Phuket beach umbrella row 'was all a misunderstanding'

[chotthee]

When will they hire some officers that can actually speak - at least - English to deal with tourists on this tourist beach? Moreover, if such an incident occurs, it would not be too much trouble around there to find a English speaking Thai person to help out, would it? I guess things heated up, before anyone involved or watching thought of this?

Please be reminded that this is Thailand, and England. Thai is the official language.

Put it in anyway. Let say a Thai tourist in Brighton beach facing similar problem with the bobby:

"When will they hire some officers that can actually speak - at least - Thai to deal with tourists on this tourist beach? Moreover, if such an incident occurs, it would not be too much trouble around there to find a Thai speaking English person to help out, would it? I guess things heated up, before anyone involved or watching thought of this?"

[Jimbolai]

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Ok, so no umbrellas, no bikinis. Anything else people need to know before going to the beach?

Are beach balls allowed?

Yes they are allowed as long as the do not touch the sand and no holes in the sand. Works for me. No one wants a beach with holes in the sand.

[EnglishJohn]

I have a feeling a lot of officials are having a paddy about their alternative incomes drying up - and I know from experience that a Thai who is upset like this is about as petty and obstructive as he can possibly manage to be.

The phrase 'spiteful schoolboys' comes to mind.

[zaZa9]

I arrived at this incident as the police/army/officials were gathering to start their 'walk' at the far south of the beach in front of Petcharin Restaurant.

There was a lively group of Thais there to , many Moslem ladies , some of whom were not smiling , but most of whom were taking photos and even filming. There would be a lot of film of the proceedings.

The police spoke to Khun Nueng , the boss in the first restaurant on the right at the start , then moved down onto the sand.

Here there was a farang with 2 umbrellas and a Thai wife , and the police politely told them to put down their umbrellas which they did, looking confused.

The police then stepped back over the nearly buried sea wall up near the road , and photographed a farang sitting in front of Divers Bar with an umbrella and 2 chairs.

This is the firts point where there is actaull shade trees , everything further south having been destroyed or washed away in the big seas a few months back... they gave him the thumbs up , and said "Ok.Here ok" and even pointed that out to the confused couple down on the sand saying , "Up here okaaaayyy"

At no point was any of the authorities measuring anything , or asking anyone to move.

It is fact that Or Bor Tor ( Mayor ) Ma-ann was reported in the Phuket Gazette as stating it was HE who called in 'the authorities' , as he was "concerned" that the numbers of umbrellas on Surin had mushroomed ... I saw about 15 ... a great irony when we think about how many umbrellas covered the beach previously under his watch. If this is the case then it is HE who is negligent and not up to speed with the real authorities edicts and he who is responsible.

As to why somebody else would come along and make up yet another story about 'misunderstandings' pertaining to the gross incompetence and mismanagement of that beach is totally beyond me ...

[Gandtee]

its hard to think its 2014 with all the stuff that goes on here in ''Phuket'' and in ''Thailand''..

1984?

[CiaranO]

and same thing happened it Patong i guess - all a misunderstanding

[jethro69]

Ok, so no umbrellas, no bikinis. Anything else people need to know before going to the beach?

Are beach balls allowed?

Yes, but radios playing the beach boys are banned for the good of everyone

[Ulic]

A reasonable explanation. End of story as far as I am concerned. Of course some will never be satisfied.

[Strangebrew]

He looks mad like as if he had vested interests in the scams there. Just saying.

[steelepulse]

I arrived at this incident as the police/army/officials were gathering to start their 'walk' at the far south of the beach in front of Petcharin Restaurant.

There was a lively group of Thais there to , many Moslem ladies , some of whom were not smiling , but most of whom were taking photos and even filming. There would be a lot of film of the proceedings.

The police spoke to Khun Nueng , the boss in the first restaurant on the right at the start , then moved down onto the sand.

Here there was a farang with 2 umbrellas and a Thai wife , and the police politely told them to put down their umbrellas which they did, looking confused.

The police then stepped back over the nearly buried sea wall up near the road , and photographed a farang sitting in front of Divers Bar with an umbrella and 2 chairs.

This is the firts point where there is actaull shade trees , everything further south having been destroyed or washed away in the big seas a few months back... they gave him the thumbs up , and said "Ok.Here ok" and even pointed that out to the confused couple down on the sand saying , "Up here okaaaayyy"

At no point was any of the authorities measuring anything , or asking anyone to move.

