The sleaze street of Pattaya

I think this picture is self-explanatory! "Only European girls??" Should have been Russian countries actually..that snide remark apart. This is for my learned readers & friends a part of 'Walking street" as it is called in Phathaya or Pattaya.

Now for some Mumbai's Girgaonkar like me, we'd grown up listening to Pattaya where the nuveau rich couples went to for a honeymoon, or more so for a shopping experience. What they don't tell you & teach you is the harsh reality - this is THE place for cheap sex & flesh trade of the sleaziest kind.

Most of these girls or women are NOT real women or girls. They as called, "Lady Boys." Men mostly in all kinds of fakes - eye lashes to face wc is all facelifts, plastic, boobs that are silicon & it just gets gross by the organ. Sad part is that these women (I'd rather call them so) begin to solicit 'customers' as early as 4.00pm! It is simply pathetic to see the extent to which they are compelled to go. Oh! Yes, i do have sympathy for them & aware a lot of this is forced upon them. Because when we up north & spoke to the hill people, they live in abject poverty. They are told to sell their daughters for a premium so that she will look beautiful & do well, have a fab life & send home money.

It is us educated modern who know things like poverty, borders, flesh trade, illicit trade, sex workers etc...The women are made to do things that are simply unimaginable. to what extent the men & women who trade these nymph girls can go to is simply left to imagination. Once You're in Pattaya it's a welcome to sexland. You're welcomed with a basket of the 'basics!' There is a basket full of alcohol bottles, medicine & thankfully condoms. yes by the way strawberry flavoured if you pl! Now i give it to the hotel owners. They seem to be THE only ones who openly accept that is sex part of their lifestyle in this city & at least are promoting safe sex, I really appreciate that.

Interestingly we were 4 women besides a couple - Dilshad & Susanne who had come wt their toddler daughter Yasna. by the way it was her first ever exprience at sea, she is only 2 yrs old. We women sofia, chiara, wendy & myself got over the first shock of the condoms part (Yes I'm a little prude you see), after dinner we walked along the so-called beach. I mean there was No beach, it was only a series of lamp posts!! Well for the modern ones who have NO idea of this saying, "Standing under the lampost" a sex worker stands to solicit a customer...so as i've described the whole beach shore stretched over few kilometres was lined along with palm trees, these & plenty of other women making out. If some of them opened their mouths it was a total give away! Husky manly voices talking to one another. Indulging in all forms of sex.

While we 4 women walked (Scott had decided to join us later after a kids kick boxing match, yeah more on it in a while). Believe me this is THE most safe place on earth for a girl/woman! Yes, we are NOT the targets, nobody is interested in us. It is revenge for us women..really the men are the targets. Seriously speaking, the men are under immense pressure in this place. I feel bad for those who come with their families & wives..well seeing is believing. Oh! Yes, you will be surprised the number of American families that were walking down that street...in fact while wendy & i walked we saw an Arab family walk past & a man showed these girls to his son (potential customer in the future? who knows), the mother however threw a dirty glance at her husband & warned him not to teach their son such stuff. While other American families walked hand in hand standing to stare at these scenes.

The street has thousands of these women. The sad part is that there are many cops, police officers & volunteers,surprisingly a lot of them whites...yet, NO one bothered. They are like the Indian cops, turned a blind eye to all these happenings. Reminded me of the dancing bars. I can recollect vividly how these lil nymphets, girls forcibly brought from Bangladesh, poverty stricken parts of Bihar & West bengal who were sold here to women & pimps in Bombay. they would be taken to dance bars, which were sponsored by the underworld, some by the police & few by journalists who were close to either the cops or the gangsters.

The girls would dance tantallising the men wt all their evocative steps & actions to famous Bollywood numbers in pitch dark bars, where forget one's food or drink couldn't see anyone's faces either. Everything under the skies would unfold in those dark moments...& the sickest part was that the men would throw money at these girls...who smiled & picked it up. Later it was sex.

Here too i saw the same. Except the dance bar girls were real, here these poor transvestites - put through sleaze & i am sure they too must be going thru' immense suffering to be treated so cheap. I had heard of all this...What i wasn't prepared for is that abso Bulldozer men of my father's gen or even older, squeezing girls of their grand daughters age. Pl kindly see the humangous sizes of these ugly men who have left their wives, spouses or gf's back home for young thai girls!! In fact on one boat ride one of the girls (they ar eall trained to fondle men & arouse them, carass them even in public) kept fondling the bulldozer & that bare chested man's thighs! Interestingly, Chiara & i could see it on a blue screen window! yeah so true a full fledged live blue film unfolded in front of our eyes...the man actually had the balls to proudly show off his wedding ring to this lil girl! In other corner of the boat an uglier looking thai lady was biting the shoulder of another sleazy looking old man & he had given her a thick gold chain. Well these aren't judgements im making about the girls or men, these are facts after speaking to couple of people.

