‘WE DON’T WANT SEX TOURISM’ SAYS TOURISM MINISTER – BUT WHO ARE ‘WE’?

SEX TOURIST CAUGHT WITH PANTS DOWN TWICE SAYS ‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!’

While the foreign media appear to be store by the interview  by blue blooded Thai Tourism Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrankgkul in which she told Reuters ‘We want the sex industry gone’, sex tourists can be re-assured that the vibrant sex industry is not yet on the way out.

Its unlikely she was using the royal ‘we’ as what the Tourism Authority believes is frequently out of sync with what the government thinks, or rather does.

Tourism in Thailand of course continues to rise by the year – even visitors from Europe – and despite a drop in Russians by about 50 to 60 per cent, says Minister Kobkarn – this year numbers expect to reach a new high of 28.8 million people.

Indeed no matter what the critics stay there are few places in the world offering what Thailand can – at such moderate prices.

Minister Kobkarn’s wishes are however unlikely to be fulfilled in the near future. This was of course not because of the prediction by ThaiVisa.com posters that country will go to hell in a hand cart without the sex industry.

No; her government will need to give the poor people an actual opportunity to earn real money. What she said is an not official government statement – after all the military can do as it likes. So don;t wait for a ‘Hey Presto!’

Most visitors to Thailand are not sex tourists. But the sex industry is of course an embarrassment to Thailand’s  global travelling elite – because that is what the country has a reputation for – not just beaches, Thai curry, and hospitality.

There have been a few hiccups suggesting there is a crackdown on sex tourism. There were a series of raids on sex venues last month. Indeed, in Pattaya the undisputed sex tourism capital of the country tourists have even suffered coitus interruptus as a result – but it’s still full steam ahead in the hunt for the sex tourist dollar.

One such person, who has been caught with his pants down, is self-confessed sex tourist Mark, a South African businessman, who tells me that on his recent trips onto the twilight world of Pattaya city the place has been positively heaving.

But it was not for a period last month when Thailand’s military essentially took over the resort, replacing the Mayor Ittipol Khunpleum, son of Godfather Somchai Khunpleum, according to Mark.

It was then that twice Mark was caught on the job with members of staff banging on the door to his rented love-nest telling him and his new friends to put on their clothes and get out damn quickly as the police were on their way – first at the Roxy Bar in Soi 6 and secondly at the Perry Bar in the same street.

At the Roxy he says he was offered a ‘free go’ at a later date – an offer which he took up.

But at the Perry Bar he did not. He believes there may have been a raid as he was hidden in a bathroom/toilet while he heard men go up and down the stairs. But the court is out on this.

Anyway ‘a deal’s a deal’, he thought, and he went back to the Perry Bar and asked for a receipt for the payments he made for the drinks, room, and girl.

When a piece of paper was produced he got out his mobile phone and photographed it.

This, he said, resulted in a pack attack with the mamasan and bar girls beating him all over until he rushed to a corner of the bar and said he was not leaving until the police arrived.

Mark is something of a stickler for the correct order. Readers of this site might recall that he was arrested a year ago. This was when he took two young women back to his apartment and they reneged on the agreed financial deal by upping the price at the last minute.

He escorted them out of his condo – and as they would not accompany him back to the bar – where he wanted a refund – he held on to their ID cards to settle the matter at the police station the next day.
This seemed a trifle optimistic – and indeed it was. As he had taken their IDs during the hours of darkness he was charged with ‘robbery by night’ and police also threw in concocted charge that he did not have a visa. He did but his passport was at home and in the meantime he spent 14 days in jail and was of course shaken down by bent lawyers.

(The visa charge was dropped and he did force the lawyers to give him a refund but the whole affair cost him well over 100,000 baht and, despite the creation of the so called fast track tourists courts, the case still does not come up for months).

Anyway, after being caught in flagrante at the Perry Bar and after the alleged attack, Mark duly ended up at the police station where he said he wished to place charges for the attack against him.

Police however refused to let him make a complaint. Instead the mamasan placed a charge of assault against him and demanded he settle up with 6000 Thai baht – backed by police.

