Go-go bars gone as coronavirus hits Bangkok's sex district

[webfact]

Go-go bars gone as coronavirus hits Bangkok's sex district

By Jiraporn Kuhakan and Matthew Tostevin

 

An 18+ sign is seen inside the Patpong museum at the nightlife and sex trade district, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Bangkok, Thailand, May 26, 2020. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - The black leather party masks that performers May and Som wear for their fetish shows in Bangkok are definitely not the sort to stop the coronavirus.

 

Behind closed doors, they practise for the day when health restrictions are lifted and tourists return, but they have no idea when and worry that the city's infamous Patpong red-light district could be very different by then.

 

"This kind of place will be the last to reopen," said May 31. Like Som, she goes only by her Thai nickname.

 

"Even when it does reopen, customers will be worried about their safety," she said at the BarBar club on Patpong's Soi 2 street. BarBar and other clubs such as "Bada Bing" and "Fresh Boys" are shuttered and the nights are largely silent.

 

Thailand shut bars and clubs in mid-March as coronavirus cases surged. It halted international passenger flights, stopping the tourism that had made Bangkok the world's most visited city for four years.

 

Patpong went dark.

 

But residents say the decline had already begun for a red-light district that flourished in the 1970s as a rest stop for U.S. forces in Indochina.

 

"This COVID-19 is an accelerant of change," said Michael Ernst, an Austrian 25-year veteran of the district and former bar owner who opened the Patpong Museum weeks before the new coronavirus reached Thailand.

 

"The go-go bar and its very one-dimensional concept of a stage and ladies dancing on it with a number. I think that's already over, they just don't know that yet."

 

SHIFT

The number of go-go bars in Patpong district has waned in recent years as business has moved to other parts of Bangkok or online and as sex tourism has become a smaller part of the overall tourism industry for Thailand.

 

For decades, tourism figures were skewed towards men. But the growing importance of Chinese visitors in particular changed that. In 2018, more than 53 percent of tourists were women.

 

Nonetheless, Patpong's nightlife district employed thousands of people, mostly young women. Most are now among the 2 million Thais the state planning agency believes may be made unemployed this year because of the impact of the virus.

 

BarBar is still paying some workers. But the manager of at least one go-go bar on Soi 2 just abandoned the lease.

 

Patpong had never known it as bad, said 70-year-old Pratoomporn Somritsuk, who for 35 years has run the Old Other Office drinking den.

 

"A lot of ladies here working in nightlife are mostly from a poor family or upcountry," she said. "They have no chance to go work in a company."

 

The lockdown has meant the whole sex industry has collapsed. Online escort service Smooci said activity in Bangkok fell to 10 percent in April.

 

Thailand has now begun to lift some movement restrictions with infections at over 3,000 and deaths nearly 60, but neither rising rapidly. There is talk of tourism resuming.

 

But a health ministry spokesman said that nightlife venues would be among the last to reopen.

 

"In the new normal, Patpong will have to adapt a lot. It may end up looking different, but this change will be for the better," Rungruang Kitpati said.

 

Social distancing and the sex industry are hard to make compatible, however.

 

"I can provide alcohol gel or temperature checks," said 38-year-old Jittra Nawamawat, one of BarBar's founders. "But staying one metre apart is impossible."

 

(Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by Kay Johnson and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-05-29

 

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[Henryford]

I won't be worried at all about my safety.

[BritManToo]

1 minute ago, Henryford said:

I won't be worried at all about my safety.

Me neither!

[Pilotman]

1 minute ago, BritManToo said:

Me neither!

well you are both being very short sighted.  How about all those out of work , rampaging gogo girls, looking for any man to grab and ravage.  I am seriously worried about being jumped on at every turn, by 20 year olds, who just want to use my body for their own pleasure.  It's a terrifying prospect. ????  

[BritManToo]

1 minute ago, Pilotman said:

 am seriously worried about being jumped on at every turn, by 20 year olds, who just want to use my body for their own pleasure.  It's a terrifying prospect. ????  

Keep your hand on your wallet.

[Keyser Soze666]

2 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

well you are both being very short sighted.  How about all those out of work , rampaging gogo girls, looking for any man to grab and ravage.  I am seriously worried about being jumped on at every turn, by 20 year olds, who just want to use my body for their own pleasure.  It's a terrifying prospect. ????  

#Metoo  is where you should head if you are a victim.

[KhunBENQ]

8 minutes ago, Henryford said:

I won't be worried at all about my safety.

Always stuns me how people can be afraid of Covid in the red light centers.

So much more to worry about.

[Pilotman]

22 minutes ago, Keyser Soze666 said:

#Metoo  is where you should head if you are a victim.

