Now that Pattaya’s infamous Walking Street is open to traffic along with parking for the first time in many, many years, what’s next? Thai officials and the local constabulary have long had a love-hate relationship with the red light district. It has attracted tourists but perhaps to the tourists the bosses in Bangkok were hoping for. It was a hive of lawless rents, sub-leases, sub-sub-leases and graft. Whilst police turned a blind eye to much of the illegal activities along the strip, they were happy to profit from kick-backs, “security” and tea money. Now the Pattaya Mayor Sonthaya Khunplume says the […]

A leading epidemiologist on the faculty of medicine at Chulalongkorn University is calling for the government to suspend any plan to allow foreign tourists for 6-18 months. Dr Thira Woratanarat, who makes daily updates on his Facebook in the Thai language and is well followed in the Thai media, has been delivering regular warnings about the risk of Covid-19 to Thailand. This morning, Dr. Woratanarat posted that the guard of the Thai population has dropped significantly although the virus is still very much a threat worldwide. He says research from the Ministry of Public Health, to which he is an […]

It’s official. The Bangkok Midnight Marathon 2020 is closed to foreigners. Popular blogger Richard Barrow posted the news last night saying… “For some reason, the organisers of this year’s Bangkok Midnight Marathon have decided not to allow foreigners to run. I hope this doesn’t become part of the ‘new normal’.” Unsurprisingly, the social media outrage was swift… “Anyone who has lived in Thailand for any length of time should not be surprised by the institutionalised xenophobia. It’s not the fault of the average Thai, just the idiocy from above.” “A good forum should be set up for all institutions and […]