As if the last changes - the loss of the chairs in favour of recliners, much-restricted space for concessionaires and weekly beach-free Wednesdays - weren't enough, I overheard on the beach this morning two farang gossiping about even more to come.
Maybe their words were completely unfounded or maybe I've missed a report in the Pattaya Mail, but according to them:
1. During the coming low season all concessionaires will be required to re-apply for their current licences.
2. All are allowed to re-apply but, if successful, (a) will only be granted a single concession area (apparently some currently hold more than one), and (b) any newly awarded concession will not necessarily be in the same location as heretofore. Thus, on our next visit we may need to go hunting along the beach to find Rit, or whoever else you favour, in some new spot - or else find that he isn't there at all and that perhaps he's been replaced by an operator preferring to cater to the straight market.
This may, of course, be idle gossip of a couple of bored and ill-informed farang and without any foundation at all. If any of it is true, however, it sounds like either another typically Thai instance of more bureaucracy for its own sake - or perhaps yet one more initiative to disrupt the Pattaya sex scene.
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Originally Posted by Marsilius
