Originally published via Armageddon Safari:
Sodom and Gomorrah had nothing on modern Bangkok.
Via Bangkok Post (emphasis added):
“Forty-four men, many wearing only underwear and testing positive for illicit substances, were arrested during a raid on an illegal drug party early Saturday in Bangkok’s Wang Thonglang district.
The operation, led by the Metropolitan Police Bureau, took place around 1.30am at a three-storey building on Soi Ramkhamhaeng 21. The premises reportedly hosted a private party targeting LGBTQ clients, with reports of drug use and suspicious activity.
Police ordered activity to cease immediately upon entry. They found crystal methamphetamine, or ice, injection equipment and drug paraphernalia on site.
The ground floor featured a lounge with sofas and karaoke, while colourful underwear was displayed behind the front counter. The upper floors had about 40 rooms for private use.”
Related: Converted Pagan Headhunters and the Shining City on a Hill
The members of this sex club were apparently homosexual legacy men, but their close relatives on the rainbow spectrum, the trannies, are also huge connoisseurs of “ya ice,” a popular crystallized form of methamphetamine (“ya ba”) within the subculture (translated as “ice drug” and “crazy drug”, respectively).
In Bangkok, alphabet people and “ya ice” go together like peanut butter and jelly. Such is what I’ve learned from years of hard-nosed, on-the-ground reporting in Bangkok.
In my groundbreaking memoir, Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile, I detail some immersive Gonzo-style journalism I performed on the streets of Bangkok with a cohort of ladyboy prostitutes, possibly the finest reporting I’ve ever done.
I may publish a relevant excerpt at some point, or you could just be a doll and buy the book. If you love sleaze littered with unique insights into expatdom, you’ll be happy as a pig in slop.
Related: My Gold-Standard Expat Memoir: Back and Better Than Ever With the Second Edition
In addition to the “Land of Smiles,” Thailand is also the Land of Absurd Contradictions and Duplicity that the farang, the perennial outsider, will never fully wrap his mind around. Prostitution is technically illegal, yet it is totally rampant and barely concealed, if at all.
In case anyone suffers the mistaken impression that drug-fueled gay orgies are a rarity in an otherwise buttoned-up city, downtown Bangkok is littered with them as well as giant billboards advertising HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
My girlfriend once lived in an apartment on Sathorn district down the soi from what was clearly a gay sex den adorned with a Roman silhouette and the iconic grape leaves or whatever on the signage — presumably a nod to Roman bathhouses.
At all hours of day and night, 24/7, 365, men in daisy dukes — some local, some farang, some Middle Eastern-looking — entered and exited. I can only imagine how much penetration for cash went down inside.
Hence my evidence-based suspicion that the brothel raided above, as detailed in the linked article, probably made the mistake of not coughing up the extortion cash (“tea money”) to the proper authorities, who took the affront as opportunity to make a public spectacle — as they are wont to do for the sake of keeping up appearances of public service — of them doing their jobs for once.
Lemonades out of lemons.
Benjamin Bartee, author of Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile (now available in paperback), is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.
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