…oh no, this is the road to Hell.
When the new mayor of Pattaya came to power, he had a 15 point plan to improve Pattaya. One of the points was to clean up Walking Street and get rid of all the hookers; so once we had stopped laughing we pretty much ignored the rest of the list as well. But tucked away in the projects was a plan to build a tram system, which on the face of it is almost as laughable as getting rid of the hookers. But suddenly the tram has become a monorail and the project is very much alive.
It’s a four billion baht extravaganza which will build a line from a place nobody wants to go to or leave from, to another place that nobody wants to go to or leave from; with a few stops along the way. The project is scheduled to take ten years (for which, read “infinity”) and will cause massive disruption on the main roads of Pattaya while it is being constructed. If it is eventually finished, nobody will use it and it will eventually break down and be scrapped. But none of this matters because some people will have benefited financially along the way; by which if course I mean the construction company which will be awarded a contract based on submitting a least-cost, technically acceptable bid in a carefully monitored tender process. And the hookers will be removed from Walking Street.
Still, we can take some comfort in the ability of City Hall to administer such a large project. Their stellar performance in the project to widen Thappraya Road over the last half century is a clear indication of what we can expect if the monorail goes ahead.
It’s been at least five years since the seven kilometre project started and it’s not quite finished yet. Indeed it is closer to being started than finished. For some reason, City Hall decided to award a separate contract for each kilometre of road. Not sure where they found seven different contractors who thought they could build roads, but experience has shown that they can’t.
The first section, heading out of Pattaya towards Jomtien, took years to complete. Now it is done and presumably handed back to the city for routine maintenance; which mainly involves keeping everything clean and tidy.
In the north of Thailand there is a road that runs dead straight for a hundred kilometres or more. If you join at the northern end you find that there is a patch in the central reservation which looks like a well-tended front garden of an obsessive gardener. There is a delicately pruned bush and a cascade of flowers, carefully arranged for effect. All very charming; and then you discover that this patch is duplicated over and over again, for at least twenty kilometres; before the design changes and another little garden design repeats itself for another twenty kilometres or so. It’s amazing, and you can’t help but admire the dedication of the local authority that planned and maintains this ribbon of display; presumably with a good deal less available cash than urban Pattaya.
And this is Pattaya’s approach to beautifying the central reservation; makes you proud to live here:
But at least the road seems to be standing up to being driven on, which is more than you can say for the next section, from the top of the hill, down to the lights at Theppasit Road. Completed only a few months ago, it immediately started to crumble; apparently not designed to cope with being driven or rained on. There are now a number of no-go areas which are occasionally halfheartedly repaired before again collapsing into rubble. This is the outside lane of a three lane road, a joy to drive on (in a tractor):
Carrying on down the road and things get worse. No new road construction yet; but a couple of years ago, someone ripped away the side of the road to make way for an eventual widening. The result looks like this:
Welcome to Baghdad Pattaya, have a nice holiday.
Further on, and it really starts to look like a war zone. Septic water, mud, puddles; and no sign of anybody doing anything constructive.
Can’t wait for the monorail project.
Comments 🔗
2010-09-21| Billy saysMmmmm … makes Jakarta look positively well-manicured in comparison, though many of its central roads are still “decorated” with the concrete columns of a long-ago-abandoned MRT construction project …
2010-09-21| Keyser Soze says“The project is scheduled to take ten years (for which, read “infinity”) and will cause massive disruption on the main roads of Pattaya while it is being constructed. If it is eventually finished, nobody will use it and it will eventually break down and be scrapped.”
The Thappraya Road project is just another footnote as to the incompetence of all Thai officials…
You have just described the entire country of Thailand. No one cares if anything is completed or done well. As long as someone’s hand gets greased in the process.
Mai bpen rai. Or, what a fooking joke Thailand is and will always be.
2010-09-21| Billy saysSpike’s very post indicates that there not all is fucked up “If you join at the northern end you find that there is a patch in the central reservation which looks like a well-tended front garden of an obsessive gardener” .. so perhaps there is hope after all …
Hardly my point however, which would be that most places are pluses and minuses - if you are lucky then you will have the choice and the wherewithal to be where the former exceeds the latter for you yourself …
I get heartily sick of hearing expats complaining about the country that, as often as not, they CHOOSE to live in, and some of them for donkey’s years … the alternative is clear, fuck off back to wherever you came from … and join in complaining about the weather and Tony Blair instead, just like the rest of the poor fuckers …
I excuse Spike as his complaining is more than balanced by what comes over as a clear love for the country he CHOOSES to live in and its people and traditions ..
Perhaps it is part of the human condition to complain, however, it is my choice whether or not to share the company of those who CHOOSE to constantly do so and without balance .. very largely I CHOOSE not to …
2010-09-22| Spike saysBilly, could not agree more. I also get so sick of the expats here who do nothing but moan about Thailand and the Thais. If they don’t like it, why don’t they just fuck (or fook) off to where they came from. Of course I complain; I am British and it is expected. Plus, it makes for a good blog post. But the screw-ups and the chaos are all part of the charm of this place; it’s what makes it fun. Much of it is caused by the mai pen rai (it doesn’t matter) attitude; but that same attitude is responsible for the easy-going nature of the Thai people. I love this country, I love the people (one in particular more than the rest), and would not want to live anywhere else.
2010-09-22| Q’on says“I love this country, I love the people (one in particular more than the rest), and would not want to live anywhere else.”
CO-SIGNED! ;)
2010-09-22| Mike saysJust like Fox News “Fair And Balanced - You Decide”. Its just very sad the best of ideas end up like this time after time. Who is in charge, anybody, somebody or nobody? If you drive this road everyday like I do then you wonder what is the real delay. In the past eight months many accidents on this road that are caused by the unfinished construction and patched holes on the newly completed road. Love Thailand - Don’t like this road project that will take forever.
2010-09-26| Robert saysYou overlooked one small spot where it has been carefully manicured along the center meridian. For about fifteen feet in either direction in front of the court building. (?)
I look at it like this. In the States everything is taxed beyond belief to maintain roads etc. The 1,500 baht I pay in road use taxes on my vehicle is a joke in comparison to elsewhere. Answer is patience and remembering that it is their country. That they are costing themselves tourist revenue by allowing this (plus water drain off dumping raw sewerage into the ocean spoiling beaches)is what should be concentrated upon rather than complaining about them personally.
Now, three years seven months ago the whole of the road was two lane the entire way. One impetus for the expansion was “Ocean One” tower, which has yet to have a foundation laid for it, but if ever built the expansion would have been vital. It is already justified as is.
Oh, and if they ever DO get the sewer water treatment plant expect to see roads ripped up again from condo buildings to connect to the mains. The system is much like the west in the 1940’s.