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Phuket Police Clear Patong Beach of Vendors' Hoard and Tourists' Umbrellas
By Chutima Sidasathian and Prasit Tarnsirisin Wednesday, January 21, 2015
PHUKET: Tourists went to Patong's police station today to reclaim personal umbrellas and chairs swept up in an after-dark clearance of illegal equipment at Phuket's best-known holiday beach last night.
The new superintendent who took over yesterday at Kathu Police Station immediately ordered officers to clear the beaches of massage beds, umbrellas, sunbeds, coolers and other goods left at the beach by vendors.
''I was given the Phuket policy by the Phuket police commander and the Phuket governor and I ordered the beaches cleared,'' said Colonel Chaiwat Auikam, newly arrived from Ranong.
Vendors said the police ''have made the tourists confused'' but there was no confusion among the tourists who sheepishly reclaimed their umbrellas and chairs from Kathu Police Station today.
The tourists will not be charged but the vendors will face charges, officers said.
In the haul that filled a six-wheel truck last night were 178 folding lounges, 37 plastic chairs, 35 umbrellas, 11 cooler boxes, six tables and three mats.
Tourists told police they paid vendors 20 baht for each piece stored overnight.
One visitor, American Jim Newsall, 64, said the police took his chair.
''Today I had to visit police to get my chair back. What authorities have been doing at Patong beach is turning tourists away.''
Five vendors each faced fines of 1000 baht each.
The military government of Thailand ordered the beaches to be cleared soon after taking charge on May 22 following years of commercial profit-taking from public beaches by individuals.
Last night's action was a sign that a return to the old days will not be tolerated.
Eight of Phuket's 10 police station recently had new superintendents appointed and it's likely that the crackdown on Patong beach will be followed at other well-known beaches.
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Comments
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Great, in which other country do beach tourists have to go to a police station to RECLAIM their belongings. Complete childish madness. Very good for negative Phuket image building.
Posted by
Kurt
on
January 21, 2015 14:12
WOW those pics of "tourists seaking back their umbrellas at police station" are so telling.
Let's these pics educate prospective tourists on peculiarities of spending their holiday time in LoS.
The incredible job was done!
Bring Your Own Umbrella Receipt, Krap !
Posted by
Sue
on
January 21, 2015 14:28
don't return the equipment next time- they'll learn the lesson a lot quicker...
Posted by
a
on
January 21, 2015 15:01
Thsiland beaches are beautiful . Why should a few control what's going on at these beaches . The beaches are for everybody not just a few who think they deserve an income from tourists . Also the tourists that want to push their views on everyone else then go to another country . Because you know no one else will put up with your demands
Posted by
Pwin
on
January 21, 2015 15:02
The current situation which switching approaches from military, city-hall, police, governors and so on daily base is so confusing. It is not Amazing Thailand but Ashaming Government.... I speak daily and see daily what is happening on Patong Beach.... It is not funny.... no Tourists are stunned, yest flabbergasted by it. THAILAND is not the "talk of town" No Thailand is becoming "the joker" of tourism industry worldwide... . Thailand offers free skin cancer (no Parasols), police "stealing" from tourists their properties/beach chairs. No safety regulations.... NO signs where swimming not safe.... jet-ski's, Parasails. ...
Thailand changed back to an 30th world... Under-development level and this againSt MONACO pricelevel ... military are Now called/mentioned; Nr.1.OUT OF 15!
Posted by
phuketgreed
on
January 21, 2015 15:17
There can hardly be a more compelling argument for having a single beach authority than this farcical umbrella issue.
"Rules" change almost daily, depending on who happens to be pulling the strings. It's clearly a turf war and the best interest of neither the beach nor the tourists even enters the discussion.
It should be clear that NO ELECTED OFFICIAL should have any say what happens on the beaches whatsoever. They only pander to their voters with devastating effect.
If there's one thing I've learned in my decade in Thailand is to never underestimate the stupidity of people.
Tonight Show and SNL could extract a week of jokes from just this subject.
Posted by
Herbert
on
January 21, 2015 15:20
Very industrious these beach vendors. Purchase and then pay for storage. I did wonder how they would circumvent the rules of renting on the beach. Have they tried, selling off the beach, for say, 500, and allowing a buy back scheme for 300 yet? I'm sure it's in the works. Anyway, good job Police for blocking that loophole. Tourists however will be scratching their head at this one, and i'm sure will be in a state of annoyance and disbelief. I hope they understand, the police are not trying to victimise them, its the perpetual rule breakers they are trying to rein in.
Posted by
Andy
on
January 21, 2015 15:33
And nothing is beeing done about jetskies and parasailors.. that stuff kills people, but its more important to take away some umbrellas.. great job:) what is going on in their heads? you can make money on things that kills people, but not on things that make the stay at the beach comfortable.. this will slowly kill tourism
Posted by
Niels
on
January 21, 2015 15:53
I commend the police. I've spent my whole life at various beaches around the world, and at all of them any gear left overnight would get picked up and thrown away. There would be nothing to reclaim. Bring what you need for a day at the beach, then take it home. Why would anyone feel it was ok to store their gear on public property? The people that did it here are lucky they got their things back at all.
Posted by
Day
on
January 21, 2015 16:54
The scams are back 20 baht to store it and they just leave it on the beach for the police to impound it no storage at all 20 baht for nothing the police action is correct well done!
Posted by
slickmelb
on
January 21, 2015 16:56
I wonder why the vendors on the beaches have been focused on. Are not all the vendors on sidewalks and roads using public land for profit? Beaches are public land just as much as a roads or a sidewalks!
