a solution must be found.

Adul Islam, project manager, stated that the format of the parking facility would be condominium- like, using high technology to construct a parking building on the same space as the existing Bali Hai car park. The building will be 3-storeys high with underground parking. The underground section and the 3rd floor would be designated car parks. 1 and 2-engined boats will use the 1st and 2nd floors. In addition, the roof deck could be used for recreational activities. This building will have a capacity of 400 cars and 800 boats. The building will have a frontage space 20 metres away from the sea and the surroundings will be landscaped to complement the building. A budget of Bt735 million is likely to be required.

Last month, PBS broadcast a show called Carrier, about life aboard the USS NIMITZ, an aircraft carrier with a crew of about 6000 sailors. It showed life on the ship and on shore during a six-month deployment in 2005. The Nimitz stopped at various ports in the Pacific, Australia, and the Arabian Gulf. Women were involved in the production of the film, among them director Maro Chermayeff and co-producer Deborah Dickson.

Here is a letter I wrote to PBS about the show:

I was disappointed that Carrier did not cover a basic fact of military life: when sailors move from port to port, they visit bars and brothels and rape the bodies of sexually enslaved women and girls.

I notice that during this 2005 six-month deployment of the Nimitz which PBS filmed, the ship docked in Thailand. When our navy visits this country, they dock off of Pattaya, a prostitution city created for the military. About a third of the girls trafficked to meet the sailors´ sexual needs are underage. Numerous eyewitnesses have told me that the first thing the U.S. sailors do, when they hop off the boats that ferry them in, is head straight for the sex-for-sale enslaved girls. Why didn´t the film crew document the men going with prostituted, enslaved women and girls and girl children in Pattaya? (My sources are military men themselves who have told me about what the fleet does in Thailand.)

Usage of prostituted/enslaved/trafficked bodies is commonplace in the military. Of course, the navy is not going to voluntarily show a film crew this aspect of sailors' behavior. I am disappointed that the woman who directed the show and the female co-producer continue to cover up this side of the military—that they did not film the sailors and their typical ´sexual liberty´ activities in Pattaya and Dubai.

Web mapping company MapJack has removed detail-rich images of streetscapes in Pattaya, including those featuring the Thai resort town's many carnal delights.

The Pattaya pages now shows screens with the message: "There are no images in the selected area".

The removal of the images - some of which showed Western males mingling with bar girls in the town's red light district - came after smh.com.au published a report into the company's innovative mapping product on Wednesday.

MapJack has not responded to queries about the changes, but a new entry on its Wikipedia page suggests it is not a technical glitch: On May 28, 2008, MapJack temporarily removed Pattaya imagery from its site, and is planning to edit out the controversial imagerly [sic] prior to reinstating it, the unsourced entry reads.

MapJack's Pattaya images were taken on March 27 and 28 this year, according to the data contained on the photos. Based on the number of closed store fronts and the direction of the light, the photos appear to have been taken in the morning.

Despite that, there are still large numbers of bars in the red light areas that are open for business as well as more than a few non-local males in the vicinity.

The quality of the images means it is very easy to identify many of the people captured in the photos - especially those photographed in the narrow back alleys of Thailand's original "Sin City".

Although the links to Pattaya map and the images can no longer be found on MapJack, they can still be found on another site called pattayaphotoguide.com.

Tourists and people around Bang Saen Beach (30km north of Pattaya), on the morning of May 24, 2008, were frightened to see many sea worms washed up, dead on the beach. Most of tourists were afraid to go into the sea because of them. Local fishermen warned that the thorn-like protuberances around them are poisonous and should not be touched.

The phenomenon of dead sea worms is an uncommon sight at Bang Saen. Normally, the worms live on top of seaweed in deeper water, especially in front of Koh Sri-chang. Many of the tourists had never seen anything like these worms before, and the weekend visitors, especially, were afraid they might pose a hazard.

Mr. Nares, a local fisherman, said that the probable reason that they were dead is because the sea water had too much freshwater content. The sea creatures were unlikely to be able adjust to the new water conditions and consequently died.

