A few days ago I got the scoop when my buddy emailed me to say he saw Anderson Cooper in the lobby of the Conrad. My guess is he stayed in the Conrad so he could be closer to Lumpini Park. That way he could go trolling in the park during the early morning hours for girls to back up his story. When my friend talked to him in the lobby, Anderson said the purpose of the trip was to show “sex slavery and prostitution” in SE Asia. Great. Here we go again. Of course he is bringing Jeff Corwin along to help but I am not sure if Jeff is going to be used to check the sex of the ladyboy’s in NEP or if they are going to be hunting giant sewer rats on Sukhumvit.
Let’s contrast my experiences in Lumpini versus Jeff and Anderson:
Mine from the other night. It is 2:00 in the morning and I go to my regular motorcycle taxi guy on Soi Convent to get a ride back to Soi 4. As we are talking his buddy walks up and says he needs a ride to Lumpini Park. So from Convent to Lumpini we rode 3 on the bike as we were yelling at the girls working the park. Lumpini is full of girls as well as the other girls and is a leading spot for Thais to go to pick up. When we stopped to drop off the friend we paused right next to a couple of ladies who moved closer thinking we were looking for play.
Out of the three girls there was a cute one who kept chatting with us and she started quoting figures. The motorcycle taxi driver, a Thai, was quoted 600 baht for short time. Let me just state that this girl was young and cute. 20 is what she said and she was not bad looking at all. A nice spinner. Then I chimed in and said what about me. She said 1000 baht but only in hotels. She was not going to my apartment. I found that interesting and not really sure what it meant other than I guess she does not want to be seen or something. I offered her 700 and she said 900. So we settled on 800 for short time. A little cheaper than Nana folks. Anyway. There is Lumpini for u.
Meanwhile Anderson and Jeff are crouched down behind a bush just inside the Wireless road entrance with their infrared cameras and their parabolic mics listening for the rarer of Thai species working the park. With their computer hooked up to the mic they focus in on three girls chatting and discussing last night’s take. Jeff whispers to Anderson “Based on my infinite experience sexing crocodiles in Costa Rica, my money is that the taller of the three is a boy but I will need a closer inspection to be sure.”
“Okay. This is exactly the scene we need. The blog traffic is going to jump 3 fold on this, ” whispers Anderson - “Okay team. Get ready on Jeff’s count and we go in for the cameras.”
“1,2,3 - Go!” Jeff breaks the silence.
Jeff rushes in and bodyslams the tall one and brings her down to the grass with a large thud. Anderson comes up on them and starts the inquisition, “How did u get to Bangkok - was it in a box via the Burmese border or did they bring u right in from Cambodia?”
Muffled yelling and screams but Anderson keeps going, “Do u consider yourself a slave?”
Jeff goes in and fishes around and then jumps up to proclaim, “It’s a boy! It’s a boy!”
Anderson steps back and peers into the camera, “There u have it folks. We have verified that although she may look and act like a girl this species working in Lumpini on this ordinary night in Bangkok is really a boy. For CNN, live in Bangkok this is Anderson Cooper.”
Okay. All kidding aside my guess is this whole CNN trip will likely try to portray Thailand as a place full of pedos, slaves and lechers. U can get a sense of how they love to sensationalize every detail by this one blog entry:
Inside Bangkok’s Wildlife Trade -
We’ll head to Cambodia later this week to investigate the trafficking of women and children in the sex industry, but tonight, we are investigating the illegal wildlife trade in Thailand. Bangkok has become a major hub for the buying and selling of endangered and threatened species.
First off, I love how they mix drugs, animals, children and women all together. That way when they discuss any individual item they can pretend it is all the same thing. It is also interesting how they portray Bangkok with all these animal markets - I only know of a part of Chatuchak Market with an animal section. Are there others in Bangkok? I am not sure but they way they write this they make it all sound so devious.
Over the weekend, our hidden cameras captured several endangered primates and turtles being sold in shops in the market. Today, my crew and I went along with Thai police as they raided the main animal market here in Bangkok. It was an interesting experience, though also a frustrating one for police and animal welfare workers.
I am not saying that bringing any of this to the forefront is bad - I for one feel that the illegal animal dealing(mostly sold to Chinese) should be stopped but I don’t think Bangkok is full of illegal animal markets. I also think any human trafficking or child prostitution is horrible but I don’t think Bangkok is full of it. I honestly think in places like Bangkok, where it is all up front and open, has less of an issue of this than places like Cambodia where it is mostly underground. Sex allows CNN to make headlines but they hardly go after the truth - they never interview bar owners, local authorities who support the trade and they never seem to interview girls who have chosen the lifestyle. My guess is there are much greater horrors going in with the children used for begging on Sukhumvit and for moving drugs than there is at the go go bar but it is just not as juicy.
Like on of my friend’s said - they should start their interview at the Eden club to get a sense of the biz, the rich client base and the girls. That might be more along the lines of the truth but probably not what they want to put on TV.
This is the best part - coming from another quote of a buddy about when the whole bad PR craze from the western right invades Thailand -
TAKE THAT FOLKS BACK HOME! WE REALLY DO ALL THAT STUFF HERE YOU THINK WE DO HERE! AS A MATTER OF FACT, THE REAL TRUTH IS THAT IN YOUR WILDEST DREAMS YOU CAN’T IMAGINE THE SHIT WE GET UP TO HERE!
