By night, though, Patong Beach becomes a very different place. The street known as Bangla Road, which is hardly crowded by day, suddenly glows with neon signs and lit boards, advertising one of the over 150 bars and night clubs that line the streets. Walking down the street, you are bombarded with messages advertising a sickening array of activities that will go on around you that night. Half-naked girls in heels dance on poles on top of the bars, like Bachelor Bar, Crazy Girls, and Boom Boom Bar.
Men stand in the streets and shove signs in your face advertising “ping pong” shows, the nature of which I know very little and don’t intend to ask.
If you look above you, you can see girls dancing in windows to advertise the many “closed-door” bars and nightclubs accessed from the back of some bars.
A little farther down, you will see the ladyboys – men who have undergone sex change operations – who are dressed in feathered costumes or short, tight dresses, dancing and entertaining tourists, many of whom look like they would fit in better on a Carnival cruise ship than a place like this.
The girls who aren’t dancing on bars are serving drinks to customers, some of whom are there for more than a beer or two.
Some girls don’t even work in the bars. They just stand on the streets as people pass by.
And our job is to hang out there.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? (For Jews do not associated with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
It works like this. In groups of three or four, we go into a bar and order a non-alcoholic drink. We strike up a conversation with one of the girls there, usually over a game of Jenga or Connect Four (there’s also a nail and hammer game, which I’ve yet to get any good at). You find out that, behind the fake lashes and low-cut dress,
She is young, as young as seventeen at one bar I’ve been to. Most are in their twenties, some in their thirties. She is someone’s daughter, and her parents likely don’t know what it is she does for a living. She may be a mother, as so many are, who’ve left their children with parents or relatives to work here and send money home. She may have gone months or longer without seeing her children. You ask her if she likes it here, and she says ‘no,’ but what can she do? She may even say ‘yes’ but with little conviction.
Despite the fact that she doesn’t like it there, the fact is that she is likely there by choice. The ones who aren’t there by choice are the ones that, sadly, we cannot talk to.
Yet.
SHE Ministries (Self Help and Empowerment) saw a need on Bangla Road and set out to meet it. So many girls come from all over Thailand seeking work in Phuket. It’s a beautiful tropical paradise, and the tourism industry is king. However, if she doesn’t speak enough English or have any special skills, her chances of getting a job at a hotel or resort are next to nothing. Often, her best option is to get a job in a bar, or worse.
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
“I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is quite true.”
Our role is not to go into a bar and tell a girl about Jesus. Our role is to build relationships with these girls so that, in time, we can let them know that they have options. SHE offers English classes everyday of the week. They offer a hotel training program that equips them with the necessary skills to work in a hotel on the island. SHE offers her a place to live if she needs a place when she leaves the bar house.
Building these relationships take many forms, and it varies in ease and time. The girls may speak such little English that even learning their story can be a challenge. She may be distracted by other customers, who are there to spend more money than the cost of the Coke I’m drinking, or the music is so loud that conversation is next to impossible.
A conversation over a Jenga game may lead to asking her for a lunch date, some place quieter and away from her work time that you can talk. While these can be very helpful, they sometimes don’t happen. One girl texted a squadmate to let them know she wouldn’t be making their lunch appointment. She was too hungover from the night before, from drinking the “lady drinks” that customers bought for her.
Some women don’t want out. They like the hours, the pay is good, and they might even like the attention they get. Or they don’t know that they want out. That’s just how it is.
But for most of these girls, the hope of a better life may come in the form of a random stranger who orders a Coke and asks for a game of Jenga. The rest is in God’s hands.
Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony.
Interestingly Enough
I found this review of Bangla Road on a Thailand tourism website. Interesting.
Like all night owls, Soi Bangla awakens when the sun sets. That’s when Patong’s liveliest party zone becomes closed to traffic and ready for action! Famous for its raunchy nightlife, Bangla goes all out to entertain with girls, beers and music that increases in volume as the moon rises. Jammed most nights year round, it’s actually totally unthreatening and lively place to walk around as bars compete for customers.
The girls aim to please – dancing around poles, engaging in banter, or coaxing customers to play simple bar games like “Connect” or “Hammer the nail” to break the ice. The objective is to entice customers to buy drinks and hopefully, take them away for the evening. Almost all of the bars are outdoors so the music from each one is deafening! Beers Bar occupy most of the street’s length, with several a-go-gos and a few pubs, restaurants, discos and shops rounding out the attractions both on Bangla and
