Another rule imposed by the military is jeopardizing the safety of tourists and hurting the incomes of people working at Bali Hai Pier.
As work gets underway to repair the jetty’s main bridge, the army has banned all vehicles – even motorbikes – from driving on the pier to take equipment and passengers to boats.
The prohibition has hit Pattaya scuba diving companies particularly hard, as they must transport dozens of heavy air cylinders and equipment bags to and from their boats daily, as well as customers.
It also has put a group of sidecar motorbike drivers who have transported equipment at the pier for five years out of business, at least temporarily.
Businesses using the pier say they understand the need to restrict access to the bridge during repairs, but army officers imposed a blanket ban without considering the repercussions, just like when they banished speedboats from the pier without organizing alternative launching and loading areas.
Until recently, authorities had allowed vehicles to use the bridge and the sidecars to drive to boats from 4-10 a.m. This worked fine to load boats, but apparently military officials forgot that loaded boats needed to be unloaded in the afternoon.
On Jan. 24, the word came down that all vehicles, including the 20 sidecar motorbikes, were prohibited from driving anywhere on the pier.
The motorbike drivers, who earn 50 baht per load they take to boats, claim that they were banned from the pier because Chinese tourists going on Koh Larn passenger ferries complained. Rather than offend an important tourist group, authorities ceded to their demands, inconveniencing every other group using the pier.
Given no alternative, dive shops and tourists boats have begun using the Koh Larn garbage barge docks at the far end of Bali Hai. Not only is it inconvenient and smelly, it’s dangerous, the dive operators say.
One dive shop owner said the area stinks of putrid garbage and passengers are forced to climb over the barges covered in filth to get ashore. It has proved a health hazard, with one elderly diver slipping and falling into the waste several weeks ago.
This past week, a group of Hong Kong snorkelers were forced to board their boat under a crane loading concrete slabs onto a Koh Larn-bound barge. The crane operator refused to stop work while people passed under the slabs.
Dive shops and motorbike drivers say they feel that the government – after torpedoing the Chinese tourism market by banning “zero-baht” tours – is giving those Chinese who remain preferential treatment at the expense of everyone else.
