** Disclaimer — contains some graphic images/facts.
1 road named Bangla.
Approximately 200 bars.
Approximately 1,200 women.
THIS IS NOT OKAY.
The women and ladyboys [men who dress/act as women] are scantily clad – wearing next to nothing.
They wear huge smiles and greet every passerby with a “Welcome!” trying to convince each person to sit at their bar by throwing drink menus into his/her face.
If they can get a person to sit down, they try to convince him/her to buy a drink. They can make a little money if alcohol is purchased.
Men and women from all over the world walk in and out of the bar streets on Bangla Road.
Children accompany their parents.
THIS IS NOT OKAY.
Women and ladyboys ranging in age from 18-40+ stand at each bar. Some dance on top of the bars. Some wait for customers to buy them. Yes. You read that correctly. To BUY them.
THIS IS NOT OKAY.
Men of every age sit and watch these girls. Some just look.
Some touch.
Some buy the woman for the night.
Some buy the woman for a couple weeks. They use the women as tour guides, translators, and sex slaves.
THIS IS NOT OKAY.
As part of our ministry this month, the women on my team and I hang out in the bars at night. We play Jenga, Connect-4, and a dice game called Jackpot. We talk to the women. We hang out with them. We laugh with them.
We get to know them by asking questions…
“What’s your name?”
“How old are you?”
“Do you have any children?”
“How long have you worked here?”
“Where were you before you came to Phuket?”
“Do you like it here?”
We offer them a way out.
…to be continued
