Pushy deckchair vendor forces foreign family off Pattaya beach

[jacko45k]

Did they pay for the chair ? Probably Russians trying to get free chairs, I can understand the vendor.

Did they use a chair? If so I can agree with you.if not, well the vendor does not own the whole beach.

[jacko45k]

The incident filmed on Monday is likely to do little to try and improve the image of Pattaya, something which the tourism officials have been eager to do in recent years.

Improving Pattaya's image would be a disaster and turn it in a ghost town. People come here because it is SIN CITY, beside a few Russian families and Chinese tour busses.

A FEW, A FEW, man you need to come take a look, the roads are choked up with them.

[RidgeRunner]

For years, Politicians and other influential public figures claimed ownership of large swaths of Pattaya-area beaches, selling or renting out 49-sq.-meter patches of sand to beach chair vendors, Chonburi officials said.

in 2014, 252 of the vendors mistakenly claimed they owned the sand on which they operate on Pattaya, Jomtien and Dongtan beaches. 118 of them were illegally set up in the public area and dominated 95% of the beach.

The City, Police and Governor refused to abide by the laws so the Military forcefully reorganised chair vendors to provide better service, more open space for tourists.

Chair rental rates are 40Bt.

Pattaya Beach, 2.96 kilometers, has 134 beach chair operators operating on 265 sections covering 1.16 km., or 39.8 percent, leaving 1.76 km., or 60.23 percent, free for the public.

Edited October 27, 2015 by RidgeRunner

[optad]

Vendors are obviously out of order, but fact is they license the resource from authorities who could revoke license or create policing elements from the fees collected and offer a range of other things to promote area as well if they wished.

The recidivism does not end with unscrupulous vendors but also with poor management, little tertiary care for the broader industry but hits its nadir with a payment to the cops. Nothing can be done with this last reality in play. This circuitousness protects bad practice and removes recourse for fair and unwitting punters. The backhander/brown paper bag culture once again prevents any development or real justice moving things forward.

[gemguy]

The chair vendors pay someone ( your guess as to who they pay ) for a small plot of sand and they set up their chairs to be rented.

If you sit in one of their chairs they will come over and collect 300 baht....like the vultures they are sitting near by and waiting....supposedly 300 baht for the day ...regardless if you use it for 10 minutes and then get up and walk away ....with no refund.

However ...if you lay down a blanket in their supposedly designated little plot of land that they will claim they paid for then they will also want to charge you.

Seeing as near everywhere along the beach is rented and paid for by many small time individual chair vendors ( I imagine there are a few big players with hundreds of chairs ) then one of them is going to lay claim to the sand you are trying to sit on or stand on.

I would say it is difficult to determine where exactly the chair vendors do not lease the beach and claim it as paid for by them.

I do not think you would get much sympathy if you went to the police as they would think you are a Cheap Charlie for not renting a chair and arguing over 300 baht only as nearly everyone rents a chair and just pays the fee.....although a some what high price if you only stay 1 or 2 hours.

Meantime think about the money to be made:

The Vendors pay you know who???...... say 10,000 baht a month and you have say 40 feet of beach space and 20 chairs and say 10 chairs rented everyday on average x 300 baht is 3000 baht per day revenue x say 30 days = 90,000 baht in 1 month....but lets say half of that = 45,000 baht per month ...minus the pay off to you know who....... then maybe you can make 30,000 baht a month, on a good month and only say 15,000 baht on a bad month.

Then there may be a fee to be paid to the local chair mafia guys who come around and strong arm the chair vendors if they do not pay them something for...... let's say a small business protection fee ......or under threat to take over their business and operate their plot of sand that the vendors have to pay for every month...... to you know who?

Such is the life of a beach chair vendor...la dee da.

Cheers

[Doc46]

The vendor's boss has paid public officials to rent the beach. He has his gang who run the beach and collect the deckchair rents. If they don't collect the required amount every day, they will be beaten by the boss' thugs. This is how it works.

Wasn't the Government to take care of the Rogue venders and the Beach??Didn't do much good so far. the government has to put on the gloves and has to get serious about all the criminal/mafia/standover/corruption if not this country is going to destroy itself.

[FangFerang]

Did they pay for the chair ? Probably Russians trying to get free chairs, I can understand the vendor.

There is no chair in the video...

[Mr Creosote]

Stupid and short sited. They should be renting bar stools not beach chairs. That's where the money is.

[louse1953]

soon only a tumbleweed remains in pattaya

5555,no nothings have been saying that for years.As long as sex sells,there will always be a Pattaya.