The girls obviously haven't the dime to eat such grand meals like steaks or fillets. They get free hotel stay, travel, good clothes, branded accessories & clothes, gifts & ofcourse sex, sex & more sex, with parting shot, money. So i am sure its ok in the eyes of many...but soooo scary, many are regulars coming here repeatedly. They exchange pleasantaries at breakfast, some fight with the girls, beat them, some may have even exchanged these partners over time, who knows...their girls friends, wives or spouses must be thinking their husbands or male partners are good businessmen!

Illegal is legal

Often there is fun in breaking rules. Especially when u know that it is safe to break rules, point is how safe is it? And who decides the risk factor can be relevant. I'm on a study course - International peace & conflict resolution, at the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. Till the 8th of Feb we had mentally stiumalting, challenging theory sessions. From Feb 8-15, we were up north of Thailand. Chian rai, Chian Mei, Sai, Chang Khong, Golden Triangle, hall of the Opium -yes to study the illegal human & drug trafficiking. Now apart fm these subjects we were exposed to very crucial isues like the stateless, nationless people, those people who live & move around the hills wc also entails moving across borders. That means although they are the original inhabitants of these hills, long before new countries or states were formed, they are without citizenship, without access to basic amenities like right to puvlic health or even education.

These hill people are fighting for getting their rights (like many other tribals acorss the world), citizenship, some recognition & are clear they do NOT want to be nobody's children...in this we can see that the broders are Porous -pentrable, security is lax and people move around the countries often indulging in various illicit trades.

Now as part of this study is another agro-economist, a PhD, Sevinch. mostly a reculse but im sure the outdoor trips always help to break walls, communication wc with any amount of efofrt & stimulus doesn't happen in classroom sessions. After our breakfast on the 2nd day that we stayed in Chai Khong, we decided to explore this small port town.

We clicked pics as visual evidence plastic sacks that are 'allegedly' thrown by chinese people on the upstream. Earlier we are told by the villagers & later corroborated by the port authorities that the allegation is true -yet this is all from other people, except the chinese, though i completely believe the villagers. Earlier the chinese would throw the bags in the lower stream, wt political pressure & Mekong river commission pressure they began throwing it in the upper stream, but ofcourse it all flows down eventually. They lie around the river shore, wt even Thai auhtorities doing little to salvage the situation.

We were put up at the Nankhong river side place - an amazing hotel wt splendid (eeks sound very American..2 superlatives in one sentence??) view that one can get all along the Mekong river. It is truly breathtakingly beautiful! We decided to enjoy the moments along the river and we did NOT take the official road or motorable road. Instead we walked along the river wc means we jumped few fences of various river resorts or hotels, climbed down the hill to the port wc was off the 'narrow' path. There is a naval guard, i saw them loading their rifles later in the afternoon, but in the morning there presence was NOT felt or seen at all. The only visual evidence of people was, just as the sun was struggling break through the fog, there were hoards of 'pherangs' wanting to go across the river to Laos.

When we first arrived, i walked down the village (please it is like a small hill town, even their poor seem richer than the Indian villagers). We saw innumerable foreigners, as in whits, tourists. What were they doing there was a question we all had? Chaing Khong is NO typical tourist place. It has NOTHING like a national park, or attractive mountains. I snooped around the village & was told the prices of many goods including fares of guest houses had increased over 15 % in the last 2-3 years. It wasn't a sruprise why. every nook & corner there are tour planners, agents who give visas to foreign tourists for Laos.

Sevinch & I continued on our path off the beaten track, & came striaght to the port side which is definitely out of the eye sight of the immigration authorities on the Thai border. We waited & timed the boats that were plying between both the shores. It takes precisely 2 minutes to get across in boat to Laos. The cost being 30 Bahts when going. We decided to give it a shot. She ofcroz played little safe, NOT wanting to get Rotary international into trouble, more so we wanted NO trouble. She reminded me to enquire about the passport. The boatman was straight up NO passport, no bribe, just 30 Baht & sit in the boat . we just made it clear we did not want to roam in Loas, back fm the shore, we just wanted to prove a point reg the border. Had it not been for the course oh ya, sure i would've sneaked in further from the border. But we had to be very responsible and that we were.

