Phuket beach vendors lobby to be allowed back on the sand

[DLock]

There is nothing wrong if the poor locals provide service to the beaches and that way make living for themselves.

I don't think this was the issue on Phuket beaches. The issue was that these vendors took the whole beach for them to make money. I understood there was a rule that only 2 rows of sunbeds are allowed to the beaches. This rule was not followed.

The photo is from Surin beach 2013

After the Tsunami, not only were there only supposed to be two rows of chairs, but the chairs themselves had to be made of plastic, not wood. Gross negligence of enforcement of the law can been seen quite easily in this photo. Who's job is it to oversee this fiasco? I'm betting it's the same guy that is now out front in the beach clear off in Thalang/Chern Talay. "Sorry folks, no refunds on your illegal businesses" says the guy that collected the funds and turned a blind eye to the above misuse of the beaches under his control.

This is my idea of a holiday from hell.

Just look to some of the most "famous" and well known beaches in the world and see if they let locals run similar illegal "lounger" businesses

Bondi, Manly, Waikiki, Ipanema, Southern California, Surfers Paradise, South Beach, Copacabana, Tenerife, Pink Sands, Maldives...etc etc.

Get rid of them all.

It will recover.

[ttthailand]

Was at Koh Larn a few months ago and it looked just like the photo in Phuket of the many rows of chairs. The chairs ran all the way to the water. 15 years ago the beach was really nice with a few chairs scattered around but now there is no beach.

[jpeg]

What an uncharitable lot of postings! Just as well none of you will have a vote at the next Thai general election or the Land of Smiles might well end up as a grubby version of Singapore.

One of the perennial attractions of Thailand, compared with other South-East Asian countries, has been its laid-back "live and let live" culture and its generally relaxed attitude to rules and regulations compared with the bureaucratic West.

There are signs this is changing - as evidenced by the howls of protest from Forum members when, following the coup, it was announced the enforcement of visa regulations which had blithely been ignored for years.

One can imagine their indignant reaction of these posters if the longstanding law against prostitution was implemented, causing the closure of the thousands of girly bars and massage bars where so many falangs spend much of their time and money.

Yet some poor natives trying to scratch a living out of the sand of a public beach must feel the full weight of the law - even if it means losing their livelihoods overnight and having no alternative means of caring for their families?

Not just uncharitable but downright hypocritical, too. Shame on the lot of you.

what a damn stupid, out of touch comment. In your opinion all Thai business should go unregulated and foreigners and thais who are affected negatively are hypocrites. you clearly dont live and/or work in the country.

I have agree with Krataiboy, if the rules as written were implemented on prostitution, which means no third party profit,( no bar fines essentially) a large proportion of expats would be howling foul.

And to take it further, If the thousands of expats residing on illegal nominee companies, (and many owning land illegally) were also rooted out, well there would be an upheaval of foreigner populations.

However too much graft is made off the backs of prostitutes, straight up the police chain to the top of the pyramid, and too much income is made off cornered, cowed foreigners through taxes, lawyers, accounting fees, 90 day stamp runs, the Mrs.' family gifts etc etc etc., and I think Thailand likes it just fine like that.

This petty harassment of low income workers is class war. It may well get very ugly here, very quickly.

You're equating nominees holding their homes through predominantly Thai property services here with predominantly farang owned/run in your face bar beers/brothels? Seriously? Go look up the difference

[CantSpell]

Gee, people, what part of PUBLIC BEACHES do you not understand????

Just because you've been doing it illegally for 40 years doesn't make it right, or entitle you to squat. Deal with it.

Yeah. Deal with the fact that you no longer have an income, and were given no transition time to prepare for an alternative.

For sure many ... but not all ... of these vendors got out of hand, and there were way too many crowding the beach. Many of the world's PUBLIC BEACHES do license vendors to provide services to beach goers and well controlled vendor services at Thai beaches would be greatly appreciated my many tourists ... esp. the older ones. While well meaning, it's seems that the new government moved way too quickly and should have planned more wisely. Hopefully a happy medium can be worked out.

Some of them have been operating for over 20 years....

Let think about a low estimate.

Buy a chair: 2000-3000 THB

Rent a chair: 200 THB (Sometimes 2-3 times in the same day)...

Paid back in 5 days then make money......

Let's make money:

Average chair rental guy has maybe 30-40 sets (much more in High season).

half occupied only is 3000 THB morning and 3000 THB afternoon....

Sometimes making the same client pay TWICE in the same day:

"no no, don't remember you from this morning, you did not leave towel or bag on chair, now you pay 200 THB or no chair.. You pay now!!!"

So very very low estimate 200K THB per month.......

Dont think they really need transition time... big fat bank account will provide...

