With many tourists choosing to spend their days in Koh Larn and expats fleeing the city to escape the water-soaked pandemonium of Songkran in Pattaya, the mainland’s beach vendors said the Thai New Year holiday was a slow one for them.
Even after being given permission to work on Wednesdays, when the beach is usually emptied of chairs and umbrellas, vendors said they felt they were stranded on an island, with customers unwilling to brave the water wars to get to the sand.
Dongtan Beach was nearly deserted April 15.
Jomtien and Dongtan beaches were virtually deserted April 15 as tourists and locals bombarded Beach Road with water guns, hoses and buckets.
Many tourists, particularly throngs of Chinese visitors, went straight to Bali Hai Pier to catch ferries to peaceful Koh Larn while many westerners and families stayed at their busy hotels. Expats and long-term visitors simply left Thailand for neighboring countries.
The few people spotted along Jomtien Beach tended to be migrant workers from Cambodia and Myanmar, with a few Thais scattered among them.
Manop Sakorn, a beach vendor on Dongtan Beach, said that they were granted permission to stay open April 15 because it the last day of the legal three-day Songkran holiday.
But most Thais on long holiday left that day to brave the gridlock that was the commute back to Bangkok.