Posted by
larry
on
January 21, 2015 17:51
A great start
How about tomorrow the police go and collect all the rental cars and motorbikes that hog all the parking spaces down the beach road....
Then the next day they can take away al the tuktuks ......
Then Pating can start to look lovely again, and tourists can start to enjoy their holidays
In the words of the great man "I have a dream!!"
Posted by
Amazing Thailand
on
January 21, 2015 20:17
Today I went down Patong North end to suffer (enjoy) my twice weekly 2km swim. Shock horror, the *$^^$%$%&^# JETSKIS have broken to 500m roped area in 2.
I was so enthusiastic about the roped off areas since 2 months ago. Ever since the Phuket traithlon I have continued swim training on Patong beach as there was a guaranteed 500m straight line swim without fear of jetski or speedboat (which is a major concern for anyone pondering distance swim training). I got back from Bkk today to find the 500m area (a gift from Mayor Kebsup) has been carved up and the jetskis are back in control of a wide swath of beach. I am gutted, really really gutted.
Posted by
geoff
on
January 21, 2015 20:32
I am Jim Newhall.
You quote me in your article saying they took one chair. What a joke. We spoke of the community that has been destroyed by the governments action and my wife spoke about the importance of cleaning up the garbage and the sewage from Pak Bang Canal.
The point of the interview is that we are planning a trip to Vietnam to find a more relaxing environment.
Many friends say they will never come back to Thailand. Only after Phuket feels the financial reprocessing will they wake up.
I love Thailand and had planned to spend the rest of my life here.
Posted by
Jim in Patong
on
January 21, 2015 22:21
I think this just might be a ray of sunshine coming from the new top cop. I hope Colonel Auikam reads through ALL the Phuket policies, including the rules on Tuktuks and illegal taxis parking throughout the city... but that might be expecting too much, since taxis and Tuktuks run the City. Pitiful that tourists had to waste vacation time going to the police station, and downright pathetic that corrupt and greedy beach vendors think its OK to steal tourists money, then leave all their stuff unattended.
Posted by
Ed Sanders
on
January 21, 2015 22:27
I came across good quality video of Patong beach in 1993:
http://youtu.be/4fiQZLPlCwY
I would say, cleared beaches today are looking even better than back in 1993.
And with today's change of jetski warzones limited to just 50m wide pockets, then it is looking promising.
However the road to better beach managements is so bumpy, and we'll see in future obvioulsy few more "bumps" like described in the article.
Posted by
Sue
on
January 22, 2015 02:38
My wife and I recently returned from Phuket. This was our 17th year we have taken our vacation there staying at Patong Beach. Over the years we have done all the touristy things and visited the Islands and now return because we just enjoy being there, we like the food and the people and especially like to relax on the beach with sunbeds and umbrellas. This last trip has changed everything. It???s now a fight to get up by the trees for some shade and The locals who come to the beach and stay up under the trees in the afternoons have been displaced by farangs trying to avoid the direct sun. Of course jet skis have extended their grip on the beach ignoring most of the rules put in place as they operate with impunity. On our last day there we found one spot where they were renting out the old umbrellas and mats. That day was the best day we spent on the beach during our visit.
Of course we did many other things whilst we were there, as we could not spend more that a couple of hours at the beach and overall still enjoyed our trip. However we will not be coming back if the status does not change. Our situation is the same as many of the long-term visitors and from speaking with some of the smaller hotels there had been many cancelations and fewer visitors because of the problems in Thailand in which the sunbed/umbrella debacle is very prominent.
If the authorities are not prepared to listen to what the visitors want that???s fine. The army will get their way and return the beach to the locals by default. They will also cause a lot of the locals hardship as there will be a big reduction in tourists and money coming in.
Lets hope by 2016 some commonsense will have prevailed and in the meantime we as will many others be exploring new places for our vacations.
Posted by
Craig
on
January 22, 2015 12:34
In Australia property left on public beaches can be reclaimed from the local rubbish dump after it is collected and sent to land fill by local coucils.
Can someone tell me of any other beach in the world where you pay for overnight storage of your private property at the beach.
Posted by
Arthur
on
January 22, 2015 22:00
@ Graig - you are perfectly right. I tried to explain Pwin, that all people making local income on Phukets' west coast get their money from tourism, but that comment was rejected, for reasons I don't understand.
Posted by
Sherlock
on
January 22, 2015 22:04
@ Craig-if you have been coming here for 17 years you well no that the situation has worsened over the past couple of years with greed dominating and taking over the beach. No way was it as bad back then as it has been recently.
Posted by
Mister Ree
on
January 22, 2015 22:58
We have been going to Patong since 1999 and have planned to return in March again for our 14th visit. I dare say that it will be our last going on what we have heard. We will reserve our judgements till later but it does not sound good. We made some good friends along the beach with the locals and was looking forward to seeing them again, but am now thinking they will not be there. This decision by this regime is farcical. Have they not heard of skin cancer and covering up from the sun. All we can see is the tourists staying away as we more than likely will be doing.
Posted by
Gary
on
January 23, 2015 11:01
@ Craig
If you have been coming here for 17 years, I'm astonished that you have still not figured out that Common Sense simply does not exist here.
To try to find the reason for these problems from any other angle than the financial one will get you nowhere.
Posted by
Herbert
on
January 23, 2015 13:07
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Great, in which other country do beach tourists have to go to a police station to RECLAIM their belongings. Complete childish madness. Very good for negative Phuket image building.
Posted by Kurt on January 21, 2015 14:12