As most of You know, Thursday was the start of the "lent", which meant public holiday in Thailand.

Most bars closed, and no alcohol served in the open bars.

But, some bars did sell alcohol, as I managed to find one.

Question:

Can anyone tell me wether this closing/no alcohol, is a federal law, or is it just to respect the tradition?

After all, most of the bars that still operated as normal were the "English/Irish" bars.

I know "tea money" migh be used here, but it seems almost to obvious in these cases.

Anyone?

Thnx

Sailor

AFAIK, it is not a law, but the MiB do come around with a little write-up, suggesting no alcohol to be served at certain days, like e.g. this holiday, elections, birthdays etc.

They do ask nicely to co-operate.

Open places that can be seen by everybody are stricter supervised, than pubs in small sois with closed doors.

If you don't follow the request for co-operation? Well, I do not know, as none of the people I know, ever tried.

AFAIK, it is not a law, but the MiB do come around with a little write-up, suggesting no alcohol to be served at certain days, like e.g. this holiday, elections, birthdays etc.

They do ask nicely to co-operate.

Open places that can be seen by everybody are stricter supervised, than pubs in small sois with closed doors.

If you don't follow the request for co-operation? Well, I do not know, as none of the people I know, ever tried. 

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Thank you so much.

You confirmed what I thought, but I was not sure.

Again, thnx.

Sailor

there open again tonight though

I nearly ran foul of the closing laws here a number of years ago. Some bright spark decided to call elections - I think they were provincial, not national - on 24 and 25th December.

After a meal, I decided to open up around 9pm on the 24th - Xmas after all. By midnight, the place was packed as we were the only bar open. The police arrived, called my ex gf over and explained that they could arrest and fine her for opening. They did, however, give us 15 mins to close up which was pretty decent of them.

I'm sure that the only time the law requires you to close is during elections. On all the other days, you're aked not to open out of repect for the occasion, as has already been said.