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.