Under-Aged Sex in Bangkok, Thailand

First, if sex with minors appeals to you, don’t go to Thailand. Sooner or later you’ll be caught.

Second, check the girl’s ID card. Thailand uses the oriental calendar. This year (2012) is 2555. Therefore, the girl’s ID card must show that she was born in the year 2537, or earlier. Any number higher than 2537 means the girl is under-age. No matter where you meet the girl, whether it is at a bar, on the streets, at the beach, or anywhere else, make sure to check her ID card before you take her to a room with you.

If she claims she doesn’t have one, don’t take her. Perhaps the girl is Laotian, working illegally in Thailand. That’s not your problem. That’s her problem. However, you still need to be sure that she is at least 18. Don’t rely on simply asking the girl how old she is. Some girls will lie about their age.

If you have any doubt, don’t take her. The law still applies, whether she is a Thai citizen or not. If she has no ID card, but you wish to bar fine her from a bar, at least verify her age with the bar owner or the mamasan. If there is no kind of documentation available at all, then you are at serious risk. If you take her anyway, make sure to have the desk clerk at your hotel question the girl. The desk clerks know all the bullshit that takes place. If the desk clerk says there is no problem, you can believe that. If he says that there is a problem, get rid of the girl . . . quick.

It also couldn’t hurt anything, even if the girl showed you what you perceived to be a legitimate ID card, to have the desk clerk check it anyway. If the girl is carrying a fake ID, the desk clerk will know it. The police will not be sympathetic at all, even if you were duped by a fake ID.

If it were me, and I found that I had innocently bar fined an under-age girl, or a girl carrying a fake ID, I’d be right back at that bar demanding the money refunded.

Consorting with minor under 18 years of age, with or without the consent of the minor, is a criminal offense. Section 319 of the Penal Code reads:

“Whoever takes away from the parent a minor over fifteen years, but not yet over eighteen years of age, guardian or person looking after such minor for financial gain or indecent purposes with the consent of such minor, shall be punished with imprisonment of two to ten years and a fine of four thousand to twenty thousand baht.”

If you engage in any kind of sexual activity with anyone who is even one day younger than age 18, then you are committing an extremely serious crime in Thailand. The consequences will be devastating, and your life is quite likely to be absolutely destroyed. At best, if you are caught, you might be able to bribe your way out of it if you have enough cash with you, and we’re talking about a minimum of US $5000, and probably much more than that by the time you’re through. Don’t count on being able to bribe your way out of it at all, though. As they say in the west, “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.” Whether you agree with it or not, the laws about sex with minors in Thailand are quite strict and if you are caught, now you have a big problem.

My recommendation is: stick to those over 18 years old for your own sake.

Big Baby Kenny

Nana Entertainment Plaza Sign is Gone

The iconic sign at the front of Nana Plaza is history. The neon letters have been removed and presumably the frame of the sign is about to be dismantled and taken down. The pace of renovations at the plaza has picked up as workers race to get everything ready with the high season just around the corner. By day the plaza is full of workmen painting the plaza yellow, carrying out various repairs and installing a new electrical system. With the plaza being painted yellow throughout and the iconic sign removed, the question on people's minds is whether the plaza will undergo a name change.

Stickman

Getting Back to the Big Mango

The airline website tells me what time the plane gets into Bangkok and I stupidly believe them. The industry standard size carry-on luggage ensures that I don’t pack anything that is not essential. And if it is essential but won't fit, then sorry, like a wounded soldier, it gets left behind. I would rather buy it in Bangkok than have to wait for my luggage on the conveyor belt. Valuable time saving.

Fortunately, having a fast track pass allows me to not have to queue up at immigration that just so happens to be processing the latest 747 from India. With the heat of Thailand disguising my running induced sweat, I double time it trough customs, trying to blend in with a bunch of other people who have been waved through. Not that I have anything to hide, but if they were to open my case, I am sure it would take more that 15 minutes to re-pack all the items, and without my geometry set and theodolite, I would just have to put everything on that wouldn’t fit. – Thus making me sweat more.

I could stand and wait in line at the public taxi rank, but from upstairs, I can’t tell if I am going to waste valuable time going down the travelator only to end up in a huge queue of back-packers heading for KS Road, negotiating how far from KS road they could be dropped off from, and be able to walk the rest of the way, saving 20bht. Or dinner. I could try my luck and hopefully get a cab that is dropping off, but then I could have a problem like NR, who’s cab wouldn’t go on a meter and returns me back to the airport. Again.. I am in a clock here. But then, fuck the clock.. if I give him a 1000 will he put his foot down and run red lights like they do in the movies?

Only when I get to my final destination does it hit me that my schedule is worthless. Well, worthless being in such detail that takes me to specific hours. AM or PM are even too restrictive. The best I can hope for is to plan something, anything on a specific day. Usually my plans end up being pinned to a first or second half of a week.

Daywalker
You can read more about his adventures at
The Big Mango Bar blog

Nana Plaza Update 10-2012

It might not be high season yet in Bangkok but business has picked up in Nana Plaza with the plaza having a booming Friday night. Many of the big name bars are so full that groups entering the bar quickly found that there were no free seats and had to head off into another bar.

Carnival on the top floor of Nana Entertainment Plaza has picked up since it reopened following renovations. It's still fairly quiet, but not as quiet as it was - which shows just how bad things were. It seems that the group that acquired the Crown Group of bars (of which Carnival is one) will go through the venues and do them up one at a time.

There might be an idea to rename a couple of the gogo bars in the Crown Group which have been doing miserable trade for years. There's no value in keeping a damaged brand name. There are two bars in the group whose name I would not tinker with though - G Spot and Voodoo. Long-termers remember when each of these bars had a legitimate claim to being the best bar in the plaza.

In Voodoo's case it was in the mid to late '90s and for G Spot it was around the turn of the century. These two brand names should be retained and wouldn't it be great to see the original concept of each bar return? Voodoo was jammed with the most attractive girls in the group and G Spot had the famous shower show.

Nana Plaza has been home to packs of cats for as long as I have been in Bangkok, although with the clean-up of the plaza that started a couple of months back there do seem to be fewer around which, again, might be due to fewer vendors more than anything else.

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Stickman