What’s A Prostitute To Do?

Sure some of the girls in Pattaya don't make more than 30,000 baht a month, but I know many ladies in the Phuket region bringing down over 100,000 baht per month, plus have men sending them money. (Plus they only go with one customer per day, or often one customer for two weeks.) They don't have to take the pounding you are talking about. I also have met some girls in BKK who take a pounding working at massage parlours doing 5+ men a day, and surely are under compensated for that work, and are in debt to the establishment. Horrible situation. The massage parlours seems to be the worst spot for a Thai girl to work. It seems SOME of the Thai massage parlours give money to these girl's parents, and it is almost impossible for them to ever get out of indebtedness, until their beauty is gone. They have almost no freedom.

Some of the gogo girls I met in BKK were taken every night at 2,000 baht short time, and rarely lasted past her first dance before getting bar fined. Also had two men sending them money. One girl also had a college degree and worked as a computer operator for a large company in BKK during the day. I know that many of these girls are poor from Isaan, and not well educated, and many are far from good looking these days, which is another reason for making little money.

One of the poor Isaan girls that I barfined invited me to her home. I stayed with her and her family. She had built a mansion up in Khon Kaen. Showed me her bank book. Had 600,000 baht in the bank. She worked for less than two years in Phuket, and although it wasn't something she initially wanted to do and wanted to get out of the business, she had photos all over her walls of farangs and places she had travelled with them. She was happy with her accomplishment. She became a tea vendor, and eventually her sister introduced her to a Norwegian man who married her. But I surely think it is a worse situation to take them from their country, and have them subjected to multiple partners every day, while being owned by the operators.

I have seen both sides of the coin. Some have prospered greatly and gotten out of the business. Some wasted their money or became addicted to yaba. I do speak enough Thai to converse with the ladies, and have been to the small villages, and seen how the poor people live not only in the Isaan area, but in the big city too, cramming 4 girls in a 2500 baht per month room.

I will generalize here, though. Most of the good looking girls I know do pretty well. Unfortunately there are many many girls that fit in the not-so-good looking department now, and many of them do very poorly, ending up at blow job bars, on the street, or in a long row of beer bars with nothing separating them from the crowd except for how loud they can yell "hello handsome man." Also, I have translated many emails for gogo and bar girls from their farang boyfriends, and it never ceases to amaze me what these men will do for these poor, uneducated beauties. I have a bounty of stories in this area, in which the bar girl is doing very well, and not working much, if at all, just sitting around and collecting money from the Western Union, or deposited straight into her bank account, from up to 5 men every month.

It isn't something I'm proud of, but I've been with many, many girls in Thailand, prostitute and non-prostitute. Smart, and not so smart I have a lot of experience in this area, many good, and some bad.

I have had bad experiences with the non-bar girls too, (some of whom have almost the same mentality as far as trying to get money from a man). And some very true, hard working, good ladies who have never asked for a baht.

Maybe some day, I'll fall in love with one of those beautiful young ladies and settle down. But good or bad, I still do frequent these establishments, and may be a contributor to the corruption of which you speak, Stick. Although, I do ALWAYS try to treat the ladies well, and sometimes compensate them very well. I won't tell your readers how much I sometimes give a good lady, because I'm sure they would put me in that class of a farang ruining it for their cheap fun. I usually take a lady for long time, up to days and sometimes weeks, and compensate her very handsomely for the experience. Some I have stayed friends with, and YES, sometimes even send them a little money when I am not in Thailand.

I could tell some many stories in this arena, some where the girl did very well, and some who have not done so well. Suffice to say, I don't think it is a wise decision for these girls to be indebted to a company and travel to a foreign land to ply their trade to multiple men per day. I think that is much more damaging then working a Thai gogo. I may have to write more in the future. Once again, I will reiterate that I know a couple of these operators trying to get Thai girls to Australia. They have offered me 100,000 baht for every girl I could get to sign with them. I will NEVER do that A good looking Thai girl can do as well or better in their own country and inflict less damage on them. One Farang's opinion.

Stickman says:

I agree in essence with what you say. Yes, the idea of girls being owned by a bar or some such establishment is a terrible, terrible situation. Unfortunately, this happens in Thailand too. I just feel that if a girl is going to enter this industry, she might as well make as much money as she can. Hell, I wish the girls would not end up in this industry, but sadly, they still do – and in ever increasing numbers.

One of the big problems is that there is a lot of hysteria surrounding the issue of Thai girls who have gone overseas to work. Most of us, myself included, do not really know what goes on. BUT, I will say this. I do know several girls who have been to places as varied as Singapore, Hong Kong, London and Sydney, all of who came back with a HUGE amount of money, in a short space of time. These girls came back safely. Yes, not all girls have it quite so good. But, is it not too much to ask that f these girls must work in such an industry, that they do not have to do it for peanuts?

* This submission was a reply to my opening piece in the Stickman Weekly column of 25/8/2002 which the writer suggested be included as a submission.