Alcohol Sales Ban in Thailand on Friday

On Friday 24th May 2013 Thai Buddhists will be celebrating Visakha Bucha Day. In order to encourage Thais to be good Buddhists on this day and to keep the precepts, the Thai government  imposed a ban on the sale of alcohol back in 2009 on all Buddhist holidays.  Offenders face 6 months in prison and/or 10,000 Baht fine. This includes all retail outlets and pubs and bars. This also goes for the Full Moon Party that is delayed one day until Saturday night.  The only exception under the law are properly registered hotels that mainly have a foreign clientele. However, they sometimes have self-imposed banning of alcohol. The alcohol ban runs starts on Thursday at midnight and runs for a complete 24 hours until midnight on Friday.