Some splash-happy tourists, and possibly a number of locals, in Phuket clearly didn’t get all of the “dry Songkran” memos. Reports of foreign tourists splashing water in and around some of Thailand’s vacationer hotspots these previous two days has drawn the ire of Thailand’s PM Prayut Chan-o-cha.
In the case of Phuket, and specifically Bangla Road, the local walking road, the PM referred to as on the governor of Phuket to ensure vacationers there are acquainted with the rules — i.e. a nationwide ban on water splashing this year.
On Wednesday, provincial authorities directed native Covid command units in three districts to implement the nation’s water splashing ban, based on Phuket deputy governor Anupab Yodrabam, who expressed confidence that what occurred on the seaside in Bangla Road won’t occurred once more.
On Tuesday night (Songkran Eve), both foreign and Thai vacationers were spotted tossing water on one another at Patong Beach on Bangla Road. There are hundreds of YouTube and social media posts of the water fights and basic Songkran ‘revelry’. Also lots displaying the state of affairs in Chaweng, Koh Samui and KhaoSan Road in Bangkok.
Last evening, native police set up checkpoints on Patong’s Bangla Road to enforce the splashing ban, making sure that no water fights broke out on the popular nightlife walking avenue. The transfer follows reports that “vigorous water play” was held there on late Tuesday evening, persevering with into the early hours of Wednesday morning, The Phuket News reported.
According to spokesperson Thanakorn, the PM has “expressed concern” and instructed the governor to personally go to places with a excessive risk of unregulated water splashing — i.e. tourist areas — to tell overseas vacationers about the ban, to find a way to keep away from the government’s worst moist nightmare.
After the incident, local authorities deployed fast-acting response teams to tell foreign revellers in Kathu district of the water splashing ban (Bangla Road is in the Kathu District of Phuket province).
Anyone who breaks the present public well being security rules beneath the anti-Covid emergency decree could presumably be fined a maximum of 40,000 baht, withstand 2 years in jail — or each. That’s in accordance with Pol Maj Gen Yingyot, who warned that those who dared to splash water in unregulated conditions would face swift retribution. He noted that lawbreakers may additionally face a further fantastic of up to 20,000 baht, as stipulated by the Communicable Disease Control Act..