The tourists have been replaced by the hungry and the boats by trucks of donated food at Bali Hai Pier as Pattaya stumbles into its third week of coronavirus lockdown.
Restaurants are closed, except for to-go orders, deliveries, convenience stores and supermarkets must close by 8 p.m. and no one is allowed on the street from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. for at least the next two weeks, but likely until the end of August.
All non-essential businesses, down to beauty salons, are closed and people have nothing to do except make a daily pilgrimage to Bali Hai, the city’s main site for food handouts. More than 1,000 people have shown up, sat two meters apart on hot concrete under a hotter sun, for a box of food and bottle of water.
This is what…
