WITH night venues at Phuket’s Patong beach zone now allowed to stay open till 4 a.m. provincial authorities have ordered lifeguards to closely watch Patong beach as they are afraid tourists might go swimming after they have shut, TV Channel 7 and Matichon newspaper said today (Dec. 17).
Phuket is among four provinces aside from Bangkok where extended opening hours of entertainment venues are now allowed outside of hotel premises with those within hotels allowed to do so across the country.
Those entertainment spots in the capital, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Chonburi which geographically covers Pattaya and Koh Samui off Surat Thani, either within the premises of hotels or without, may now legally open until 4 a.m.
Phuket Governor Sophon Suwannarat said this morning he is satisfied with the overall picture of night venues in Patong zone opening till 4 a.m. but is waiting to make another evaluation after seven days have passed.
He took a team to survey the Soi Bangla area last night and ordered officials to take good care of tourists.
“CCTV cameras showed that most tourists, 95%, are foreigners, and 5% Thai with both entrepreneurs and tourists cooperating very well, everything went smoothly,” he said.
Meanwhile on Koh Samui, police accompanied by administrative and Internal Security Operations Command Region 4 officials checked the Chaweng Beach area where night venues were open till 4 a.m. and found that it was teeming with tourists.
They ordered entrepreneurs to strictly comply with the law while having also set up a drink-driving checkpoint where one Thai man was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol but no weapons or illegal items were found on him.
Pattaya police too set up a drink-driving checkpoint on Second road to prevent accidents. They mentioned that they will be putting up this checkpoint at different hours because there are a lot of night venues at this seaside city.
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Top and Front Page: Tourists throng Soi Bangla at Patong beach last night. Photo: Matichon
Insert: Phuket Sophon Suwannarat. Photo: Matichon
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