As the current Thai government tries to stifle their biggest money-making attraction for tourists, by forcing the closing hours of the bars in the entertainment areas to be earlier and earlier; the bars and the girls are fighting back by taking to the streets. The latest trend is “Street Bars”, bars on carts that appear on the sidewalks around 11p.m. and stay open as late as the last customer can lift a drink, at least until 5 in the morning. The girls, as well as “ladyboys” gravitating to these bars after the legitimate bars must close at around 1a.m., granted these creatures of the night are not the “cream of the crop” as the best have already been spoken for much earlier in the evening. The trend started in the Nana Entertainment area although I would think that it will expand into other entertainment areas, unless the powers that be, rethink their strategy and make some much needed changes in their policies. There is little control on the streets and I would imagine that to keep sex on the streets as contained as possible, the best way to do so is to keep things under one roof and more importantly, keeping it liberal instead of constraining what has always been a lively, growing, entertainment industry that contributes, in no small measure, to the coffers of the national treasury and to the economy of the country in general.
In Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, found out the hard way that by demolishing what he considered a dreadful, sinful, disgrace (Bugis Street and other areas) he in fact, brought the tourist industry to its knees. After he realized his error, It cost him millions to rebuild what he had already torn down, and in fact, the new structures never garnered their original popularity, even to this day many, many years later.
