Covid leaves Thai revellers high and dry | World

In pre-pandemic Bangkok, the most famous tourist street in the world’s most visited city would have been drying off this weekend after its greatest bacchanalia, Songkran, a three-day water-soaked celebration of Thai new year.

But on the first day of the Songkran festival last week, Khao San Road felt like a ghost town in the heart of old Bangkok, its bars and shops shuttered, guest houses empty, with just a few vendors braving the heat, selling trinkets but finding no buyers.

“Business is dead, politics is bad, the coronavirus is back, vaccinations aren’t happening and the small people are suffering,” lamented Numpong Pengboon, who runs Happy Bar, a reggae hang-out on Khao San Road that is now closed.

Normally Khao San Road in Bangkok would be packed with tourists at this time of year. This was the scene a few days ago

SOPA IMAGES/ALAMY

Songkran carousing grew out of the ancient