I can assure everyone they are not, travel down the coast a little to somewhere like Ban Chang and they are fully open from 8am - 4pm - no such ban exists there

 

This for me is more evidence that such lockdowns and bans are aimed directly at foreigners 

 

I think we can all agree that the beach closures do not make any sense, I posted a while ago that IMO the beach closures were nothing more than to generate misery amongst foreigners, well Thai beaches are fully open - go figure

55555, not all beaches are closed. Just those in high concentration areas with Covid-19. On the island I live, with many tourists, all beaches are open and not one case of Covid for almost 40 days. 

I noted in another thread last week about a trip I made down to the far end of Rayong and the beaches we rode past. While they weren't busy, there wasn't any signs saying they were closed and there were vendors in many areas just like normal.

But of course, Rayong is a different province so they don't have to follow whatever rules Pattaya/Chon Buri makes up. Hardly anyone was wearing a mask (not even the staff at the restaurant we stopped at or the gas station on the way back but the staff in the 7-11 were masked) and where we had lunch there was no "social distancing".

(Note: of the 13 people on that trip, I was the only foreigner so it wasn't like anyone was doing anything differently just because I was there.)

1 hour ago, smedly said:

I think we can all agree that the beach closures do not make any sense, I posted a while ago that IMO the beach closures were nothing more than to generate misery amongst foreigners, well Thai beaches are fully open - go figure

I think we cannot. Pattaya and Jomtiem are Thai Beaches, and not open. Presuming it is all and only done to make foreigners miserable is paranoid and ridiculous. 

Rayong is another Province and not subject to Chonburi governors rulings.

The mayor seems to be more than a little bit confused about what his aims and goals are. Take his checkpoints to quarantine the bright side of the city a month ago. He originally billed this as a way of keeping Thais who are not resident in Pattaya from coming here during Songkran and getting drunk and spreading the virus. They only managed to open Checkpoints V1.1 halfway through Songkran and it was a dismal failure and had to be abandoned the same day.

 

So they brainstormed in City Hall and came up with v1.2, which was to be a line of checkpoints running along the Bright Side from North Pattaya, through Soi Arunothai and Big C Extra, down Soi Khopai, across Thepprasit and down into the nether regions of Jomtien. With Songkran already out of the way, he explained that this was needed because there were 2,500 possibly infected farang tourists left staying on the Bright Side, and they had to be corralled for the safety of all decent, law-abiding Thais (or insults to that effect, lol).

 

When V1.3 finally appeared, it was along Sukhumvit instead of within the Bright Side, supposedly still to keep those pesky unclean farangs penned in, but also to keep unclean people from other provinces out of our fair city. As we all know, the checkpoints were often unmanned and mostly did cursory checks only, and they achieved zilch other than inconveniencing a lot of people, and were soon abandoned.

 

I'm sure the mayor's under a great deal of pressure, but it doesn't excuse his muddled responses or his overt xenophobia and racism. The reason given for keeping the beaches closed is to stop the infected masses from Bangkok bringing their viruses to Pattaya, but for a city of over 10 million people Bangkok is effectively virus-free now, with just a few cases now and then due to contact with known infections. I don't know what his real reasoning is, but I hope it's more sensible than his arguments for the checkpoints.

3 hours ago, jacko45k said:

Rayong is another Province and not subject to Chonburi governors rulings.

my understanding was that beach closure was a central government directive and nation wide

Beaches appear to be a provincial responsibility. National parks are a Federal one.

Note this article from 9 April: https://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2020/04/thai-beaches-under-lockdown/

Seems Pattaya and Koh Chang were the last 2 areas to shut down their beaches. The governor of Phuket shut down their beaches on 28 March it seems.

1 hour ago, smedly said:

my understanding was that beach closure was a central government directive and nation wide

Nope....

Yes Closed

1 hour ago, curledbean said:

Yes Closed

Where is that pic from ?

7 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

Where is that pic from ?

Jomtien taken this morning.

2 minutes ago, curledbean said:

Jomtien taken this morning.

Yes, that's what the OP was referring to. The beaches in Pattaya (and Jomtien) are closed but apparently they are open in other locations (like Rayong).

16 hours ago, Guderian said:

The mayor seems to be more than a little bit confused about what his aims and goals are. Take his checkpoints to quarantine the bright side of the city a month ago. He originally billed this as a way of keeping Thais who are not resident in Pattaya from coming here during Songkran and getting drunk and spreading the virus. They only managed to open Checkpoints V1.1 halfway through Songkran and it was a dismal failure and had to be abandoned the same day.

 

So they brainstormed in City Hall and came up with v1.2, which was to be a line of checkpoints running along the Bright Side from North Pattaya, through Soi Arunothai and Big C Extra, down Soi Khopai, across Thepprasit and down into the nether regions of Jomtien. With Songkran already out of the way, he explained that this was needed because there were 2,500 possibly infected farang tourists left staying on the Bright Side, and they had to be corralled for the safety of all decent, law-abiding Thais (or insults to that effect, lol).

