It is a bit shameful to me at times when I speak to people back in the US or anywhere in the west, but Thailand is known for a lot of things but one things they are probably known for more than any other and that is being a bit of a sex-tourism capital of the world.
This doesn't have to be the case but I will admit that it is obviously a very big part of the reason why a lot of people come here. It isn't why I came here, but for anyone to deny that this is the case, would be stupid.
Everyone knows that Thailand is the land of a million prostitutes and how anyone, visitors and locals alike, have easy access to this trade all over the country.
That is what makes this arrest of two Dutch tourists so ironic especially when you consider where they were arrested
src
The two were apprehended on the famous Bangla road in Phuket, which is well-known among everyone to be a street that is a massive red-light district. There are hundreds of go-go bars here and also a bunch of even more sad, "beer bars" where a bunch of bored looking girls dressed provocatively are sitting around waiting to sit with anyone that walks in.
In many of these places the girls are all wearing numbers so that the customers can order them by their employee number rather than going to through the embarrassing process of learning someone's name or pointing at them and saying "I want that one!"
Well, there were two Dutch women that were reported to be "dancing provocatively outside of one of these bars in the street and apparently this included wearing revealing clothing and even exposing themselves a bit.
src
They were apparently filming content for some sort of social media, I can only presume it was something dumb like TikTok or OnlyFans, and it didn't take long for someone to film them and send the footage to local authorities.
I have not been to Bangla many times even though a very good friend of mine lives on the island. It isn't because I don't like pretty girls but it is because this street embodies what I consider to be the most annoying aspects of Thailand: You are harassed constantly to be spending money and people get aggressive about it on this street, they also charge a lot more than it is actually worth for beers or really anything on this street. That alone is enough reason for me to not want to go there. There is also the fact that aside from tourists who want a little "lookie-loo" at the dark side of Thailand, all of the people that go here are doing so specifically for participating in the debauchery that takes place here every night. It's not a pleasant place to be unless you have a ton of money and are in the area specifically to pay for a girl to go home with you.
The police quickly apprehended the two Dutch women, arrested them, and then charged them with, and I quote "acting in a shameful manner in front of the village headman by exposing their bodies." They were charged 2000 Baht each and then let go.
The irony about all of this is that there are young women on this street in various stages of undress at 90% of the establishments on this road. For the most part the nudity doesn't really happen outside of the places where that are shut off from vision to the outdoors, but everyone knows what is going on in there.
What I think was really going on here is that the authorities are attempting to discourage this sort of thing from getting into the news and while they will not talk about it, there has been a bit of a recent crackdown on sex workers that are not involved directly in the employ of the various pimps and bar-owners that are undoubtedly involved in the business of paying off the police.
On one side I am upset at the hypocrisy of the authorities but at the same time I cannot stand people attempting to create content in public spaces all the time. So I'm on the fence about how to feel about this. I would imagine though, that these two girls are likely pretty excited to get through this with just a small fine. They are clearly looking for internet fame and were willing to do whatever in order to make it happen and if that is the case, they are getting a ton of free publicity out of this that they otherwise would not be able to get. So paying around $60 each for a silly charge is likely a very small price to pay for that.