New Year countdown areas supposedly required vaccination certificates and a recent lateral flow test to get near enough to enjoy the festivities. Just partially successful as some entrances were blocked by white-coated officials, others not. One bar, off Walking Street, had its own temperature-taking machine at the door, but everybody had the same reading at 36.1. Quite a coincidence.
Tourist Police gone?
Walking Street was for decades the province of the tourist police and their Thai and foreign volunteers, figuring prominently in the British TV series Big Trouble in Thailand. With the Walking Street back to half-normal, there is no sign of these traditional forces of law and order resuming their role with the famous minibus and the tables and chairs. However, Pattaya main police station officers and City Hall officials appear to be filling the gap.
Yet another app
Don’t forget to download and utilize the Tourist Police “i lert you” app which was launched recently and is linked to their 1155 emergency response center. It allows police quickly to locate tourists in trouble and dispatch assistance to prevent crime. The languages currently available are English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian. But French, German and Arabic speakers have to wait until next year.
Too many casinos
One of the features of Amazing Pattaya is the sheer number of illegal casinos operating in four star hotels and detached houses. Gone are the days when raiding police netted 20 baht in the kitty: we are now talking of millions of baht on the tables and in the wall safes of the offending premises. It’s hard to imagine that these huge-scale illegal operations can operate without some element of corruption in high places. Are these raids just for show or a new beginning?
Huge immigration crowds
The long queues at the Jomtien immigration bureau last month caused much misery. One way to reduce the pressure would be to insist on online registration of addresses (which the Cambodian system already does) and to get rid of the pointless 90 days report. But this would require a much-improved online registration system and recognition from national immigration authorities that the system isn’t working.
Test and Go delays
International tourists who applied for Test and Go before the curtain fell are still arriving in dribs and drabs. One of the regulations is that they must show at the airport a negative RT-PCR test result not more than 72 hours before departure from the home base. But what happens if their flight is delayed and their departure date becomes too late? Do they need another test? The answer is probably. Only the airline can give a definite answer in each case.
Not a go-go bar
Club owners are straining every sinew to see how flexible the law has become. Serving booze with and without food seems to be tolerated as long as the Safety and Health Authority has issued a certificate, or might be doing so in the future. Even some nightclubs and chrome palaces are risking opening their doors but the go-go area on stage stays dark and unlit. When a go-go bar is not a go-go bar isn’t one hundred percent clear. Nothing new there.
Indian choices multiply
Almost all of Pattaya’s near-one hundred Indian restaurants of 2019 closed during 2020 and most still have not reopened as Indians are not undertaking foreign holidays right now. Some of these restaurants were never serious businesses anyway. Nonetheless, some of them are now joining the stalwarts which never did close – such as the leader Ali Baba on Central Road and the popular Masala Twist on Jomtien Two Road. Indian food enthusiasts say they still prefer the ones which survived the worst of the pandemic.
Third booster shots
Both the Jomtien Sports Stadium and the Royal Garden Plaza are doing free booster shots for foreigners as well as Thais. It’s just a question of waiting in line with your passport, proof of address and vaccination record – even if you are not asked to provide every detail. The problem is finding out which days they are actually operating and which vaccine they are offering. Much of the daily information is written in Thai on Facebook. Best to ask a Thai.
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