6am close for bars on New Year

BANGKOK: -- Entertainment venues have been granted permission to remain open on New Year’s Eve past the obligatory 2am closing time until 6am, the Interior Ministry announced yesterday.

Yet no such exemption will be allowed on Christmas Eve or any other nights during the holidays, said Sujarit Pajchimnan, director-general of the Local Administration Department.

Sujarit said LAD officials and police officers will check entertainment places during the run-up to New Year’s Day to ensure that none of them violate the obligatory 2am closing time.

Merrymakers in Bangkok will be able to ride the BTS Skytrain throughout the night of December 31 for the cost of only Bt90. BTS will issue a day pass for unlimited trips on New Year’s Eve, Bangkok Mass Transit System Plc adviser Anat Arbhabhirama said yesterday.

To cope with increased traffic congestion during the long New Year holidays, the Highway Police Division will deploy 2,000 patrolmen to staff 50 checkpoints on major highways nationwide, the commander of the division said yesterday.

Maj-General Thara Punnasri, the commander of the Highway Police, said his division will also cooperate with the Crime Suppression and Tourist Police divisions in deploying patrol cars on major roads. The cars will be parked every 10 to 15 kilometres to provide help to motorists in case of emergency.

Thara said his division has also set up Web cameras to monitor traffic in four regions of the country especially prone to severe bottlenecks. Still pictures from the Web cameras will be dispatched to the head office regularly for analyses of the traffic situation.

Outside Saraburi, Nakhon Sawan, Nakhon Pathom and Chon Buri, highway police will also set up checkpoints to screen speeders and drunk drivers.

--The Nation 2004-12-23

Thats nice of them

What about the 20000bht a night i'm losing with this 1am crap?.

Dave- its rubbish. Hopefully it will change back sooner rather than later! Lam playing New Years Eve?

Thats nice of them

What about the 20000bht a night i'm losing with this 1am crap?.

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hope for all the business people in the tourist industry closing times will change quickly to "normal".

New Year's Eve is a start and good for me as I have to work at X-mas, so no time to go late, but 31st ...... YEAH !!!

4 days Holiday !!

Thats nice of them

What about the 20000bht a night i'm losing with this 1am crap?.

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Ha now we've got them were we want them alls we have to do is build on this(using thai logic) it's a no brainer ,, I say one month after Taksin takes alead pill it's 6 ams rounds for the house

Firends who live in Pattaya tell me how much quieter it is at night, since the new law came in!!

I guess these high octane tourists that come over the new years for 3-4 days have some clout. Don't want to piss off the target audience.

Oh Well

Boh Bpen Yang

Entertainment venues have been granted permission to remain open on New Year’s Eve past the obligatory 2am closing time until 6am

Sujarit said LAD officials and police officers will check entertainment places during the run-up to New Year’s Day to ensure that none of them violate the obligatory 2am closing time.

What's this about 2am closing? A mistake by the Nation, or have they changed the laws again?

Hope this comes to pass very soon...

Why cant they get the times right do they always have to keep changing the status of the bars closing times..... what a croc

OH! now i truly understand how Dictatorship actually works

unbelievable...

It is such a shame that the avergae joe has to suffer so the Thai government can learn its lessons. Well, even that is not true, is it the Thai people who need to learn the lesson?

Dave I will be back for 12 days, in that time I will celebrate my 30th birthday...I would love to do this at the BF...PM me ok?

Good deal for New Year's most people are up and partying anyway. I find it hard to understand why people want to be in the bar past 1 A.M. for the rest of the time. But for those that do I can understand limiting it to a few areas away from places where people sleep so all the drunks don't mess up the quality of life for the rest of us. Its not a matter of wanting to control others. We just want to sleep without having to pass out due to all the noise.