Gray - Angels of Pattaya: inside the secret world of Thai prostitution

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge the help of friends who offered encouragement and advice, including Gillian in Hoboken who told me I had to do this after hearing the idea. To Rob for his invaluable help in getting the project going, and BG, without whom it would never have been finished. I could never have been able to do this without the dedication of my translator Phapawee, who bridged many cultural gaps as well as translating. Also my brother Robert for his moral support, and the two Mikes in Pattaya. Finally, a big thanks to Maverick House for giving me a chance and to Fiona Lacey for her guidance and patience.

Background

While most people think of prostitution in Thailand in modern terms, it is helpful to understand it in the historical context. In 1905, the Slave Abolition Act ended all forms of slavery in Thailand. Prior to this a system of bonded slavery had existed in Thailand, whereupon a citizen could choose to sell him or herself into servitude to pay off a debt or to provide for the remaining family. The Sale of Wives by Husbands Act, which outlawed husbands who sold their wives without their consent, was enacted by King Rama IV in 1868. However, there remained three categories of women within the law. The law allowed men to buy women to become third wives, the lowest category of wives. The first category were legally wed wives; the second were women not legally wed to the men, but who bore their children (minor wives); and the third were, in simple terms, sex slaves. Following the Slave Abolition Act in 1905, as the slave wives disappeared, many of the women who would have been third wives entered prostitution, as brothels were legal at the time.

Prostitution remained legal in Thailand, and in the 1930s prostitutes were registered so that they could receive medical care. In 1960, under pressure from the United Nations, Thailand passed the The Act to Deter Prostitution. Anyone who offered sex for sale would be fined and/or given a jail sentence (up to two months). But in 1966 the Thai government passed another law which allowed for the creation of entertainment establishments offering special services. This law was introduced in large part to generate income from the large numbers of American servicemen stationed in Thailand and Vietnam. The law did not legalize prostitution, but allowed the government to look the other way.

Responding to the demands of their clientele, many Thai entrepreneurs transformed their coffee shops and bars into brothels. Go-go bars and anything goes establishments offering sex shows opened.

Word of American servicemens R & R military slang for rest and recuperation (or rest and relaxation), is a term used for the free time of a soldier in the U.S. military ventures in Bangkok and Pattaya gradually spread, and as the Vietnam War wound down and ended tourists began to frequent Thailand and the bar scene. Thailands reputation for cheap and easy sex became as much a part of its lore as its temples and beaches.

How many prostitutes are there in Thailand? Estimates vary from the Government Health Departments number of 75,000 to some Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) estimates of up to two million. Both numbers are hard to imagine. For the NGOs number to be accurate we must believe 9% of Thai women between the ages of 18 to 49 are prostitutes. (Thailands total population is approximately 64 million. The adult age group of 18 to 49 accounts for approximately 70% of the total population, and using 50% as the number of women, rounding off numbers, that gives us around 22,500,000 women in that age group). A more realistic estimate of women involved in the sex industry would probably be 400,000 to 500,000.

If you are moved by any of the stories in this book and want to do something about it, an organization of former sex-workers, called The Empower Foundation, could use your help. Visit www.empowerfoundation.org and ask how you can assist them.

Over the last two decades more than 30,000 sex workers have studied with Empower. For some of us it has been the first time we have been able to access our right to study. For others of us who finished school or university, we have gained new skills, knowledge and friendship.

The Empower Foundation website.

8
Maem: The drug have me forget what I do, what I am

Yaba. Its a form of amphetamine popular with some, although, surprisingly, popular with only a few of the women involved in prostitution. It is relatively cheap, gives a quick buzz and allows the user to leave their world for a brief time. Maem is 25 or 26, but looks ten years older. Shes short and frighteningly skinny. Her nails are bitten to the quick and unpolished. She chain smokes and has a nervous habit of constantly looking over her shoulder (I interviewed her at a friends apartment). I offered to buy her food, but she declined, drinking a beer over ice. She was the only woman I interviewed who insisted on being paid before she started talking with me.

Q: Hi Maem, thanks for coming to talk with me. Can you tell me about yourself? How old are you, how long have you been working?

Maem: Maem is my name. I am 25 or 26 years old. I have been working this time for two years. Before I had a boyfriend for about one year, but I work before that for three years, I think. Yes, I start when I am about 19.

Where do you come from?

I come from Nong Kai, in north Thailand, near Laos. My family is good; my father have a shop there that sells things for tourist things people in town make, stamps, coins. He learn English when a war was in Vietnam and Laos. I learn to speak English from him and the customers. I also learn in school.

Why did you come to Bangkok?

When I was 17 I want to leave Nong Kai and come Bangkok. I want to have something for my life, and I am boring (bored) in Nong Kai. So I take the train to Bangkok and come to hairdressing school here. Then I get a job right away. But it was hard. I worked six, sometimes seven days a week cut and wash hair. I do not make much money.

Then I meet another girl come from Nong Kai who tell me about go to disco to meet foreign men. She said they pay 1,000 baht or more to sleep with me. Before I had a Thai boyfriend and Im thinking a man crazy to pay that much to sleep with a woman. I hear before there are places in Nong Kai, but there Thai and Lao (Laotian) men pay 100 or 150 baht for a short time in a room with a girl.

So I start to go to disco with my friend. She introduce me to people she knows, and I speak English okay, it easy for me. To meet the men. To sleeping with them was not too hard. I only go with the men I want to. And never go for lower [than] 1,500 baht a night. If man look rich I ask for 2,500, maybe I get 2,000. I can make more in one night sleeping with man than I can one week to cut hair. I quit job and only go out with men.

Sometimes I meet a man and he take me to Phuket or Jomtien for weekend, sometimes more. I put money in bank, and save a lot - I have more than 150,000 baht save. True. Then I meet a man while I was with another man in Phuket. This guy was American man and he ask me if I know where to buy ecstasy the drug, you know? I go out with him to buy at disco. I leave the man I stay in Phuket with, and go with this guy for the week. It was terrible mistake. I stay with him for about one year. When that time finish I am taking ecstasy and yaba every night. All the money I save is gone.

(At this point Maem starts to get upset. She takes a long drink of water and takes a quick walk around the apartment to calm down.)

Okay Maem, can you tell me what happened after that?

He go home to America and I try to go back to disco I go before, but I look ugly and people know I am not the same. I find small room to stay in. I have to start work, so I go to different bars, not nice like the disco, but I go in the afternoon and get a customer, come back in the bar six oclock, find another man, and go back [at] ten oclock, try another man. If they dont want to pay 1,000 baht I say, Okay, 700. Now, if I want yaba, I go for 500 baht, but only for smoking (slang for oral sex) .