Article about Pattaya in News of the Wold (UK Sunday newspaper)

[mousemat]

Thought you guys may be interested in this article that was published in today's News of the world magazine, which is aimed at women.

 

For those of you who are not familiar with the News of the world, its the UK's top selling Sunday tabloid newspaper.

 

I have cut and pasted the article below but should you want to view the actual web page with pictures etc, then click on the link at the bottom of the page

 

 

 

 

 

 

Young, British and buying sex abroad

 

 

The Thai sex trade is driven by overweight, unattractive, middle-aged divorcees, right? Wrong. A Fabulous investigation reveals it’s now 20-something Brits paying for sex

 

By Eimear O’Hagan & Andrew Drummond in Pattaya, 25/07/2010

 

Nick and Gary are on a boys-only holiday with a difference. Their girlfriends think they're on a golfing trip, when in fact they have come to Thailand solely to have sex with prostitutes.

 

The young men, both 21 and chefs, are in the beach resort of Pattaya for the first time on a two-week break. Good-looking, with decent jobs and gorgeous girlfriends at home, they are not the sort of guys you expect to see paying for sex on the seedy streets of Thailand. But in the 24 hours since they landed, they've already handed over cash to two prostitutes.

 

Unashamedly, they compare it to trying to secure a one-night stand. While they might buy girls drinks all night only to get blown out in Tenerife, here they know if they fork out money, they're guaranteed sex at the end of the night.

 

"I wouldn't go to a prostitute in the UK - they spend their cash on drugs and I wouldn't want to fund their habit," Gary says. "It's different here."

 

 

 

Both men seem oblivious to the idea that these women are being forced by poverty and pimps to sell their bodies.

 

"Here the girls send money back to their families in their villages. They're doing a good thing," Gary says. "They're so nice and sweet, it's easy to forget what they are."

 

As they head into a bar, wallets bulging with Thai bhat, girls swarm around them. It's clear the new sleazy sex tourists are more likely to be your boyfriend, your husband, your brother or even your son.

 

Despite prostitution being illegal, the country's sex industry's annual turnover is estimated at $4.3billion - making a significant contribution to the country's economy. Which perhaps explains why the law is so easily flouted. Sex here is incredibly cheap, too. A guy will pay just £5 for a sexual act, or anything up to £50 to spend the whole evening with a girl.

 

Whether they're graduates on their gap year or groups of lads on their annual holiday, young British sex hunters are joining the 500,000 men flocking to the country every year in search of cheap thrills with poor girls.

 

But while the go-go bars are glitzy and the women beautiful, the industry has a dark underbelly. Many of the women working in the bars have been trafficked across the country and forced into selling sex. Of the estimated 50,000 prostitutes working in Pattaya, a notorious hot spot just two hours from Bangkok, a staggering 40 per cent are believed to be HIV-positive.

 

Capitalising on the burgeoning sex trade, the prostitutes - many of whom appear to be very young, despite the legal age for sex workers being 18 - are forced by pimps, poverty and desperation to go to extremes to extricate money from their punters. It's not just sex they're offering to sell, but love and the promise of a happy-ever-after, too. Perhaps driven by the fact that bagging a Brit is often their only escape plan.

 

To help them make more money, the girls have recently started using a phrasebook entitled Get Rich Quick For Thai Bar Girls. The book teaches them how to say: "You're the man of my dreams," followed by: "My brother needs books for school," or: "I've got toothache and can't afford to get treatment."

 

In fact, the prostitute experience in Thailand is becoming blurred, with many men buying a 'girlfriend', taking them to their hotel for the entire holiday and paying for their services. Some arrange to meet the same prostitutes on a return trip. They email and maintain a cyber relationship once they return home.

 

Western male tourists have exploited these women for years, and now the need for more prostitutes to meet demand means ever-younger girls are being brought into the industry. They're encouraged to have unprotected sex in return for more money from punters with no regard for their health, or that of the men's unsuspecting British girlfriends back home.

 

Rachel Davies, prostitution and trafficking officer at CARE, a charity working to end prostitution, says there are several reasons why young British men have started travelling to Thailand for sex.

