Tourist operators say violence in Thailand's Muslim south has scared away Malaysian tourists who usually flock across the border to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr holiday that ends the fasting month of Ramadan. Malaysians, long the largest group of foreign visitors to Thailand, have shunned bomb-hit Sungai Kolok, a town known for its night life. | That's part of the plan, can't have the Malaysian muslims seeing people having fun. Might give them ideas. |
Last month, a bomb exploded on a bar strip in Sungai Kolok, a weekend getaway, killing a Malaysian man and a Thai woman and wounding dozens other. A blast on the same strip wounded 28 Malaysians and Thais in March. Tourist operators say the number of Malaysians crossing to Sungai Kolok has dropped to less than 150 a day now from 1,500 a day last year. |