Songkran crowds flock to the new, improved, wider, better Jomtien Beach

Pattaya, the seaside playground 2 hours south east of Bangkok, never had really good beaches. But these days the popular resort boasts huge expanses of sand as far as the eye can see.

Most of the earlier efforts were concentrated on the popular Pattaya beachfront but recently the efforts moved to Jomtien, about 3 kilometres south of the main party town. Nearly a kilometre of Jomtien Beach is now wider and ‘sandier’ than in the past, attracting beachgoers and their cameras, to the improved beachside resource.

Pattaya City saw many of its earlier efforts and investment washed back into the Gulf of Thailand following monsoonal rains. Back in 2018 a number of rain storms washed away millions of baht worth of sand and reclamation works.

Much of the mostly low-lying beach along Beach Road suffered constant inundation and erosion from storm run-off flowing across troad and then taking…