 

"Thai women won't seem anything like their girlfriends, so it's easier for them to be treated in a way that these lads would never dream of doing in the UK. When young men are away from their jobs and their families, they feel comfortable doing things that they'd never consider doing at home," she says. "In Thailand, there's an element of disassociation."

 

That's certainly the case for Nick and Gary - they're already planning their next sex holiday to Pattaya. No doubt Nick will tell his girlfriend it's another golfing trip. She's at home in Huddersfield, blissfully unaware of his holiday antics. "She doesn't need to know," he admits. "What happens in Thailand, stays in Thailand."

 

where sex sells

 

It's 2am on Walking Street in Pattaya, Thailand. The neon-drenched 1,000-metre strip of go-go bars, massage parlours and discos is heaving.

 

Young Thai girls in lacy bikinis and miniscule miniskirts or PVC hot pants strut up and down, touting for business from the throngs of Western tourists.

 

"I'll be your girlfriend," they shout, as men paw and grope their exposed flesh.

 

Flashing signs scream sex and strip shows, all on tap for less than a round of drinks. For 400 baht (£9) men can take a girl out of the bar she works in, then negotiate the fee for 'extras'.

 

The girls charge between just £5 and £50 for a night, bizarrely throwing in a manicure for free. And no, that's not code for anything else

 

At a bar on Beach Road, 24-year-old Em (pictured below), from Udon Thani near the Laos-Thailand border, dances and smiles from 2pm to 4am every day, waiting for a customer to pay to have sex with her.

 

Her Thai husband left her after she gave birth to twin boys, who are now four years old, so she works as a prostitute to support them while her parents care for the children at home in their village.

 

They know how she earns the money she sends to them every month. She's not the only girl from her village to have turned to prostitution - it's simply not spoken about.

 

Em says she'd like a farang (a foreign husband) of any age, as long as he is jai dee (has a good heart) to care for her and her sons.

 

She laughs and jokes, but when asked about the young men who've started to come to the bar, she begins to cry.

 

"They just want sex," she weeps. "They want it quickly, and they don't take me to nice places. They just want as many girls as they can. We don't mean anything to them."

 

Back on Walking Street, 19-year-old Ling from Sisaket, north-east Thailand, has been working at a bar for three months. She sends home around £100 a month to pay for her eight-year-old sister to go to school.

 

"The men here have changed," she says. "It used to only be middle-aged or old men coming for sex, but now more and more younger men are, too."

 

Ling explains that while they're easier on the eye, many girls actually prefer the older clients.

 

"With young men, it's non-stop boom boom," she frowns. "Old men are better. They're not as demanding."

 

 

'Thai girls left me broke'

 

 

Justin Dunn, 40, a PR from Liverpool, says:

 

"There's no denying Thailand's a beautiful and exciting place, but behind the flashing neon, there lies a dark side - rampant STDs, crime and ruthless bar girls only interested in your wallet.

 

I should know. I went on a lads' holiday to the Thai island of Koh Samui in 2005, and I ended up staying on for 10 months. After losing my job in PR and breaking up with my girlfriend, I wanted some fun, and at first I got it - in spades.

 

Girls threw themselves at me and I fell for the compliments and the flattery, thinking they genuinely wanted to go out with me. But they were as scheming as hell, fleecing me out of a fortune by claiming they needed money to send back to their sick grandmother, or to fix their bike. One girl even stole £150 from my wallet while I slept, another threatened to cut my penis off if I cheated on her, and pretty much all of them had some gangster connections.

 

Before long, I was broke and forced to get a bar job to survive. Luckily, I always practised safe sex - but there was one thing a condom couldn't protect me from. The first and only time I ever paid for sex, I ended up back at my bungalow with a gorgeous girl who called herself Nadia.

 

Just as things were getting hot and heavy, I discovered she was actually a he! Horrified and degraded, I gave him the money and told him to leave.

 

After 10 months of life in Thailand, I'd had enough. I didn't want to end up like those men you see there - tramps with tans, who've lost all their money to girls. Blokes going over to Thailand need to realise that the girls aren't interested in them. They just want their money - and they'll say or do anything to get it."

