Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are posing the question: “Public sex in Thailand isn't a good idea? Who would have thought?” In any event, I thought of making this video after reading what was both a serious and rather funny article from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com. I really urge folks who are watching this video, go check out that article in detail, it is interesting but the title of the article, again, Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, Bizarre street sex has long Pattaya history. Quoting directly: "The news that two heterosexual and illegal couplings have occurred in night-time Pattaya over the past few days has shocked the unshockable city. Each involved an unknown foreigner, maybe having imbibed a beer or two, and a Thai lady cavorting at a lamppost or near a traffic bollard. If caught, the penalties vary from 500 baht to terms of imprisonment depending on which statuses or bye-laws are actually produced for prosecution. Foreigners risk deportation and blacklisting. Unknown to many, prostitution of any kind (for money or reward) has been illegal in Thailand since 1960."

Yeah okay, as to the last part regarding prostitution, we have done videos on this before. Yes, prosecution is illegal in Thailand. However, there is what I would call a promiscuity or sort of a notoriety sort of open and notorious element to prostitution which dictates that the activity has to be occurring in a "promiscuous manner" and I am quoting the statute which is translated into English. Again Thai language would be controlling there. Please note, I am not a Thai Attorney, I am an American Attorney, I am here at the firm, I am the Managing Director of the firm. I am a naturalized Thai citizen but I am an American Attorney by training. Yeah I work with Thai Attorneys here at our firm and we have dealt with issues pertaining to prostitution in the past. Thailand has this kind of interesting caveat if you will in its prostitution statute which stipulates that that the crime of prostitution, the criminal elements include this kind of promiscuity or “open and notorious” element wherein somebody is engaging in this activity out in public. 

Now understand and we have discussed this in many other videos and I don't want to get too deep into this because it is very, very nuanced but again what happens behind closed doors it's a very different thing and does not rise to the level of what we call prostitution perhaps in the common law tradition but in Thailand it's this sort of promiscuous element that really brings in the criminal sanction side of this analysis. 

So back to this whole thing. Yeah it sounds kind of funny and it's interesting. The implication in the article is that this involved perhaps folks that were working in the sex industry, something of this nature. I have seen articles going back years which get into how couples will come to Thailand and they will be engaging in activity out on a beach or something and they get in trouble because it is what we would call lewd behaviour in the criminal context for example of the United States. So for those out there who saw this video and are kind of wondering what is this all about, yeah just don't have sex in public in Thailand. It's really not a really difficult rule. Just don't do that. You are probably not going to face any kind of sanction that we are talking about in the context of this particular issue.