Bangkok Post - Monday 25 March 2002
Kamolvat Prapruettitum

Bargirls from all over Thailand greet customers as they enter. They pour us beer. They sit and talk.

We could be in any go-go bar on the entertainment strips of Suthisarn, Ratchadapisek or the notorious Soi Cowboy.

In fact, the nightclub is 1,500 kilometres south of Bangkok on the fringe of the Malaysian Peninsula in the Malaysian state of Johor.

Johor, or rather its redlight pocket of Pama Sentosa, is known as the "Little Bangkok". It draws hundreds of Thai girls looking for barwork.

While most of the customers are from Singapore, most of the bargirls from which they seek comfort are Thai.

A busy shopping centre, Johor is to neighbouring Singaporeans what Hat Yai is to bargain-hunting Malaysian holidaymakers.

Singaporeans enjoy watching their dollar go further on this side of the border. For their part, Thai bargirls like the location.

Working close to the border with Singapore they can be sure of a steady flow of clientele without having to cross into the island republic to trade, and risk falling foul of Singapore's tough anti-prostitution laws.

At the Happy Lounge I, business is stirring. We are the first group of customers to arrive and are received warmly by the "mamasung" who ushers us into a dimly-lit room on the ground floor of the shophouse-like building.

Downstairs is for sitting. For more intimate services customers can hire a room upstairs.

Girls file into the room, and in no time the place is packed. They wear shirts and pants _ few wear anything you might call revealing.

Muslim law forbids revealing dresses, but the main reason they eschew scanty clothing is that police could raid the place and send them fleeing onto the street.

The girls must produce their passport in the event of a raid. All carry a sling satchel or mini-backpack with their passport.

Average-looking and in their mid-20s, several girls worked in Bangkok nightclubs, only to lose their jobs when the recession forced their clubs out of business.

These girls may not have been pretty or young enough to switch to upscale bars or massage parlours. They were left with little choice but try their luck abroad.

The girls said they had set foot in Malaysia legally as tourists, who enjoy visa-free status under a reciprocal agreement among Asean countries.

They said they came willingly and were not forced into barwork. But forced or not, they paid a price.

Mich, her working alias, said girls usually owed money to agents who provided transport and housing and paid for expenses associated with getting to Johor.

This inevitably involved bribing local authorities.

Mich worked previously as a freelance tour guide in Bangkok, picking up tourists from Don Muang airport and shuttling them to Pattaya.

She went abroad after losing her job, and in a bar on Singapore's Orchard Road found a job as a hostess, before ending up in Johor.

Mich had been in Johor only one day and had no idea how long she would last.

A friend, Mut, worked as a service lady at a Japanese bar in Suriwongse before heading for Johor.

She said she lived life in an "invisible shackle", constantly under scrutiny.

The girls' movements were restricted by agents who followed their every move.

Mut recalled being caught by police at a shopping mall. She phoned a regular customer whom she had asked to pose as her boyfriend, to avoid being charged with prostitution.

Even the simple task of getting from work to her home, just a few blocks, was overseen by agents.

"We are not allowed to walk to work. They pick us up in a car and charge us 50 ringgits. That's just one way. It's another 50 ringgits back home," she said.

Half her daily earnings were snapped up by the agent and the lounge proprietor.

She managed to scrape up enough to get home to her parents in Chiang Rai and build a house. Her eyes glowed at the mention of her family.

Mut stopped half-way through the conversation and asked to be excused. Girls take it in turns to sit with clients.

Mut was unusual in that she could bargain with the lounge owner about which clients she took.

"I can refuse to entertain customers who will not use condoms," she said.

Other girls are not so lucky. No service target is set, but girls who do not look spectacular know they cannot bargain and must serve as many clients as possible.

Unprotected sex exposes them to the risk of disease.

One girl had been absent from work. Her colleagues were overheard saying she had fallen ill and that the glands on her neck were swollen - a sign she may have Aids.

Mut was one of 20 Thai girls on the first of three nightly shifts. The others were also Thai.

Police raids are their worst nightmare. Raids disrupt business as police and the owner haggle over the payment.

The girls not only have to flee the premises but must dip into their purse for the fee to get home.

Sometimes friendly police send word that a swoop is imminent, and a rectangular light on the wall starts to flash.

On the night we were there, police swooped, but there was no red light. The lounge supervisor appeared, snapped his fingers, and the girls fled through the back exit.

We were told the girls would sneak back in 20 minutes if the raid was just "routine window-dressing."

But they would not return if the police meant business, in which case the door would be sealed and the girls rounded up.

A deal can sometimes be struck where local women act as stand-ins for the bargirls. For a fee, they go through the motions of being fined and so on while the bargirls go back to work.

That night, half an hour after the bust, one girl returned. Shaking and frail, she said she was from Buri Ram and missed her parents.

We slipped cash in her hand. The gratuity, however, seemed meagre compared to the 10,300 debt she owed in ringgits to her agent.
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