 

 

'I can have any girl that I want'

 

 

Daniel Pirie, 23, is single and an office furniture fitter from Stalybridge, Cheshire. He visits Thailand every year. He says:

 

"When I go out in Manchester and meet a girl, I have to buy her drinks all night, chat to her and put a lot of effort in. In Thailand, I just click my fingers and any girl I want is mine, for a small price. It's too easy.

 

I first visited Pattaya in 2006, on a golfing holiday with friends. I knew Thailand had a sex industry, but I had no idea how public and accepted it was. It's so open it feels normal. Everywhere I looked, there were beautiful women. And when I learned you could pick one, pay less than £50 and she was yours for the night, it was too tempting not to. It's cheaper than wining and dining a girl, and she'll definitely sleep with you.

 

In three weeks, I slept with 15 girls. I was nervous at first, but then I really enjoyed myself. My friends didn't get involved with any of the bar girls, but they all knew what I was up to and didn't mind.

 

Since then, I've gone back to Thailand every year and have slept with prostitutes every time. My mum thinks I'm there to play golf and have a nice holiday.

 

On that first trip I met a bar girl called Summer and that year, and for the next two years, I paid her to stay with me for one week at my hotel and be mine exclusively. I knew when I left Thailand she'd sleep with other guys, and that did bother me a bit, but I looked at it like a holiday romance - with a difference.

 

Last year, she called me and asked for money and I sent her £100. But a month later she called asking for more money and I refused. She was angry and I knew I had to end any contact I had with her. I didn't want to be one of those guys who gets duped into sending all his money to a Thai prostitute.

 

I think my holidays to Thailand are almost exactly the same as other lads' holidays to places like Magaluf and Ibiza, where they meet girls and sleep with them. The only difference is that I pay the girls I sleep with.

 

I'm single, and although I've had a few casual relationships in the past, I've never been in one while I've been out in Thailand. And I've never told a girl what I get up to on my blokes-only breaks there - I really don't know how they would react, so I think it's best not to say anything.

 

I have safe sex so I'm not worried about STDs. If I meet a girl I want to settle down with, I'll stop my holidays to Thailand. But for now, I'm young and enjoying myself."

 

SOME NAMES HAVE CHANGED TO PROTECT IDENTITY PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDREW CHANT, NIGEL HILLIER, NI SYNDICATION

 

 

 

 

Actual link for article

 

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/fabulous/features/886238/Young-British-and-buying-sex-abroad-The-Thai-sex-trade-is-driven-by-overweight-unattractive-middle-aged-divorcees-right-Wrong-A-Fabulous-investigation-reveals-itrsquos-now-20-something-Brits-paying-for-sex.html

[Darkside Bob]

As much as i hate TNOTW that is one of the most accurate descriptions i have read about Pattaya in a long time. Obviously they are out in some of their like assumptions like 50,000 girls, it's closer to 100,000, the HIV figure is NOT known by a single person despite what people will post after i have written this.

 

It's a very general article, but lets be honest, it's not far out from the average account of both a 2 week millionaire, an ex-pat and a lad that came on holiday, stayed, sold up everything and is now a tramp with a tan.

[jocky king]

Thanks a bunch News of the World...Now My daughter thinks I,m a perv.... lol

[lakisscorpio]

if i had a nice girlfriend or wife in my country,i wouldn't go in Pattaya or elsewhere in Thailand..........but it's true..........these girls SAY ANYTHING to make you love them or attach to them......so,BE CAREFUL,dear Friends!!!!

They are the Mythical Sirens......and all we are Ulysses...we must put earplug and just party!!!!

[D1cky986]

Not bad for the News of the World, but where are the free Manicures....

[Edge]

Not too far wrong apart from the HIV is hopefully exaggerated and I don't buy all the human trafficking/pimp/forced stuff - not in Pattaya anyway.

 

I imagine more and more young guys will want to come if they can get away with it, but the golf tour excuse might not swing it much longer.

 

I thought the "young women" caption under the Lick Bar pic was pushing it a bit.

[Helios]

This was an amazing article. Even though I already knew everything that was being talked about, I still couldn't stop reading.