Back to FOX news for the real story…
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*applause*
See you in the Mango later for one of your famous child-burgers with extra drugs, whores and animals on the side.
Then I might go and, I dunno, dig up some corpses or something. That’s what we all do, right?
*shakes head*
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
BBB, will you be having a glass of milk with that?
View all comments by NotAnyBangkokRelatedWebsite.com
Oddly enough, I’m off my milk at the moment.
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
…yeah, and if you don’t think that some their own reporters aren’t dallying in the on street stuff with the girls: think again. Report that.
View all comments by PB
The Indonesian girl I keep in my cellar told me ground-up baby orang-u-tang powder makes an excellent additive to crocodile milk, so you might want to try some of that as an alternative.
(Crocodile milk is available at most 7-11s in Bangkok, but only “under-the-counter”. Enter the store hopping on your left leg and the staff will know you’re after that, or some of the other special products which they sell, such as baby seal-flavored M&Ms).
View all comments by NotAnyBangkokRelatedWebsite.com
Send them CNN Mother F*****s to my country, where old people dare not go out after dark, for fear of being stabbed by 12 year olds. Where we let rapists out after a couple of years, so they can re offend. Where the towns smell of STD’s at the weekend. Send them to a park here after dark, they won’t come out alive. We have murderers who we let out early, cos our prisons are at bursting point. Yes, we haven’t bothered building new ones since the Victorian era! We have the highest Teen pregnancy rate in Europe. I can pick up a crackhead street whore here for a fiver if I wish. They are right beauties! And I can go to a Pet Shop & buy a Goldfish, which has been inported from Brazil. Come on a dogging report to the UK, & I don’t mean the pets. And we love George & Tony’s blossoming relationship.
So look at the glorious West CNN, before going off to Bangkok to fulfill your fantasies behind your camera.
Bangkok’s got nothin on us!!!!
View all comments by A UK
Just goes to show what s shithole CNN is…they couldn’t put their star up at The Oriental? Give me a break. CNN is in LAST place by any measure here in the U.S. and that won’t change until someone goes off the air.
Of course, maybe they (CNN) realized that Cooper is not worth the “Big O”. I wouldn’t give him the comfort of Nana but that’s just me.
BTW…Smitty…In my “Duke” post I’m just talking about a little more “pizzaz”…..you guys get it …..just do it.:)
Also…I want to be able to buy a T-Shirt with the “Big Mango” logo.
Cheers,
The Asian Badger
View all comments by The Asian Badger
Logo shirts at the big mango bar
pizazz is not really the thing at the duke but it is busy none the less.
evolution of sorts but I hear u
get on the plane!
cooper scares me
View all comments by smitty
A to the K
Do the crack whores cruising Nottingham take their teeth out for extra cash?
Bush and Tony. Now I know why Tony is always wiping his chin.
View all comments by smitty
“Of course he is bringing Jeff Corwin along to help . . . ”
I must admit I grinned when they showed the footage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkg2a-11yuE&NR) of Corwin getting abused by an elephant in Cambodia. Som Num Na Jeff.
CNN also revived the 3 year old story by the NY Times reporter Nicholas Kristof about the 2 girls he purchased from a Poipet brothel, and sent back to their villages. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060213/cockburn. One of the girls voluntarily returned to the brothel shortly after her ‘rescue’. The other girl is reportedly doing ok.
View all comments by DJ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxspxWnv8QU
View all comments by NotAnyBangkokRelatedWebsite.com
My advice is don’t mess with an elephant. Sorry Jeff.
Anyone know where that animal market is? I can’t tell. My guess is maybe out near Chinatown?
This is what I don’t get. These places look like they are open all the time and not secret at all. So of course if CNN is there with cameras the shops were tipped off by the police. Come on - how could u use the police to help for these things?
This is no different than the bar scene. These people pay the cops to sell this shit to begin with. So someone calls the shops to say the cops are coming and the shops close up. No different than a 17 year old working in the go go bars. During routine check the cops call the go go bars to tell them to hide the young ones.
If they know where these places are why don’t they go in undercover and nail them. Makes a little more sense. This animal thing is bothersome though.
View all comments by smitty
ANDERSON COOPER IS GAY!
http://youcantmakeitup.blogspot.com/2005/04/anderson-cooper-gay-or-flaming.html
View all comments by But Different
Here’s Anderson Cooper on “slavery” in Bangkok - note his complete inability to listen to what the interviewee is actually saying.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0tSLZHeaKo
Found on Nana Journals.
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
So true. Let’s face it - if they had other employment options and the elite white thais were not racist towards the dark skinned girls then I think these girls would chose other sources of income. However I do not think many of them are forced into this and most of the times their own mother is doing the forcing. Anderson should get a proper Thai speaker, head on up to Buriram and talk to a few moms and dads living on their daughters career in Long Gun.
I heard a story, maybe a myth, about one of the Mormom missionaries who was trying to “save” one of the girls he met. He offered her so much a month to clean and cook and help out. After 2 weeks she quit and was back in the gogo. She said that the cleaning and cooking was too much work and for laying on her back for 10 minutes she made more anyway. She thanked him for trying. Supposedly he was just baffled at her decision.
View all comments by smitty
That was the most boring interview I have ever listened too. I was trying to work out what was for sale on the stalls behind the woman. I spotted a dartboard. You could buy this for the “Duke”.
View all comments by A