Generally, the sea worms are not as dangerous as jellyfish, but one should avoid touching them because the thorn-like protuberances carry poison. If one is in contact with them, one might develop an itchy rash. Those so affected should wash the rash with freshwater immediately and apply some suitable medicated cream to it right away. This phenomenon would only last for a few days, the fishermen maintain. Therefore, tourists should not be too frightened of the creatures, just avoid touching them, Mr. Nares advised.

If you were strolling past the fleshpots in the Thai resort town of Pattaya recently, be warned: you might have been photographed and now, thanks to a company called MapJack, anyone in the world can see what you were doing.

Based in Hong Kong and Thailand, MapJack is a geo-imaging company that has already published image sets for six cities - four in the US and two in Thailand, including Chiang Mai, and has another five in the pipeline.

The Pattaya image set was within the past month and includes some photos taken as recently as March.

Like Google's Street View feature in Google Maps and Google Earth, MapJack uses a fleet of cars mounted with special cameras to capture what it calls Immersive Street-Side Imagery.

Unlike Google, there is no attempt to fuzz out faces and blur car licence plates or to use the catch-all privacy cloak of lower resolution imagery.

As MapJack's blurb says, the company wants to give users an immersive feeling of actually being there - an effect enhanced by the use of images captured by cameras mounted on backpack-carrying cameramen walking through pedestrian-only zones.

The result is that, in parts of Pattaya, a coastal resort well known as a destination for sex tourism, the MapJack cameras have recorded some fascinating glimpses of street life.

Among the narrow alleys and alfresco bars around the red light district of Walking Street and the area known as Boyztown, almost everyone gets his or her photo taken - Western men, Thai bar girls and even the odd transvestite.

A MapJack spokeswoman, who would identify herself only as Ms Ai-Ling, said the Thai photos were taken a few months ago.

Asked if there had been any privacy complaints, she replied in en email: No, surprisingly not. We can blur faces or licence plates on request and it's simple to do.

The company, which was founded by a Swede and an American in 2006, published its first street-level image set just one week after Google's Street View went live in May last year - something that was "pure coincidence", she said.

The MapJack feature sits on top of a Google Maps template but it offers a number of different buttons and navigational tools not found on the Google offering.

This month, Google announced it was rolling out a new technology that would automatically blur any human face appearing in its Street View feature.

The blurring technology, which will be retrospectively applied to all existing Street View images and incorporated in all future releases of the popular mapping feature, is intended to mollify concerns about the potentially intrusive nature of the service.

A human zoo that allows tourists to gawp at the “giraffe women” of the Burmese Kayan tribe has opened near the beach resort of Pattaya, in Thailand.

Tourists used to travel to the northern resort of Chiang Mai to be photographed next to the women, whose apparently elongated necks are wrapped in dozens of brass rings weighing 20lb or more. Now, though, for the cost of a short taxi ride from Pattaya’s resorts and a £4 entrance fee, they can see the women in a new camp at Sattahip. The district’s chief, Narong Thirachantarangkoon, dismissed accusations that the refugees were being exploited. “It’s better than staying in their home region and starving to death,” he said.

Originally from Burma, the women of the Kayan tribe have been paraded before tourists in seven specially built villages for nearly 15 years, but the nature of their relationship with the entrepreneurs who sell the excursions has come under scrutiny from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees after a group of Kayan women who wished to resettle in New Zealand were refused exit visas by the Thai government.

While most British package-holiday operators no longer offer visits to these camps, tourists can easily buy excursions in resorts. Boycotting the visit is not the answer, says Rachel Noble, of Tourism Concern. “Because these people have no rights, they are dependent on tourists to live – take away the tourism and they starve. Pressure is needed to persuade the Thai government either to grant them citizenship or allow them to resettle overseas.”

The Prize

• 1 Return flight to Bangkok from anywhere in the world (i.e. full Round Trip fare)
• 1 Taxi ride to Pattaya
• 1 weeks FREE hotel room at Pattaya Bay Resort
• 7 meal vouchers - one per night.
• 1 Tattoo courtesy of Tatt2dude (optional and to be arranged individually).

