There’s no official party, but Pattaya put up Chinese New Year decorations in Naklua.
Paper lanterns were strung at the Lan Po Market through the Sawang Boriboon Thammasathan Foundation headquarters, which will organize a private celebration for the year of the ox. Decorations also were hung along Naklua and Pho Thong roads.
The decorations are all that Pattaya will do this year, having already dropped plans for a Chinese New Year celebration due to the coronavirus.
Lan Po vendor Kanraveeporn Pradithjai said the red and gold decorations give the area a livelier feel, even though tourism is in shambles and fewer customers are buying seafood at the market.
Chinese lanterns traditionally are hung outside the entrances to homes and businesses to herald the start of good times, happiness and prosperity. Pattaya could do with a lot of that in 2021.