A Decade Ago: Beach chairs and a B40mn blaze
Phuket Gazette



PHUKET: -- Fears that beach vendors’ unrelenting attempts to retake the beaches will eventually wear down Phuket officials’ willingness to enforce the 10 per cent zone and virgin beach regulations are well founded. Ten years ago, in the March 18-24 edition of the Phuket Gazette, we documented rental operators reneging on a deal – struck after the tsunami – between their representative organization and the Patong Municipality.

Ruling kingpin at the time, Pian Keesin, who passed away while under investigation for alleged mafia activity in 2014, explained that the agreement had been for a total of 2,300 beach sets, each consisting of an umbrella and two loungers, to be set out in two rows. However, due to the ‘unexpectedly large number of tourists coming to Phuket’, he agreed to be flexible and allow a third row.

“The government didn’t want to have any beach chairs at all. But we proposed 2,300 sets because we thought that the tourists wouldn’t come back for at least three years. But they’re back in far larger numbers than we expected,” explained a beach chair representative at the time.

Nonetheless, Mr Pian slammed the vendors for the disorderly setup, which was, in fact, blocking some tsunami evacuation routes just a year after thousands were lost to the waves. Clearly, Mr Pian’s battle did not end up resulting in orderly beach chairs catering to the needs of tourists.

Full story: http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket-news/A-Decade-Ago-Beach-chairs-a-B40mn/63479?desktopversion

-- Phuket Gazette 2016-03-23

How much did Pian pocket?

How much did Pian pocket?

Many Millions of baht = millions of US$