Sex Tourism In Pattaya

I just went along to Pattaya with the idea of a beachside party place in Thailand. I hadn't read up on it at all. My travel buddies were keen to pop down and meet up with a mate for a few drinks, and I was happy to come along for a night out.

Lunch at a place which specified that 'Single Ladies Welcome' was one of my first hints about the kind of place we were in, after walking along Walking Street in the daylight, and checking into a seedy looking guesthouse for our stay.

Our lunch spot on the water was filled with Western men my father's age, many alone at the bar, and some in groups paired up with a Thai girl.

When we met up with James around 10pm, Walking Street was a mass of movement, neon, and music. We had a beer after introductions, and then he took us on a little tour around to the Go Go Girl bars.

The first one was in the theme of an airport lounge, with the girls wearing hats or ties from an air hostess outfit. But not much else. James led us through, and we were soon sitting front row to a tiled platform towards the back of the bar. We had walked past the higher platform with a group of pole dancers, putting on a show for the men seated below.

The platform in front of us was soon the play area of two Thai girls, as they soaped themselves up, and slid around a pole together. All part of the experience, these images are going to take some time to leave my scarred memory!

Finishing our beer, James then took us to another bar just off the main Walking Street, Anglewitch, for a reportedly more impressive and elaborate show. Again, he led us through to seats at the front row of the rounded room with booths all around the main stage.  Here, a choreographed show with pole dancing, whips, and audience member participation was acted out, all playful and a little edgy.

As we walked away from there to our next and final Go Go bar for the tour, one of the lads commented that it was all fairly harmless, the show. And I know what he meant, in terms of the acts. But it's not really harmless, in the bigger, real life picture.

I mean, how did these girls get here?

When I worked in Cambodia some of the girls in the shelter had been rescued from the sex trade. The girl who was closest to my age whilst I worked there had been gathered from her village after her mother died, by a man who promised to take her to the city and provide her with schooling and a better life. Desperately poor village families, with no prospects of assisting their children to have such an opportunity, are often lured into such offers.

Rather than schooling, these girls then find themselves in a brothel in Phnom Penh or further afield into Thailand, and are then trapped by the owner of the brothel with violent threats because of their need to pay off their accommodation and up-keep costs. There becomes no way for these girls to be free, with more and more debt accumulated as days, months and years pass.

A young girl is particularly valuable to a brothel owner. But the girls are soon trapped into the life of sex tourism as their debt grows.

I am not sure if this is the story for the young women we saw dancing, and making deals with Western men, in these Go Go Bars in Pattaya, but I doubt that the tales are all that different. The demand continues as Western men travel to these places for sex, and the enslavery cycle repeats.

This visit was quite an experience, and without James there is no way we would have visited the places we did. But it has left a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, knowing that this goes on and seeing it in action. A very sad facet of the Western man.

The Laneways Of Siem Reap

Siem Reap has changed a lot in ten years. The little town I remember, with just a handful of bars in the centre, is unrecognisable today. Those bars have multiplied into "Pub Street", full with huge neon signs pointing it out to you, in case you missed it.

It also has a laneway system of restaurants and shops running behind Pub Street, which brings life and culture, and amazing food selections, to the centre of town, and makes it an unmissable area.

These quaint laneways are now the lifeblood of the town, with perfect places to find for brunch, lunch or for snacking treats and coffee. There are also bars and an impressive range of cuisine - from local Khmer fare, to the Cambodian BBQ where you cook your own meats on a round gas grill right there on your table, to all manner of Western meals.

These lanes are vibrant, and come to life as the sun goes down. The perfect end to a day exploring the temple area, and getting amongst the masses of more independent travellers. Be sure to sample the Fish Amok around here, still my favourite meal on the planet!

Magical Ta Prohm

Made famous by Angelina Jolie and her Tomb Raider movie, and also the use of a photo of a door and a massive tree root on the cover of Lonely Planet for Cambodia, Ta Prohm is the "jungle temple".

Not too far from the Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom complexes, this temple sees probably as much tourist traffic as the other two because of the modern day claims to fame. But the enchanting view of the battle between ancient civilisation constructions and nature warrant attention in their own right.

The area was obvious cleared of trees for the temple, and then since the end of the Angkor era, the forest has been working it's way back to the area.

The way the trees have grown on and over the walls and structures of the temple is mainly the act of birds, who have picked up seeds on their travels and dropped some here and there, on the temple stones.

These massive trees have then had time to sprout, and wind their roots around the temple elements over the years and years when the temples were lost. The root systems battling with the ancient stones makes for an impressive site.

Many of the tree roots have woven through the laid stone bricks, in search of earth and water.

This young lad, above, was just hanging about, a child of the area I assume. He almost seemed to be hamming it up for the cameras, but he was also just going about his day.

The collision between jungle and temple makes Ta Prohm one of the most crumbly structures of the ancient cities, but given the magic of the trees, surely it should not be any other way!