The winner can extend the stay at their own cost although the flight (should) still be covered.

IF we get surplus donations/cash these will be added but not guaranteed.

The Competition

The competition will run from 25th May 2008 - 30th July 2008.

We will pre-select TWO random days. These will be drawn out of a hat with three witnesses.

Everyone who is ONLINE and meets the posting criteria in those two days will go in the draw.

Winner (to be drawn by independent witnesses) must have made 5+ posts, on at least one of the two days, and also at least 100 posts over the competition period. All qualifying posts must be reasonable quality, i.e. one or two word posts will not count.

For many years now the Karen long-neck hill tribes have been a tourist drawcard in the north of Thailand, but now a tour company has decided to bring the hilltribes down to earth and has established a community near Pattaya.

A total of 19 Karen with long necks and 11 other hilltribe people have been set up in a makeshift village at Khao Cheejan in Na Jomtien sub-district.

As is to be expected a number of shops selling tourist trinkets and clothes have been erected while the Karen sit about like exhibits in a zoo.

Khun Weerasak, the manager of the tour company that established the site, said he had permission from the Interior Ministry to bring the Karen to work in Thailand.

Many will have noticed that the green iron fence has been removed from the large piece of land separating View Talay 5 and 7 and the site is currently being cleared of rubbish and flattened.

Rumour has it the land owners have leased the site on a short term basis to an amusement park operator who is planning to bring in around 15 "rides" and use the rest of the area as a car park.

The temporary theme park will be operated by Freij Entertainment.

Google Maps’ Street View has drawn some attention from the European Union, which has shown concerns over privacy issues. EU says that showing detailed images of the streets including the people that are walking there could be against the law in some countries. While taking public photos here and there is perfectly OK, taking pictures of the entire city could be a problem.

Google’s service is displaying ground level photos of the streets online. While some people, like drivers or tourists love the service, others have felt that their right to privacy has been violated. The idea of the possibility of being seen by friends walking out of a sex shop or sunbathing is one that doesn’t appeal to many people.

The service which seems to be taken from George Orwell’s dystopia book ‘1984’ is at this time available only in the 40 cities of the United States where no legal measures have been taken against it and is considered to respect the laws. Google has complied with official requests that pictures of military bases should not be put online.

The search engine giant has responded to the EU officials that it will make everything that is possible in order to comply with local laws. This might mean trying to automatically blur the faces of the people that appear in the pictures. Although this is a satisfactory measure, it seems very hard to put into practice, because face recognition is very difficult.

A lot of nature elements or parts of buildings are making the program mistake them with real people’s faces. Google has started implementing the system in New York with fairly good results and has said that it would make it available to the other 39 cities as well.

Following acceptance of the case for commercial expansion by the foreign office in London, the British embassy in Bangkok has confirmed it has secured the lease on a small office in Jomtien for the use of its consulate in the Pattaya area.

The 20 sqm room, which will need mini-minor works to improve safety and security, is in the block of shop units on the main road in Jomtien soi 5 very close to the Pattaya immigration bureau. The embassy office will be the unit adjacent to the money changer.

New moralist mayor Ittipon Khunpluem has listed his policies as:

• the eradication of Pattaya's red-light venue – Walking Street
• environmental improvement
• the implementation of an effective water supply for the city and Kho Larn
• a 12-year free education system
• low-cost housing for low income groups
• a new, improved traffic system
• a tramline transportation system
• flood prevention
• job opportunities to decrease poverty
• the establishment of a drug-observation and prevention centre
• the encouragement of ecotourism
• the construction of a sports centre
• the establishment of a tourism festival
• the encouragement of world-class entertainment

Itthipol Khunpluem yesterday appeared to have succeeded in defending his family turf as unofficial results showed him topping the mayoral election in Pattaya and beating his two rivals by thousands of votes. A new group also filled the most seats in the Pattaya city council.

Unofficial results showed that Itthipol beat Surat Mekawarakul (of Mike's Mall fame), who had the support of the Democrat party, and Alisa Phanthusak (Tiffany show owner), by a convincing margin in a three-horse race.

