Travel between Jomtien and BT

[gerefan2]

Pattaya to Jomtien could take over an hour of your precious holiday time in a baht bus. Rented motorbike takes 10 minutes. A motorbike allows you to visit all three areas 2/3 times a night and sample the different atmospheres in each as the night unfolds. And the boy you off will think you a little less old and just a little more cool.

Whilst I agree with that, I rent a motorbike all the time, ....but it all depends...
If you don’t drink fine..
If,like me, you do drink you would be mad to even have one drink before driving a motorbike in Thailand.
Leave that to the Thais.

[newalaan2]

Pattaya to Jomtien could take over an hour of your precious holiday time in a baht bus. Rented motorbike takes 10 minutes. A motorbike allows you to visit all three areas 2/3 times a night and sample the different atmospheres in each as the night unfolds. And the boy you off will think you a little less old and just a little more cool.

Sorry arsenal need to totally disagree with this. On occasion even at wrong time of day/peak times it could never take 'an hour' Jomtien-Sth Pattaya either direction. Normal journey time is 10 mins by baht bus for about 90%+ of trips. So lets not over exaggerate that just to try and play-up any advantages of motocy rental.

Certainly as a visitor I feel it's simply not worth the increased risk associated with motocy driving.........to hire one, especially Pattaya where driving is crazy with mad young Thai/Western lads, drink and drugs all mixed-in together. Of all the places in Thailand I visit including Bkk......Pattaya is the very worst by light years. I've driven thousands of miles in vehicles around Thailand never had an incident. In Pattaya alone I've been in three motocy accidents, none were my drivers fault yet any of which could have cost me my life and/or serious injury. Chances are....small incident involving a baht bus is unlikely to result in serious injury, the slightest incident on a motocy where there is nil body protection can lead to serious injury.

Anyway, why would you want to visit these areas 2-3 times a night? I stay in one area for a decent length of time, maybe moving between two areas and then on to late night clubs/pubs. I tend more to pick different areas on different nights rather than visit them multiple times in an evening. Anyhow the distance between Sunee/Walking St/BT I class as virtually nothing in terms of time for walking.

But most important to me is the fact I enjoy a beer or two and visiting bars in BT, Sunee, Jomtien would be a massive turn-off not being able to drink around the bars just so I could have 'slightly more' easily available transport. To me that's absolutely insane when Pattaya is so compact with readily available transport 24/7. If obviously like yourself, you do NOT drink then it might just be more convenient, but no more than that. The one thing I feel about visits to Thailand and Pattaya especially is the fact I don't feel the need to rush around, I enjoy the easy pace as I say with Pattaya so compact. In 18 years and 60+ visits never considered a motocy rental even once. Incidentally, bf uses motocy back home all the time and even he has rejected any thoughts about renting a motocy in Pattaya, to describe this he likes to use his own version of one of my oft-said phrases 'that just ask for trouble come"!

[Nirish guy]

making a special effort this year for my Vietnamese guests and taking them to a Hogmanay Ceilidh

Hmm interesting to hear what they make of THAT ! Do please report back !

[Nirish guy]

A motorbike allows you to visit all three areas 2/3 times a night and sample the different atmospheres in each as the night unfolds.

Totally agree and I've always rented a bike for that very reason and make the trip between the two areas numerous times, HOWEVER I now absolutely park the bike up in the evenings at my room and dont touch it again, especially if driving to Jomtien as as already been mentioned on the board the police and their breathalysers are now also guaranteed to be on the road between the city and jomtien every single night without fail. And Joe before you say "but why would you drink anyway etc" I'm not talking about being falling off your bike drunk I'm talking about you maybe had two or three beers at 3pm on the beach and drive to Jomtien at 8pm "totally sober" and get nicked for being over the limit etc and yes you might say oh well you're still drunk etc......but aside from legality I'd disagree about that.

So, rent a bike for sure, but do be aware the police have now caught on to their latest big money making scheme and I dont see that changing any time soon so be sure to park it up if in any doubt ( or carry 10000 baht spare cash with you if not). PS HAS anyone heard anything different to the 10000 baht rumour i.e is that feel discussable perhaps ?

[arsenal]

My experience and timings and those of Newalaan differ. Why do I want to visit each area 2/3 times a night? Well, because I do. The atmosphere changes throughout the night. And I'm virtually tea-total in Thailand. A 10 day trip recently yielded an alcohol consumption of exactly one beer.

[joe552]

I haven't said anything on this thread NIrish. I don't drive a motorbike, so have nothing to contribute

I know, it never stopped me before.

[gerefan2]

PS HAS anyone heard anything different to the 10000 baht rumour i.e is that feel discussable perhaps ?

Two of my friends (thai) have been done in the last year and both had to pay 10K baht.

I refused to pay one single baht towards any on it and one stayed in the lock up for 4 days until he found the money.

[FarangRuMak]

ive had fun with the motor bike boys...grabbing hold of them..tightly..

I've see a few of the cute ones who have done the maths and have gone a-go-go.

[Nirish guy]

Two of my friends (thai) have been done in the last year and both had to pay 10K baht.

If thats what they're hitting Thais for I dread to think what they're asking farang for then.

[a447]

How can they expect a Thai to pay that sort of money?? That's ridiculous.

Perhaps they are working on the premise that behind every drunk Thai stands a rich farang willing to pay the fine.