Alcohol sales ban tightened for Asanha Bucha, Lent

[quandow]

STRICTLY enforced this time? 555!!!

[SoilSpoil]

Acute quitting alcohol can lead to serious consequences. GABA receptors will freak out after 20 hours or so and seizures or worse are not uncommon. Doctors advise a taper down instead of cold turkey.  

[rtr4]

1 hour ago, meechai said:

The very least this country could offer its populace is Freedom OF Religion

 

If some want to be Buddhist be Buddhist...follow the precepts/rules what ever

 

If some want to be Christians,Muslims etc carry on follow

 

If your a good Buddhist do you need a law to restrain you from drink?

Do the Muslims need a law to outlaw food sales during Ramadan periods of fasting etc?

 

Come on Thailand you continue to disallow any real freedoms.

Que the "I would never go back to a nanny state folks" ?

Do you think it is case only in Thailand?

[bluesofa]

I remember in the old days when we used to have elections, I went into a bar and as a joke showed my passport to prove I wasn't Thai and therefore could buy beer.

Managed to cause some confusion, the cashier did actually ask the boss if it was true.

 

[alien365]

17 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

Tough luck,its the laws of Thailand,they should have checked first

and maybe have gone to VietNam ,Malaysia,or Singapore. 

regards worgeordie

Booking your first dream trip to Thailand:

Flights-check, hotel-check, travel insurance -check (sometimes), check alcohol selling days or times- did no one ever.

[rkidlad]

1 hour ago, Aachen said:

NEVER! Alcohol in public is forbidden. (And nobody can tell, whether you brought "from outside" or not.)

 

"they will serve it for you"  -- The coffee-cup serving is illegal too.

[Patanawet]

35 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

Tough luck,its the laws of Thailand,they should have checked first

and maybe have gone to VietNam ,Malaysia,or Singapore. 

regards worgeordie

Silly man.

[wirat69]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

12.01am on Friday and remains in place through midnight Sunday.

 

2 days ain’t what it used to be!!!

[Don Chance]

Some of you guys need to check this site:

 

https://baclofentreatment.com

 

[jmccarty]

1 hour ago, Thomas33399 said:

I wonder if you can still take you own alcohol to a restaurant etc. Most restaurants around here will not sell alcohol under the restrictions but they will allow you to bring your own and they will serve it for you.

Not very nice to put the proprietor under unnecessary pressure. If the cops show up and you are sitting there with your Leo, there could be 9/10 of the law.  Enough to put others at risk for you.  Stay home and have a party!

[nausea]

2 hours ago, Andrew65 said:

Not even hotel bars any more? I believe there was once an exemption for them, mainly because of tourism?

Tough "$#!+" on those tourists flying in with no idea. Of course, long term residents and Thais will have no problem, forewarned is forearmed.

[trianglechoke]

2 hours ago, ChiangMaiLightning2143 said:

Never Closed

• International airports and business class lounges
• 5 star hotel bars and poolside service, of course in room mini bars are not emptied.              

One imagines the officers mess at the Army  Club in Bangkok never runs dry either. Do as we say not as we do. 

 

and seedy hooker joints which serve booze in tea cup

[natway09]

I would rather see them ban drinking alcohol in non licenced venues & in public ALL THE TIME

Nothing more uncouth than to see people swigging on a large bottle of beer walking up the street.

[Jimbo1964]

So Thursday Night is the party night then....Well Thursday night through till Friday Midnight for the party animals....lol

[Easy Come Easy Go]

Most Family Marts in my area still sell alcohol, as do those local stores you see in villages or more rural areas. Also it isn't difficult to stock up beforehand if you really want to drink... alki's for example 

[jgarbo]

3 hours ago, Jeremy50 said:

Thailand is a secular society? Not really.  Brainwashed and superstitious? YES.

Everyone's already stocked up for the weekend. My local will serve under the table. Restaurants will lose money. But the blessed few will feel  the epiphany of imbibing weak green tea and diet Coke. Nirvana. 

[chrissables]

2 hours ago, Aachen said:

NEVER! Alcohol in public is forbidden. (And nobody can tell, whether you brought "from outside" or not.)

 

"they will serve it for you"  -- The coffee-cup serving is illegal too.

Is it not illegal to buy, perfectly legal to drink.

[Yann55]

3 hours ago, Jeremy50 said:

Thailand is a secular society? Not really.  Brainwashed and superstitious? YES.

 

Just like the rest of the world, in case you didn't notice.

 

Brainwashing is universal, it's only the washing powder that varies. Same for superstitions : only the idols change, while the mental subservience remains the same.

 

Brainwashing can be blatant (China under Mao) or insidious (The West under Hollywood, the mainstream media, religious institutions, and the school curricula), but the result is very much the same : individuals are groomed to believe that what they think is the truth, that these thoughts are theirs, and that other approaches are wrong.

 

In other words the typical attitude of the TVF poster, especially when busy judging Thai (or Chinese, or Japanese, or Indian etc) people, their beliefs, and their customs.

 

By the age of 9-10 the societies we grow up in have already shaped our basic perspective and opinions. All societies do that. Throughout adolescence, we then develop our 'personality' by grabbing thoughts and opinions around us, thus forming what we call our 'self' even though it's really just an aggregate of acquired stuff. Once in a blue moon, we do create something and it becomes part of us, but the sum of our creations is peanuts compared to the massive weight of outside influences.

