Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Thai Waitresses
I've had quite a few people ask my about prostitution here in Thailand, and as it's an unavoidable part of travelling here, I decided I would explain it here on the blog. For anyone out there with extremely conservative sexual values, I would not encourage you to read this posting. It's nothing more explicit than a junior high school health textbook, and one could really get all this info from "Lonely Planet: Thailand," but it's more fun for me to tell you about it.
It's important to note that Thai women are absolutely beautiful. I don't care if you've never been attracted to an Asian woman in your life - it's impossible not to note that the women in this nation are stunning. I cannot be more emphatic on this point. (Interestingly, the men are quite "pretty" as well, but more on that later.)
Also, it's important to note that prostitution is not legal here, but you'd never know that by visiting.
Basically, the skin trade works in three ways. First, there are bars in which anywhere from 2-30 "waitresses" hang out in the bar, waiting for farangs (Westerners) to come in. When a Westerner arrives, all of some of them will sit down and have chat with you (typically in rather broken English). After a few minutes of chatting, you are asked to buy them a drink. You are free to decline, but obviously your "waitress" won't stay around for long if you don't buy her a drink (in fact, not buying her a drink is the most polite way to be left alone). It is perfectly acceptable to sit at one of these bars and drink with your pal or alone, but as I've noted, the girls will ignore you. Essentially, a bloke can hang out at the bar, and have a (usually, although not invariably, pretty) girl chat and flirt with him for as long as he likes, provided he continues to purchase (overly expensive) cocktails for her. Of course, none of the prices are posted, so you have to be a little careful as a person's bar tab can quickly get out of control. When you leave the bar, the bartender (who is typically a little like a "house mother") will bluntly quote you a price to take any of the girls away from the bar with you. Typical price is about 1,000 baht, about US$25 (but remember that a meal from a street vendor typically costs about 20 baht, or $.50). However, it is perfectly acceptable to leave the bar at that time without purchasing any services from the ladies with which you have been chatting and buying drinks. That 1,000 baht is merely the "house fee", a person must then negotiate with the waitress about any other charges for services. Truth is, you can just drop the thousand baht, and take her to another bar if you and she agree. The rest of the typical transaction does not require description.
Then, there are go-go bars. They are very similar to Gentlemen's Clubs in the West, except the dancers also practice prostitution.
Finally, Thailand has several "red light" districts, which contain rows and rows of "massage parlors." Allow me to mention that Thailand is full of (no quotation marks) massage parlors, where one can get a very relaxing, very cheap head, foot, oil or Thai massage. Massage is a very integral part of Thai culture, and it's typically quite innocent. It's pretty easy to tell the difference between a Thai massage parlor and a "massage parlor" - a giveaway is the guy in front showing a photo array of women without clothes on. Much like Amsterdam's Red Light District, for whatever reason these areas of the country are very popular tourist destinations, and most of the visitors only come as observers. Unlike Amsterdam, these streets are dirty, cluttered, full of harassing pimps, and not particularly nice to visit. Oh, and again unlike Amsterdam, there aren't any red lights there.
Also, for every service offered above, there is a male homosexual equivilant. Phuket's Patong Beach and Bangkok's Patpong District, for example, each have a small street where boys, rather than girls, will ask you "yew wahn mahsaaage?" as you walk past. And there are also plenty of transvestite "waitresses" as well, although for whatever reason they seem to frequent the non-gay bars. Which can be a bit confusing, as the Thai people must have less sexual dimorphism than any other race on the planet. Everyone seems short, thin, hairless, to have very slight and narrow shoulders, high cheekbones and pleasant smiles. (The giveaway is usually the hands/knuckles, voice or adam's apple.) Again, for whatever reason, this seems to make Thai boys almost as popular with gay farangs as Thai girls are with straight ones. It's a quite common sight in all of tourist Thailand to see a 40+ year old Westerner and a Thai yonger person walking hand in hand, and it actually really annoys quite a few Westerners and Thais alike. However, to be fair, in addition to being lovely, Thai women age remarkably gracefully, so sometimes the age disparity might seem more than it is. And, again, you'll also see the gay equivilant. For a lot of these girls, however, what they really just want is to party a lot, and will happily convert from prostitute to girlfriend if their client/boyfriend agrees to pick up the tab and cart them around Thailand for the duration of the trip. As a result, you even see Thai girls attached to backpackers, which is an interesting sight indeed.
