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Gallery: Not-so happy ending: Inside a deserted Bangkok brothel

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Not-so happy ending: Inside a deserted six-storey Bangkok brothel which lies abandoned after the owners fled Thai crackdown on the sex industry.

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It was once one of the biggest brothels in all of Bangkok – a six-storey pleasure palace where dozens of girls worked every night entertaining hundreds of clients who described it as ‘pure hedonism’.

Dubbed Ocean Massage, the building included a nightclub, a coffee shop, an outdoor pool, gym, sauna and more than a hundred rooms with double beds, hot tubs and baths for girls to entertain visitors.

But the huge venue was abandoned last month after police raided the parlour next door in the midst of a crackdown on the sex trade in Thailand, and the owners of Ocean Massage feared they would be targeted next.

Ocean Massage used to be one of the biggest brothels in Bangkok but now sits abandoned after the owners fled
Ocean Massage used to be one of the biggest brothels in Bangkok but now sits abandoned after the owners fled
Inside the six-storey pleasure palace were more than 100 rooms where guests could be entertained. The occupants departed so quickly that towels were still left on some of the beds
Guests once described the venue as ‘pure hedonism’, but the filmmaker who captured these images said it started going downhill a year ago after the former owners sold out
Makeup, a bottle of talcum powder and oil sits in one of the rooms after being left behind by one of the girls who worked here
The majority of the bedrooms include hot tubs or baths where the women were able to entertain their clients for the night
Thai authorities said the venue next door to this one, which is a similar size, was making almost £1million per month before it was shut down during a police raid

They fled in such a hurry that baby oil, talcum powder, make-up and perfume have been on shelves while dressing gowns and towels are still on some of the beds.

Footage from inside the abandoned building shows a large spiral staircase leading up to the private rooms – each decorated with huge posters of women in bikinis.

 

A large Japanese tree decorates a staircase while flowers are still laid out next to a jacuzzi in the gym and among the bedrooms previously used by young prostitutes.

The vast building – a labyrinth of VIP rooms for different services – even includes a covered car-park below rows of rooms. The sheer size of the complex gives an insight into how busy the venue once was – recently rebranding from Colonze 2 to Ocean Massage – with many similar outlets earning hundreds of thousands of pounds a week.

An outdoor pool was just one of the attractions of Ocean Massage, which also featured a nightclub and coffee shop
An outdoor pool was just one of the attractions of Ocean Massage, which also featured a nightclub and coffee shop
A piano gives a sense of how the venue operated before it was left to rot away after the owners decided to cut their losses
A piano gives a sense of how the venue operated before it was left to rot away after the owners decided to cut their losses
After the owners left they also seem to have forgotten to lock the doors behind them, allowing a filmmaker to sneak inside and capture these shots of the former sex palace
After the owners left they also seem to have forgotten to lock the doors behind them, allowing a filmmaker to sneak inside and capture these shots of the former sex palace
A gym and sauna featured on one of the floors before the building was abandoned. Now the only visitors are salvage workers, taking whatever they can of value from the structure
A gym and sauna featured on one of the floors before the building was abandoned. Now the only visitors are salvage workers, taking whatever they can of value from the structure

But over the last year, the multi-storey massage parlours have been targeted by the Thai government which is desperate to transform the country’s seedy image as the sex capital of the world.

The filmmaker, who wished to remain anonymous, said: ‘This place used to be one of the big ‘entertainment venues’ in the area.

‘A few years ago it was full of life. Dozens and dozens girls working every night, walking around in the building in bikinis. Pool parties, bands, alcohol. A snooker table.

‘But the place changed its name, changed owners, went down hill and the building was so big that maintaining it was hard. You can see from the pictures some of the rooms had gone to rack and ruin.

‘It was open until mid-way through January. The people running it decided to cut their losses and leave. The sex industry’s days are numbered, certainly in terms of how it once was and for these kind of ostentatious places.

Multi-storey massage parlours like this one have been accused of illegally hiring minors and migrant workers, amid allegations of huge bribes being passed to local police
Multi-storey massage parlours like this one have been accused of illegally hiring minors and migrant workers, amid allegations of huge bribes being passed to local police

Disused exercise equipment sits alongside the old sauna in one room of Ocean Massage, which was abandoned in January
Disused exercise equipment sits alongside the old sauna in one room of Ocean Massage, which was abandoned in January
A damaged chair sits in front of a sign advertising the old coffee shop in what used to be one of Bangkok's biggest brothels
A damaged chair sits in front of a sign advertising the old coffee shop in what used to be one of Bangkok’s biggest brothels
Decorations still adorn the mirrors in this hallway that were left up as the owners left, fearing reprisals from the police
Decorations still adorn the mirrors in this hallway that were left up as the owners left, fearing reprisals from the police
A suggestive mural adorns the wall between some of the 100 rooms located inside the former Ocean Massage parlour
A suggestive mural adorns the wall between some of the 100 rooms located inside the former Ocean Massage parlour

‘Right now there are a few workers there every day stripping the metal from the building, salvaging whatever value is left.’

The Victoria’s Secret massage parlour was raided on January 12 and more than 100 women who worked there were rounded up. It was the latest in a string of raids over the last year targeting the sex industry.

The operation exposed the illegal hiring of minors and migrant workers for prostitution and led to allegations of systemic bribery and corruption involving police and high-ranking officials, according to the Bangkok Post.

The Thai Department of Special Investigations said the massage parlour was making 50 million baht (£1million) a month with vast sums being paid to corrupt police.

The bosses of the Ocean Massage parlour are are understood to have been tipped off about the police raids and fled before officers had the chance to investigate the venue.

Other recent raids on brothels in Bangkok include The Lord Hotel And Spa and Nataree Massage, with more expected throughout the year.

 

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