Inside Thailand’s seedy sex capital Pattaya where thousands of prostitutes sell themselves to tourists.. after cops nab Brits at illegal orgy
After a government crackdown last year, the sex industry in Pattaya appears to be seedier than ever
THE Thai city of Pattaya has an estimated 27,000 prostitutes and is known as the world’s neon-lit sex capital.
The resort located in the east of Thailand has been branded the modern day Sodom and Gomorrah – the biblical kingdom infested with vice and sin.
Yesterday, 11 foreign tourists were arrested along with 14 sex workers during a raid on an illegal orgy at a Pattaya hotel.
Footage from the raid on the Tulip Hotel shows the sweaty, semi-naked, middle-aged men - who had reportedly paid about £35 to take part in the orgy - trying to cover their faces with towels as they are rounded up by police.
Cops arrived to find people allegedly having group sex in the hotel room that was scattered with condoms, lubricant, sexual enhancement drugs and toys.
The tourists reportedly came from Britain, Australia, America, Canada, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Germany, Thailand, Cambodia, India and Ukraine.
The hotel’s Chinese owner was arrested on suspicion of running a hotel without a licence and hosting obscene events.
Over one million tourists visit Pattaya every year and many of them are white western men who frequent the city’s hundreds of strip bars, go-go clubs and brothels.
Many sex workers come from the impoverished northeast and see selling their bodies as a way out of poverty.
Prostitutes can earn up to 5,000 baht (£114) a night - nearly 20 times the minimum wage of 300 baht (£7) per day.
Last year, News.com.au reporter Luke Williams visited Pattaya and spoke to the western tourists who visit the sleazy sex capital.
A local police officer told him that the city is “like a cowboy town in the Wild West a hundred years ago."
A popular T-shirt sold at stalls features the slogan: "Good guys go to heaven, bad guys go to Pattaya”.
Prostitution is illegal in Thailand but for decades lawmakers and police have turned a blind eye enabling the sex industry to thrive - until now.
Human rights groups have long been concerned about exploitation and human trafficking in Thailand’s sex industry, which is said to date back to the Korean and Vietnam wars, when foreign troops would be stationed nearby.
But for years authorities appeared to do little about it, and Pattaya’s reputation for lawlessness grew stronger - until Thailand’s first female tourism minister announced everything would change.
Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul vowed to shut down Pattaya’s sex industry, and do away with its world famous ladyboys, go-go dancers and ping-pong shows, when she announced a crackdown in 2016.
She said: “Tourists don’t come to Thailand for such a thing.
“They come here for our beautiful culture. We want Thailand to be about quality tourism. We want the sex industry gone.”
What followed was months of late-night raids and mass arrests in brothels and clubs across Pattaya, with Western tourists among those nabbed by police.
Officers also stormed pubs and clubs, seizing drugs and tobacco and drug testing patrons.
While the crackdown settled things down for a while, residents said Pattaya was well and truly back to its old tricks — and may have become worse.
The city has seen a spike in violent crime over the past 12 months, including brawls between tourists.
In February, Melbourne man Benjamin Robb was brutally bashed to death at the Ruby Club, a licensed venue in Pattaya’s notorious Soi 6 laneway.
His alleged attacker, American man Jose Manuel Polanco, claimed he attacked Mr Robb in self-defence after seeing the Australian strangle a sex worker.
Days later, a massive fight broke out on Walking Street between British tourists and men of Middle Eastern appearance.
Meanwhile, the sex industry has continued to thrive despite the crackdowns.
Businesses have found a loophole to avoid prosecution for prostitution: they hire sex workers in the bars to talk to patrons, but offer a “bar fine” of about 500 baht, or $20, which lets the patron secure private time with the worker to strike up a deal for sex.
Operators have also found ways to move the sex trade offshore.
Earlier this month, German authorities raided 62 properties and arrested seven men they allege brought Thai sex workers to Germany on fake tourist visas.
British journalist Andrew Drummond, who specialises in crime in Thailand, said the other challenge to shutting down the sex trade was that it was a lucrative business for many facets of Pattaya society.
It is said to benefit everyone from the sex workers, who often relied on earnings to support their families, to hotels, taxis, the mafia and, allegedly, the police.
He said the system was known as “pon prayote”.
“It means everyone benefits,” Drummond said. “It brings in massive amounts of money and simply couldn’t happen without police connivance.
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