ASIANOVERLAND.NET SYDNEY TO LONDON DAY 62:  BANGKOK TO PATTAYA, THAILAND

Pattaya is on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand, about 100 kilometres southeast of Bangkok, and was a fishing village until the 1960s.

The name Pattaya evolved from the march Phraya Tak (later King Taksin) and his army took from Ayutthaya to Chanthaburi, before the fall of Ayutthaya to Burmese invaders in 1767. When his army arrived in what is now Pattaya, Phraya Tak encountered the troops of a local leader named Nai Klom. When the two met face to face, Nai Klom was impressed by Phraya Tak's dignified manner and his army's strict discipline. He surrendered without a fight and joined forces. The place the armies confronted each other was thereafter known as "Thap Phraya", which means the "army of the Phraya". This later became Pattaya, the name of the wind blowing from the south-west to the north-east at the beginning of the wet season.

Tourism began during the Vietnam War, when American servicemen began arriving on R&R (rest and relaxation).

The Vietnam war (called “the American War” in Vietnam) lasted for 20 years from 1955 to 1975 with about 3 million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed. In addition, 310,000 Cambodians, 62,000 Laotians, and 58,220 U.S. service members also died in the conflict, and a further 1,626 remain missing in action.

All US military personnel serving in Vietnam during the Vietnam War were eligible for one R&R during their tour of duty (usually 12 months). The duration of R&R was five days leave to R&R destinations, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Manila, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo (as well as in Vietnam at China Beach). 

Prostitution has long been part of soldiers' "R&R" activity. It has been condoned by civilian populations in peacetime and wartime since ancient times, although it is a problem due to human trafficking and sex slavery.

For the Japanese, “comfort women” in occupied countries were sex slaves during war. After Japan’s unconditional surrender to the United States at the end of the Second World War in 1945, Japan established "camp towns" around the US bases, where brothels were allowed to operate. South Korea did the same from the 1950s.

During the Vietnam War, the “official” policy of the United States Department of Defense was to suppress prostitution, although it was relied upon by the US military to combat the battlefield trauma many soldiers faced. Women worked in bars, nightclubs, massage parlors and bathhouses across various R&R destinations in Asia for the appeasement of American military servicemen. The popularity of bar girls was high, because upon "rental", the GI would receive a legally enforceable contract. When a GI decided which girl he wanted, the girl would serve as a companion for the agreed period. For Muslim men, the “rental” is called “marriage”, so for 5 days, the Muslim man took an additional wife, as one of his permitted four wives.

The Vietnam War R&R tours led to the creation of Pattaya as one of the largest red light districts in the world. The heart of its economy remains sex tourism. A 2017 article in the British Daily Mirror described Pattaya as "the world's sex capital", a "modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah".

The Pattaya police superintendent denied that Pattaya is a sex trade paradise: "There is no such thing as prostitution in Pattaya," said Col Apichai. "Where did they get the figure of 27,000 sex workers in Pattaya? Anyone can make up this information.... Thai ladies having sex with foreigners is their personal issue. If they like each other, I don't see anything wrong with what they do behind closed doors." 

In response, Pattaya social worker Surang Janyam, the director of Service Workers IN Group Foundation, said the estimated number of Pattaya sex workers published in the Daily Mirror is inaccurate: "27,000 sex workers in Pattaya is way too low. We have a lot more sex workers than that."

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