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Phuketwan 'Brave Enough to Change' Campaign
PHUKET: With further action to reshape Phuket's taxi system expected at any moment, tourists and residents are enjoying uncluttered streets in some parts of Phuket where cabs and tuk-tuks once hogged all the space.
It's the same on many beaches, where vendors and umbrellas and loungers have been banned. Shorefronts have been cleared.
Rocky headlands where illegal restaurants were once opened - apparently without fear of action by local authorities - have been cleared.
Nai Harn, Phuket's southernmost beach, has now joined Surin, Kamala and Laem Singh among the beaches where the magnificent vistas of the sea are now evident again.
Lifeguards say they have never had it so good - they can scan the beaches for people in trouble without their vision being impeded by umbrellas.
Ironically, Nai Yang beach - which is partly in Sirinath National Park - may not be among the beaches returned to their natural state for some time.
The beach, close to the southern edge of Phuket International Airport, is subject to an MoU between the national park rangers and the beach restaurateurs that allows parts of the beach to be used for commercial purposes.
The MoU is legally binding, even though parts of the beach are in the national park.
The test for all of the beaches is yet to come. As the tourist high season approaches in November, entrepreneurs are bound to seek ways of restoring their income from tourism.
The National Council for Peace and Order, which orchestrated the beach clearances and the action against Phuket's taxis that has so far included scores of arrests, will need to be certain the beaches are kept clear.
That will test the mettle of local authorities, who only cleared the beaches because they were forced to by Thailand's coup command, which assumed control on May 22.
Patong beach and Patong taxis and tuk-tuks have yet to be fully controlled. The same applies to the airport taxis, where the system suits the drivers and nobody else.
Phuketwan has even been told that some taxis persist in taking arriving tourists to agencies in the hope of gaining illegal commissions from resorts.
After being dropped off at the agency against their will, the tourists are told that the resort where they have already made a booking is closed.
They are advised to make a booking at a resort that the agency recommends. The agency and the taxi driver split the commission from the resort, and the tourist, having been effectively abducted against their will, is sometimes none the wiser.
Others who discover they have been duped usually decide never to return to Phuket.
Commissions are in many cases a bigger scam than the excessive fares charged by Phuket's taxi drivers, another topic that residents and visitors hope the military will address before long.
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The beach, close to the southern edge of Phuket International Airport, is subject to an MoU between the national park rangers and the beach restaurateurs that allows parts of the beach to be used for commercial purposes.
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Sorry????? How do the Park Rangers have the legal right to enter into agreements about HM King's land?
I thought a national park was meant to the one place where commercial activities were not allowed.
Yet according to your report, the one place where such activity should not exist now seems to be the one place where it is legally allowed to exist....
That is absolutely crazy - take a walk along Nai Yang Beach and you'll see what that so-called policy has resulted in ==> dozens of illegal concrete and wooden restaurants, massages and guesthouses.
Might I suggest an investigation into who has sold the national park 'down the river'?
Posted by Simon Luttrell on July 6, 2014 13:50