Pattaya bar girl from upcountry stuck in Jomtien, views sunsets alone without her man this year

Joy, 24, from Udon Thani, is among many thousands of nightlife workers who have lost their jobs since April.Many had to travel back to their hometowns; some went back to the north, some to the northeast.

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Joy said every year for the past four years, she would warmly be accompanied by her British boyfriend, Mark. They’d spent the best of times together. She said they used to travel to the provinces to visit her parents in Udon Thani. Last year she got to meet her boyfriend’s parents in New Castle.

This year is a total disaster for her love life. Joy could only video chat with her man, and has had hours and hours of chats, but that was all they could do together, she said.

Joy said Mark told her how it’s getting much colder in England and initially he was planning to take his parents down to Pattaya this year to escape winter. But that was all just a dream.

Joy said this year she had to watch the sunsets alone before going to work in a bar across the road. She often spent free time with her friends,but now only a few friends are left. She would come and sit on the footpath on the beach and unhappily reminisce the good times she had with Mark last winter.

Joy said when the international travel ban was enforced in April around the globe,it was like a great nightmare. Only in a week or so, you woke up with the saddest announcement that went all across the world about the pandemic and the standstill of all airliners. It happened so fast, Joy said.

Joy planned to take a trip to the Maldives with Mark in September before coming back to Thailand in October, and spend at least two months together before sending Mark off to New Castle to carry on with his job in a hotel. All plans were ruined, Joy mourned.

Sunset in Jomtien is beautiful and most stunning but it is painful to see it alone every day without knowing the future of an already planned family life between her and her boyfriend.

Before getting up and walking across the road for her shift, Joy added that if she could get a grip of her life and go through this winter’s gloom with her own feet, there is a great chance she would travel to England and stay there permanently. That’s her plan, she said.