Through an exclusive interview the MIDNITE HOUR has been made aware of a new practice by several enterprising Night Venue owners which, at least so far, has kept them below the Benevolent Autocracy's radar screens.   Several restaurants, both in and outside Bangkok have been proselytizing young women away from the smaller steam & cream massage parlors to come to work for them.   
         Recruitment tactics are the usual; recruiters create unusually high expectations of working conditions and earnings.   For example, the potential recruits are promised exclusively Japanese clientele (while reminding the prospective employees that the Japanese are "less-endowed, faster, and tip more"). --(Approx. translation).   The young women are told stories of other girls earning as much as 3,000 to 4,000 baht per 'short' (short-time) - if they take good care of their customer.   They are also reminded that they need not be twenty years of age to work in a 'restaurant'.   Many of the young women see these offers as too good to be true, or in some cases, do not want to relocate out of Bangkok, but there are many others who, as did our interviewee, decide to "give it a try for a month".   
         The second part of our MIDNITE HOUR interview was conducted almost one month to the day after the first.   The interviewee explained that she actually worked in a restaurant, but in the back, the owner had constructed what could best be described as a 'modified fishbowl' where patrons could at any time make a selection of any of the young women to take out after the meal.   She said, however, that most of her johns came to her by referral and by introduction.
         As anticipated, the pie-in-the-sky stories of 3,000 - 4,000 baht per short were hype, but even the reality is better than our interviewee and many others were getting before they went to work at the 'restaurant'.   Their take-away service is available to all at a set flat fee - 2,500 baht, of which the girl gets 1,500 and the owner takes 1,000 baht.   Nor are the clientele all Japanese, as promised, (actual figures are estimated at 95++ %  Japanese) but this doesn't seem to make any difference to the interviewee and her friends working with her.   
         Not only is "the system working" in this instance, it appears to be an ever more popular trend.   MIDNITE HOUR has personally interviewed young women working in similarly run Night Entertainment Venues in Nonthaburi and in Phu Khet.
         As we have stated on several occasions, the Night Scene appears to have become a hot tar roof of the Benevolent Autocracy's own creation.   When the Authorities step on any of the bubbles, they pop up somewhere else - sometimes even as an after-dinner sweetener.

         (A note to several of our readers - as we are not in the business of promoting these venues, we will not be releasing the names or locations of the 'restaurants' in question.   For obvious reasons, the interviewee wishes to remain unidentified.   For those interested in our publishing policy, please visit our "About Us" page on this site. -Ed. )

         Owners of Spas in Surat Thani Province are getting a little steamy under the collar - it seems the Thailand Excise Department has unilaterally deemed these venues to be sex-oriented businesses, lumping them together with other Night Entertainment Venues such as the steam-and-cream massage parlors.   The Excise Department has gone ahead with this re-categorization despite the fact that Surat Thani Province has an examination committee already in place to evaluate these businesses and said committee has already verified that the establishments in question are actually "alternative health treatment venues", and not sex venues.   

         As a result of this heavy-handed unilateral action by the Excise Department, about 100 Spa owners from Krabi, Phu Khet, Phang Nga, and Koh Samui, all members of the Federation of Southern Spa Operators, have submitted official protests to several Surat Thani Provincial offices.

         The representatives of the Federation of Southern Spa Operators are hoping for relief, but not really expecting it.   As noted, the reclassification was made unilaterally and entirely arbitrarily at the hands of the Excise Department - and they had their reasons - they were then able to hit up these supposed "sex oriented venues" with an additional ten percent surcharge tax.   (Hey, when in doubt, follow the money.)

         The Spa operators have jointly complained that they have been double-whammied - not only have they and their businesses been falsely besmirched with the stigma of being "sex oriented", they are also now required to pay for the privilege.   Why, it's almost as if the Authorities don't really care that they are creating an apparently larger sex industry for all the world to see - as long as they are going to be making more money out of it...