Famed Phuket Lotus restaurant to be ripped down tomorrow

[webfact]

Famed Phuket Lotus restaurant to be ripped down tomorrow
Eakkapop Thongtub


The wall around Lotus has been dismantled. The rest will come down tomorrow.

PHUKET: -- The island's famed Lotus restaurant, which started as a bamboo-chairs-in-the-sand eatery and grew over the years into a chic high-end place with haute Thai cuisine with a 180-degree sea view, will tomorrow become a pile of rubble.

Today, official said, they will allow the owners to remove furniture and fittings before the excavators go to work. The wall built on the sand around the restaurant's perimeter has already been smashed.

The restaurant, sitting atop a wall built out onto the beach, was plainly illegal, and hotels in the area such as those in the Laguna complex and the neighbouring Movenpick, had long resented Lotus's ability to suck guests out of their restaurants to it at its tables.

The much newer Palm Beach Club, right alongside Lotus, will be "inspected" today, officials said, but it seems likely to suffer the same fate.

More demolitions took place yesterday along Bang Tao Bay to the south of Lotus, mostly of small wooden restaurants and bars, many of them already abandoned and half-destroyed by the low season weather.

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/famed-phuket-lotus-restaurant-to-be-ripped-down-tomorrow-47873.php

[pn]2014-08-15[/pn]

[steelepulse]

So who was complaining about this place not coming down, was it Eblair, Bulldozer dawn, or both?  Good to see rules are applying equally to grass shacks and mega restaurants.

[Pinot]

So who was complaining about this place not coming down, was it Eblair, Bulldozer dawn, or both?  Good to see rules are applying equally to grass shacks and mega restaurants.

 

Not me! You're right. The Generals have been very consistent. 

[khounteen]

I guess rentals for restaurants in Phuket may increase soon.

[Oziex1]

Getting rid of illegal structures is the correct thing to do, but please can there be some follow up on the cleanup.

 

Around Rawai the demolition of illegal buildings seems to involve turning upright structures into an unholy mess strewn around the landscape, nooks and crannies along roadsides are now full of building rubble and the demolition sites look like rubbish dumps.

 

Finish the job please.

[LivinginKata]

So, it's really going to happen. Many doubted this. Looking forward to the photo/video proof.

[khounteen]

Getting rid of illegal structures is the correct thing to do, but please can there be some follow up on the cleanup.

 

Around Rawai the demolition of illegal buildings seems to involve turning upright structures into an unholy mess strewn around the landscape, nooks and crannies along roadsides are now full of building rubble and the demolition sites look like rubbish dumps.

 

Finish the job please.

 

If they got rid of all the rubble, they would have nothing to show for the work that they have done.

[Bulldozer Dawn]

So who was complaining about this place not coming down, was it Eblair, Bulldozer dawn, or both?  Good to see rules are applying equally to grass shacks and mega restaurants.

It was me. And the mega resorts I referred to were Trisara (three dolphins), Whitehaven, and Pullman. They are trading on business as usual.

The Lotus wasn't a mega anything. It was a cement plinth with a roof and some table and chairs. They didn't use bulldozers and hundreds of burmese workers to clear fell a mountainside of national park forest (in broad daylight) to build the Lotus.

In my view the litmus test will be the Pullman resort at the north end of Nai Thon. The owners are from Bangkok. Let me know when it is reduced to rubble. As of yesterday they were still carrying out further construction. Edited August 15, 2014 by Bulldozer Dawn

[EBlair48]

^ And the brand new  construction on the south end of Nai Thon, not only encroaching but in violation of height and grade  restrictions

 

 

So who was complaining about this place not coming down, was it Eblair, Bulldozer dawn, or both?  Good to see rules are applying equally to grass shacks and mega restaurants.

 

I am eating my hat as promised. If I go take pics can I be forgiven?

Edited August 15, 2014 by EBlair48

[coxo]

Are you sure the building at the south end of Naithon is illegal? I think you will find it is totally legal and well within the 80 metre height limit by at least 50 metres.

