Customers eat food inside Chu Chocolate Bar & Cafe before being closed permanently due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Bangkok, Thailand, May 29, 2021. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
When restaurant owner Chirayu Na Ranong heard the Thai government announce new coronavirus restrictions in Bangkok in April, he burst into tears.
The latest curbs were the final straw for his Chu Chocolate Bar & Cafe in the centre of the city. The cafe, popular with both tourists and locals for the past decade, closed its doors for the last time this week.
“I knew that it was over, because we were already just barely surviving, and then with one more lockdown, we wouldn’t have enough money to pay,” Chirayu, 36, told Reuters as his staff cleared out the restaurant.
“I followed the government’s order, I did what they told me to do, and then I couldn’t survive. I couldn’t make a living.”
The…
