Pattaya-
In what may be a dry run for upcoming major events like Loy Krathong, the fireworks festival, Christmas, and New Year’s, Pattaya has been busy so far on day two going into the four day holiday weekend.
The extended weekend is due to government holidays given as part of the memorial ceremonies for His Royal Majesty Rama IX who sadly passed six year ago.
As a result, domestic tourists have poured into Pattaya and so far the weather has been favorable, bringing many to local beaches and according to Pattaya officials roughly 8,000 people a day so far to Koh Larn.
Tourist areas like Walking Street and LK metro have been busy as well with many foreign tourists also enjoying the holiday weekend.
There have, however, been some complaints. Notably is traffic issues, many still caused by ongoing construction on Second Road that has been a pain not just to tourists and expats but also business owners. Pattaya City officials say they are encouraging contractors to work as quickly as possible to get these areas complete and open to traffic by Loy Krathong on November 8th.
There have also been some complaints on social media about “early” closings of nightlife, driven by a police crackdown in the area for safety over the past few days. TPN notes, however, that despite proposals to legally extend nightlife closing hours in tourism zones to 4AM, currently the legal closing time for entertainment areas is 2AM.
There have also been proposals to legally extend entertainment zones out of Central Pattaya but this is also not yet official, and as a result legal closing time of entertainment venues outside this area is midnight.
Pattaya authorities, keenly aware that tourists don’t like to go home early and that Pattaya is driven by tourism and entertainment, say they are expediting both proposals with the Thai Tourism Authority.
For now, the weekend is expected to stay busy and is a good test for upcoming events and weekends expected to be even busier as the high season…the first real one since 2019 due to Covid19…approaches.
