Pattaya beach. - Photo: AFP file
PATTAYA, (Thailand): Locals in Thailand’s Pattaya are seeing red over public sex acts by tourists, prompting calls for awareness of proper conduct from visitors in the holiday hotspot.
The latest incident involved a foreign couple who were allegedly having sex in the open on Kratinglay beach, according to local media over the weekend.
A witness, an 18-year-old man known only by the pseudonym Bew, told reporters he had noticed the duo when he was relaxing on the beach with friends.
He added there were other visitors on the sand but the couple seemed unfazed even after he urged them to stop.
"I did not expect that anyone would dare to have sex on the beach with so many people around.
"It was shocking to me. They should go to a hotel for that," he was quoted by Thaiger, a bilingual news outlet, as saying.
Penalties for public sex in Thailand vary from 500 baht (US$15) to prison sentences, according to Pattaya Mail. Foreigners caught may also face repatriation.
Pattaya, famed for its red-light district, has been plagued by problems of indecent tourist behaviour and beachside prostitution.
In December, Thai media reported that a Chinese man and a local woman, both in their 50s, were arrested on suspicion of having sex in the waters off Jomtien beach in the city.
The couple reportedly engaged in intercourse for more than half an hour despite repeated warnings from bystanders, and police took action after receiving multiple complaints.
Authorities have traditionally adopted a relaxed approach to the sex industry in Pattaya, with the city relying heavily on tourism to generate income and its seedy reputation a draw for foreign visitors, according to Pattaya Mail.
But police were gradually changing their attitude, the newspaper noted.
Pattaya law enforcement shut down a prostitution ring comprising 20 foreign women on Dec 27 last year, local media reported.
The women, aged between 26 and 51 and from various central Asian and African countries, admitted they had flown into Thailand to offer sex services to foreign men.
Under Thai laws, prostitution is a crime punishable by life imprisonment. - South China Morning Post
