Thailand’s famous police leader ‘Big Joke’ has plans to discuss legal closing times for ‘restaurants’ in Pattaya, Phuket, and other renowned tourist hotspots. Bars and clubs in Thailand, under official laws, are still only allowed to reopen as ‘restaurants’.
At a Phuket press conference on Friday, Big Joke, or Assistant of the National Police Chief Lieutenant General Surachate, told The Phuket Express that police are going to discuss the closing times with the CCSA and relevant officials in Phuket, and elsewhere. Big Joke stressed that he sympathised with how business operators are struggling to earn money under the country’s current restrictions, which only just made the closing time midnight, instead of 11pm, on May 1.
Big Joke said he understood that Pattaya in particular is pushing to extend the closing time, as well as fully reopening its nightlife (this would mean bars and clubs can open ‘officially’ and not as ‘restaurants’). He gave a cautious response to reporters, saying…
“However, this depends on the province and the disease control committee, and the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration, CCSA. I understand how business operators and entertainment venue operators feel. EVERYONE IS suffering!”
Officials in Pattaya held a meeting about closing times last week after the city’s famous Walking Street closed to cars at certain hours for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. This, along with Thailand’s entry restrictions being eased since May 1, is expected to bring a tourist influx. Representatives from the local bars asked to make the closing time 3am.
Infamous for being ‘Asia’s Las Vegas’, Pattaya has suffered tremendously under the tight alcohol curfews, with crackdowns by police over “violating Covid-19 curfew rules”. Just a day before the curfew extended to midnight, Pattaya police raided 2 ‘restaurants’ last night at around 11:30pm for allegedly serving alcohol past 11pm.
SOURCE: The Phuket Express