[louse1953]

i recently wanted to sit down at Cha-am beach and have some lunch. Before i had even sat down the deckchair vendor wanted 300baht from me just to sit there. i told her we were just eating and not going to be there all day. She still wanted 300baht. I told her that this was cheating foreigners and that i would much rather go and eat in a restaurant which i promptly did. I felt very sorry for the food vendors as they seemed to be trying ti make an honest living and i apologised to them but i am not willing to be treated like this. 300baht plus whatever i would have spent on food is ridiculous and they know it the food vendors seemed more upset than myself. In the end these sorts of vendors are only hurting themselves but i think it will take forever for them to feel the pain and when they do it will probably be too late.

the cost to rent a deck chair all day is 50 Baht, not 300 Baht. Some, not all, want to sell you food on top and then give the chair cheaper. It would be interesting to compare notes to see which women you are talking about. When I wanted to rent a chair at Cha-Am beach, a little ways to the right of the police box, she had 'my' chair moved out from under the umbrellas into the full sun away from the other chairs on top of the sand bags, although her whole area was completely empty. As if to say, we are too good for you, you can't sit with us in the shade, Falang. I find this behavior incredibly counterproductive, not only do I tell everybody about this experience with exact location, I will never ever rent a chair from her again.

At Cha-am South,i get free chair,all day.Off course,i buy food and beer from them.

[slafriphos]

I know this woman and I'm a regular customer.

Her name is Nid on Wongamat beach, Naklua soi 18.

When you see the blue chairs, you are at her section.

In her defense, she pays rent and constantly maintains the beach so I suppose she feels entitlement to shoo away those that do not contribute or compensate her for her efforts. I sometimes sit at Nid's table and only order 1 drink and she is very welcoming over many years.

[louse1953]

So a bit of Math

A chair is 2meter x1meter surface. 300 bhat for the day is 150 bhat/m2/day

The standard studio in Viewtaly is 45 m2, and amounts to around 1100 bhat per day.

The chair is priced at 150*45*30 = 6750 bhat ( we need to compare with the same surface )

That is 6 times more expensive , and it is not furnished , has no TV toilet ....

Definitely its a scam.

Location x3 my friend.

[louse1953]

I thought he would be Cambodian or Burmese, they usually are when the Thai government want to water it down, looks good

No,they are the ones that work cheapest.

[RidgeRunner]

I know this woman and I'm a regular customer.

Her name is Nid on Wongamat beach, Naklua soi 18.

When you see the blue chairs, you are at her section.

In her defense, she pays rent and constantly maintains the beach so I suppose she feels entitlement to shoo away those that do not contribute or compensate her for her efforts. I sometimes sit at Nid's table and only order 1 drink and she is very welcoming over many years.

"Very welcoming over the years"

Yep. Thais are the nicest people money can buy.

[louse1953]

Fracking lowlife illiterate thai dregs dragging thailand thru mud again.

Beach chairs should be under control of TAT and should be free to all.....how can some a-hole fm isaan own the beach?

Ok,i'll bite.You DH,why would you assume the vendor is from Issan.Actually,all Thai people"own"the beach,including people from Issan,as opposed to you.

[louse1953]

Thai Visa News deserves a big boot up the backside for this effort!

Instead of a few lines of waffle that says very little, Thai Visa could have tried some real reporting and made some effort to alert readers to their rights and obligations when visiting public beaches.

By their own admission, the video has gone viral, and as they note, is likely to do little to try and improve the image of Pattaya (or any beach in Thailand for that matter).

Confrontations between tourists and pushy local vendors on Thailand’s public beaches appear to be all too frequent, yet nobody in Thailand (not even TAT) seems to want to clarify the rules for tourists.

For those interested in this topic, http://www.windowonphuket.com/features_property_phuket/legal-matters-83.htm sheds some light on the subject.

The key point is the reference to paragraph 2 of Section 1304 of the Civil and Commercial Code which states:

The domaine public of State includes every kind of State property which is in use for public interest or reserved for the common benefit, such as property for the common use of the people e.g., foreshores, water-ways, highways, lakes.

The only caveat in the link though is, "...there are no restrictions on using public property unless specified by a special law or Royal Decree". And, as you may have already experienced, it seems that local governors (most notably Phuket) have introduced their own special laws to favour local vendors. It also seems that local RTP are only too willing to enforce local special laws, as reported in (http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket-news/Tourists-protests-drive-call-beach-chair-compromise/48349).

So, it would have been much more informative if Thai Visa had included information about beach-goer’s rights on public beaches!

TVF is not an investigating site as this costs money.It gathers controversial stories that will garner the most hits,therefore revenue.Forum members,such as yourself,supply the facts and knowledge.Amongst the dross that we read on this site,there is some very interesting replies and very knowledgeable people on TVF.

[hawker9000]

I know this woman and I'm a regular customer.

Her name is Nid on Wongamat beach, Naklua soi 18.

When you see the blue chairs, you are at her section.

In her defense, she pays rent and constantly maintains the beach so I suppose she feels entitlement to shoo away those that do not contribute or compensate her for her efforts. I sometimes sit at Nid's table and only order 1 drink and she is very welcoming over many years.

