Pattaya shuts go-go's and massage shops

[reader]

From Pattaya Mail

After reporting more than 20 new coronavirus cases in a day, Chonburi’s governor ordered cockfighting and similar venues closed and reinforced limits on operating hours of bars and massage parlors in an effort to stem the spread of Thailand’s second wave in the East.

Chonburi Gov. Pakarathorn Thienchai issued a similar order to one put out Monday afternoon by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration shutting down massage parlors, go-go bars and animal-fighting rings while limiting pubs to offering anything only food before midnight until at least Jan. 4.

The order came after 22 cases tied to a new coronavirus cluster in Rayong spread to Chonburi, including 17 cases in Banglamung District that includes Pattaya.

Alcohol is not banned and pubs that enforce strict social distancing and offer food will be allowed to continue to serve. Initial reports late Monday said Walking Street bars will be permitted to open until midnight, although the situation is fluid and could change at any time.

Establishments subject to the order are defined by the Service Places Act of 1966 and includes businesses where music is performed, instruments are arranged for customer use, services allowing customers to sing or have employees sit with customers, offers dancing or offering dance shows, light shows, food and liquor.

[TotallyOz]

Not surprising at all. However, can you explain how the Walking Street bars are exempt until midnight? That makes no sense at all.

[Guest]

At least one Sunee gogo bar was open and doing a reasonable level of trade on Tuesday evening.

[Gaybutton]

Apparently much more than that has now been shut down in Pattaya:

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Banglamung/Pattaya enters highly controlled status, shutdowns of non essential business, bars, malls, etc

By Adam Judd

30 December 2020

The Chonburi Governor released an emergency order this morning effective immediately for the Banglamung/Pattaya area to help control the Covid-19 coronavirus situation.

(The order specifically says Banglamung/Pattaya, and not all of Chonburi. More information is coming in on this, the majority of recent cases have been linked to Banglamung. It is UNCLEAR if it will affect all of Chonburi, but is very clear that it affects all of Banglamung and Pattaya City.)

This is due to an increasing cluster of infections stemming from an original cluster in Samut Sakhon at a seafood market that then spread through an illegal gambling establishment in Rayong, where some of the gamblers also went to Chonburi.

The brief and important details are as follows:

  -Service venues closed, including bars, nightclubs, karaokes, massage parlors, etc
  –Restaurants take away only. No dine in service.
  -Malls, retail, etc closed except for supermarkets, drug stores, banks, mobile phone shops. All non essential closed, like clothes, etc. Supermarkets may sell only essential items (food).
  -All educational places closed, schools, learning centers, vocational schools, etc.
  -Leisure locations, like bowling, movie theaters, water parks, tourist attractions, etc. closed
  -24 hour convenience stores must be closed from 10:00 PM to 5:00 AM. There is NOT a total curfew.
  -Restaurants in hotels can stay open, however can only serve hotel guests.
  -Public swimming pools closed (As for condos, it will depend on if your condo juristic division considers the pool public.)
  -Amulet stores, religious artifact stores, temple stores closed
  -Pool, snooker, etc. closed
   -Gyms, fitness closed and similar establishments
   –Internet and game cafes closed
  -Close massage shop, spas, beauty clinics. (It did not specifically say hair salon/barber shop, waiting for more information on this)
   -Public parks, exercise areas, playgrounds and any place where people gather closed.
   -No parties or gatherings
  -Beaches were not specifically covered in the order. However, as the previous section on parks said any place where people may gather is closed it is likely they will be affected.

  The order is until further notice with no expiration date. There is not an alcohol sales ban. There is not a curfew or stay indoors order, although people are encouraged to stay at home.

  The mask mandate from the previous emergency decree is still in effect and one “could” be charged if found outside without a mask, The Pattaya News notes.

Governor Phakarathorn Tienchai approved the order. He is also asking residents to stay put, although there is not a strict order/checkpoints, domestic travel restrictions.

This is a developing story, we may add more to this document as information comes in.

https://thepattayanews.com/2020/12/30/banglamung-pattaya-enters-highly-controlled-status-shutdowns-of-non-essential-business-bars-malls-etc/

[reader]

From Pattaya Mail

Pattaya’s darkest hour has arrived

A Pattaya BBQ vendor seems extremely dejected as she waits for customers to buy her sticks of grilled pork for 20 baht each. The small income sustains her family and business from day to day.

Virtually locked down again due to the coronavirus spread and still battered by the loss of foreign tourism, Pattaya’s darkest days have arrived, with only dim light at the end of the tunnel in 2021.

Long lines for free food handouts likely will return soon if the emergency order shutting down Banglamung District Wednesday lasts for more than a few weeks. Only essential businesses may remain open. Bars, clubs, massage parlors and shopping malls – the city’s economic lifeblood – all must close immediately and remain so indefinitely following an explosion of new Covid-19 cases linked to an illegal casino in Rayong.

New Year’s Eve was supposed to be the crowning event in a three-month period in which domestic tourism had breathed some life into Pattaya’s tourism sector. Sure, high season was a pale shadow of 2019, but it was better than July-September. But the Pattaya Countdown was only the first of the events to be canceled as a second coronavirus wave swelled in Thailand.

The momentum of the autumn built by the Bikini Run, Loy Krathong and fireworks festival in November, then the Pattaya Music Festival on Dec 11-12, was all for naught. Mayor Sonthaya Kunplome looked pained as he announced the cancellation of the three-day countdown, knowing it would have brought hundreds of millions of baht to the city. But he had no choice.

Driving around Pattaya and its eastern “dark side” is a sad trip for those who have lived in the city for decades and now must witness “for sale” and “for rent” signs hanging from gates and windows. More street-level shops have chairs turned up on tables than chairs seating guests.

At a noodle shop on Soi Nernplubwan, people talked of moving out of Pattaya to towns less dependent on tourism. Many go-go bar dancers already have moved back upcountry to work in local-style entertainment, like village karaoke pubs and as coyote dancers on the back of flatbed trucks in a rice field.

Pattaya roads have become vacant. Workers who just moved back to town to find jobs at hotels, restaurants, pubs and other entertainment venues have given up and waved Pattaya goodbye, maybe for good.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand put its full effort into promoting domestic tourism since the first lockdown ended June 30, but that work is now in vain. All the pie-in-the-sky ideas TAT teams in Bangkok dreamed up have vanished into thin air.