There are corners of almost every major city where the sex trade is thriving. Whether they're spoken about openly, or talked about in hushed tones, there are corners of almost every major city where the sex trade is thriving. From Nevada to Amsterdam, Paris, and Bangkok, red-light districts have occupied a place in the minds of artists, writers, self-professed bohemians, moralists, ethicists, and travellers for centuries.
Of course, a tangle of thorny dilemmas need to be untied before you consider adding the world's most notorious red-light districts to your itinerary. First and foremost, you'll want to consider what it means to partake in a spectacle that quite often exploits already marginalised communities of women, LGBTQ people, the economically disadvantaged, and people of colour. It's important to keep in mind that many of those who participate in the sex trade are not doing so consensually. There's also the question of legality.
While cities like Amsterdam have notoriously liberal laws that, ostensibly, make entering the sex trade a choice that's regulated and therefore sanitised and destigmatised , in other parts of the world, it's an outright crime. This is to say nothing of the involvement of sex work in exacerbating already existing cycles of poverty and violence in regions where tourism has already contributed to single-sector economies.
Now, with all that in mind, here are a few of the world's most infamous red-light districts, ranging from outright sexual free-for-alls to sanitised tolerance zones and violent neighbourhoods where tourists should never be seen. With its sky-high temperatures and fast pace of life, Bangkok is essentially primed for all things steamy and sordid. So it's not surprising that the city's notoriously laid-back attitudes toward sex work - it's not exactly legal, but not illegal either - have made Bangkok a hub for the trade in Southeast Asia.
And while those facts certainly means that you're in for an experience walking the streets around Patpong Market, Soi Nana, and Soi Cowboy, it can feel more than a little insidious, and concerns about human trafficking should not be underestimated.