And as a reminder - this is a "family friendly" blog, so any further questions/comments about prostitution I'd prefer to be sent directly to my email @ jsmyczek@yahoo.com
It's important to note that Thai women are absolutely beautiful. I don't care if you've never been attracted to an Asian woman in your life - it's impossible not to note that the women in this nation are stunning. I cannot be more emphatic on this point. (Interestingly, the men are quite "pretty" as well, but more on that later.)
Also, it's important to note that prostitution is not legal here, but you'd never know that by visiting.
Basically, the skin trade works in three ways. First, there are bars in which anywhere from 2-30 "waitresses" hang out in the bar, waiting for farangs (Westerners) to come in. When a Westerner arrives, all of some of them will sit down and have chat with you (typically in rather broken English). After a few minutes of chatting, you are asked to buy them a drink. You are free to decline, but obviously your "waitress" won't stay around for long if you don't buy her a drink (in fact, not buying her a drink is the most polite way to be left alone). It is perfectly acceptable to sit at one of these bars and drink with your pal or alone, but as I've noted, the girls will ignore you. Essentially, a bloke can hang out at the bar, and have a (usually, although not invariably, pretty) girl chat and flirt with him for as long as he likes, provided he continues to purchase (overly expensive) cocktails for her. Of course, none of the prices are posted, so you have to be a little careful as a person's bar tab can quickly get out of control. When you leave the bar, the bartender (who is typically a little like a "house mother") will bluntly quote you a price to take any of the girls away from the bar with you. Typical price is about 1,000 baht, about US$25 (but remember that a meal from a street vendor typically costs about 20 baht, or $.50). However, it is perfectly acceptable to leave the bar at that time without purchasing any services from the ladies with which you have been chatting and buying drinks. That 1,000 baht is merely the "house fee", a person must then negotiate with the waitress about any other charges for services. Truth is, you can just drop the thousand baht, and take her to another bar if you and she agree. The rest of the typical transaction does not require description.
Then, there are go-go bars. They are very similar to Gentlemen's Clubs in the West, except the dancers also practice prostitution.
Finally, Thailand has several "red light" districts, which contain rows and rows of "massage parlors." Allow me to mention that Thailand is full of (no quotation marks) massage parlors, where one can get a very relaxing, very cheap head, foot, oil or Thai massage. Massage is a very integral part of Thai culture, and it's typically quite innocent. It's pretty easy to tell the difference between a Thai massage parlor and a "massage parlor" - a giveaway is the guy in front showing a photo array of women without clothes on. Much like Amsterdam's Red Light District, for whatever reason these areas of the country are very popular tourist destinations, and most of the visitors only come as observers. Unlike Amsterdam, these streets are dirty, cluttered, full of harassing pimps, and not particularly nice to visit. Oh, and again unlike Amsterdam, there aren't any red lights there.
Also, for every service offered above, there is a male homosexual equivilant. Phuket's Patong Beach and Bangkok's Patpong District, for example, each have a small street where boys, rather than girls, will ask you "yew wahn mahsaaage?" as you walk past. And there are also plenty of transvestite "waitresses" as well, although for whatever reason they seem to frequent the non-gay bars. Which can be a bit confusing, as the Thai people must have less sexual dimorphism than any other race on the planet. Everyone seems short, thin, hairless, to have very slight and narrow shoulders, high cheekbones and pleasant smiles. (The giveaway is usually the hands/knuckles, voice or adam's apple.) Again, for whatever reason, this seems to make Thai boys almost as popular with gay farangs as Thai girls are with straight ones. It's a quite common sight in all of tourist Thailand to see a 40+ year old Westerner and a Thai yonger person walking hand in hand, and it actually really annoys quite a few Westerners and Thais alike. However, to be fair, in addition to being lovely, Thai women age remarkably gracefully, so sometimes the age disparity might seem more than it is. And, again, you'll also see the gay equivilant. For a lot of these girls, however, what they really just want is to party a lot, and will happily convert from prostitute to girlfriend if their client/boyfriend agrees to pick up the tab and cart them around Thailand for the duration of the trip. As a result, you even see Thai girls attached to backpackers, which is an interesting sight indeed.
And as a reminder - this is a "family friendly" blog, so any further questions/comments about prostitution I'd prefer to be sent directly to my email @ jsmyczek@yahoo.com
