Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the alcohol ban in Thailand or the easing of the alcohol ban in Thailand. We have seen certain areas including Bangkok be designated "blue zones" as opposed to dark red, red, yellow, orange. Thailand is getting to have a code of many colours over its provinces these days and I don't mean to laugh but it just seems like a lot of colour coding and I don't know what function it serves but okay, it is as it is. 

We have seen a number of provinces be reopened. I have done other videos contemporaneously with this one discussing that, but the thing to take away from this video and to go ahead and quote from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Pattaya booze ban stays, operators peeved. There is a lot going on in this article. I am just going to quote a bit here. I urge those watching this video to go and check this out for yourselves. Quoting directly "Local tourism operators are upset that the popular resort city has been left off a short list of places where alcohol sales will be allowed in restaurants starting on Monday. Pattaya deserves to be included in the four-province cluster where restaurants will have permission to sell alcoholic beverages to patrons said Boon-anant Pattanasin, President of the Pattaya Business and Tourism Association." Quoting further: "He made the comment after the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration said that eateries in Bangkok, Krabi, Phangnga and Phuket will be the only places allowed to sell beer, wine and the like from Monday in line with the reopening of the country to travellers." 

So yeah and as we discussed, this Blue Zone designation, on the one hand I am not going to be overly critical. I think this is a great step in the right direction but I really do hope that they rethink this during the month of November sooner rather than later. I think the more we get open, and the more we just start dealing with this and getting on with it and especially from a tourism standpoint, if we are doing this to get some numbers up in terms of tourism, tourists look at what is happening today to make plans for months from now. So if they are reasonably certain things are going to be open in a few months, then opening would add to evidence that would underlie that certainty. That would be a good thing. 

Hopefully we are going to see this sooner rather than later. I hope they rethink this leaving Pattaya "out in the cold" if you will, I hope they rethink this over the course of November and we see Pattaya get the same ability to serve alcohol and restaurants as is currently available in Bangkok.