In this picture u can clearly see this is the check point on in Laos. We treaded carefully, as we disembarked fm the boat, we looked around. Believe me it was like a kick up ur backside. Felt tremendously overwhelmed, felt the taste of 'freedom' of a different kind. More so couldn't believe it was sooooooo simple to get across. Considering neither of us look remotely Thai, Laos or anywhere near slant-eyed, it was very shocking that nobody thought of asking us for our papers, passport, or any such thing. We in fact walked around taking pics. We went right upto the check point. One immgration officer was in the balcony filling out forms, saw the red colour & stars along his arm. Later another joined him stretching himself fully & yawning as he saw me take their pics, which u can see in the above picture.

Now does this all baffle me? actually no, considering this is exactly what our faculty, speakers (sounds more politically correct:) ) have been telling us. The fact is all this happens with the knowledge and well approval of the authorities/ security. May be we were also lucky that it was one of those days when the security officials had decided to go easy on patrolling. Whatever the reason, we experienced first hand that the borders are porous.

It is something that i have heard, seen on television & read in reports that it is not difficult for people to cross international borders across the world. Well that is what we have seen late at nights in Pilani (close to Rajasthan -Pakistan border), Indo-Pak broder, Kashmir, Bangladesh -india border, US -Mexico, so on & so forth.

The exprience was essential. Not because i got to visit one more country to my credit, but the way i could cross over to this country was interesting. I am not surprised that it is easier on the Myanmar - thai or myanmar- inida border. It is even closer. we went under the cross over bridge in Chiang Mei & saw a militray official on a smoke break. If i was enthusiastic & willing to wade through or swim across some really dirty water it was 2 minutes swimming, unlike the mekong wc has a very strong current & would definitely taken over 30 min swimming.

I shared this wt one colleague who asked us to keep mum. though my colleague wanted me to share this incident wt Jen, the deputy dir of the entre. Eventually i did share it with her. Her concern was that if others heard they would have rushed to do the same thing & may be that would've brought mroe trouble. Yes, i agree completely, too many foreigners would have attracted undue attention.

Intertestingly, when we hung around the Laos shore or at the port, i wanted to collect more evidence, besides pictures. I offered 10 Bahts as exchange & got 2000 the currency of Laos. Their economy is in doldrums rt now. As for the boat ride rate fm Laos was 40 Bhts. I was later told by few people that Laos gives many attractive packages to tourists. Some hotels give good offers like if u buy some amount of chips, which is pittance in dollar terms they are given 3 days 2 nights free stay wt free massage & other offers...wc is best left to our imagination.

Im proud of my profession & to be in a field like journalism, wc helps to broaden our their minds. Learn from the ground to feel the pulse of the people & at the same time face situations head on, take risks too. else one cannot get a good story. It is exhilirating to say the least that i love such adventures & i am able to fulfill them thanks to my profession. Ofcourse that doesn't mean i am being modest, i am aware i love to skirt (or rather flirt) with trouble, but then so do the army, police & even doctors. All of us who are in a field that entails risk....we allned to take some toruble on hand.

So long, this input is special for me. rather this whole exprience of being at the chulalongkorn University & attending the peace & conflict resolution course is an unusually empowering exprience. It makes you question, want to inquisitively explore so many realms of life, of conflict & general facts.

This was a fabulously learning experience besides the adventure. It teaches to be alert, inquisitive, questioning & understanding how the whole system functions.

Bangkok Calling

My first 2 days in Bangkok (BKK) were spent in a sleep mode. It took me a while to recover fm the stress of work, tying up loose ends & the last min change in travel plan. Thankfully i love reading maps & details of a city before reaching...so it wasn't difficult to find Chulalongkorn Univ. Yes, came alone from the airpot to Vidhaya Nives.

A past fellow had drawn the entire Chula, MBK, Rama road, etc for me. So i trudged to the MBK in search of food...before i came to BKK i had read of the impact of recession on the toursim industry. I must admit i needed to search the impact wt a magnifying glass. There were people & more people pouring out of that MBK! Scores are buying by the dozens, another 100 odd Indians falling out of every nook & corner of MBK. thai youth eating, shopping like there is NO tomorrow. wow...i was tired, but roamed around. Plus thanks to the last min schedule change i needed clothes desperately.

Food I know was going to be BIG oroblem for me, considering im a veggie. Yes initially it was tough adjusting. it was worse b'coz the canteen where we have our daily lunch, they made me feel like a recuprating invalid!! No lies. Boiled veggies thrown over a lump of boiled rice! or boiled noodles day in & day out till 2 weeks passed and i decided to speak wt Jen. She understood why me a foodie wld always sit wt my head down & eat it mechanically...taste, i guess it varies frm culture to culture. Here the concoction of 4 items -sugar, chillies, lime & salt is taste! I cant call them spices -i mean its not cinnamon, clove, garlic, turmeric, et al....its NOT flavour either!
In the thai class i asked the kids to tell me a thai word for 'flavour' & they were whats flavour? What flavour?? i now udnerstand their predicament....