[Darkside Bob]

Not too far wrong apart from the HIV is hopefully exaggerated and I don't buy all the human trafficking/pimp/forced stuff - not in Pattaya anyway.

 

I imagine more and more young guys will want to come if they can get away with it, but the golf tour excuse might not swing it much longer.

 

I thought the "young women" caption under the Lick Bar pic was pushing it a bit.

 

I agree about the human trafficking. But it does happen in Pattaya just not on huge scale and it also depends on your interpretation of "Human Trafficking"

[welshwonder]

Tramps with Tans now thats funny , as for the rest of the paper its full of drivel. Never had a free manicure either after sex ? were did this journo pick up his lady from ? and did he charge all his expenses ( drinks/ladies etc ) while researching this articlle to NOTW, if so thank you NOTW for helping the young single mothers of issaan .

[Darkside Bob]

Tramps with Tans now thats funny , as for the rest of the paper its full of drivel. Never had a free manicure either after sex ? were did this journo pick up his lady from ? and did he charge all his expenses ( drinks/ladies etc ) while researching this articlle to NOTW, if so thank you NOTW for helping the young single mothers of issaan .

 

Where is it full of drivel? Seems to be about 80-90% accurate to me

[Edge]

I agree about the human trafficking. But it does happen in Pattaya just not on huge scale and it also depends on your interpretation of "Human Trafficking"

 

I accept it happens and I've seen girls/women being delivered/introduced to bars, but I've never seen them forced in any way and if they don't like it they tend to clear off. Maybe it depends where you go and perhaps it's more common in Thai karaoke bars. I don't know so I'll accept your point. This article seemed to be mainly about the touristy areas like Walking Street and Soi 6 and I doubt there's much of it there.

 

I have seen it in Cambodia and it's not nice and I've never seen anything like it here, though that doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

 

What's your interpretation of Human Trafficking?

[Darkside Bob]

I accept it happens and I've seen girls/women being delivered/introduced to bars, but I've never seen them forced in any way and if they don't like it they tend to clear off. Maybe it depends where you go and perhaps it's more common in Thai karaoke bars. I don't know so I'll accept your point. This article seemed to be mainly about the touristy areas like Walking Street and Soi 6 and I doubt there's much of it there.

 

I have seen it in Cambodia and it's not nice and I've never seen anything like it here, though that doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

 

What's your interpretation of Human Trafficking?

 

 

 

I'd be hear all day if i was to try and give my view on it and it's a shit subject too and not one i really want to talk about, in other words i turn a blind eye to it. Now a days it's no where near as it was 10-15 years ago where it did happen a lot down the Walking Street area, not on a huge scale but it happened.

 

The eastern Euro chicks in town are mostly there under duress which i am sure everyone knows anyway. But there are Thai people that own bars etc in Pattaya, Bkk, HH, Phuket that give out loans to families up north knowing the family will default on the loan and they then have to send their girls to work in a bar, that is human trafficking and there will be girls down Walking Street that are in that situation, it would be foolish to think other wise.

[bigjimslay]

Good article...

 

Although, as others have said... Not buying the trafficking bit....

[Tao 66]

It is better, however I have issues with the 40% HIV rate that's bullshit and the Human trafficking element. A lot of girls come of their own accord and the vast majority are not pimped. You only pay the business the barfine, what goes on after moneywise between you and the girls is not to do with the bar.

[welshwonder]

Where is it full of drivel? Seems to be about 80-90% accurate to me

 

 

Let me simplify and clarify my statement for you , as i said "as for the rest of the paper its full of drivel "

 

what i am referring to is the rest of the paper is full of drivel based on assumptions/exagerations of journos with some truth thrown in here and there to avoid any law suits , it is more like a gossip comic than a news paper and at least once a month the NOTW runs articles on Thailand normally anti Pattaya either blaming the unfortunate killings by Bird in Cumbria on a brake up with his thai gf or running articles like this about prostitution and in accurate HIV statistics to scare of tourism, when they are short of a story they always bring out pattaya . As for the actual original article and not the rest of the paper ( drivel) i would agree with you its close to the truth.

[culvers]

It is better, however I have issues with the 40% HIV rate that's bullshit and the Human trafficking element. A lot of girls come of their own accord and the vast majority are not pimped. You only pay the business the barfine, what goes on after moneywise between you and the girls is not to do with the bar.

