I have seen the "10% beach chair zones" growing so, out of curiosity, I measured the percentage of beach length covered by sun loungers on a few beaches. The blocks of umbrellas are easily visible on Google Earth and I think their measuring tools are pretty accurate. The measurements are based on satellite photos dated 16 April 2017, the end of last high season.

Karon Beach has 5 blocks of chairs covering 27% of the length of the beach (excluding chairs within Centara Grand perimeter)

Karon Nui Beach, occupied by the Meridien Hotel, has loungers on 40% of its length in 2 blocks

Kata Beach has 2 blocks of sun loungers covering 30% of the beach length

Patong has 5 blocks of sun loungers covering 16% of the beach  length, but these are 3 or 4 rows deep

We may expect further expansion of the "10%" zones in the current high season!

 

Edited November 19, 20178 yr by chub

at a guess   i think expansion   would be at 100  pc sure

Kamala is experiencing 'mission creep' even with the Army visit the other week.

 

People just can't help but extract the urine here when they are given an opportunity they should not treat with contempt. It just leads to zero tolerance again as its the only thing they understand, then they get all hurt about it! TiT. 

Surely the width is also taken into account, otherwise it could be 10% of the length of the beach with sunbeds right up to the water level!

1 hour ago, Psimbo said:

Kamala is experiencing 'mission creep' even with the Army visit the other week.

 

People just can't help but extract the urine here when they are given an opportunity they should not treat with contempt. It just leads to zero tolerance again as its the only thing they understand, then they get all hurt about it! TiT. 

And, the parking area adjacent to the Kamala Police Station looks like complete sh!t

20 hours ago, Psimbo said:

Kamala is experiencing 'mission creep' even with the Army visit the other week.

 

People just can't help but extract the urine here when they are given an opportunity they should not treat with contempt. It just leads to zero tolerance again as its the only thing they understand, then they get all hurt about it! TiT. 

i was there when the big guys showed up in Kamala

now it seems the restaurants/massage places are shut down BUT the tents are still up as well as the chairs, ( by the northern end of cemetery)  just waiting for the tents to reopen as we get closer to high season.
personally cant see why people sit there with the heavy bass coming out of the clubs on the beach there 

40 minutes ago, phuketrichard said:

i was there when the big guys showed up in Kamala

now it seems the restaurants/massage places are shut down BUT the tents are still up as well as the chairs, ( by the northern end of cemetery)  just waiting for the tents to reopen as we get closer to high season.
personally cant see why people sit there with the heavy bass coming out of the clubs on the beach there 

Don't even get me started on that one!  The tent massages and restaurant/bar just by the cemetery were there open fri afternoon. 

20 hours ago, madmitch said:

Surely the width is also taken into account, otherwise it could be 10% of the length of the beach with sunbeds right up to the water level!

5 rows deep at Nai Harn the other day pretty much covering all the sand above high tide line.

Thais are like incorrigible kids.

Most stuff they do isnt that  terrible , its just that they will never take 'no' for  an answer and are always inviting mates along to join  in the fun . They  dont give a thought to the future, they can be bought with candy , and they  wont clean up after themselves  or take responsibility for their actions .

 

Still , I really like them...

 

Perhaps the day that Thai  people get a real wage,  and cant triple it pan-handling on the beach,  is maybe  the day  that we wont be talking about these issues every 2 months.

we usually go to the south end of Nai Harn beach are the area had no chairs a couple of weeks ago, anyway there is no such thing as social security payments here and Thais have to work to survive so as long as they are not taking over the entire beach or blocking access its not a problem to me, live and let live and be happy in a lovely place to live in, i can see a topic coming up again about road blocks and 500 baht fines for people to complain about because they are breaking the law by not having a license and not wearing their helmet, boring,boring

22 hours ago, phuketrichard said:

i was there when the big guys showed up in Kamala

now it seems the restaurants/massage places are shut down BUT the tents are still up as well as the chairs, ( by the northern end of cemetery)  just waiting for the tents to reopen as we get closer to high season.
personally cant see why people sit there with the heavy bass coming out of the clubs on the beach there 

I paced that off a few mornings ago. The area in front of the cemetery is about 45% occupied with ??? you name it. South of there minus the sh!thole parking lot near the police station, it gets much better. I haven’t been south of Sunwing in awhile, so can’t say much about that.

i walked south of sunwing sunday, LOTS of loungers and those blow up things people sit on. Crowded and only going to get worse, lotsof people laying out of the sand as well.

I prefer the area at the  southern end of the cemetery,

the northern end of the cemetery is  the worst,,, but better than last week, seems a few of the tents shut down and left

 

 

Not to get to far off topic, but what the F were they thinking when they filled in the north end of the Tsunami park with dirt, covering portions of the walking track? It looks like he!!

11 hours ago, madmax2 said:

<snip>... anyway there is no such thing as social security payments here and Thais have to work to survive ...<snip>

A little off-topic, but Thailand does have a social security system similar to that in the US. The problem is that the vast majority of Thais have never paid into the system, and are therefore ineligible to receive normal benefits.

11 hours ago, DrDave said:

A little off-topic, but Thailand does have a social security system similar to that in the US. The problem is that the vast majority of Thais have never paid into the system, and are therefore ineligible to receive normal benefits.

Not compulsory or funded by the general tax revenue like in Australia, Where a alcoholic who has lived under a bridge all his life is entitled to a aged persons pension after never paying any taxes

A person who works hard all their working life, pays taxes on everything they have earned and has paid for the pension paid to the alcoholic is not entitled to a pension because they have accumulated to many assets 

 

This does not apply to politicians of course who are entitled to claim their superannuation (taxpayer funded pension) after only serving 2 terms and can claim it straight away, not have to wait until they are 65YO like every other Aussie 

 

Anyway you have to have a regular job with a salary/wage to pay into the system which a lot of Thais do not have, they live from day to day on what money they can make in casual employment and pay no taxes, probably not making enough money to pay taxes on anyway  

13 hours ago, DrDave said:

A little off-topic, but Thailand does have a social security system similar to that in the US. The problem is that the vast majority of Thais have never paid into the system, and are therefore ineligible to receive normal benefits.

 

Yes Thailand does have a social security system ... but only for employees working for a bigger company or government. They pay 4% and company pays 4% of their income (I think it;s still 4%). A very few smaller businesses and even private individuals pay in. I have no idea of statistics but I would guess 50% of the population not covered.

I took this still from the Marina Resort webcam on the South end of Karon about 10 minutes ago.

http://www.marinaphuket.com/live3.php

 

It illustrates how the 10% zone is, or isn't, working now. For me that pic encapsulates the ideal situation. A few beds for the Europeans who apparently need to sleep on beaches, and plenty of sand for those who just want a real beach experience.

If only it would stay this way.

Good numbers of high season tourists there at 10am on a grey day.