 

In this context, to develop a truly personal view and interpretation of the world around us requires decades of efforts, tremendous perseverance (a very un-human quality), luck (because the traps are innumerable) and assistance (trap #1 because who can you really trust?). First of all it requires realizing that what I call 'me' is not really me, and what I call my 'thoughts and opinions' are just a bunch of acquired tastes which have very little, if anything, to do with my real essence.

 

This liberation of the true self from the illusory world we bathe in is, by the way, at the core of the Buddha's teaching. And not only him but all the enlightened individuals who appeared on this planet throughout history. That their teachings are later distorted to the point of being unrecognizable is what history tells us, but if we learn to approach their legacy with open eyes and open ears, then we find that their essential message is still alive, and still helpful. To name just a few well-known ones : Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Lao-Tse, Kong-Foo-Tse, Chouang-Tse, Plato, Socrates, Pythagoras, Jesus-Christ, and Muhammad. But there were many others, in many different cultures, all pursuing the same original goal.

 

Jeremy, when you lash out at Thais for being 'brainwashed and superstitious', you are reproducing a behaviour that belongs to Westerners as a whole and is the result of colonization, missionarism, post-colonization, and the bizarre notion that we are somehow superior to other races, other cultures, and non-Western people in general.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2018 by Yann55

[Classic Ray]

1 hour ago, kingstonkid said:

I love the people that say that it is heresy to close bars and stop the sale of booze.  People have it too good at times.  

 

Bottom line is most Thais stay away from bars and such.  This is a Buddhist country you are coming to yes there are things that are not right.  The laws that you complain about are the same laws that we have or have had in our countries.  Bars are closed on Christmas day.  In Ontario Canada, the liquor stores are closed on stat holidays.  

 

The solution is simple if you have to have a drink then buy in advance and either stay home or find a different container for your booze and be quiet about it.

 

There are ways to do this and they are simple.

 

Quit your moaning and just get on with it you know it happens every year so plan for it.

The UK got rid of most of this nonsense years ago after pressure from the breweries and pub owners. Changes to the Sunday Trading and licensing laws means you can more or less get a drink when you want whether it is Christmas Day or not.

 

I can remember in the bad old days having a pint mid afternoon whilst shopping in Jersey where the law was more reasonable and thinking how civilised it was, the sky never fell in.

 

I expect this will be liberalised the next time the Government changes to encourage spending of more tourist dollars, especially if the reputation of Buddhism as demonstrated by the flying saucer abbot and all the temple corruption scandals continues to worsen.  

[FritsSikkink]

1 hour ago, sandrew33 said:

And for the tourists flying into Thailand for the weekend? 

 

 

They should have done their homework

[Jonmarleesco]

3 hours ago, Aachen said:

through midnight Saturday...

 

Sunday. It forms part of the weekend.

[Jonmarleesco]

16 minutes ago, Classic Ray said:

The UK got rid of most of this nonsense years ago after pressure from the breweries and pub owners. 

Nonsense? Note the beneficiaries; and they aren't the drinkers. 

[IamNoone88]

No ban on guns, drugs, random violence and crazy driving?

[mark131v]

6 minutes ago, FritsSikkink said:

They should have done their homework

Mmmm, yes good, thanks for that enlightening pearl of wisdom I am sure all potential tourists travelling to this international holiday destination will be waiting on your next update, ever thought of doing a travel blog....

[rott]

2 hours ago, worgeordie said:

Tough luck,its the laws of Thailand,they should have checked first

and maybe have gone to VietNam ,Malaysia,or Singapore. 

regards worgeordie

Smug statement.

 

Unlike you and unworthy of you WG.

[Shiver]

3 hours ago, Thailand said:

And mom & pop stores will also comply with the ban.

Where it says "banned at department stores, convenience stores and entertainment venues" does that mean that Mom & Pop stores aren't illegal if they are low key as usual, and that it's only the larger places that they enforce the ban?

Put another way, are they okay with village life having regular sales, and that it's not illegal, rather than just too difficult to enforce?

On regular days, city Mom & Pop stores near me put a hefty fee on cans compared to bottles, but out at the village they make maybe 1/2 baht or 1 baht, and free ice, and even deliver it on a bike if they don't have enough stock, and will not take a gift for their added service.  I feel bad, that I don't think they can afford to close, although I don't want to break or encourage anyone else to break the law when I could plan prior if it is necessary to do so, but if it's okay then I'll just call in on the way to a friends and not complicate things.

Views/Opinions?

[coulson]

2 hours ago, connda said:

Right!  They'll clone Big Joke and his clones will set off around rural Thailand enforcing prohibition.  ?

He doesn't need clones, he can check all the stores in Thailand himself, in a matter of minutes.

[Ling Kae]

My friend and I have stocked up for the next two days and we will be drinking with our Thai friends like we always do. No one likes these bans, especially the Thais that want to drink like normal and the business owners who want to continue like usual.

[metisdead]

An incoherent post has been removed. 

[Tengtai]

If someone absolutely need to drink alcohol this weekend go to 7-11 and by a 6 pack Leo or 2, sit at home and get drunk. What's the problem? Thailand is a Buddhist country and we are guests in the country so we just have to take the bad with the good.