The police are not always the best source on this topic either
[QUOTE=PhilipMarlow;2969760]There are many things linked to prostitution in Thailand that are illegal, including in certain cases, the act itself. As shown in ETs posts on this, pimping in illegal. (Section 9 below) Soliciting prostitution is illegal, IF it is done in "an an open and shameful manner or causes nuisance to the public. " (Section 5).
Advertising it is illegal. Certain acts in prostitution establishments are illegal. And on and on.
Those are things the police are looking for. The arrests are, presumably, for violations of these sections.
This is not what the discussion is about. Many people like to parrot other people, who themselves are wrong. They're not interested in whether or not what they say is actually true. Everyone who makes the blanket statement that prostitution is illegal in Thailand is wrong.
If prostitution itself was illegal, the law would just say that, as the law in my home state does.
The following is the Thai law regarding murder:
TITLE X.
OFFENCE AGAINST LIFE AND BODY.
Details.
Chapter 1: Offence Causing Death.
Section 288. Murder.
Whoever, murdering the other person, shall be imprisoned by death or imprisoned as from fifteen years to twenty years.
That's it. Is the act of murder illegal in the Kingdom? Yes it is. See Title X, Chapter 1, Section 288. Now somewhere in the penal code murder will be defined, but notice there are no qualifiers, nothing about- only if done in a certain manner in a certain place, committed upon a person of a certain age, etc.
Is the act of prostitution illegal in the Kingdom? Show me the statute that declares it is.[/QUOTE]Sometimes I will hear or read something on the order of, "I have a friend who is a cop and he says blah blah blah" about prostitution or whatever.
Well, let me tell you that I have an in-law who is a Thai cop, I might have personally interacted with more different Thai police and Men In Btown than most westerners over the years and the fact is they are not always the sharpest knife in the drawer even about the law.
One example; I ride an electric bicycle around town that looks a bit like a real motor scooter but on the slightest closer inspection is clearly a bicycle and not a motorcycle. It has bicycle pedals. It would be closer to a circus clown small size motorcycle than a real one. Any policeman or MIB should be able to tell the difference between what I am driving and a full size motorcycle within 5 seconds of moderate inspection.
Yet I have been pulled over or stopped on the sidewalk while walking that bike at least 10 times by either 1 or more policeman or 1 or more MIB requesting to see my motorcycle drivers license, my registration, asking where is my helmet, etc, none of which is required to ride a bicycle, electric or not, in Thailand.
You might suspect they are just hassling me as a westerner, trying to shake me down for a payoff or "out of court" settlement. But all I can say is it never really goes there and it has happened even when I have had a Thai girlfriend passenger with me, a situation I have to think is not the best for them to assume I will just hand them 2,000 baht to let me go on my way.
The interaction has never escalated to that point and I have never paid anyone so much as a baht to get "early release". But it often did take several minutes for me to explain to these police agents and traffic rule enforcers the difference between a bicycle and a motorcycle, why this vehicle has bicycle pedals, how many Watts of power Thai law uses to determine whether the two-wheel vehicle must be regarded as a motorcycle and therefore the driver must obey all license, registration and helmet requirements for a motorcycle (500 Watts, BTW), etc.
I would think with as many electric bicycles and electric full size motorcycles as these folks are seeing and encountering in their job over the past few years that they would know these things by now.
But no.
Most of the time they have to look it up on their government-issued smartphone or tablet to discover I am telling them the truth and something they never knew before. They just saw a two-wheeled motor-powered vehicle and thought, "motorcycle. " Beyond that they hadn't given it much thought.
And even after they looked it up they would call over a supervisor to verify what they just read in their online handbook, perhaps for the first time really paying attention to the exact words, was true.
So just because a cop says something like "prostitution is illegal in Thailand" because he remembers reading the part in the Code about how many years someone might spend in prison for doing it with a minor or he recalls that Royal Edict from a few years ago that mentioned something about "procuring" and "taking" a girl from her province to work as a prostitute somewhere in or outside of Thailand or because his buddies are always looking for open and shameful "evidence" of it in public places, that does not mean he has ever fully understood why neither he nor any of his buddies has ever been assigned to knock on hotel and apartment doors to interrogate 30 year old suspected hookers and their 60 year old suspected customers about whether or not any money was exchanged for the fucking they just did or are about to do.
Sure, maybe a passage from the Thai Penal Code or another officially enforceable addendum to it will eventually show up with the exact words necessary to make it illegal at all times anywhere in the Kingfom and with anyone no matter how discretely it has been agreed to and engaged in. Anything is possible in Thailand. But those exact words are going to shake the fabric of life in Thailand for all but the monks and probably for a few of them as well. And I have not yet seen them.
My safety is most important not saving a few baht
The transportation company that I use charges 1600 THB for the Pattaya to BKK trip. The are consistent. The owner sends me the information on the driver and the vehicle before they arrive. My personal safety is worth WAY more than a 200 - 500 THB difference. Goes back to what I have to say about the financial situation of many of the [B]International Tricks[/B] posting up in here. Especially the ones that have something to say about how I spend my money.
[QUOTE=Explorer8939;2969526]As for 35,000 baht night at the bar, that's what I remember you posting.[/QUOTE]Not even close to what I have ever spent in a bar.