May 06, 2023

I ventured out around noon to scout the areas I would be concentrating on the evening’s observations and to understand the lay of the land. The areas I chose for this evening were "Soi Cowboy" and "Nana Plaza" both synonymous in the world of adult entertainment and possible ties to human trafficking. During the day the areas are all but deserted. A few food carts were selling local fare and vendors were resupplying food and alcohol for the upcoming evening's festivities. These two places usually start to become crowded just after sundown due mainly to the extreme heat during the day. Most tourists are out participating in prepaid tours of the areas with more wholesome attractions.
Soi Cowboy and Nana Plaza are roughly in the same geographic area but are separated by other cultural shopping areas. The locals refer to them by names like, "Allah Street" (which is an area populated by Muslim shops and restaurants) and "Indian Street" (an area populated by Indian shops and restaurants). On this night, however, the areas of Soi Cowboy and Nanna Plaza were all but deserted like it was earlier in the day. I found a person wearing a security uniform and inquired as to why. I was informed that it was due to elections, and they could not serve alcohol, so no bars were open. So, with this new information, I needed to change my approach, so I located a restaurant to observe the activity around the entrance of Nana Plaza. Even though the bars were closed there were still fairly large crowds of people in the area, and I could observe "freelance" activity. Freelance is the term given to a person (male, female, transgender) that works as a prostitute outside the government regulations. I watched for signs of "branding" or other ways to identify affiliations. I observed nothing that would indicate this to be a forced behavior. Most if not all individuals I was able to identify had and were using cell phones. They did not solicit every person that walked by so this could indicate freedom of choice. This was merely a small sampling of a small area of observation, I hope to collect in the following weeks from different vantage points.