#pleasemenext  ?

[Justgrazing]

45 minutes ago, webfact said:

"I can provide alcohol gel or temperature checks,"

But sadly no KY he miffled ..

[Somtamnication]

I will now die!

[kingofallasians]

They'll be back by July 30th!

[Bob A Kneale]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Go-go bars gone as coronavirus hits Bangkok's sex district

Don't believe all you read from Reuters! 

 

Go-go bars haven't all gone, yet, and Covid-19 has not "hit" Patpong, or the other two places, any harder than many other businesses that also received temporary closure notices.

Edited May 29, 2020 by Bob A Kneale

[pixelaoffy]

54 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Keep your hand on your wallet.

Don't take your wallet with you, just 1 or 2000 in cash tucked away !

[Pilotman]

24 minutes ago, pixelaoffy said:

Don't take your wallet with you, just 1 or 2000 in cash tucked away !

Have you been to a Go Go lately? 2,000, will get you a couple of beers and a packet of nuts. 

[holy cow cm]

If you have to QR code going in and out then this is a different story. 

[kevin612]

Don’t worry, everyone. It is only temporary. Covid 19 is gone, you’ll see them all again.

[samsensam]

 

until businesses are able to open, and we see how many dont open, no one is knows how hard any industry has actually been hit

[lee b]

Some of them deserve to be closed forever, as the only thing on the managements mind was to rip everyone off on a large scale. I have been in the situation myself in an upstairs bar in Papong. Very dangerous, and for these bars sorry but karma came to get you.

 

I hope the other normal bars and go-gos that were ok come back to life when the country reopens.

[DoctorG]

16 hours ago, Pilotman said:

Have you been to a Go Go lately? 2,000, will get you a couple of beers and a packet of nuts. 

I always take my own nuts with me wherever I go.

[GAZZPA]

We can only hope it's true. Thailand needs to grow up if it wants to survive and drop the seedy image. If they are not going to embrace the sex trade and drive it then just get rid of it, clean the place up and plan for better quality tourists. it will take years to shake the image but this seems like a great opportunity to start reinventing itself. i know there will be plenty of posters attacking this view but get used to the fact that times are changing for Thailand. All in all I think it could be good news...If you are going to respond with nonsense about how heroic you are feeding the poor families up north by paying for these services don't bother, I have heard it all before.

[chicowoodduck]

16 hours ago, Pilotman said:

Have you been to a Go Go lately? 2,000, will get you a couple of beers and a packet of nuts. 

Packet of nuts?  Time to stop going to the ladyboy bars, mate....????????????

[metisdead]

Some troll posts have been removed. 

[kingstonkid]

The reporter is right about one thing patpong was dying.  This along with high rents and lack of customers due to tourism will mean the end to a few of the bars.  Possibly the night market as well.  Time will tell.

 

The girls will find other places to work. If the government was smart they would open training for girls so that they could learn to do something else.  The older ones will suffer but there really is nothing that can be done.  Too bad.

 

Japanese Patpong could be hit as worse if not more so if the Japanese business market dries up.

 

 

[hellohello123]

Does that mean when they reopen, they will drop their prices to get customers in or double them?

[soalbundy]

18 hours ago, Bob A Kneale said:

Don't believe all you read from Reuters! 

 

Go-go bars haven't all gone, yet, and Covid-19 has not "hit" Patpong, or the other two places, any harder than many other businesses that also received temporary closure notices.

It's the only real tourist attraction that Thailand has

[GAZZPA]

1 minute ago, soalbundy said:

It's the only real tourist attraction that Thailand has

i think there lies the problem.

[DoctorG]

5 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

It's the only real tourist attraction that Thailand has

Yep. I have already seen far too many temples around Asia as it is.

[tonysilly]

Why do people say many girls from poor up north area work as bar girls to support their family?  The girls love working at bars. Now they are on Line and on the Beach still making money. Sex on Line is easy for them.  Go Go Bars will be a thing of the past in many area. 

[ChipButty]

20 minutes ago, DoctorG said:

Yep. I have already seen far too many temples around Asia as it is.

I agree you've seen one temple you've seen them all, a bit like pussy

Edited May 30, 2020 by ChipButty

[SteveK]

Getting back to normal will be a great thing, but I can't help but think that there will be a lot of very desperate people out there who haven't been able to earn anything like a decent wage for months now. So I would suggest people who go out to enjoy Thailand's nightlife might need to take a bit of extra care both when out and about, and when entertaining your new friend back at your hotel. A wallet with several thousand baht in it, that MacBook Pro or an expensive watch might be extremely tempting to someone in massive amounts of debt.