(This is a sort of predictable outcome and not part of Minister Kobkarn’s new ‘Discover Thainess’ campaign. But then again neother the Minister, nor many others, will be feeling sorry for Mark).

 

Police took his passport and driving licence. The matter is still unresolved.

Said Mark:

“There were no media at the police station. Had they been there they could have showed in images that it was I who was attacked – not the mamasan.
“This is a matter of principle. It’s a matter of credibility, “he said: “I treat the women with respect. I always pay the amount required, and sometimes more.
“I asked police about these raids. They simply said they could not talk about them.
“This is not fair. The sex trade in Thailand is openly promoted. I follow the rules. Why am I being persecuted for it?”

The answer of course is that anyone engaged in the sex industry is well advised to play by the variable rules and if in doubt just butt out.

Mark has since had CT scans taken of his head injuries. He has had them examined by independent neurologists. Unlike the Pattaya hospital’s findings, he says, they show he has a head fracture.

The demand for payment by police, he says, has since dropped to 5000 baht – and if he wants his passport back he will need to meet the mickey taking officer this Wednesday at the police station at 4 am.

I am not about to ask Mark how he is going to while away the hours until 4 am. He does not drink alcohol, smoke etc.

Meanwhile as Pattaya Police would not take his complaint he travelled all the way to the provincial capital Chonburi – to the headquarters of Region 2 of the Royal Thai Police where he was able to lodge it.

He then returned to Pattaya Police station with his statement for police to investigate and where I suspect it will gather dust for years – and finally lost.

The bars in Soi 2 are of course acting illegally and have been doing so for years.

 

 

 

They all pay their monthly dues to various police departments and are thus declared legal. That is until police get hungry and do spot raid or perhaps when the army arrives. They are illegal in that they provide rooms for sex.

Mark had of course in effect demanded proof that this was a venue offering sexual services.

Usually of course in the sex trade in Thailand the punter pays the bar fine (technically to make up for lost working hours of the girl) and what goes on afterwards is up to the couple.

This is of course nonsense – many bars in the sex trade demand that the girls are taken out a minimum of 12 times a month or more – and that constitutes sex trade exploitation, if not slavery.

However, as the woman earn many times more than minimum average Thai salary the point may be a bit moot.

As for Mark. Yes, I have suggested he go back to South Africa. I have told him he is on a hiding to nothing with his complaints. But he is going onward and upward, or downward, whichever way you look at it.

After the Perry Bar incident, he returned to collect his belongings. They had gone, he said. They were a ‘Ferrari bag, a pair of Pro-Studio headphones, ‘Be Nice’ Body lotion, Bulgari Aqua Amara men’s fragrance, and a pair of Saucony running shoes.

Seems he is not only fit, and a follower of fashion but smells good too and, he says, he practices ‘safe sex’ but for one who spends so much time in this twilight world there may be some demons involved.

 

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Above: The Tourist Minister interviewed by a Turkish journalist

And now back to Khun Kobran’s wish to get rid of the sex industry.

I am afraid, as she would have readily admitted had the Reuters correspondent asked, she has no powers or control whatsoever over this industry – and as the major benefactors are the police and army her wishes are unlikely to be granted.

General Prayuth Chan-Ocha has already long since announced that he is not going to take the police to task – and for a beginning his own military staff as well as police have an interest in the Nana Plaza in Bangkok and various bars now in the control of our favourite boiler-room Brit – Brummie, Paul, er, ‘Hilton’.

 

One Minister of Tourism, Dr. Seri Wangpaichitr condemned the setting up of ‘Human Zoos’ in Thailand years ago after I was involved in the rescue of about 20 children and 12 adults from one in Thaton, Northern Thailand, after writing a series of stories for the ‘Times’ about the Padaung, or long-necked Karenni.

This was his reply indicating perhaps that while he condemned the trade……:only the international media could budge the powers that be.

 

 

 

 

Now how many human zoos for the Padaung are there in Thailand today?