Dear Hillary,
Every few weeks the Pattaya Police rope in all the girls along Beach Road, fine them B. 500 and let them go. What are the police trying to do here? Are they a danger or something? Or are they easy pickings for the BIB? You seem to be able to answer most things, answer me this one.
Will
Dear Will,
Answer me this one – what are these girls actually doing? They are not working as tourist guides, are they. These girls (and some not quite ‘girls’) are soliciting, and that does not mean they are in the employ of a solicitor, though many people would argue there is a similarity. They may be doing the same services as the bar-girls, but bar-girls can be traced through their employers mamasan who holds copies of their ID. The Beach Road belles work at night and fly by night. It really is a case of ‘caveat emptor’ (let the buyer beware) if entering into a contract with the street walkers. Since our city fathers don’t want to see the tourists being ripped off by girls who cannot be traced, the simplest method is to get them off the streets. However, I don’t know that the B. 500 fine does much for anybody.
