The dark and twisted history of Thailand’s “haunted” brothel in Kanchanaburi

Halloween is coming up, and you may be wondering what sort of spooky places exist in Thailand. One notorious spot is an abandoned house of disrepute, called ‘Brothel 35’, in Kanchanaburi province. The brothel was open from the mid-1960s until it closed in 1986. It has been nicknamed the ‘Prostitute Cemetary.’

The brothel is believed to be haunted due to its disturbing past involving women being trafficked and horrifically abused there. The women were held in tiny rooms and beaten if they tried to escape. They were forced to have sex with up to 40 men a day.

When women became pregnant, they often had to have illegal abortions, and many died in the process. Many babies born in the brothel also died.

Photographer Dax Ward has visited the dingy abandoned brothel and filmed footage of it. The footage shows the shadowy, dirty building with leaves and debris scattered about, as sombre music plays. Some of the walls still have a pink striped pattern. The caption reads…

“This is the most disturbing place that I’ve ever documented, a horrific site of human trafficking that ran from the mid 1960s to 1986. I’ll never forget it.”

The building, Ward said, is surrounded by a towering, thick, 3-meter high outer wall. He said the inner walls are of the same height and thickness and separate different sections of the outer yard. This, he said, makes the premises “deliberately maze-like.”

The brothel is reported to have had iron bars, spiked fences, and brutal guards when it was operating, which also prevented women from escaping.

The property also has a basement with a 60×60 centimetre entrance hole that was used to hide the workers during police raids. This way, police could “officially” say that they didn’t see prostitution on the site. It won’t come as a surprise that police were also reportedly customers there.

Many people who live in nearby areas still believe the brothel is haunted. Some who have passed by the brothel claim to have heard screams from inside the building and children crying for help. But when they rushed into the building, no one was there.