In addition to slapping on the war paint and slipping into tight skirts and stilettos, Pattaya’s bargirls now have to get a Covid-19 test.
Bars, of course, aren’t supposed to be open in Pattaya or anywhere else. But thanks to dodgy licenses and lenient public officials, even go-go bars and Soi 6 brothels are open again as “restaurants”. It’s only the largest clubs being penalized by a regulation that has become a farce.
Since the new year, Pattaya has required restaurant workers and customers to take a coronavirus antigen test before entering.
Soi 6 bargirl Pannee said she came back to work in Pattaya because she had no income in her Issan home province. Now she can live upstairs from the bar and earn at least 500 baht a day.
Damrongkiat Pinitkan, secretary for the Entertainment & Tourism Association of Pattaya, said the elephantine restaurant loophole has been good news for bar workers, as was this week’s restoration of an 11 p.m. cutoff for alcohol sales.
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