There's a lengthy article in today's Independent by Andrew Spooner under the sensational heading of, "With so many Britons murdered in Thailand, why does our Government not warn of the dangers faced there?". The article goes on to state at least 17 British nationals have been murdered in Thailand since 2003. The main focus of the article is the brutal murder of Toby Charnaud by his wife, in Hua Hin in 2005. Even so, Pattaya comes in for some particularly harsh criticism.
Quote:
Pattaya is worth including in his, (Toby Charnaud ), story for a fuller picture of the society in which he lived and died; it is believed by some that more British citizens meet a violent end here than anywhere else in Thailand.
On any given day, tens of thousands of prostitutes can be seen working the brothels, bars, streets, hotel lobbies, beach fronts and even shopping malls of this gaudy city. Pattaya is also the focus for high levels of criminal activity involving international gangs from Russia, Germany, the UK and China. The number of deaths of British nationals' in Pattaya is hard to ascertain – though some sources claim that it is up to four every week, neither the FCO nor the Thai authorities have any data they are prepared to release. However, what can be speculated with some confidence is that of the 226 average annual deaths of British citizens in Thailand recorded by the FCO, a large percentage are in Pattaya. (The FCO refuse to list causes of deaths, so we must also speculate as to the reasons for this morbid hotspot. Anecdotal evidence suggests straightforward causes of death for some, such as road accidents and health problems; then there are the suspicious-sounding "suicides" – jumping from balconies seems to be a favoured method.)
:Unquote.
Spooner's comments on Pattaya are littered with "at leasts", "it is believed", "some sources", "anecdotal evidence" and "also speculate" but few hard facts. And he's shamelessly used the two year old murder of Charnaud to give his article some substance. It's the sort of article you would expect to find in the tabloids, not in a broadsheet.
For a man who has written a guide book on Thailand he seems to have no problem running Thailand down. Maybe he's just looking for publicity for his guidebook. Maybe he just needs the money. Whatever, if the authorities want to start blacklisting farang trouble makers, they could do worse than start with Spooner. He clearly makes money out of Thailand and then shows his gratitude by shitting on the hand that feeds him.
Sierra Tangos
- Hotties Club at the back of the beer bars opposite Mike's Dept. Store on Second Road is owned by the same people that have the Honey Pot on Soi 2 but Hotties appears to be no where near as successful. Part of the problem is you wouldn't even know there was a coyote bar in the complex cause it is hidden way in the back and can't be seen from Second Road. If you're passing, take a look, I saw a couple of Hotties that might take your fancy.
- Talking of the Honey Pot, here are a few of their hotties from last night.
- A new cold spell from China is expected to hit Thailand on Monday, causing temperatures to drop while downpours are also anticipated in the Northeast.
While temperature in the northeastern region is expected to decline, the Central region including Bangkok and eastern region are forecast to experience heavy fog in some areas. Motorists have been warned to take extra caution.
In the North, the temperature atop mountains is expected to drop to 2 degrees Celsius and frost is likely on the higher slopes in the region.
Heavy fog will be seen early in the morning in Central and Eastern parts while isolated thundershowers are expected in provinces along the Andaman coast. Waves in the Andaman Sea are projected to be as high as one metre.
In Bangkok and surrounding areas, heavy fog is expected in some areas with minimum temperature forecast at 22 degrees Celsius and maximum 34 degrees [via Bangkok Post]
- The Election Commission (EC) has handed out three more yellow cards on Sunday, according to Election Commissioner Sumet Upanisakorn. Speaking after an EC session held to deliberate on red and yellow card issues, the EC confirmed the distribution of three more yellow cards today. The first was given to Surawit Konsomboon, winner in constituency 2 of Chaiyuphum province for the People Power party. Two other yellow cards were given to Puea Pandin party winners Polpee Suwanchewee and Meechai Chitpipat in constituency 6 of Nakhon Ratchasima province. By-elections are set to be held in these constituencies. [via Bangkok Post]
- Dancing To A Trafficker's Tune - an article in today's Bangkok Post about Uzbeki women working in the Bangkok sex industry
- I've found a supplier of L.G. products in Pattaya who's offering 15% off the shop retail price (inc VAT) for items like flat panel TVs. If anybody is interested, mail me and I will send you the supplier's contact details. These are genuine products, no knock offs.
- SanDisk is coming out with a flash MP3 player, the Sansa View with 32GB with internal memory and an additional microSD card slot that can accept SanDisk's new 12GB cards. That means you can have a portable media player with 44GB of flash memory--not too shabby. Price $349. [via Crave]
- 2.4-inch color LCD with landscape mode
- Photo and video support
- MicroSD slot capable of accepting SDHC cards
- FM radio and voice recorder
- Separate podcast sorting
- Supports AAC, Audible and WMA subscriptions
- Windows and Mac compatibility
- Tested battery life of 32.3 hours
- If you receive files with extensions you don't recognise, then try asking a great helper named File-Extensions.org for some advice about the unknown extensions. If found in the database, it will provide you with a description of the file extens
ion, its icon and category as well as a list of applications that can handle it. Besides searching for the desired extension manually, you can also browse the database by category. Having just started its existence recently, File-Extensions.org database isn’t as large as you may have hoped so far but with the powerful base it offers, this extension database could become quite popular on the net.
- A cross-section survey of 1,000 people in the UK , made up of Afghans, Pakistanis, Indians, Poles, Iraqis, Somalis, Africans, Albanians, Bosnians, Turks, Geordies, Brummies, Glaswegians and Liverpudlians were asked if they thought Britain should change its currency to the Euro. 99% said no, they were happy with the Giro.
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