With video indicating that Pattaya’s infamous “Coconut Bar” has relocated to Soi Buakhao, Pattaya area officials are vowing a crackdown on prostitutes and the foreign men who approach them.
Video surfaced July 26 of an evening scene on the central Pattaya thoroughfare near the Tree Town Market. Provocatively dressed women and old Pattaya expats sat talking and drinking without wearing face masks.
Netizens erupted in righteous indignation, claiming the farangs were creating conditions for a Covid-19 superspreader event.
Somchai, a motorcycle taxi rider in the area, confirmed the video, saying the foreigners and women he suspected of being prostitutes return every night, just as they did on Beach Road before police closed the shoreline and shooed away hookers from under the coconuts trees.
Banglamung Deputy District Chief Paradorn Chainapaporn said anyone congregating on Soi Buakhao or drinking alcohol there would be arrested for emergency decree violations.