Luang Prabang

After my trip to Laos, I gushed to anyone who would listen that Luang Prabang was my favourite little town in the world. And that if I ever decided to run away from it all, this would be the place that would come to mind for me. I loved this place.

Being in Chiang Mai right now, there are loads and loads of signs for trips across to the northern Laotion city, and it reminds me of my visit there.

Getting there by plane was the first adventure 10 years ago from Vientiane, flying the reportedly sketchy Lao Aviation, with all the rumours and stories about safety and missing navigational equipment abounding. The idea that the pilots fly by sight made my heart race as we started our decent into Luang Prabang in thick fog, and finally spotting mountain ranges all around as we got very close to the ground. Surely those rumours are not true!

This riverside hamlet in the north is famous for it’s night market, and the Pak Ou caves with thousands of Buddha statues, and it's temples. For the dawn monk procession around the streets, and for it's abundance of temples.

A former capital of the kingdom of the area, there is much gold on the structures. The things that stands out as you wander around this small town taking in the 30 temples, is the variety of them - all so very different.

The differences in the gables alone stand out, in addition to the features on the grounds of each temple. Many of them include very basic living quarters for the novice monks.

I would imagine that much of this small town is the same after all this time, although it has become a much talked about recommended destination of Laos.

When I was there, I spent time just hanging out along the main street, for snacks and beers, and taking in the sleepy town. There was a couple of cute bars in the back streets too, and so this was the perfect relaxing escape from my life in Cambodia for a few days.

This post is part of a series marking 10 years since I travelled to Cambodia to work as a volunteer. Laos was one of my side trips.

Sunrise Stages Over Angkor Wat

I have been to sunrise ON Angkor Wat, but of the other two times I have been, I had never watching the sun rise behind the iconic temple. This visit I watched the sky gain colour, and the shapes of Angkor appear out of the darkness from the edge of the lotus pond. It was incredible.

Getting there in the dark, a light needed to navigate the uneven-ness of the walkway from the road leading to Angkor Wat, we met up as arranged and then made our way to the edge of the water, to the back left corner.

For some time nothing really happened, other than more tourists arriving in the dark and creating noise around the pond. Imagination made the temple appear now and then....and then there was a hint of light.

Once the pond in front of us took shape, we could see the pink lotus flowers on the surface, and soon the reflection made the early morning rise all worth the effort.

These photos were taken in order, as the sky coloured, and filled with light. Once the sun was actually up much of the crowd moved around a little to capture the ball of light as it showed itself above the ancient city.

Soon enough, the sky was fully lit, and the heat of the sun returned with it's humidity. As did the foreground to the temple, as the tour groups waited for the main attraction to be open for exploration.

Project 52: Friday Morning

Yesterday morning I trekked across Bangkok early to join the line to apply for my visa to Burma. Finding the place in a side street with the help of this post, and this one, I acquired a form from a place down the road, before taking my place in the line. For 2 hours I waited with the throngs of other people, and then finally reached the window inside.

After having my paperwork checked, I then got a number to be called up to the next window, and insisted I needed a same day visa, so that I could leave Bangkok the next day on further travels before heading the Burma. They took my baht and gave me a ticket to return later in the day.

And sure enough, I returned later in the afternoon to collect my passport, which had a new sticker in it. Pretty exciting!

This post is part of Project 52 with Jess from FuShMuSh.

I am actually enjoying doing this series, as it has marked where I am each week in real time, even when my posts are a week or so behind. The next few Project days, however, I expect to be in Burma, away from internet and contact from the outside world, or so I am led to believe. But then Jess is on holidays too during this next 2 weeks, so we will both have to catch up when we are both online again.

Scenes Of Bayon

I was pretty excited to return to the Angkor cities in Siem Reap last week, even though I had been a couple of times before. These temples are something that you could explore over and over, and still see new things, learn new facts about the ancient civilisation, or see more crumbling or renovation being done.

Bayon is still my favourite temple city of the area, with the faces watching you from the highest points, from every angle. But there is also the smaller detail to capture your imagination. All along the lower level of the Bayon temple are bas-reliefs with tales of battle and war, but also on one side, of everyday life. This was my spot of fascination.

Here, along this panel running the length of the temple, you can see people playing checkers, top, or women gossipping around a table, just above.

Here, a child is reaching for perhaps his parent, and below is the scene where a woman is giving birth.

These take a bit of patience to find, and unless you are there very early in the morning, you are probably also dodging mass tour groups with their tour leader yelling out information in any language.

These photos in this post were taken during my first visit to the temples, back in 2002, but three of these 4 scenes I managed to find again in this most recent visit last week.

Bayon seemed a little more run down this visit, a little more crumbly. But there was also a lot more repair and restoration efforts going on on the lawn in front of the temple, so perhaps soon it there will be areas in better shape, returning sections to it's near original glory.

This post is part of a series marking 10 years since I travelled to Cambodia to work as a volunteer.