I liked the city. Its clean, most of it. What i liked most is that they use bottled water even on the carts along the streets for food off the roads...now that's where India fails miserably, although we have some great street food wt flavour. The roads are broad wt clear deamrcations for Zebra crossings...yes, i did a story 2 yrs ago on how the zera crossings in Mumbai were fading...its a fundamental rt of a commuter, if ofcourse they are enlightened of their rts!

They have broad paements, bt like in India i have a grouse they are really high. There is no desecent and ascent to climb unto them easily. Yet, they are clean, broad, even if there are hawkers. Some places the tiles have come off, but that's common. They have good sky walks that wc dont shake...yeah in Mumbai it was like as if im giddy with the sensation of the sky walk shaking. These are well tiled, solid and one doesn't feel tired. I dont know why back home when i walk so much despite the same kind of weather i feel drained, tired. Yes, may be bcoz the people are lot more peaceful.

Have roamed the streets and numerous areas of BKK already. I liked the BTS trains. Oh how i wish those stupid politicians fm my country come here & replicate the BTS instead of the hideious skyscrapers that seme to crawl on our skyline....yes ive a grouse abt them & i dont like them. May be our builders can come & see the architecture here, but im intersted in the public transport. Their aircon buses are good, but otherwise the normal buses need imrpovement.

The Chulalongkorn Univ is a city byitself. Yes, im sure univs world over are like this. I've visited Stanford - love those alcoves, arches & architecture there, other univs in california & Washington, yet there is something different abt this place. But...i've NOT understood one thing. Whats wt the thai obsession for water, fountains?? They have a severe problem of malaria & then they have GREEN, STAGNANT water bodies all over the Univ & the city...what mosquitos, their bloody grandfathers will be bred here....i simply cannot understand how they can live that much stench and mosquito breeding problem...otherwise i've bene comfortable.

The people are warm, helpful -though have faced some stray crazy types who i give a benefit of doubt to...they must've NOt understood us, english, sign language, one must excuse them. All the while they are ever smiling, warm & helpful. Now im waiting to explore the rest of Thailand.

Its always Indianness....

What do I say? Just as i thought the year 2008 was NOt ending, well so much had occured in the last one year wanted it to end soon, it got over. The new year came and went. Till 2009 January 1, i wasn't evne thinkin of the Rotary Peace & conflict resolution course i was selected for. How could I? There was office, ideas, bringing out sunday edition, plus so many other nitty gritties of mundane life - yes that bloody darn banks. (That's a separate blog input i want to write soon). Tying up loose ends, leaving money for aged parents, winding up fm Cell service companies, utilities, etc etc. In all this maize i had presumed the dear Indian Airlines had got me booked a seat, ocnfirmed for the 11th night flight. Apparently i was mistaken.

I'd asked Shruti (My friend fm PTI) to request her father to upgrade me using his clout, yes being a journalist i thought i cld use this previledge. I needed to carry reading material, copies of my newspaper, etc...her father happened to tell shruti tell neeta call him as he did not see my name on the airline system. Now that is not a surprise for me, things are complicated and full of excitement in every moment of my life.

Fm then on 5.30pm to 7.30pm, i was on either the landline or cell phone. Finally after trying to convince the nerdie, moron call centre employees who were asked to tell me that i was not 'contactable' what english is this????? i had to use my authority as a senior journalist to get the duty manager's telephone numb. Gosh why is it soooooooo difficult to tell an Indian look, its ur job to give me the person's number if i am s[ending my own money to make this call for enquiring why the airline has chosen to cancel my flight without informing me. that lil chappie then told me that it was because of the fog? I was compelled to say, yeah in ur head, coz there is NO fog in Mumbai city...there was NO winter till i left....

finally after sweet talking the duty manager in our mother tongue i got a confirmed seat for that night itself...i've never rushed at such speed fm Fort, to Home to the airport. Here it was agonising to be on the feet for 2 and a half hours! No i am not exaggerating...its a fact. There were long winding queues, customs officials who simply unreasonable and yes the systems shut down just when our number is called out...grrrrhhhh....it happens ONLY in India sooooo very frequently.

I only could remember calling Warangkana, poor thing it was their time 11.45pm, telling her how my whole schedule had gone for a toss....well, i managed to get onto a flight, which was one of the worst flights ever. The pilot refused to inform us that the aircon had failed and that is why we were getting warm air from those ancient ducts. Instead we had a rather over bearing stewardess who curtly told passengers that the message had bee sent to the pilot and pl be seated! I'm sure in some other country (Especially in US) the stewardess and pilot would've been sued. But you see this is India...anything can happen at any time.