Pattaya from a Christian Man's Initial Perspective

This past week, I had the pleasure of meeting Josh Davis who is on a fact-finding mission in South East Asia in search of organizations and individuals making a difference to those who are trafficked and abused. He is an Australian who will shortly return home and tell his community about his findings. He also has a blog and wrote a special blog specifically about his time in Pattaya. I would like to share what he wrote on his blog (http://joshtbk.wordpress.com) about this city that has captured my heart.

Here is what he wrote:

Pattaya – sorry it’s a bit long.. I get passionate. (not really that sorry)


Entering the city of Pattaya, I knew I was heading to a dark part of Thailand. (if any if you have seen Furious Love’, you may be familiar with it.


Notorious for being both the sex tourism capital but also the pedophile central of the globe.


You can smell the darkness in the atmosphere. It’s disgusting.


My bus driver on the way, was wearing a shirt that said,


“Good men go to Heaven;


Bad men go to Pattaya!”


When I asked him about the sex trade in Pattaya he smiled and said, “Pattaya is not a city with a red light district, Pattaya is a red light district with a city”


Neon lights flood this city. “Live sex shows” “50 beautiful girls and 2 ugly ones” “horny girls” “men’s fantasy lounge” “no rules bar” “devils playground” and at the start of walking street is a big red neon picture of the devils face saying “Lucifers world”

You cannot walk down the road after dusk without different propositions less then every 30seconds. Blinded by the neon lights that attempt to entice you in like a mosquito to a bug zapper.

Open wall bars and clubs where you can see the girls lined up, ready to choose from the menu.

Often when there is nobody to watch the children at night, they will follow mummy into the bars, follow her when she has to see clients and work.. This gets me furious. Having a child vulnerable and exposed to such things at a young age.

In fact, one bar I was walking past had a young girl, possibly 6-9yrs of age, pretending to dance on the pole with all the ladies laughing her on in encouragement. That’s ridiculous!


As the bus drivers said to me on the drive in, Pattaya is the devils playground. And after seeing walking street, I agree with him.


It is by far the most disturbing thing I have ever seen. Bars, strip clubs, nightclubs lining the streets with thousands upon thousands of girl, boys and of coarse an abundance of ladyboys ready for sale like a commodity.


I had been told that the Russian mob had a heavy hand on the sex trade in Pattaya, but I was quite shocked to see thousands of European girls, beautiful girls, listening to their accents, I recognized Serbian, Polish, German and Russian amongst the rest. You cannot argue that any of these girls ‘voluntarily’ entered the sex trade in Pattaya, Thailand. They were trafficked, and judging by the fact that there were many Russian thugs keeping watch from the front of the bars, I believe they are either kidnapped or held at ransom.


Walking down that street was…something else.. I’ve never seen such darkness in one place as I did there. With each step, I felt more and more heaviness laying on my chest. At points, it is even hard for me to physically breathe, you can smell it.. I felt physically sick.


And the men, they are the type of guy, that at a bar, no girl would want to look at them, yet alone sleep with them. So they come to Pattaya, a place where they can live like kings and bring to life their wildest fantasies. And these men, they come from all over the world, and flood to Pattaya.


It is hard to not look at them and want to act out some of that righteous anger. To confront them and give them a good old fashion smack-in-the-head until they get that it is wrong, but as I look at them, and look into their eyes, I’m starting to see, that they are broken people too.


Maybe they were never loved before, never validated as a man, possibly abused themselves, whatever it is, something has happened in their lives for them to get to the point of paying all this money to get on a plane, fly across the globe and come to Pattaya just so they can find a warped version of what they believe love to be. They are the prodigal son spoken about by in the parable. They too need love.


As horrible as most of Pattaya is, there is good there as well. I met with a few groups who are doing remarkable things in the fight against trafficking. A couple of groups who focus on the business factor, training up girls who want to leave the trade, help them write a business proposal and guide and mentor them as they commence setting UL a business.

I also met with a group who work with the children. Teir drop in centre is right in the middle of the area notorious for pedophilia. This group. Currently in the middle of construction to build this drop in centre, is to be the light in darkness. And as all of us know, when your in a dark room and light a match, however big or small that match may be, it will brighten the room. And the darkness is no more. That's what these guys are doing.


When I look out over Pattaya, I am reminded of Ezikiels prophesy in chapter 37. In the JTSV (Josh’s Translated Summary Version)


Ezekiel looked out over the valley and he saw a place full of death. He saw bones, no life was to be found. As he stood there watching, his Master commanded him to prophesy to the land, and to the bones and to call it to life, Ezekiel did and the bones started to form together, muscles and skin began to grow, Ezekiel prophesied breath and as he did, they came alive and stood before him as a mighty army.


As I look out over Pattaya, I see the same.. Death, no life in these people. But I speak life into them, life into the city of Pattaya and country of Thailand. A nation whom is called to be the ‘Land of Smiles’ and I speak out that the day will come when these people can smile as they will be free. I speak against the death in Pattaya and I bind it’s power and authority and I loosen the chains upon it’s people. I prophesy the breath of life!


On a lighter note, looking forward to home. Heading up north for a few days then home by Sunday. Keep me in your prayers as its said that the floods are quite bad up there, also I’ve been having trouble sleeping at night. Not cool..


Cannot wait to see you all. Keep Thailand in your prays as the floods are quite bad. 350+ lost their lives in the floods, millions upon millions of dollars damage in a nation already ridden with poverty. There have been several thousand crocodiles escape from the farms and are roaming the cities. So pray for protection to these people, that food and water will be available and that the people will turn to God for their help.

JD