So this is for adults only. When i mentioned I was traveling to Thailand the adult side of Thailand came up as people joked with me. It is the 3rd largest sex trafficking country in the world. Prostitution is illegal here but the laws aren’t enforced. I am not going to discuss the causes, the cycle of parents selling children here, migration from rural, but just my own exposure in country to the adult industry. It is an issue you have with the rural/city migrations with lots of countries.

At this point even though it’s illegal it’s firmly part of the Thai culture. I am not sure that could be changed.

That said it is less in your face than it was in Ecuador, the only street girls i’ve seen are late at night when i arrived in phuket. In Bangor street (A big tourist street) there were gogo dancers. In fact over 50 of them paraded past in little red Xmas elf outfits. There are massage parlors with no sex signs and ones without where the women are not as dressed as other massage parlors. If you go the red light districts it’s a different story with nuru bars and a lot more.

My experience, as i passed down Bangor street, was men would approach me yelling “ping pong show”, ladyboy show etc… theses shows are known to be a place where foreigners have to watch been fleeced. What surprised me is some of the tour agencies now have a sexy show which is a bit safer. I grabbed the leaflet and took a photo:

So after internet searching a lot of this is typically:

For the ladies; Man beats drum with…. man swings bowling ball with…. man lift weights with….

For the men: Woman writes sign with pen in her….. woman stores fish in her…. woman fires banana with… woman pulls needles and razor blades from…. woman pops balloons with darts fired from…. woman smokes from….. woman/ladyboy fires ping pong balls…. 

Crowd pleasers:Ladyboys….

Then there is some live acrobatic sex.

There are some really funny internet articles from couples who have gone which made me laugh. 

What actually amazes me though – is that there is a lot less of the adult industry than I thought there would be. If You go to certain sections – yes, it’s there. However I’ve managed to avoid it for 90% of the time so as a Farang (foreigner) that is actually better than Ecuador or some other places I’ve been to. I’ve haven’t been propositioned like I had once in SoHo or in Geneva. 

The point is, even though it is here it is not as in your face as I have run into in other developing countries. You have to go looking for it. Thats a pleasant surprise.