 

How do you know the 40% HIV rate is bullshit? I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was that high...

[Darkside Bob]

Let me simplify and clarify my statement for you , as i said "as for the rest of the paper its full of drivel "

 

what i am referring to is the rest of the paper is full of drivel based on assumptions/exagerations of journos with some truth thrown in here and there to avoid any law suits , it is more like a gossip comic than a news paper and at least once a month the NOTW runs articles on Thailand normally anti Pattaya either blaming the unfortunate killings by Bird in Cumbria on a brake up with his thai gf or running articles like this about prostitution and in accurate HIV statistics to scare of tourism, when they are short of a story they always bring out pattaya . As for the actual original article and not the rest of the paper ( drivel) i would agree with you its close to the truth.

 

Gottcha, my fault, and yes, it's a shit paper and some of the things they have done should mean the journos should be in jail.

[Darkside Bob]

It is better, however I have issues with the 40% HIV rate that's bullshit and the Human trafficking element. A lot of girls come of their own accord and the vast majority are not pimped. You only pay the business the barfine, what goes on after moneywise between you and the girls is not to do with the bar.

 

If you think there is no human trafficking in Pattaya then you are mental. it does happen. There are girls farmed into Pattaya under durress and there are girls kidnapped and shipped abroad. It's not spoken about for obvious reasons. Do you think the utter gutter tripe news outlets in Pattaya have the spine to actually do any investigative reporting?

[Tao 66]

How do you know the 40% HIV rate is bullshit? I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was that high...

 

The statistics published are only up until 2008 for some reason but showed the estimated percentage of thais with HIV/Aids to be at 1.4%, or 600,000.

 

 

http://www.avert.org/thailand-aids-hiv.htm

 

There were 250,000 cases of HIV infection amongst women at that time, what we don't know is the percntage amongst sexworkers, which although I agree is higher, I don't think it's as high as 40%

 

It has been estimated previously in a study in 2004 that there could be as many as 2 million women involved in the sex trade in Thailand (Wikipedia). I think those figures may have increased if anything.

 

I'm trying to find figures for 2009 which would be more helpful, but allowing for changes to the figures I have managed to find, even if every female HIV case was a sex worker the figures would not be above 10% Thailand wide.

 

That figure,even if it is a maximum possibility, is scary enough, so bag up!

Once I can find better data I will add it to this thread.

[culvers]

The statistics published are only up until 2008 for some reason but showed the estimated percentage of thais with HIV/Aids to be at 1.4%, or 600,000.

 

 

http://www.avert.org/thailand-aids-hiv.htm

 

There were 250,000 cases of HIV infection amongst women at that time, what we don't know is the percntage amongst sexworkers, which although I agree is higher, I don't think it's as high as 40%

 

It has been estimated previously in a study in 2004 that there could be as many as 2 million women involved in the sex trade in Thailand (Wikipedia). I think those figures may have increased if anything.

 

I'm trying to find figures for 2009 which would be more helpful, but allowing for changes to the figures I have managed to find, even if every female HIV case was a sex worker the figures would not be above 10% Thailand wide.

 

That figure,even if it is a maximum possibility, is scary enough, so bag up!

Once I can find better data I will add it to this thread.

 

I dont think you can use statistics like this in the case of pattaya. Sex workers are many many many more times likely to have hiv than the average thai girl.

 

Think about the difference in hiv infection rates between sex workers and non sex workers in the europe and USA - its gonna be massive right? If anything, I think sex workers in thailand will have a far higher rate of hiv instance than sex workers in europe, simply because they all are willing to bareback! I know for a fact that around 90% of the thai girls I have been with were willing to bareback, therefore if they were willing to go bareback with me, they probably would with 100's others.

 

Going further, think about how many hiv cases in pattaya actually get reported to some sort of statistical body? I bet it is very few. Most bargirls probably get tested anonymously in some cheap backstreet clinic - I hardly think this kind of place is likey to report anything.

