Thais and swimming

**Gerbil** · 27-04-2011, 10:42 PM

Pools? What the fuck is wrong with Klongs? Most of the peasants who live around me are quite happy to take a dip in them?

**DrAndy** · 27-04-2011, 10:54 PM

true, they certainly all get in the klong up in Chiang Mai

**Bogon** · 27-04-2011, 11:18 PM

Originally Posted by DrAndy

jolly good source, but then they only list two! even so, they still charge over B90 to get in, which is quite a large slice for most Bkk residents

Here's another jolly good source....A Bigger Splash
Let me just post some cheaper options than the 90 baht, which would be more acceptable to the Bangkok massive.

Nearby the Pathumwan Princess Hotel, next to MBK Shopping Centre, the National Stadium, offers use of its 50m pool to members only at 30 Baht (US$.80) per day. Yearly membership is only 300 Baht (US$8)

For true stadium inspiration, head to the beautiful 50m pool at the Sports Authority of Thailand (SAT) complex at Hua Mark on Ramkamhaeng Road. You can swim past the rows of bleachers as the pool’s floodlights and the concrete hulk of Rajamangala Stadium loom above you. The pool opens at 6:00 am until 8:00 am and then for two-and-a-half hour intervals until 8:30 pm. Access is 30 Baht (US.80) and 15 Baht (US$.40) for members.

If you’re looking for an affordable pool in a more intimate setting, you can try the 30m pool at the Lawn Tennis Sports Club in the Muang Thong Thani complex on Chaeng Wattana Road. The suburban, fresh air setting offers open space, tennis courts next door and flower petals blowing into the pool for 30 Baht (US$.80) per visit. Members pay 1,500 Baht (US$40) per year and 20 Baht (US$.70) per visit. The pool is open daily from 10:00 am to 8:30 pm.

Close to the centre of town on Petchburi Soi 6, the recently refurbished 24m pool at Diana Sports Club costs only 60 Baht (US$1.50) for non-members and 30 Baht (US$.75) for members.

And this one is really really nice

In the heart of Sukhumvit, Benjasiri Park offers a 25-metre pool, which is members-only and runs 15 Baht per session. Membership (with passport copy, two photos and a medical certificate) costs only 40 Baht for one year. The pool itself is nice, but the inside-the-park location is exceptional.

I have highlighted the prices for easy viewing.

There are a load more if you want me to post them?

Think I'm gonna stop here because I feel a bit of a silly billy debating the ins and outs of swimming and its costs in the metropolis.

Offer is still there to shake hands and agree to disagree?

**Rigger** · 28-04-2011, 07:15 AM

Originally Posted by Carrabow

Originally Posted by Rigger

Originally Posted by Carrabow

Originally Posted by Rigger

Thais are like cats

Out in the country where I am at water is second nature. There is a place we go swimming in Mae Nam Munn north of Rattanaburi where the water current is quite strong even for a vetran swimmer and I have never heard of someone drowning.

I guess the region dictates the capability. My daughter and son were Knee high to a grass hopper and took to water like fish. All of my immediate family cant keep away from the stuff, especially when it gets HOT

Water to us means FOOD; so fishing with casting nets (this can be dangerous in deep water if you get tangled in one) is the Norm.

Just ask around how many kids drown in the area, up our way it's probably 2 or 3 a year and not a single lake in and around the village that hasn't taken a kids life.

Sorry to hear that,

Are you in the country or Suburbia?

Both at the moment with live between to homes one in the sticks and one in the city, but spent 6 years living in the village before.

**Carrabow** · 28-04-2011, 08:49 AM

[quote=Rigger;1742527][quote=Carrabow;1741754]

Originally Posted by Rigger

Originally Posted by Carrabow

Sorry to hear that,

Are you in the country or Suburbia?

Both at the moment with live between to homes one in the sticks and one in the city, but spent 6 years living in the village before.

I dunno if you can consider ThaTum or Rattanaburi cities but from a reference point that is remotely close to where I am at.

With that being said, pretty much evrybody swims like fish

And likes to catch and eat them too, not this big. Taste mooshy, like 'em pan size.

**Ratchaburi** · 28-04-2011, 07:08 PM

[quote=Carrabow;1742572][quote=Rigger;1742527]

Originally Posted by Carrabow

Originally Posted by Rigger

Originally Posted by Carrabow

Sorry to hear that,

Are you in the country or Suburbia?

Both at the moment with live between to homes one in the sticks and one in the city, but spent 6 years living in the village before.

I dunno if you can consider ThaTum or Rattanaburi cities but from a reference point that is remotely close to where I am at.

With that being said, pretty much evrybody swims like fish

And likes to catch and eat them too, not this big. Taste mooshy, like 'em pan size.

Would you stick to the swimming pool & go & jump into the Klong.

**Carrabow** · 28-04-2011, 07:31 PM

Originally Posted by Ratchaburi

Would you stick to the swimming pool & go & jump into the Klong.

There are no swimming pools around me, creeks, rivers and some lakes.

Some of you would go where we go. Most would not.

**DrAndy** · 28-04-2011, 08:38 PM

Originally Posted by Bogon

Think I'm gonna stop here because I feel a bit of a silly billy debating the ins and outs of swimming and its costs in the metropolis.

yes, it is a bit off topic

OK you have shown you are right in that there are lots of pools in Bangkok, and they seem reasonably priced

but how crowded are they? how many Thais are there, and do they swim?

that is the point of this thread, I think

**genghis61** · 28-04-2011, 08:59 PM

^ I have no idea re Bangkok

but: Phuket has an Olympic-size 50m pool, grandstand, well set-up facility, at Saphan Hin just out of Phuket Town. Apart from when school groups go it is barely used (in my exp), we'd go and there'd be two or three people swimming laps, that was it. Schools nearby but swimming does not seem a popular activity.

Where we are now, 8000 in town/surrounding area and the 25m pool not big enough, first children's learn to swim classes at 6.30am, next at 7.15am, more in the evening.

My partner maintains it is money-related. Mothers who do not need to work and have more time for their children, have a second vehicle to take the kids to swim class and either use the adjoining exercise park (with us) or else simply sit and chat away with each other.

**Bogon** · 28-04-2011, 09:35 PM

Originally Posted by DrAndy

but how crowded are they?

Not very

Originally Posted by DrAndy

how many Thais are there

Not many.

Originally Posted by DrAndy

do they swim?

Not really.

Originally Posted by DrAndy

that is the point of this thread, I think

Exactly.

**DrAndy** · 28-04-2011, 09:41 PM

Originally Posted by kmart

For a country with a lot of coastline and water, the swimming ability here is pretty abysmal. As someone said^^, the apathetic Buddhist fatalism in LOS is mostly to blame.

Originally Posted by DrAndy

sorry, but that is bullshit Malaysia is the same with very few people taking to the water and Indonesia

this is what I originally disagreed with you about, and you avoided answering

red herring specialist?

**Sailing into trouble** · 29-04-2011, 09:15 AM

Just a bit of insight into people who spend most of the lives on the water. Fisherman merchant seamen etc. Aran Islanders, are an example of the european attitude. Most never learned to swim, as they claimed it just prolonged death as the only way they would end up in the water was when the boat sank. The famous sweaters, had a design for each family, the fishermen wore as solders do boat tags.

A friend of my dad was in the Merchant Marine in the WW2. He said if you were carrying wood or general cargo you slept in your cloths. Coal or iron ore with your life jacket on. Explosives in your PJ's

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