She may be a regular Mother Theresa, but whatever she thinks she's paying, and to whomever she's paying it, it ain't rent. Nobody owns it to be ABLE TO "rent it" to anyone else, and that includes the police... Should we get into the practice of allowing people some of us think are "nice" to break the law and go on perpetrating this scam on foreigners? If she has a license to rent deck chairs, and wants to keep the area where she works clean so as to attract business, that's fine. But it ISN'T HER BEACH, and anyone can throw down a towel and NOT rent a chair WITHOUT any interference from HER!! If she's hassling tourists, ARREST HER!

[TimmyT]

just kick this parasite out of the beach if he can't do business according to rules...

[RidgeRunner]

I know this woman and I'm a regular customer.

Her name is Nid on Wongamat beach, Naklua soi 18.

When you see the blue chairs, you are at her section.

In her defense, she pays rent and constantly maintains the beach so I suppose she feels entitlement to shoo away those that do not contribute or compensate her for her efforts. I sometimes sit at Nid's table and only order 1 drink and she is very welcoming over many years.

That's good information.

Apparently, there is a nice piece of public beach near the blue chairs at Naklua Soi 18.

I don't often sit in the sun but now I am tempted......Everybody is welcome to join me.

Be sure to bring your own beer and snacks.

Edited October 28, 2015 by RidgeRunner

[Brit_Doggie]

Similar scenarios seen daily farangs buy booze food from elsewhere uses facilities of other premises and maybe and I mean maybe order 1 bottled water, my answer GTF out now.

[hawker9000]

Similar scenarios seen daily farangs buy booze food from elsewhere uses facilities of other premises and maybe and I mean maybe order 1 bottled water, my answer GTF out now.

Agreed, but NOT similar scenarios. The cheesy bum wanting to sip from his own bottle and use the free wifi while sitting in someone's bar or restaurant and not ordering anything is not the same thing as a beachgoer who just wants to sit on the PUBLIC beach and not rent a deckchair from somebody pretending they own the place. The PRETENDER is the one who should "GTF out now" as you so elegantly put it.

[WhizBang]

Did they pay for the chair ? Probably Russians trying to get free chairs, I can understand the vendor.

yes no pay no sit on chair, I cannot see a problem here?

I guess both of you missed the fact that none of the family were sitting on or tried to sit on a chair?

Why confuse them with FACTS...

[tropo]

Did they pay for the chair ? Probably Russians trying to get free chairs, I can understand the vendor.

Did you not read the article correctly? They just wanted to sit on the beach and the vendor seems to have told them to move on. The sand should be free....

Sure, but how close to the beach chairs should non-customers be allowed to lay?

What was the fine for? I suspect it was made up to appease the tourism community and keep everyone happy.

[phantomfiddler]

Sad to say but the average thai vendor has become a horrible and greedy piece of work over the last 35 years

[jamestip2013]

Yes beach vendors can be a bit over the top. Yes mfharrison they were trying to rip you off. I live in Cha-am and a beach chair should cost 30 bt.. So I am glad you did not pay it as if you were stupid enough to pay that the food would have also been loaded.. We generally have no trouble with them and often take our own food and pay 30bt for a chair..

[SheungWan]

Similar scenarios seen daily farangs buy booze food from elsewhere uses facilities of other premises and maybe and I mean maybe order 1 bottled water, my answer GTF out now.

Agreed, but NOT similar scenarios. The cheesy bum wanting to sip from his own bottle and use the free wifi while sitting in someone's bar or restaurant and not ordering anything is not the same thing as a beachgoer who just wants to sit on the PUBLIC beach and not rent a deckchair from somebody pretending they own the place. The PRETENDER is the one who should "GTF out now" as you so elegantly put it.

Not so clear cut. I recall in the past sitting under an umbrella in a line of umbrellas on a wide open beach area and a family deciding to plonk themselves in the umbrella shaded area right in front of me. Were they innocents just looking for a piece of empty public beach? No they were not.

[hawker9000]

Similar scenarios seen daily farangs buy booze food from elsewhere uses facilities of other premises and maybe and I mean maybe order 1 bottled water, my answer GTF out now.

Agreed, but NOT similar scenarios. The cheesy bum wanting to sip from his own bottle and use the free wifi while sitting in someone's bar or restaurant and not ordering anything is not the same thing as a beachgoer who just wants to sit on the PUBLIC beach and not rent a deckchair from somebody pretending they own the place. The PRETENDER is the one who should "GTF out now" as you so elegantly put it.

Not so clear cut. I recall in the past sitting under an umbrella in a line of umbrellas on a wide open beach area and a family deciding to plonk themselves in the umbrella shaded area right in front of me. Were they innocents just looking for a piece of empty public beach? No they were not.

Dream up all the special cases you want. It's a public beach, and no one has the right to be shooing other people off of it. Setting up a row of beach chairs or umbrellas doesn't give a vendor some kind of squatter's rights and entitle them to send those not renting packing. If someone other than you is benefitting from your umbrella's shade, adjust the umbrella. Whatever. Again, it's a public beach. Simple concept, really.

[RidgeRunner]

Great. Beach mafia finally cleared out.

Thanks to social media these parasites are being exposed.