Turn away from this village of sin!

The montmartre sequence from Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge played out in my head as I thrawled the alleys of 'Walking Street', when work brought us to Pattaya for 3 days last week.

As Christian's father wisely warned "Turn away from this village of sin!"
Bright lights, creatures of the underworld.

The coolness of the evenings, sea breeze and sun soaked smell on skin was tainted by the raw smells drifting out from meat joints flanking majority of the alleyways on the main beach strip. A welcomed 2 hour walk on the beach on the last night, after the madness of work, allowed a colleague and I time to bask in the atmosphere of the place.

I suggested we walk the walk along 'Walking Street'.
Red lights, girls, pot-bellied middle aged caucasian men.

The meat factory.

Surreal was when we neared the middle of the neverending alley.
A man methodically turing the handle on the end of a metal stake that made its way down the middle of an entire pig. Skin crackling, raw and red. On either side, girls griding to hip hop, arms in air, nubile bodies, soft flesh, eyes glassy, expression fixed. "Mister Mister! You want good time?"

And then again, the smell of meat.