The Future Of Mongering
Every year I spend 3 or 4 weeks of my annual leave travelling in Asia, 2 weeks of which are normally spent in Thailand post-Songkran. I have found that if you can cope with the heat, the lack of crowds at that time of the year provides countless benefits to travelling in peak season. Normally my holidays in Thailand are spent golfing, shopping, at the beach and of cause entertaining myself of an evening amongst the bars in a variety of locations within Thailand, largely Bangkok, Pattaya and Hua Hin.
On my trip this year I have noticed that barfines, short time and long time prices have gone up dramatically, a lot more than usual. On a typical Thai holiday I normally spend the start of the trip in Bangkok. During this first stint in Bangkok this year I found myself getting a little frustrated with the price increases and I decided to take a different tack.
Following my time in Bangkok I was scheduled to spend 4 days in Pattaya. I generally prefer Pattaya as I normally do my best after hours work there. Not only do I feel that it offers better value, I think that the bargirls are more genuine and that they haven’t been tarnished by the attraction of money AS MUCH as their Bangkok sisters. I suspect that this is a pretty common belief from most who partake in evenings in Thailand in between brass poles and scantly clad numbered ladies.
Now in the past a 4 day trip to Sin City would cost 4 x barfines normally equally 1,000 baht plus 4 x Long times equaling between 3,000 baht for a 7/10 and 4,000 baht for a 9/10 after some hard negotiating. So for this argument, let’s say with some negotiating for a 7.5 to 8/10 it would cost 3,500 baht for a long time plus 1,000 baht bar fine = 4,500 baht x 4 night = 18,000 baht not including anybody’s drinks.
Now I, no doubt like many others, have the phone numbers of bargirls who would happily catch up with me without having to pay barfines often at a reduced rate. But I’ve found that many understandably actually do want a day off, on their day off and as for 4 AM rendezvous, I’m sadly getting too old to wait or can’t afford to be woken during my beauty sleep by a 4 AM booty call, when a bar closes and she finishes her shift.
So this time I had decided I was going to spend 2 of the nights with girls I found on Tinder, both for short times. On the other 2 evenings I was going out on my usual mongering / bar hoping but would spoil myself by taking the best 2 girls I could find on Walking Street. So on 2 of the nights I went out and spoiled myself, one night with a 9/10 costing 4,500 baht plus 1,000 barfine and on the other night a 9.5/10 costing 5,000 baht with a 600 baht bar fine, total cost 11,100 baht plus drinks.
On the other nights I carefully waded through Tinder, after deleting the seemingly endless number of ladyboys (just not my thing) settling on 2 girls. The first a slightly shy but stunningly attractive 9/10, 30-year-old with a fantastic body who cost me 2,000 baht for a short time with 2 shots. While the second, Tinder girl number 2, on my last night was a sociable 22-year-old 8.5/10 who cost 1,500 baht. Girl number 2 and I had a great time and seemed to click, so much so that we ended up heading out for drinks together in one of the cheaper outside bars on Walking Street. If it wasn’t for the fact that I was stuffed and had a very early wake up call, I’d have taken her for a long time.
As my bus began its trip up the Chonburi Pattaya Highway early the next morning after 4 days in Sin City, I made a number of interesting observation. I found that the 2 bargirls were more responsive probably because they weren’t confronted with another farang aggressively negotiating them down. I realised that if I’d had my time again I definitely would have taken Tinder girl number 2, the sociable 22-year-old out for dinner and drinks in the cheaper outside bars and home for a long time no doubt having a stellar time, probably having change from 4,000 baht. I also think in hindsight had I taken Tinder girl 1 the stunningly attractive 30-year0old out for a similar proposed night to Tinder girl 2, with a few drinks she would have relaxed a bit and I’d have had a similar outcome to Tinder girl 2. In conclusion, what it offered me was the opportunity to still have fun in the traditional sense, going in gogo bars picking girls, having fantastic outcomes on those evenings, while still having high quality girls on the other nights without it costing any more than usual, if anything, considerably less.
In the end, over a 4-day period I spent about 14,600 baht on girls/fines saving roughly 3,400 baht. Spending 2 short times with an 8.5 and 9/10 and 2 long times with a 9/10 and a 9.5/10 with myself and all parties seemingly enjoying the evening more due to no longer having the occasional tension associated around the negotiation. Instead of the usual 4 x 7/10 who were essentially getting barfined to get out of the bar, do the deed, whether it be long time or short time, just to go home. It should be noted that even if I’d taken the 2 Tinder girls for a long time it was still cheaper by about 900 baht, not to mention the cost of drinks within the bar.
It is often said by many who ventured to Thailand in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s that one would spend their whole holiday with the same woman, having a wonderful time and that sadly the current state of the bar industry is a frail comparison of what was previously the norm. I personally can’t speak for those days as I wasn’t around to experience them. But no doubt the attraction of that time for many men was of course the typical GFE and that hasn’t changed today. But it might be said that if you were to pick up on Tinder what I experienced – 2 fantastic girls, not tarnished or corrupted by the bar industry. You throw in a meal and a few drinks in a slightly cheaper venue than those with the neon lights out the front and for one night you might experience just a small taste of the halcyon days of the past. Couple this with some high-quality bargirls on other nights and it might be the answer in the future.
Naturally this approach isn’t for everyone. But may suit many who like me, prefer Thailand for reasons other than mongering (largely golf) to Cambodia or the Philippines for their holidays, but who are constantly frustrated by the continual and never ending increases in prices of girls and drinks within the bars.
The author cannot be contacted.