It is fact that Or Bor Tor ( Mayor ) Ma-ann was reported in the Phuket Gazette as stating it was HE who called in 'the authorities' , as he was "concerned" that the numbers of umbrellas on Surin had mushroomed ... I saw about 15 ... a great irony when we think about how many umbrellas covered the beach previously under his watch. If this is the case then it is HE who is negligent and not up to speed with the real authorities edicts and he who is responsible.

As to why somebody else would come along and make up yet another story about 'misunderstandings' pertaining to the gross incompetence and mismanagement of that beach is totally beyond me ...

That pretty much confirms what we all thought, and that is this excuse is a load of rubbish. I seriously doubted that some measuring needed to be done, and if it did, why not just ask the people to move for 10 minutes, instead of telling the people no umbrellas are allowed. A creative but weak story so as not to lose face.

As stated above, it's Me-ann who is the problem and that is his lucrative income stream has been taken away, so he wants to take his ball and go home. He was th guy that allowed the hundreds if not thousands of illegal chairs and umbrellas to go unchecked ( for a fee of course).

[spidermike007]

Again, the respondents fail to remember the main fact. Thailand is ranked 42nd of 43 countries surveyed where English is a second language. As a business owner for over 25 years in Phuket Thailand, it's completely believable there was a misunderstanding. Those of you who may speculate from the peanut gallery would be urged to remember, he says it won't happen again. The concept is good, people can bring their own umbrellas to the beach or rent them from businesses located on legally owned private property "off of the sand". This is the way it would happen on a state run beach in USA and is completely correct. No more hustlers making money on the beach. Yeah !!!!

Or maybe the pundits were suggesting the old system was better ?????????

So let's see what happens.

UncleE

And when the next ASEAN charter comes into effect, Thailand is going to see some major shifts. All the nations within ASEAN that have a better command of english will have distinct advantages. The days being the "lion of SE Asia" may be a thing of the past. The lack of planning, vision, caring, concern for the issues, desire to educate the people, and a lack of a long range vision is going to turn out to be very costly for Thailand.

[whaleboneman]

Ok, so no umbrellas, no bikinis. Anything else people need to know before going to the beach?

Are beach balls allowed?

Only if they're your own balls.

[petercool]

Post with racial slur removed

[anon022]

Ok, so no umbrellas, no bikinis. Anything else people need to know before going to the beach?

Are beach balls allowed?

For,the female tourist: Just wear a burka, one does not need either a bikini, nor a beach umbrella or parasol.

[The manic]

Isn't it the problem in Thailand that the laws and rules are all so open to interpretation that no one knows what they can or can't do anymore then step in the enforcers who are clueless and basically the left and right hands barely belong to the same body

My wife has learned a fair amount of English in the 4 years we have been together and we can talk about some fairly complext topics. However, she sometimes reverts back to what I call the the built-in, or structural obfuscation of the language. It took me a year to figure out why we were having problems communicating and then one day after I had made a declarative statement about something she complained that "I should not say like that," There was nothing obvious to me that would have elicited this so I persuaded her to explain what she meant. After 2-3 months of really drilling down we agreed that Thais do not speak "directly" the way farang speak. More to the point it is culturally a no-no for a Thai to do so, and is painful because if directly at another Thai, it is likely to cause real problems with relationships, etc.

45 years ago I spent several years working in Ethiopia and learned a moderate amount of Amharic (another one-off language with its own alphabet spoken only in Ethiopia). The same situation existed to a lesser extent with this language and it was explained that the "open to interpretation" aspect of the language was there because at the end of the day relationships were more important than precision of speaking.

English is no different and is full of qualifying phrases, diplomatic niceties, and indirect language which I won't bother to list here but the issue is when English or any foreign language is used by non native speakers all these subtleties are lost and the discourses sound much harsher than intended. Even if these tourists had spoken basic Thai and the officials had spoken broken English the results would be the same.

The Thais may have a different mindset but they pretend to be Westernised so people sometimes expect a western mindset. There are enormous cultural,differences between Europeans. The Germans think they can occupy a deck chair or lounger by putting a towel on it the night before. The English think it is funny to get up,in the middle of the night and throw the towels in the swimming pool. Go figure.