Just shut down all these sleazy bars for good. They have no place in a family holiday destination like Phuket. The fact that we have open brothels on the public street in 2011 in a rapidly developing and modernizing country like Thailand is a disgrace that cannot be tolerated. The new Government should declare Pattaya to be a special economic zone. Allow prostitution and even gambling there, and crack down on them forcefully elsewhere in the country. It's disgusting to see these ugly old guys feeling up girls young enough to be their granddaughters all over Patong Beach, not just in Bangla. Send these perverts to Pattaya and let them rot with the other sleazebags there. They have no place whatsoever in the upmarket family destination of Phuket!

Posted by Andy on August 10, 2011 14:52

Oh come come now Andy. Phuket is about 80 miles long by 40 miles wide. Soi Bangla is about 200 metres long. Don't make the mistake of thinking Bangla or even Patong is representative of the whole of the 'upmarket family destination of Phuket'. The island is easily big enough to support all types of entertainment, not just what the prudish enjoy. Get you and your family up to Bangtao, Surin, Kammala and just don't bother visiting Patong. Or better still, get over to the wonderfully unspoiled east side of Phuket. The fact is Andy old chap, prostitution (in Karaoke and massage places) IS prevalent throughout the whole of Thailand. (have you been anywhere else? I have) You can go to any number of one-horse towns in Thailand, that have no tourists, and there will be Karaoke bars there. They are there for Thais. And this sort of entertainment has been part of the fabric of Thailand for HUNDREDS of years. Soi Bangla is a spectacle. A little risque for sure, but if that offends, stay away. It's a tiny little street Andy. Instead of tarring everyone as perverts (and i'm assuming you include the girl in this), why not look on it as an act of philanthropy. That old man is putting food on the table for a family up-country somewhere!

Posted by Mr Man on August 10, 2011 16:12

To Andy: There are 2 issues there. First under-age prostitution, on which we certainly share the same views. Second the 20++ years old girls with 'sugar grand-daddy': well it's THEIR life, their problem. Disgusting for you? Just look elsewhere, unless you would prefer to be known as "Ayatholah Andy" :-)

Posted by pmoo on August 10, 2011 16:16

everyone knows what bangla's like, if u don't like it don't go! its a mistake to stop it its all part of the attraction.. there's far more pressing issues to take care of than bloody bangla road !!!

Posted by poppop on August 10, 2011 16:43

Hilarious!

Andy thinks that Phuket is an upmarket family destination.

Posted by Anonymous on August 10, 2011 16:54

@Andy The Bangla antics have been going on for a long long time. Just do what I do and avoid the place. After all there's a million other family destinations on the planet.

Posted by Antz Pantz on August 10, 2011 17:26

Andy,are you a retaded person? This has been going on since 30 years. If you don't want to see this, stay out of Patong. Patong is the Pattaya of Phuket. If you don't know that, you probaply haven't been here long enough. Patong is not for children, it's a party place, no matter how old you are. You also will get old one day.....maybe.

Posted by Mex on August 10, 2011 17:52

@ Andy: Are you a troll or just sick and serious...? Bangla and his nightlife is a part of Phuket as the Eiffel Tower is a part of Paris. If you don't like it, go back where you came from. I enjoy every night out in Patong, and this since years and many, many others, too.

Posted by Resident on August 10, 2011 19:48

I wish that the Culture Ministry would ease up on trying to harass and censor people involved in things they don't approve of and spend more time trying to cultivate, nurture & support the artists, writers, filmmakers, etc, of Thailand! I don't know of anyone, Thai or not, who doesn't think this Ministry is a joke!

Posted by Lana on August 10, 2011 20:44

Mr Man, I'm so glad that Thailand is so full of foreign philanthropists like you. What wonderful guys you are. After you so kindly explained that your motivation when running your hand up and down an 18-year-old girl's leg is philanthropy, I now feel so much better about the whole thing and I propose we rename Bangla Road to "Phuket Philanthrophy Centre".