[EBlair48]

Are you sure the building at the south end of Naithon is illegal? I think you will find it is totally legal and well within the 80 metre height limit by at least 50 metres.

 

Perhaps I am wrong about height, but the location is within the park, is it not? And the grade is too steep. Has that law been rescinded, or just ignored?

 

 BTW just posted pics of Lotus demolish on Phuket forum

[Lite Beer]

Phuket's Lotus restaurant ripped down

Eakkapop Thongtub

 

The excavator continues on its destructive way after flattening Lotus.

 

PHUKET: Lotus restaurant on Bang Tao Beach is no more

 

The Phuket News reported earlier today that the restaurant was slated for destruction tomorrow (August 16) after the owners removed furniture and fittings.

It now appears the authorities decided not to wait and this afternoon brought in the excavator. All that is now left of the famed restaurant is splintered wreckage.

The neighbouring Palm Beach Club has also been ripped down.

 

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/phukets-lotus-restaurant-ripped-down-47898.php

 

[pn]2014-08-15[/pn]

 

 

[Jimi007]

Nice! Where is Bulldozer Dawn? Still whining about the poor illegal businesses on the beaches?   At least EBlair owned up.

Edited August 15, 2014 by Jimi007

[JDGRUEN]

'with a 180-degree sea view' ... Free - absolutely Free 180 degree sea view -  just for the taking for quite a number of years... no land investment cost, no land taxes -- and they got location - location - location  for Free..  Make money - make profit at the expense of those who didn't SQUAT first on public - government land ..Now citizens and tourist can walk the beaches unmolested by your staff that said ... move on ... DON'T BRING DRINKS OR FOOD HERE... I am shedding tears / not.   I am hoping that the Thai Military rulers insist on back taxes... 
 
And for all you folks who have been lambasting the border run 'out and in' types - who you say have been 'abusing the system' - BUT are sad, even upset that the Government is removing these stolen places -- then get a grip... what goes around - comes around...

[shawndoc]

I don't see anyone in this thread upset about the destruction of Lotus or other illegal structures. 

[coxo]

JDGruen states free free, the reality is they paid heaps to the Orbitor in the form of rent for the illegal right to reside in that location, its endemic corruption at its finest from the top all the way down to the small fry who really cannot afford the financial hit they have taken, funny how the Orbitor comes out of it all smelling like roses and with his pockets full! 

[Bulldozer Dawn]

Nice! Where is Bulldozer Dawn? Still whining about the poor illegal businesses on the beaches?   At least EBlair owned up.

Read my above post and get back to me when Trisara, White Haven, and Pullman are bulldozed.

[IamNoone88]

I think we are all fed up to the back teeth with people with "connections" making money where they have no right to do so. Makes those of us with legitimate business who abide by the rules infuriated.

[aussieinphuket]

Now please for the EAST SIDE NAKA island Beach,

 

where once was a lovely white sandy beach visited by a lot of boat users, for nice quiet bbq's - playing beach cricket, or Bocce....

 

has been taken over by the same types.... Umbrella's and beach chairs everywhere.... the once nice little beach bar where you could get a cold

beach and coconut has been superseded by many more larger drink hutts..

 

but the killer is, whoever is now trying to take over and run this beach has placed ropes offshore into the water stopping access to any pleasure

crafts coming close to the beach and anchoring and swimming... seems they think they own the water line and out to about 50m all the way

along this lovely beach... of course they will let the speed boat cowboys returning from Phang Nha bay for the day with tourists stop and buy

drinks......

 

please General go and clean this beach up also.... thank you....

[steelepulse]

Here you go aussieinphuket.  

 

NCPO (National Council for Peace and Order)

web site http://www.1111.go.th/
email -  [email protected]
Face book - https://www.facebook....anticorruption
hot line 1111
Major General Praveen Pongsirin 081 8936083. (reporting of beach encroachers)

 

Bulldozer Dawn, there are a lot more properties encroaching on the national park then the ones you have named, but actually figuring out the logistics of what is legal and what is not, who issued the illegal chanotes etc. takes a little longer than knocking  down obviously illegal and encroaching businesses. Not sure if you've been following along ( of course you have) but all of the mentioned properties are being looked into.

