Tag Archives: Pattaya

Songkran Driving

Nothing says Songkran better in Thailand than getting into an accident with a drunk, as revealed in this series of email dated from 2006. EMAIL from the Old Roue April 4 after I invited him to join me on a trip to Phnom Penh to escape the Songkran madness. His reply. No thanx, I’m driving […]

Public Knowledge

Several years ago the beach resort of Pattaya announced plans to place public urinals along the Beach Road to better serve the nearly five million tourists expected that high season. Most sunbathers piss in the sea and beer drinkers relieved themselves in the bars along the busy road. Everyone else has to hold their water […]

BOXING DAY Pattaya 2007

Boxing Day dates back to the Middle Ages. Workers showed up at the manors and estates to receive hand-outs from their English overlords. In those early times the money was placed in a clay pot containing the year’s bonuses and in recent capitalist times the boxclay pot containing the year’s tips, which were doled out […]

TO LIVE AND DIE IN PATTAYA by Peter Nolan Smith

Pattaya isn’t what it used to be in the 90s or 80s. The coconut plantations have been replaced by luxury villas. Interpol and the Thai Police hunt down fugitives and the Russians have taken over the hills, so three summers ago I moved north to Sri Racha with my son Fenway and his mom. The […]

Most Dangerous Drivers in Pattaya

I’ve been traveling in Asia over thirty years and have survived a head-on motorcycle crash along the Burma border, a mudslide in Sulawesi, and the chaos of Bangkok traffic. My scariest drive in Thailand was during a blinding rainstorm through the Khao Yai Mountains. Insects smashed into the windscreen and the wipers smeared their bodies […]