We go into Pattaya, the lawless Thai ‘wild west’ of the world’s largest red light district… with 27,000 prostitutes
LUKE Williams spends a week in the sleazy Asian sex capital
PATTAYA in Thailand has the world’s largest red light district and is considered the globe's unofficial sex capital.
and was warned by a local police officer that it's “like a cowboy town in the Wild West a hundred years ago”. Human rights groups are less understanding, branding it a “paedophile paradise".
It has a reported 27,000 prostitutes, but is also where some people go to find a wife.
On arrival, I saw hundreds of — usually extremely overweight — older white western men walk around with young Thai girlfriends.
It's a city full of white men, there one to every three Thai men.
There’s also white sand, luxury white condos, teeth whitening dentists everywhere and make-up adverts promising to whiten Thai girls skin.
Shop wise, take your pick from McDonald’s, Dollhouse A Go Go, Just for Fun, Lucky Finger Massage, Angelwitch, Ladyboys R US, 7-11, Starbucks, The Classroom, Sabai Massage, Sue’s Place (now repeat that 30 times, slightly alter the names and that’s Pattaya for you).
At a bar called Kangaroo Korner, I chat to a man from Melbourne, Australia, who says: "I prefer Thai women ... I’ve been burned too many times by women back home."
“I know it’s just about the money for them, I am not looking for love."
When I question his motivations he replies: “Mate, you are overthinking things — just enjoy yourself, relax, and have another drink with me."
The next day I head to Pattaya Beach's 'strip', where I meet a 50-year-old Australian guy who met his first wife there 12 years ago.
They had two kids and got divorced three weeks before.
Now he is engaged to a 23-year-old Thai woman he met ten days ago.
He tells me: "Thai women they are subservient. Don’t get me wrong I don’t like them being as subservient as they are ... but they cook and clean, they really look after you.
"I do like that… but now I’ve got this girl, we met ten days ago, I can already tell it’s going to work.
"But y’know my wife and children hate me, even my friends think I am an a***hole.
“The way I look at it, I only have 20 years left of living, I want to be able to enjoy my life.”
RELATED STORIES:
Next I head to the notorious Windmill venue. Thai women are on the stage dressed tiny tartan skirts.
None are wearing underwear or bras and all are wearing high heels.
The white men sit around the stage, laughing, guzzling beer: hitting and poking them with bar-supplied, beer-branded, polystyrene-foam sticks.
A naked young woman is staring at me with her unblinking glass eye as she casually performs a sex act on herself in the nightclub's shower.
I ask a punter whether the city is doing anyone - men, sex workers - any harm.
He replies: “Lots of Western guys are here for different reasons. If we get a jealous Thai ex-lover, or if a woman here is connected to a gang, or tries to kill you for your money — of course, that’s why you should never get too involved.
"This place is just about stress relief, especially if you are a divorcee like me.”
I ask about the prostitutes' welfare.
He replies: “It works for them mate, trust me, they get a lot of money out of this."
The following night, I spot a sex worker who is begging.
She's got a cut and bruise across a quarter of her face, but refuses to go to the police.
Later in the week I head to an area known for male prostitutes, where a 73-year-old Australian man tells me he likes paying heterosexual men to perform sex acts on him.
"Does it bother you there’s no chance of them being aroused?” I ask.
He explains: "They have something I want, I have something they want — money, it’s as simple as that. It’s just a transaction.
"If I go into a gay bar in Australia nobody talks to me, here they like me. They are attracted to older men in Thailand, and they like my humour more here."