Stickman Readers' Submissions August 27th, 2012

Pattaya Today

I'm 30 years old, Italian, and I've been going to Thailand every August for the last 6 years and always had different experiences.


First year was just a tour of the most popular places in Thailand, but didn't go to Pattaya as I thought I didn't want to be involved with prostitutes. Then the second year it was Bangkok and Pattaya where I first experienced the so called GF experience which was lovely and at first I thought I was fond of it. I began exchanging emails and kept in contact for a while with a lady I met but honestly, communicating with a Thai girl in English is almost impossible so I didn't see any use in maintaining the relation and stopped emailing.


Then I was back again to Pattaya, this time I was lucky and found in Peppermint a lovely naive girl who had just arrived from Korat (seriously no lie) and of course I liked that she was not a hardcore prostitute so we went together to Ko Chang and had a lovely time. It was not love but it was something special. I exchanged emails with her all year and planned a tour of Bangkok Ko Tao, Ko Samui with her for the next August.


gain I was back to Pattaya, tried a few girls the first few nights and then met with her and we left for our tour. After I left her (after Ko Chang) she did another 6 months at Peppermint before she had a fight with a girl and moved back to Korat and started working at The Mall.


The next year I noticed a change in her (due to those 6 months at Peppermint) but she was still good. I lost interest in her after our trip but she was very much in love with me. I never paid her but she constantly called me and also called my friend's Thai wife asking about me and why I had not come back to her. Then she probably at some point moved back to Pattaya and found an Arab that bought an apartment for her, plus a massage shop and a motorbike and was basically guarding her. But still she was again looking for me and trying to see me this last time (August, 2012) when I was again in Pattaya.


So now we come to the main point, how I found Pattaya in August 2012.


Every gogo bar (I don't like bars) is full of Japanese giving away 1,000 baht tips to anybody, from waiters to mamasans to performing girls, and then they paying 5,000 baht to take a girl for thenight. This means that every girl in the gogo bars has only eyes for them, not even looking at farangs. This made me feel uncomfortable really, almost unwanted I have to say. The thing is that it is not that us farangs are "poor" in comparison to Japanese (at least not me), it's that the Japanese are stupid enough to overpay them. If I wanted to pay all that I'd go looking for girls in Milano where I am from. This is a real pity because these Thai ladies are pretty but now the Japanese made them robot-like and almost untouchable. Totally ruined the atmosphere I had previously experienced in Pattaya in previous years. I felt out of place in many places where I had always found my girls, but it's hard to be almost ignored.


At least this year I had something special happen. The lovely girl working at the swimming of my hotel, a totally serious one that works 9 hours everyday and goes to bed at 22:00, showed interest in me so I asked her out and we spent 4 days together (only after she finished her day duty). Never paid her and never slept with her as she could not go to my room and I could not go to hers as she shared the same bed with her colleague. So now I fell in love, but I am very doubtful as you never know with these Thai girls what's going on in the background. I don't know how long she'll be not available for working 9 hours and being so pretty she'll either finish in a gogo bar or some other Italian like me will hit on her at the pool! This makes me sad, so how should I proceed? What can somebody living this far away keep her loved one at safe? It's obviously too early to marry her…


I loved Thailand but after this last tour I feel different about Thailand, or at least, this time Pattaya really let me down. Also if you go to Insomnia it's like being in an Italian disco where a man must fight for a girl that he will have to pay! Shouldn't it be the other way around? Why do people go to Pattaya honestly? Unless you are English and like to spend all day in a bar drinking beer next to ugly women.

Stickman's thoughts:

You know the girls have their priorities straight when high-paying Japanese trump a 30-year old Italian!

He Clinic Bangkok

I think what you are seeing is that the equation has changed. In the past there were so many pretty girls and less customers. Any guy could find a pretty girl and have a nice time for not a lot of money. These days the prettiest girls get silly offers and often settle down with guys with plenty of cash. That leaves girls in the bars who are less attractive or those girls who don't want to settle down – and with so many guys chasing a smaller number of girls they can command a higher price. It's Economics 101 and I don't see it changing. I get plenty of emails from people – good friends included – telling me they found a nice girl and spent the night with her for 2,000 baht and I see the photos and wonder whether their eyes need testing. That's not to say that you can't have a good for not a lot of money – you can – but anyone who denies that prices have moved up and / or the girls are less attractive have their eyes closed.

We should never forget that so often when it comes to chasing girls – irrespective of the environment – it's all about the money…

nana plaza