 

When V1.3 finally appeared, it was along Sukhumvit instead of within the Bright Side, supposedly still to keep those pesky unclean farangs penned in, but also to keep unclean people from other provinces out of our fair city. As we all know, the checkpoints were often unmanned and mostly did cursory checks only, and they achieved zilch other than inconveniencing a lot of people, and were soon abandoned.

 

I'm sure the mayor's under a great deal of pressure, but it doesn't excuse his muddled responses or his overt xenophobia and racism. The reason given for keeping the beaches closed is to stop the infected masses from Bangkok bringing their viruses to Pattaya, but for a city of over 10 million people Bangkok is effectively virus-free now, with just a few cases now and then due to contact with known infections. I don't know what his real reasoning is, but I hope it's more sensible than his arguments for the checkpoints.

why oh why do so many farangs on TVF think that anything that is introduced that impacts them and the way they want to live is xenophobic, and/or racist. Farangs in a place like Pattaya often have a certain life style that may require additional measures to be introduced to address foreign behaviours.  We are not Thai, we often live and act very differently to locals, hence some rules are introduced to cater for those differences.  That is not racist, nor xenophobic, its just acknowledging the issues.  

2 hours ago, Pilotman said:

why oh why do so many farangs on TVF think that anything that is introduced that impacts them and the way they want to live is xenophobic, and/or racist. Farangs in a place like Pattaya often have a certain life style that may require additional measures to be introduced to address foreign behaviours.  We are not Thai, we often live and act very differently to locals, hence some rules are introduced to cater for those differences.  That is not racist, nor xenophobic, its just acknowledging the issues.  

oh dear

go for a walk and get back to us how you went

3 hours ago, smedly said:

oh dear

If he'd bothered reading my post before launching into his usual infantile tirade, he'd have learnt that I was referring to the mayor using the excuse of there being 2,500 farang tourists left on the Bright Side to impose a quarantine on the whole area as xenophobic and racist, which it was. How many of those unclean farangs went on to develop C19? None - point proven. I believe that less than half of the small number of cases of C19 cases recorded in Pattaya has involved farangs, and we are outnumbered at least three to one by Thais in the number of C19 cases in Chonburi province. Perhaps the mayor should learn to look at the data before accusing and insulting the farang geese that have long laid Pattaya's golden eggs.

36 minutes ago, wombat said:

go for a walk and get back to us how you went

Completely insane fines and jail sentences. Not even sure if they are legally enforceable.  But breaking the curfew in Pattaya fines start at 20,000!

22 hours ago, smedly said:

my understanding was that beach closure was a central government directive and nation wide

Correct, all the beaches in Phitsanulok and surrounding areas are definitley closed!   PML

On 5/18/2020 at 12:01 PM, smedly said:

to generate misery amongst foreigners,

Look OUT!!!!! THEY THEM AND THOSE GUYS... they are after you!! - 

 

Surely they follow you around and put up signs just for you... 

In Krabi/Ao Nang the beaches have remained open since the start - only people breaking the rules on gatherings and social distancing have been warned and moved on.

Maybe they just don't trust all you Yahoos in Pattaya to behave!

On 5/18/2020 at 12:01 PM, smedly said:

the beach closures were nothing more than to generate misery amongst foreigners,

What misery?

Do you live here?  If so, you go and hang out at the beach and swim in the water?

Then, you are the only person I know who does.

 

95% of the posts on TVF and people I know here hate the beach.  They never go.  Do I need to repeat the reasons?  OK. The constant comments about the filth and dirt and smell and rats and feces and urine and trash and garbage and obnoxious tourists.  Anything else I missed?   How about people claiming they get infections from swimming in the water.

 

What misery is it creating when historically the majority never go and seem to hate the place?

 

 

On 5/18/2020 at 5:10 PM, smedly said:

my understanding was that beach closure was a central government directive and nation wide

Where did you get that info?

beaches closed in Phetchaburi, confirmed. here we inherited the Phuket governor who was transferred after he badly he handled the Phuket situation

 

annnd its ridiculous

2 hours ago, JusticeGB said:

Completely insane fines and jail sentences. Not even sure if they are legally enforceable.  But breaking the curfew in Pattaya fines start at 20,000!

In Canada, someone needs to quarantine for 14 days when going back to the country. Quarantine means not leaving the premises at all. Maximum penalties of $750,000 CAD or 6 months in jail. When Thailand's response to covid is put in context to the rest of the world, nothing it has done is very extreme. 

30 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

What misery?

Do you live here?  If so, you go and hang out at the beach and swim in the water?

