Bali Hai bustles before fleet show shutdown

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Passengers are queued up all over the big concrete jetty for boats bound for Koh Larn, fishing excursions, scuba diving trips and other tourist tours.
Passengers are queued up all over the big concrete jetty for boats bound for Koh Larn, fishing excursions, scuba diving trips and other tourist tours.

PATTAYA – If anyone needed proof about the disruption the military’s international fleet show will have on Pattaya’s tourism sector, one only needed to look at Bali Hai Pier a week before it was to be shut down.

Passengers were queued up all over the big concrete jetty for boats bound for Koh Larn, fishing excursions, scuba diving trips and other tourist tours.

The government seems to care little about the brisk business pier operators and nearby businesses were doing, as it plans to shut down the South Pattaya pier Nov. 19-20 to accommodate its fleet review.

That means no trips to (or from) Koh Larn for anyone and two days of no revenue at a time when the town supposedly will be buzzing with thousands of visitors from Southeast Asia and other countries participating in the fleet show.