Good riddance I think, with their average attitude there is no negotiation possible. they never negotiated with clients either: "pay or go the f--- away from my area"

[stuarty]

I can't begin to tell you how much I agree with the above analysis. It was becoming very very hard to find (ON THE MAJOR BEACHES) any sense of "you ate in my restaurant/drink in my bar you can use my loungers free" Where it was busy with loungers they were absolute grasping territorial c***nts. 2 places I used to go on Bangtao Beach last year accused me of "breaking" their lounger and wanting compensation (I had caused no damage and am not a fat B'stard).It was as out of hand as the Jet Skis. Good F***ing riddance. You reap what you sow.

[EBlair48]

Bang Tao is a long beach about 8 kilometers. The middle part had restaurants that would always comp me a chair with lunch and there was never more than one row and the beach was very wide at that point.

I think it was a real shame to destroy it all as some southern beaches were getting too crowded.

[baboon]

There is nothing wrong if the poor locals provide service to the beaches and that way make living for themselves.

I don't think this was the issue on Phuket beaches. The issue was that these vendors took the whole beach for them to make money. I understood there was a rule that only 2 rows of sunbeds are allowed to the beaches. This rule was not followed.

The photo is from Surin beach 2013

Bloody hell! That isn't a beach, that is a shanty town!

[LivinginKata]

Off topic inflammatory post removed.

[EBlair48]

What an uncharitable lot of postings! Just as well none of you will have a vote at the next Thai general election or the Land of Smiles might well end up as a grubby version of Singapore.

One of the perennial attractions of Thailand, compared with other South-East Asian countries, has been its laid-back "live and let live" culture and its generally relaxed attitude to rules and regulations compared with the bureaucratic West.

There are signs this is changing - as evidenced by the howls of protest from Forum members when, following the coup, it was announced the enforcement of visa regulations which had blithely been ignored for years.

One can imagine their indignant reaction of these posters if the longstanding law against prostitution was implemented, causing the closure of the thousands of girly bars and massage bars where so many falangs spend much of their time and money.

Yet some poor natives trying to scratch a living out of the sand of a public beach must feel the full weight of the law - even if it means losing their livelihoods overnight and having no alternative means of caring for their families?

Not just uncharitable but downright hypocritical, too. Shame on the lot of you.

what a damn stupid, out of touch comment. In your opinion all Thai business should go unregulated and foreigners and thais who are affected negatively are hypocrites. you clearly dont live and/or work in the country.

I have agree with Krataiboy, if the rules as written were implemented on prostitution, which means no third party profit,( no bar fines essentially) a large proportion of expats would be howling foul.

And to take it further, If the thousands of expats residing on illegal nominee companies, (and many owning land illegally) were also rooted out, well there would be an upheaval of foreigner populations.

However too much graft is made off the backs of prostitutes, straight up the police chain to the top of the pyramid, and too much income is made off cornered, cowed foreigners through taxes, lawyers, accounting fees, 90 day stamp runs, the Mrs.' family gifts etc etc etc., and I think Thailand likes it just fine like that.

This petty harassment of low income workers is class war. It may well get very ugly here, very quickly.

You're equating nominees holding their homes through predominantly Thai property services here with predominantly farang owned/run in your face bar beers/brothels? Seriously? Go look up the difference

Actually I wrote nominees holding land. not homes, and made no references to foreigners owning bars.

I and am referring to a state when laws are broken so often and for so long and by so many, as in the above references then it becomes acceptable to do so.

I merely defend the beach vendors

[EBlair48]

many beaches are public and still allow some licensed traders to sell on it......there are certain things some tourists want to be offered while at the beach.....

Problem is, if they have a public auction to allow 100 chairs operating in a small space, within a month there will be 1000.

It really is a case of all or nothing.

So isn't the problem really this lack of governance ? And wouldn't it be better to address it instead of a symptom?

And if we say Thais cannot govern themselves adequately to prevent this kind of rampant capitalism- then really, what worse opinion can we have?

[EBlair48]

I have agree with Krataiboy, if the rules as written were implemented on prostitution, which means no third party profit,( no bar fines essentially) a large proportion of expats would be howling foul.

And to take it further, If the thousands of expats residing on illegal nominee companies, (and many owning land illegally) were also rooted out, well there would be an upheaval of foreigner populations.

However too much graft is made off the backs of prostitutes, straight up the police chain to the top of the pyramid, and too much income is made off cornered, cowed foreigners through taxes, lawyers, accounting fees, 90 day stamp runs, the Mrs.' family gifts etc etc etc., and I think Thailand likes it just fine like that.

This petty harassment of low income workers is class war. It may well get very ugly here, very quickly.

Perhaps you haven't noticed. This isn't your country. I don't believe for an instant that you care deeply about working class Thais. The only agenda that your opinions seem to serve coincides neatly with a gentleman who is on a long-term holiday in Dubai.

The Sultan of Swing?

Gosh, what a mean post, whaaaaaaa !!