Thailand Nightlife Curfew Eases to Midnight-4am: Fun Returns to Phuket, Pattaya, Bangkok PHUKET: Thailand's coup command announced this evening that the nationwide nightlife curfew will be be eased to midnight to 4am from Wednesday night.



The announcement means the 10pm-5am curfew will disappear after tonight, the fifth night of imposition. The curfew has been strongly criticised by tourism industry spokespeople from Phuket and other tourist destinations in Thailand.



The lifting of the curfew is a sign that the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) is starting to ease measures imposed after the coup was announced last Thursday.



Lifting the curfew will be greeted with glee in Phuket, Pattaya and other tourists destinations. There have been hints that some of the more remote destinations did not comply anyway.



The extension of the curfew to midnight will be welcomed in Bangkok, one of the world's most exciting cities after dark . . . until the coup.



So far the generals now in control of Thailand have proven to be astute in asserting control without bloodshed or being seen to be heavy-handed. Thailand has had so much practice at coups that the latest one seems to have applied all the lessons from the past.



Tourism, though, has been hard-hit because insurance becomes much harder to get for travellers with the generals in control.



The easing of the curfew by two hours is the most hopeful sign yet that the path back to democracy is being taken, if a little slowly and step by step. Comments Comments have been disabled for this article.

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