Posted by Andy on August 10, 2011 21:03

Can we start by banning the scantily clad eastern european ladies dancing in windows please Andy - their 'scanty' undergarments would probably cloth an entire one of your 'brothels'. I've encountered many beer bars on Bangla but not a single brothel and would welcome any information you can provide as to their location - you seem very knowledgable on the subject. 'Rapidly developing' and 'modernising' also brought a smile to my face. many thanks for your contribution - best laugh I've had in weeks.

Posted by Mister Ree on August 10, 2011 21:03

Just shut out all these family holiday people from coming to Phuket. They have no place in a sleazy bar area like Phuket.

These families should holiday in places like Disneyland, where they don't have to see and then complain about what they don't want to see.

It's disgusting to see these naive couples with their kids watching ugly old guys feeling up girls young enough to be.... younger than they are, all over Patong Beach. Send these families to Disneyland and let them rot with the other brain dead tourists there. They have no place whatsoever in the sleaze market destination that is Phuket.

Posted by relox on August 11, 2011 00:10

The police should confiscate all bunny ears and arrest any tourists walking around in their swimming costumes.

Posted by kel on August 11, 2011 08:44

Andy old chap, you seem to have lost some vision. Where did i ever say I was an old man with a young Thai girl? My girlfriend is 6 years younger than me. In saying that 'Thailand is full of foreign philanthropists like you' you seem to be AGAIN making the assumption that the behavior of a few in the 200metres of Bangla road is representative of the whole of Thailand. It isn't. It's a very small part of Phuket, which is a small part of Thailand. If you have such anger against foreign men going with bar girls (i don't by the way) then i assume your ire is also leveled against the girls too. Why don't you take your crusade against Bangla to the streets and walk up and down with a placard saying 'stop prostitution'. You know who will attack you? The girls !! Have you ever wondered how desperate the girls' families are for them to voluntarily do this? Go somewhere else for your holiday next year. Maybe Utah?

Posted by Mr Man on August 11, 2011 09:15

Mr Man, do you think those girls' families know they are prostituting themselves? Of course they don't. The girls never tell, to save face. They think their daughter is working in a company. Most don't even know that she is in Phuket and would think she's in a factory in Bangkok.
Mr Ree, just because a place where a group of women are sold into prostitution doesn't have four walls (as in many beer bars in Bangla Road) doesn't mean it isn't a brothel. It clearly is. There are rooms for sex above some of the bars. And if you're a bar owner then you're a brothel keeper or at least a sleazy pimp. That's called "living off immoral earnings". Don't tell me it's not true, because I know the bar owner receives up to 500 baht if a customer takes a girl out of the bar for sex. I hope the foreign bar owners in Thailand write down "pimp" or "brothel keeper" as their occupation when filling out forms, because if they don't, they're kidding themselves. Think about it.

Posted by Andy on August 11, 2011 12:10

Andy you may have good intentions and I am sure you do know some things but on this subject you are extremely naive and misguided. I don't go to Patong, do not have a Thai wife or girlfriend but I can assure you the families know more than you suggest and the % of girls "sold" into prostitution here is much lower than you perceive. Unfortunately here the stories of being "sold" or forced into the business as well as the stories that girls parents think that girls with fourth grade educations are office workers in Bangkok falls in the same category as "kwai mai sabai" and I am a hostess. If you think that closing Bangla would have any effect at all on the number of women who work in the industry or even the number of customers they have you are several thousand years behind reality. I suggest if you really want to do some good focus your attention on the education system and providing these families with economic opportunities and brighter futures that offer alternatives to the current reality. Sticking your head in a hole and claiming that it is not the way it is does not serve anyone's interest. Just as calling people who make alternate lifestyle choices to your perverts and sleazebags doesn't add much to an intelligent resolution of a social problem.