Itthipol is the youngest son of Somchai Khunpluem, or Kamnan Poh, an influential figure in Chon Buri, and the youngest brother of veteran politician Sonthaya, former tourism and sports minister.

Voter turnout was over 50%.

Pattaya Photo Guide is a remarkable site that lets one stroll around the sois of Pattaya with rather excellent photographic panoramas in every direction.

The next best thing to being in Pattaya.

Unruly Parking

Motorists and motorcycle riders parking their vehicles along Beach Road will in future have to use designated areas and they will be charged a parking fee.

The decision follows a survey undertaken on April 2 by Pattaya City permanent secretary Sittiprap Muangkoom.  Complaints had been received regarding the use by motorists and business owners of Beach Road as their private parking lot, and the proliferation of car hire vendors. Such is the volume of cars and car hire vehicles parked along the road, usually for long periods of time, that tourists have nowhere to park when they visit the beach.

The survey team saw for themselves how the unruly parking added to the traffic congestion, and they rebuked vendors who had blocked off what they considered to be their own private parking places with wooden poles, stools and other objects.

Sittiprap said that in future, officials would collect parking fees from anyone parking along Beach Road. Parking areas would be marked with painted lines, and cars, motorcycles, baht buses and taxis will all have to pay to use these areas.

The fee for the first hour for vehicles will be 10 baht, rising to 20 baht for each extra hour. For motorcycles the fee would be 10 baht for the first hour and 10 baht for each additional hour.

The police have been asked to strictly enforce the parking regulations and fines will be imposed for anyone disregarding the law.

The Mayor of Pattaya chaired a preparation meeting for the forthcoming elections for Mayor of Pattaya which are due to take place on 4th May. No doubt this will mean a 24 hour bar closure from 6pm on the 3rd May

There are currently three main candidates including, Khun Itipon, who is currently the senior adviser to the current Mayor of Pattaya, Khun Alisa, the owner of the Tiffany Show Theatre and Khun Surat, the owner of the Mike Group of Companies.

Pattaya residents have been advised to prepare water reserve tanks for consumption during the dry season, and city hall is preparing for the probably inevitable drought by surveying and repairing existing public storage facilities.

Mayor Niran Wattanasartsathorn led a meeting to prepare for a week of surveying, repairing, and constructing water tanks to provide enough reserve water for the dry season.

Niran said that private residences that have their own water storage facilities should clean and prepare them ready for use.

Public Works director Pichet Uthaivatananon pointed out that anyone preparing to build a house or a commercial property in Pattaya now has to ensure that an adequate water storage tank is included in the designs for the project, otherwise Chonburi Province would withhold permission for the construction work.

Construction work on the new Pattaya-Chonburi motorway has now reached North Pattaya, where the foundations are being laid for the supports that will carry the overpass, but land appropriation on other parts of the project is taking longer than planned and the highway will not now be completed by its target date of May.

The motorway follows the route of the old National Highway No 7 between Chonburi and Pattaya. Four lanes each 3.50 meters wide are being added to the existing road, and it is now estimated the work will be ready by this August.

A reinforced concrete road with four lanes each 2.70 meters wide is being built from Intersection No 36 to Sukhumvit Road between North and Central Pattaya, for a distance of approximately 7.7 km. There are also two intersections that will connect to the local Pattaya roads near the Pattaya wastewater plant and Chaiyapornwithee Road.

Current work includes the construction of the piers that will carry the overpass near the North Pattaya Sukhumvit Intersection. The east side of the motorway will continue on the left to Central Pattaya, while travelers bound for North Pattaya will turn off at junction traffic lights under this overpass.

Khun Niran, the Mayor of Pattaya recently chaired a meeting to prepare for the forthcoming summer months which often lead to water shortages around the City.

This year, the Mayor would like to prepare for the potential water supply problems and this meeting discussed ways in which they will do this.

A public campaign to save water and to install water tanks will take place. There will also be water trucks on standby 24 hours a day to deal with any emergency water supply problems.

The Mayor did mention that the Maprachan Reservoir is suffering from months of no rain and the situation could become worse in the coming months.