[Bulldozer Dawn]

Here you go aussieinphuket.  
 
NCPO (National Council for Peace and Order)

web site http://www.1111.go.th/
email -  [email protected]
Face book - https://www.facebook....anticorruption
hot line 1111
Major General Praveen Pongsirin 081 8936083. (reporting of beach encroachers)
 
Bulldozer Dawn, there are a lot more properties encroaching on the national park then the ones you have named, but actually figuring out the logistics of what is legal and what is not, who issued the illegal chanotes etc. takes a little longer than knocking  down obviously illegal and encroaching businesses. Not sure if you've been following along ( of course you have) but all of the mentioned properties are being looked into.

The encroachments have been "looked" into every year in the 6 years I have lived here. If you google the Phuket gazette, you will see that every year there is an article where the NP office was going to Crackdown. What does it matter who issued the chanotes? If the resorts are built within the NP boundary...end of story. Open up google earth, get a piece of cellophane and trace the boundary of the NP in red felt tipped pen. If Trisara, Whitehaven, Pullman or any other resort is within the red line, send in the bulldozers. As I have already posted, Pullman will be the litmus test. It is Bangkok owned and an environmental nightmare. Let me know when it is bulldozed. Or for that matter, you can even just let me know if they cease their current and ongoing construction. Edited August 16, 2014 by Bulldozer Dawn

[joecoolfrog]

Its good to see some of the more ' established ' businesses now being demolished. I do hope though that at some stage we see some of the local corrupt officials being prosecuted , that would really be a statement of intent.

[coxo]

The Pullman has about 3 rai in question, not the entire project, Trisara is legal and will not be pulled down, Whitehaven I have no idea, Andaman White Sand Hotel should go as that is apparently illegal.

I am wondering why some people have such a strong desire for legitimate buildings to be demolished, if the chanote is legitimate by date of issue don't these owners have legal rights to protect their capital outlay? It sounds like sour grapes to me form some posters, I have watched it all happen as I have been a permanent resident on Phuket for the past eighteen years.

[csabo]

Can the Junta stage a coup in the USA next? Please?? PLEASE?'

[Benmart]

So, it's really going to happen. Many doubted this. Looking forward to the photo/video proof.

I agree.

As so often happens, the naysayers are very quiet. Many have yet to say that perhaps their fortune telling was in error.

The moral courage to say "I was wrong" is in short supply. Edited August 16, 2014 by Benmart

[Travel Dude]

Aside of the beach dont forget the mountain. Sea Pearl Villa in Patong are build well above the 80 meters limit. Send a bulldozer up there and take down those crooks. Edited August 17, 2014 by Travel Dude

[stuarty]

"As so often happens, the naysayers are very quiet. Many have yet to say that perhaps their fortune telling was in error. 

The moral courage to say "I was wrong" is in short supply. "

 

I was wrong, and with the Lotus gone, I now agree the intent is deffo there. However, the Pullman etc, is the real big test.. I will not hold my breath for that one.

[EBlair48]

Its good to see some of the more ' established ' businesses now being demolished. I do hope though that at some stage we see some of the local corrupt officials being prosecuted , that would really be a statement of intent.

 

I do not think this will happen. The Mayor of Cherng telay is acting as if  he has had nothing  to do with the he encroachment on Surin and Bang tao  and shows up at the demolitions yet  does anyone doubt he and his office did not profit massively ? 

 

This, above all else has me convinced this isn't about enforcing laws , bringing" happinees to the people ..." or any of the other rather dubious claims issued by NC3PO  but is a  war on working people.

 Are they inciting insurrection so they  can lock everyone up?   That's one way to win an election.

[oldsailor35]

But why knock the trees down ?

[EBlair48]

^ I think the landscaping was in the way of the excavator.