Posted by Martin on August 11, 2011 13:47

Oh Andy. You've not quite understand how 'losing face' works in Thailand. Of course the parents know what their children are doing in Phuket, but WOULD NEVER DIRECTLY ASK THEM because that might cause the child to lie to them. The parents know but don't want to 'really know' so they don't ask the question. I don't pretend to be an expert on the bar scene, but my sister-in-law owns a bar and i can positively tell you that the girls come to her to ask for a job. They come to her. They know what the job involves. The parents just care about the 3, 4 or 5 thousand baht a month she sends home each month. Try to shut down the bars Andy and the girls will kill you - they NEED the money. Their other choices are working in retail (6 - 8k baht a month) or going back to the rice paddies in Isaan where they get free lodgings and food and not much else. The girls are making an economic choice Andy, of their own free will. They are free to leave at any time. You seem to think this is a foreign-made problem. You are way WAY off the mark. Most of the girls are Thai, all are there of their own free will, and also most of the bar owners are Thai. Most of the clients in Patong are foreign. Most of the clients in the rest of Thailand (where the SAME situation exists) are Thai. Have you considered the Arabian Gulf for your next holiday, it's got sun, sea, sand and culture.

Posted by Mr Man on August 11, 2011 14:53

Andy

So what if the parents of bargirls know what they are doing on Patong? If the girl in question is an adult, then what she tells her parents is her business and her business alone. WEIRDEST comment EVER! There are a LOT of people in the world who do not tell their parents everything they do..Otherwise I completely agree with Mr Man about many parents probably having an idea what their daughter is doing in Patong, and really just don't want to know any details.

Posted by christian on August 11, 2011 16:18

@Andy - Itake it that was the 'Royal you' when you said 'if you were a bar owner' - I have no business interests in Thailand. I do not live off immoral earnings or condone exploitation, To state that families don't know what daughter does is ridiculous - how many waitresses send 10k plus home per month and I know of at least one mother and daughter working the same bar - they have no stigma about it. Prostitution exists all over the world - at least things are out in the open here unlike the sordid drug addled version likely taking place in your home country. Try getting it sorted there before waxing lyrical about bangla. As for short time rooms - the chances of the few of them that do exist getting shut down are high - you may have noticed this is NOT Pattaya. If you want to start a crusade ban families from wandering down there with their kids after 2200, as pointed out elsewhere its not Kansas and we all know what's going on there, Dorothy.

Posted by Mister Ree on August 11, 2011 23:25

@Andy - Everyone knows what everyone is doing when they leave home. I live in Issan and everyone in every Soi knows where every girl or guy went, even if they lie or try to save face. And they also know why. For every 30-50 people there's one or two that decide to go to Phuket and see what's going on for themselves. Some admirably hop on the next bus back home and get a job back home. Others, it's not so cut and dry. After all, this is humanity we are talking about. As for the dark side of it all, yes, it's sad. But that's the effect of money on just about everything, isn't it?

Posted by JingJing on August 12, 2011 02:49

When I was younger I thought money was everything.
Now that I am older, I know Money IS everything.

Posted by Mouse on August 12, 2011 13:04

I should have written that above quote from me above, should be credited to Oscar Wilde quotes.
" When I was younger I thought money was everything.
Now that I am older, I know Money IS everything."

Posted by Mouse on August 12, 2011 13:04

Posted by Mouse on August 13, 2011 02:11

Andy knows the bar owner receives up to 500 baht if a customer takes a girl out of the bar for sex.
Be patient with him - he might really have suffered ton study this environment on close hand.

Posted by Sherlock on August 13, 2011 20:12

The jet ski scams, police and tuk tuk m****, pollution, overpricing etc, have done enough damage. The families won't be coming here. The reports are all over the travel forums.
The hard core whore monger is about the only demographic willing to visit.

Posted by jj on August 15, 2011 10:23

You are quite right Editor. Arrivals continue to rise, as do the number of hotel rooms to house them. However, this will not continue forever, and my fear is that authorities use the fact that tourists keep appearing in spite of all the problems, to do nothing about them. But one day, Vietnam, Cambodia, Goa and even South China will catch up and suddenly the choices will be greater and arrivals will begin to dwindle. Phuket does need to sort her problems out now, before it's too late. At the moment, the goose keeps laying the golden eggs, so why address the problems !

Posted by Mr Man on August 16, 2011 17:47

Andy's gone very quiet on this issue - I hope he's not got trapped in a short time room whilst conducting research, 555.

Posted by Mister ree on August 17, 2011 11:47