ABSTRACT
‘I'll take you to the “cuddle bar” that we went to last night’ said my friend Mark. Mark often takes friends on what he jokingly refers to as ‘Cook's Sex Tours of Saigon’. It is a night ‘on the town’ where he gives his guests a glimpse of what the sex industry has to offer on the streets, in the small bars and clubs, and behind the facades of the karaoke bars and cafés. His guests get an opportunity to meet with some of the women who work the streets and bars that he has come to know over the years from his work with HIV/AIDS prevention. One of his regular tour stops is Pha Ni's bar in Thai Van Lung Street, just around the corner from the infamous Apocalypse Now bar. It is well placed to tap into the foreign tourist market and the local clientele who can afford it.
