How Not to Get Locked up Abroad

Asia is a really weird place when it comes to laws, or better yet lawlessness. There are all sorts of laws and some ridiculously stiff penalties… but do they even uphold these laws?

Prostitution

Take prostitution for example. In any country you go to in Asia it will technically be illegal. Yet they all have their red light districts that are packed every night.

They don’t even try to hide it. Burgos Street in Makati is right in the nicest area of the Philippines. Bangkok has Soi Cowboy and Nana Plaza and bj bars and all sorts of stuff.

Then there are cities like Angeles City and Pattaya that are sex tourist destinations…… yet it is illegal? Then there are the drug laws in Asia and they are no joke.

You can get thrown in jail for 10 years for minor possession. If you are holding a lot you can technically get the death penalty in some countries here.

Drugs are ‘illegal’ in Cambodia but you can’t walk 20 feet without a tuk-tuk driver offering you weed, coke, ice, or a myriad of other drugs.

And at least as far as Cambodia goes as long as all you are doing is using you really have nothing to worry about… except that potential 10 year jail sentence they could pull on you at any time.

Raids In Angeles City

A couple years ago Angeles City bars started getting hit hard by raids. This scared off quite a few guys, while others would still go to the bars but be a bit nervous about it.

Since I don’t go to bars it never really worried me much, though I was definitely following it because if expats started getting locked up for going with working girls I wasn’t sure I would want to stay in that city.

I took some walks down Fields Avenue after some of the raids and it was like a ghost town. There were cops in front of the bars that had been raided and almost all of the rest of the bars on the street closed down early.

The thing is they never arrest any customers during these raids. They shut the bar down for a bit, but the customers are all allowed to go on their way.

There was an exception to this, but there was really no way the cops could have let him walk. They were raiding a bar on Raymond Street that had some short time rooms upstairs. When they forced their way into the short time room he was caught mid act.

Since there were many different police forces in on the raid (and some of them may have been associated with western world governments) the guy had to be taken in. That is about the worst case of wrong place at the wrong time I can imagine. Luckily he was able to post bail.

There are other laws involving sex that aren’t really prosecuted often but could be at any time. For instance in the Philippines it is illegal for someone to cheat on their spouse.

This concerns me some because as I have written about before lots of Filipinas have no problem cheating. I know I have been with quite a few girls with boyfriends and a few that were engaged… I am not so sure about married ones.

There’s a documentary in which an expat banged a Pinay who was still registered as married, and both ended up being imprisoned for adultery.

The brunt of the penalty goes to the married party though the other half of the cheating pair can also get in trouble (especially for a foreigner as we have less rights). So you could be bedding some dudes wife and not even know about it and end up getting jailed.

Though I think its more likely you will get shot or stabbed or beaten if that makes you feel any better. Then there are countries like Laos and Vietnam where it is illegal for a foreigner to have sex with a woman there.

That’s why you have to make sure your hotel is ‘girl friendly’ before you book one in Laos or Vietnam. Otherwise you may go out and meet a girl and then not even be able to bring her back.

No foreigners ever really get locked up for sleeping with a girl there….. but technically you could.

The One Thing They Will Definitely Get You For (and Should)

Pretty much every time I have heard of a westerner getting locked up it has been for the same thing. The word ‘underage’ is always somewhere in the reports.

There was the bar owner in Subic who was caught bragging on hidden camera about his underage staff and girlfriend when some TV news show was reporting on sex tourism here in the Philippines.

He barely even knew the guy he was talking to and was bragging about how hot and young his girlfriend was. By the end of the show he was in the back of a police van in cuffs like he should have been.

Then there was the guy who was a popular photographer on all of the sexpat message boards. He also happened to manage a bar in Angeles City that the police claim had underage girls working at it so they raided it.

Then there was a guy who set up a harem of girls at his place, as many as 10 filipinas living with him as his ‘girlfriends.’ Eventually his home got raided and they found all sorts of computers, cameras, pictures.

He claimed he had a business back in Australia that the girls were helping with, but the police said he was running a cyber sex den and that some of the girls were underage.

There are rumors that one of his ‘girlfriends’ got pissed at him over something and that’s why he got raided – Pinays can get very jealous.

All 3 of these guys are still locked up, and the underage thing is the thing that links them all together. The ‘photographer’ one you kind of have to feel bad about because he may really not have known. But the other two were clearly asking for trouble.

I’ve had quite a few girls visit my home over time, but I try to be discrete about it. A white dude walking around with ten 20ish year olds is going to draw many eyes.

So How to Avoid Getting Locked Up

The easiest answer is don’t do anything that involves anyone under 18. Ask every girl you meet on PinaLove how old she is before you hang out, and if she says 20 or under (or looks it) ask her to bring an ID. Some Asian girls like to round up their age, or add a whole year onto it.

I am super paranoid about this. One time I was meeting a girl I had met on AsianDating that I had hung out with before. I was at the mall and she was on the other side of town and picked me up in a taxi on the way to my place.

She said she had a friend with her and asked to hitch a ride with us because she lived near me. Then in the taxi I asked the friend how old she was (just making conversation, not grilling her) and when she said 17 I got really nervous. Even being in a taxi with a minor could get you in trouble.

Another time I was with a girl from FilipinoCupid and we were at my place hanging out. She invites her friend over without asking me if that is OK.

She was 20 and we had banged before and since the friend was on the way I quickly progressed things so I could get my bang in before the friend showed up.

The friend shows up right after we finish, she comes in and sits on the couch and when making convo I ask her how old and she says 16.

I instantly make all 3 of us go sit outside and tell them I am calling them a cab. The first girl gets pissed at me for ‘over acting’ but there is no way in hell I am having a minor in my apartment (oh ya and I didn’t even say you could invite her over!!!)

Mindanao

This one is pretty simple, just don’t go to Mindanao. That’s the area with Muslim extemism and kidnappings, luckily there’s no reason to go there. It’s on an island I’ve never had a need to visit (the Philippines is 7000 islands), but worth a mention.

Drugs

Personally I also wouldn’t even touch drugs in any country except for Cambodia. It’s not that I really think you are likely to ever get caught doing it, but the penalties are so severe and just as importantly the quality is just awful.

The weed I have seen has been quite bad, you aren’t getting quality coke here (no one smuggles coke into poor countries, if you see any it will have been stepped on 100 times) and do you really trust what is in third world X? I don’t.

If you were to get caught with drugs you could almost assuredly just pay a ‘fine’ to the first cop to get out of it. That could be a really costly fine for taking some really crappy drugs. Pussy is a good enough drug for me.

Touts

I think I may have dodged a ‘set up’ one time in Manila. I was in Ermita and a guy was really trying to get me to check out a ‘casa’ with girls. I declined.

As I walked up the street there were 2 cops in an SUV whose rear view mirror just happened to be perfectly angled to watch this ‘casa’ and the street leading up to it.

Basically you don’t need the help of any touts (guys that approach you on the streets) to find girls, or for anything. Even if they take you to some girls they’re probably overpriced ones so that they get a commission.

Don’t Get Confontational

With the guy above the cops asked me what I was talking about with him and I told them he was trying to get me to go somewhere I didn’t want to go. One of them asked me for my passport but the other said it was OK and I should go.

So if you do have any dealings with the police here just keep a cool head, smile, and don’t raise your voice or get angry (a major faux pas in Asia with the ‘saving face’ culture).

If they are asking for a bribe just pay it and move on. If they are asking for to much make a smaller offer and they will probably accept.

Definitely don’t get confrontational and make them ‘lose face’. Then a bribe may be off the table.