 

I don't think the rate would be as high as 40%, but I just meant that I would not be at all surprised if it was. I still think it would be at least 10%, probably a lot more. But like you say, even at 10%, its bloody scary! Shag 10 women, and the chances are 1 of them had hiv. And I think we have all shagged ALOT more than 10 women..!

 

I still shudder to think at how many bargirls I barebacked in the ealy days of coming to Thailand. Luckily I learn my lesson with a nasty bout of warts and chlamidya, and am 100% rubber man now.

 

Its almost enough to put you off coming to pattaya... ALMOST enough, but not quite enough

Edited July 25, 2010 by culvers

[Tao 66]

I dont think you can use statistics like this in the case of pattaya. Sex workers are many many many more times likely to have hiv than the average thai girl.

 

Think about the difference in hiv infection rates between sex workers and non sex workers in the europe and USA - its gonna be massive right? If anything, I think sex workers in thailand will have a far higher rate of hiv instance than sex workers in europe, simply because they all are willing to bareback! I know for a fact that around 90% of the thai girls I have been with were willing to bareback, therefore if they were willing to go bareback with me, they probably would with 100's others.

 

Going further, think about how many hiv cases in pattaya actually get reported to some sort of statistical body? I bet it is very few. Most bargirls probably get tested anonymously in some cheap backstreet clinic - I hardly think this kind of place is likey to report anything.

 

I don't think the rate would be as high as 40%, but I just meant that I would not be at all surprised if it was. I still think it would be at least 10%, probably a lot more. But like you say, even at 10%, its bloody scary! Shag 10 women, and the chances are 1 of them had hiv. And I think we have all shagged ALOT more than 10 women..!

 

I still shudder to think at how many bargirls I barebacked in the ealy days of coming to Thailand. Luckily I learn my lesson with a nasty bout of warts and chlamidya, and am 100% rubber man now.

 

Its almost enough to put you off coming to pattaya... ALMOST enough, but not quite enough

 

I think whatever the tally is the rule is for God's sake wear a condom. It is as you say a known fact girls don't like going to the doctor for these tests, the reasons vary, but sometimes it can be for something as simple as a fear of needles!

 

I forgot to mention that a large number of HIV cases in Thailand, as world wide will be those who are drug abusers and shared a dirty needle. I would be interested to find out the statistics for 2009 too.

 

I would imagine many of us have shagged an HIV positive girl and not known and many of us have escaped a death sentence because we used a condom.

 

Anyway it was a better attempt at a newspaper article that the shit we are usually reading.

[Tao 66]

If you think there is no human trafficking in Pattaya then you are mental. it does happen. There are girls farmed into Pattaya under durress and there are girls kidnapped and shipped abroad. It's not spoken about for obvious reasons. Do you think the utter gutter tripe news outlets in Pattaya have the spine to actually do any investigative reporting?

 

I'm not saying it doesn't happen. Obviously some shit heads will still do this. Will we ever know if a girl is trafficked or not though? I like to talk to the girls I have been with and a lot of them have said the same thing to me. I am from Issan etc etc take care family.

I think the majority are not though. I'd hate to think I went with a girl who was forcibly trafficked I think most of us would. Any of you guys had a girl you thought may have been pushed into it? We all know BGs can bullshit of course but Iwould prefer to go with one there by her own choice

[jonny low]

Nice pic off the girls outside powers gogo the rest was boring ...

[hazze]

The usualy crap about pimps and they all have HIV.

 

But behind the silly language they are doing a good job selling Pattaya.

They've probably done more for the Thai tourist industry in one article than the Thai government has managed in a year.

Sex acts for £5.

Taking the same girl for the full 2 weeks.

Cyber relationships.

Getting swarmed by girls.

 

I can hundreds of thousands of guys reading that, and planning their next holiday.....

[Darkside Bob]

The usualy crap about pimps and they all have HIV.

 

But behind the silly language they are doing a good job selling Pattaya.

They've probably done more for the Thai tourist industry in one article than the Thai government has managed in a year.

Sex acts for £5.

Taking the same girl for the full 2 weeks.

Cyber relationships.

Getting swarmed by girls.

 

I can hundreds of thousands of guys reading that, and planning their next holiday.....

 

Good point. You could argue that bar owners are pimps