03.28.06
Thailand: Sex tourism
You read about it in the guidebooks and the travel web sites, but until you see it in person you can’t really know just how pervasive and disturbing the sex tourism in Thailand is. Every city I visited had girlie bars and working girls but the Sois at the East end of Sukhumvit and pretty much all of Pattaya were the worst. You constantly see old (and young but mostly old) European and American guys walking down the street with some beautiful and very young Thai girl on his arm. You never know if she is with him for the night, for the week or if he is living in Thailand and has hooked up with a Thai girl, what they call a Sexpat (pun on ex-pat or ex-patriot meaning a foreigner who chooses to stay). What makes it particularly disturbing is when the guy looks particularly creepy and disheveled and when the girl looks particularly young, like sixteen years old or younger.
Walking by girlie bars ropers call out to you, usually with ‘where you going’ or ‘come on in’ but at times with ‘hey handsome’ or cat calls. In the more aggressive areas they will grab at you, sometimes taking a strong hold of your arm and trying to drag you in. I got my ass patted more than a few times by girls trying to score a customer. The girls standing in front of the go-go bars all wear numbers, one assumes that the idea is you can select which one you want and either go into the back or pay for a room for a few hours with her. I never inquired but was told that $10 US would buy a blow job, $30 US would give you a few hours with a girl and $50 US would give you all night with a couple of girls. Streets specialize to different clientele with an all Japanese Soi in Bangkok, gay streets in each city and a number of European prostitutes from Easter Europe in Pattaya.
From what I saw there was no lack of customers in any area. Many tourists seemed to be in Thailand specifically for the sex tourism., most of all in Pattaya where I saw couples that seemed to be there for no other reason than for a bit of sexual excitement I overheard a conversation in Pattaya between two guys from the US bragging about their exploits of the week and got the impression they would head home as soon as they had enough of the nightly sex. It left me feeling like American and Europeans were repeatedly taking sexual advantage of the less wealthy nation and made me wonder if locals looked at me more as an exploiter than a curious traveler.
george said,
May 29, 2006 at 12:49 am
Hi,
…………….It left me feeling like American and Europeans were repeatedly taking sexual advantage of the less wealthy nation………….
I m afraid it is the thai girls who take advantage of the farang. Some have many foreign boyfriends who send them money every month. Supposedly the girl has stopped working in the bar but she continues as soon as the bf has got on the plane. Thats why the gf always accompanies the bf to the plane.!!!!
They are working so they can send money up North to their parents; Most come down voluntarily to earn money in the sex trade. OK, there are some whose parents send them down and it may not be of their own free will. Yes, most of the guys you see would have no chance with a girl the same age in Europe,USA etc
Pooly said,
August 25, 2006 at 6:53 am
I suppose to people seeing the farang with a thai girl on his arm for the first time or if they only stay here for a short time.
It’s not as bad as it looks. The girls in the foriegn bars don’t do so badly.
In many cases the girls use the bars to meet a potential husband.
The fact that the western end of Thailand’s prostitution is very visual is a good thing. When you take a girl in Malaysia or hong Kong they are often indentured.
Even more shocking, perhaps, to those of you from Australia and the US, UK and Amsterdam, is the fact that the Thai girls working in your brothels and massage parlours are heavily indentured. A girl in a King’s Cross brothel will have to earn around 3,000,000 baht for the brothel owner before she makes anything to take home.
Not everything is as it seems.
natalie from austria said,
November 29, 2006 at 6:08 am
wow …
i’m shocked.
i’m doing a project about prostitution in Thailand in my school.
This site is a big hlp, but now i feel very sad. cuz its unbelievable that there are little girls who are selling their own body.
the best thing would be to stop that, but this is impossible.
Robert said,
November 29, 2006 at 7:01 am
Truly shocking but hey prostitution is part of the culture in southeast Asia… and there are a lot of good things about Bangkok and the other cities of Thailand: the temples, the food, the allnight beach parties. Those folks know how to have fun!
kyungah said,
February 28, 2007 at 11:05 am
this is so wrong, prostitution should be eliminated period!! i dont care if its culture or not, its so wrong,
lost in america said,
April 2, 2007 at 8:04 pm
That’s why they are called ex-pats. They have had enough and want nothing more to do with your cultural ideas and restraints which you constantly try to impose on everyone around the world. Some men are pigs and only go after sex. There is no doubt of this; but other men are so very tired of the constant struggle to impress white women with little or no real gain. At least foreign women respond and many western men are quite content in long term relationships or marriages with them, young as they may be. The problem is that the demands of western women on western men are unrealistic in terms of a true relationship. Men are just tired and have chosen women who will not fight them tooth and nail every step of the way. Why would any man in his right mind want to be with an overweight, cantankerous shrew who can never be pleased when a young, willing, fit, and attractive alternative is dying to be with him? I have lived for various lengths of time in different countries due to my work. I have been with many women and have deeply loved a few. I have never forgotten any of them. In all honesty, I must say that the women of southeast asia tower over the rest of the women in the world.
peter johnson said,
April 6, 2007 at 6:06 am
I am an American living in Bangkok. I have been here 8 years. The women who work in bars are prostitutes. They are not beautiful. To the Westerner who has just arrived and is used to seeing large white overbearing women in their home country, these hookers look nice. That is how pitiful the women in the west are.
The women here are wonderful. They don’t nag like Westerners. Who wants a pig for a girlfriend who makes demands all day long? I had that in the West. Now I have a delightful beautiful Thai women who loves me and we are happy together.
Stay out of our business here and poke your nose back in your own country’s business.
Tim said,
June 8, 2007 at 7:19 am
I just got back from a month long vacation inThailand and thought that it was one of the filthiest places that I have ever been. Between the heavy prostitution, unclean tap water, and trash all over Bankok and Pattaya Beach. Thailand’s AIDS population is second to Africa. My friends and I coined the acronym CWG (creepy white guy), because you see a ton of creepy white guys with decent looking Thai girls. I was not impressed at all with Thailand.
Jimmy said,
June 16, 2007 at 7:32 am
In the gay world, same tends to happen. I was sought after by the Thai’s and the western men (who also tends to be mostly misfits of the gay society of the west) have absolutely no interest over me at all since I cannot be bought. Since I work in the casino, I have seen gold diggers and work with them nightly. It is not a place to find someone special but a big orgy house where the only motive is to get off. It isn’t a place trying to find someone special since others are doing the same. If you know that is what you are looking for, then have a good time. Don’t let anyone make you believe that you’ll find someone special unless you are willing to offer to make him/her really special also. The rules are the same all over the world. You are only going to get what you offered.
d said,
August 20, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Had a fantastic time in Bangkok.
If in different circumstances would go back in a flash but now have a sensational relationship with my bisexual female friend in Australia going out swinging regularly. So much fun. If you are single… make sure you find
yourself an openminded female as a loving partner. It’s fantastic.
I think that the whole Thai thing is making up for a lack of something
in mens lives in their own countries so they fly to Bangkok to get a sex fix.
But…. by looking at the wonders in their own back yards they can save themselves the airfares. Cheers
Leopoldo said,
October 26, 2007 at 2:37 pm
I keep getting crude and distasteful comments on this post. I am deleting the last post and disabling future comments.