Then, you are the only person I know who does.

 

95% of the posts on TVF and people I know here hate the beach.  They never go.  Do I need to repeat the reasons?  OK. The constant comments about the filth and dirt and smell and rats and feces and urine and trash and garbage and obnoxious tourists.  Anything else I missed?   How about people claiming they get infections from swimming in the water.

 

What misery is it creating when historically the majority never go and seem to hate the place?

 

 

People just love to complain for the sake of complaining. At our condo, we just re-opened the pool with the restrictions put in place by the government. Since we need supervision, the pool is open 7am to 7pm instead of 10pm. Within 12 hours, a co-owner has complained about the missing 3 hours. This co-owner has never been to the pool...but somehow this is creating a misery for him.

On 5/18/2020 at 4:23 PM, Guderian said:

The mayor seems to be more than a little bit confused about what his aims and goals are. Take his checkpoints to quarantine the bright side of the city a month ago. He originally billed this as a way of keeping Thais who are not resident in Pattaya from coming here during Songkran and getting drunk and spreading the virus. They only managed to open Checkpoints V1.1 halfway through Songkran and it was a dismal failure and had to be abandoned the same day.

 

So they brainstormed in City Hall and came up with v1.2, which was to be a line of checkpoints running along the Bright Side from North Pattaya, through Soi Arunothai and Big C Extra, down Soi Khopai, across Thepprasit and down into the nether regions of Jomtien. With Songkran already out of the way, he explained that this was needed because there were 2,500 possibly infected farang tourists left staying on the Bright Side, and they had to be corralled for the safety of all decent, law-abiding Thais (or insults to that effect, lol).

 

When V1.3 finally appeared, it was along Sukhumvit instead of within the Bright Side, supposedly still to keep those pesky unclean farangs penned in, but also to keep unclean people from other provinces out of our fair city. As we all know, the checkpoints were often unmanned and mostly did cursory checks only, and they achieved zilch other than inconveniencing a lot of people, and were soon abandoned.

 

I'm sure the mayor's under a great deal of pressure, but it doesn't excuse his muddled responses or his overt xenophobia and racism. The reason given for keeping the beaches closed is to stop the infected masses from Bangkok bringing their viruses to Pattaya, but for a city of over 10 million people Bangkok is effectively virus-free now, with just a few cases now and then due to contact with known infections. I don't know what his real reasoning is, but I hope it's more sensible than his arguments for the checkpoints.

It's not up to the Mayor. It's the Chonburi Governor who's the boss. 

5 hours ago, Guderian said:

If he'd bothered reading my post before launching into his usual infantile tirade, he'd have learnt that I was referring to the mayor using the excuse of there being 2,500 farang tourists left on the Bright Side to impose a quarantine on the whole area as xenophobic and racist, which it was. How many of those unclean farangs went on to develop C19? None - point proven. I believe that less than half of the small number of cases of C19 cases recorded in Pattaya has involved farangs, and we are outnumbered at least three to one by Thais in the number of C19 cases in Chonburi province. Perhaps the mayor should learn to look at the data before accusing and insulting the farang geese that have long laid Pattaya's golden eggs.

No, no, I'm not having that.

 

The Golden Goose was dead long long before COVID-19 reared it's ugly head. Died four times a week. As was the last nail in the coffin firmly hammered in, and all the eggs were in one basket. You only had to scan these pages each day to glean such wisdom.

3 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

What misery?

Do you live here?  If so, you go and hang out at the beach and swim in the water?

Then, you are the only person I know who does.

 

95% of the posts on TVF and people I know here hate the beach.  They never go.  Do I need to repeat the reasons?  OK. The constant comments about the filth and dirt and smell and rats and feces and urine and trash and garbage and obnoxious tourists.  Anything else I missed?   How about people claiming they get infections from swimming in the water.

 

What misery is it creating when historically the majority never go and seem to hate the place?

 

 

 

agree. as a backpacker in the early 90s i stayed on samui and it was like a paradise, i went back a few years ago and it's horrible; over developed with dirty beaches. i have been taken to the beach a few times by local friends, they love them, maybe they dont see all the garbage everywhere, on the beach and floating in the water, and maybe they think a dirty grey is a normal colour for the sea...  i honestly dont know why anyone would want to go to the beach here.

 

my sister lives in australia, want to know what a beach is? go there, absolutely beautiful.

3 hours ago, PaoloR said:

In Krabi/Ao Nang the beaches have remained open since the start - only people breaking the rules on gatherings and social distancing have been warned and moved on.

Maybe they just don't trust all you Yahoos in Pattaya to behave!

What about the islands and tourist spots, they open?

 

I'm led to beleive Railey beach is closed?

Just got back from a weekly-ish evening dip in the ocean, as I have been  for the last few months, no change in Songkhla since the start of the "pandemic"