The sun hasn’t set but already the music is pumping and the disco ball is turning in the Sumtime Bar, where Malaysian men enjoy the drink and women available on this side of the Thai border.
“Many, many people come here. Many men like the girls,” laughs a graying 40-year-old, as he quaffs his beer and gestures to the three female bar workers keeping him company.
“People come for relaxing, karaoke. I like disco. I come here to be happy,” he said, putting his arm around the 18-year-old Laotian woman sitting next to him.
The man, who did not wish to be named, said that he regularly comes to Sungai Kolok in Thailand’s southernmost province of Narathiwat, a short trip from where he works.
He is one of many who take advantage of the less restrictive social environment here, in contrast to conservative and mainly Muslim Malaysia, giving the Thai town a seedy reputation as a prostitution and party land.
But despite its convenient location, Sungai Kolok has struggled to attract as many tourists of late, for it lies in a region that has been gripped by a bitter rebellion against Thailand’s government for the last five years.
“They are scared because of the conflict,” bar manager Chaiya Charoenyang said, pointing to the pavement in front of the bar where a roadside bomb exploded two years ago.
“The authorities patrol strictly so we are not scared. It is difficult because of the violence. We want to tell people about Sungai Kolok so that they understand and visit us here,” he said.
Since the uprising began in Thailand’s Muslim-majority south in January 2004, led by shadowy rebels who never publicly state their goals, about 4,000 people have been killed across the southern provinces of Narathiwat, Yala, Pattani and parts of Songkhla.
Sungai Kolok has not been spared serious violence. Early this month a grenade and gun attack on two of the town’s restaurants, followed by a powerful car bomb near a hotel, killed four and wounded more than 30 people.
“Fewer people come here since there have been incidents,” said Raweewan Thongkrao, a receptionist at the Marina hotel, which she said caters mainly to male Malaysian guests.
“I wish the problems would stop so that the economy would be better,” she said.
A worker at the Sumtime bar, known as Am, agreed they now had less business because of the violence. Despite this, she spoke positively of her circumstances.
“Here is better than my home town. I can make money here. I like my job but it depends on the employer,” said the 34-year-old from the poor northeastern Thai region of Isan.
Am explained how she and other women there operate.
“They negotiate individually with the customer; the bar is not responsible. We go out with the customer after negotiating,” she said.
A 20-year-old worker from Laos, known here as Khun, said the men were sometimes alone or arrived in pairs or big groups.
Both women emphasized that they would not do anything with a man they did not feel comfortable with.
This type of prostitution has become increasingly common in Thailand, said David Feingold, a Bangkok-based coordinator for HIV/AIDS and trafficking at UNESCO.
“The number of direct sex brothels has been going down and the number of indirect sex venues, such as karaoke, has been going up,” he said.
“The distinction girls make is: I don’t have to go with anyone I don’t want to go with,” he said.
But there are fears that as Malaysian men increasingly refrain from crossing into the dangerous Thai south, growing numbers of women are heading in the opposite direction, and often into more restrictive circumstances.
“We on this side have seen a lot of them trafficked. They come here and they are controlled, captive in apartments,” said Aegile Fernandez, a coordinator at Tenaganita, a Malaysian rights group for women and migrants.
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