Sam Royalle is planning to open up the Ban Suay Go-Go on Walking Street. He offered me the position of manager. The pay was better than my salary on 47th Street.
“You speak Thai, understand the culture, and have worked bars before. You’re perfect for the job.” Sam texted the message over Skype.
“More like I mumble bad Thai, have a small inkling of what Thai think of us, which is nothing good, and I haven’t worked in a bar since 1997.” I can’t even remember the name of the lounge. The owner was Nur. He dismissed my services because I preferred punks and rave kids to rich trendies. Nur was right. It was no longer the 70s. Money made people cool.
“No one is this town better than you.” Sam and I are friends. He didn’t care for my politics. I accepted his fear of heights. He wanted me back in Thailand. The labor pool for honest farangs in Pattaya is very shallow.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” 57. I broke off the communication. Broke and contemplating running a Thai go-go bar. Only a few of my New York friends are privy to this information and I’ve mentioned nothing about Thai authorities targeting go-go bars on Walking Street as a venue marketing sex.
They aren’t wrong either.
Go Go girls are barfined to accompany farangs to short-time rooms, hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, condos, and houses. The purpose is strictly carnal, but these excursions generate billions of baht to the coastal resort and the Isaan Plateau, the home of most go-go and bar girls. Men and women trafficking in sex for money. The police even raided a seafood restaurant rumored to be a destination for under-age sex.
A pimp is one thing.
A procurer of young girls is another. Sunee Plaza is infamous for young boys. Karaoke bars for young girls. The city government has long hoped to replace these sordid establishments with family-oriented entertainment. The new police chief swept Beach Road for ladyboys and sex workers. The round-up netted 60 suspects, who were fined for loitering. Most returned to the beach to work off their debt to society and local wits suggested that the action strangely coincided with the month’s end when money for the brown shirts gets a little tight.
This is Pattaya.
I’ve been there before.
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https://www.mangozeen.com/2010/01/21/driving/sick-buffalo-for-everyone.htm