Pattaya tourists forced to wait under hot sun for Koh Larn ferries

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One lone umbrella protects the ticket collector at the point where passengers board their boats to Koh Larn, while the rest of the tourists must wait in the hot sun for their ride.

Waiting for a boat to Koh Larn at Bali Hai Pier? Bring sunscreen.

Thousands of tourists queued for boats to Pattaya’s tourist island over the weekend, resulting in long waits for available seats. But tourists found that, unlike in the past, there were no tents for them to wait under.



Waiting for a boat meant waiting in the sun.
Both tourists and business operators complained about the lack of cover from the hot sun. Things would get worse when it rained.

There were also complaints about the entire boarding process, especially that some large boats had to moor 100 meters offshore, with passengers needing to be ferried out, slowing the entire process.



Pattaya may have fixed parking with the conversion of a multipurpose zone into a parking lot – only necessary because the city’s high-tech automatic parking garage is mostly broken – but it has more work to do on the embarkation process.

Once upon a time there were tents on Bali Hai Pier to protect tourists waiting to board their boats to Koh Larn, but since the pandemic, they have all disappeared.