As bar girls dance around poles to the pulsating beat of Western pop music, a small boy dressed in rags lurks on the pavement outside -- lying in wait for the tourists who flock to Bangkok's notorious red light districts.
Chai is not like most 11-year-olds in Thailand.
Each night the orphan leaves his grandmother's home in Bangkok's biggest slum and loiters on the corner of Soi Cowboy, a strip of neon-lit go-go dancing bars where he sells flower garlands to tourists.
Soon men are offering him money -- not for his flowers, but for sex. Used to taking home US$1 a day, the lure of US$75 to go to a man's apartment is difficult to turn down.
Chai became one of 200,000 children the UN estimates are working in Thailand's sex industry. Child protection groups say the number is growing.
"Everyone is in denial of this problem. It's terrible, and it's getting worse and worse," says Father Joe Maier, a Catholic priest who founded an organization to look after slum children like Chai.
"You get these terrible predators who come and take advantage of these kids. They take advantage of Thailand's tolerant and open society," he said.
Thailand says it is cracking down on pedophiles.
In 1996, the Prostitution Prevention and Suppression Act brought in sentences of up to six years for anyone having sex with a prostitute under the age of 15 and up to 20 years for procurers and venue owners trading in child prostitutes.
But lawyers say the law does not cover sex with boys.
When Thai police detained a Western man on suspicion of posting pictures of Chai on the Internet, they could not press child sex charges.
Maier, who recognized Chai from his work in the slum when police asked for his help, said the Western man knew of the legal loopholes.
"The foreigner just laughed at the police. He said he knows the law in Thailand, and there was nothing the authorities could do," Maier said. "Thailand just isn't strict enough and the people who abuse these kids just walk."
But Thailand, keen to ditch its reputation as a haven for pedophiles, is starting to make extradition deals so sex offenders can be tried under harsher laws abroad.
In February, a retired teacher became the first man to be convicted and jailed under Australia's Child Sex Tourism Act for organizing visits to Thailand for pedophiles.
He was jailed for six years in what was seen as a test case. Australia has since convicted more of its own nationals for sex offences abroad than any other country.
Campaign group End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism (ECPAT) International says Thailand is implementing some measures to try to curb child sex, such as offering more scholarships to keep children from poor families in school and encouraging hotel staff to report pedophiles.
The country is also trying harder to implement its existing laws, the group says.
"The legislation governing pedophiles in Thailand has improved but we don't know if the situation is getting better because it's too early to tell," Amalee McCoy, regional officer for ECPAT Asia-Pacific, said.
But McCoy said Thailand's efforts could just push pedophiles to other countries in the region with lax law enforcement.
"The trend due to the strengthening in legislation in Thailand is that we may be seeing an increase in child sex tourism in countries like Cambodia and Sri Lanka," she said. "It's very much a global problem."
And poverty is at the root of it.
Chai's grandmother, an addicted gambler, accepted 10,000 baht (US$290) a month from the Westerner to allow the boy to move in.
"Abuse happens because of damaged adults with debt, alcohol or gambling addictions who need the money," Maier said. "The only way they can get money is to get the child to find the money -- don't ask how."
Chai is now 13 and lives in a safe house, goes to school and sees a psychologist regularly. He still has emotional ties to the Western man he lived with.
"The boy is all messed up emotionally," Maier said. "No one knows what to do with him.
"He loves the tourist and the tourist says he loves him and wanted to send him to school to learn English. The boy is indebted to him because he helped grandma," he said
Maier believes most of the street kids lured into the sex trade are tough enough to rebuild their lives.
"We have a long way to go in Thailand, but the kids in the street are the brightest and the best. These kids are survivors," he said.
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