There are all sorts of reasons people come to Bangkok – some you might guess, others you might not. As I've said before, Emily came to Bangkok for sushi. But my cult-visiting, inquisitive sociologist wife also felt the need to pull back Bangkok's thin veil of propriety and find out exactly how Bangkok's sex industry works.
As soon as she was done with her sushi dinner last night, we took off for some "field research" as she calls it. We went to Soi Nana – one of Bangkok's major prostitution centers for foreigners.
People who haven't been to Bangkok often assume that the sex industry is a major part of life here. It is and isn't. It's confined – not by law, but by social contract – to a few parts of town. These hot spots each correspond with certain clientele and demographics.
First, let me say that most of the prostitution in Thailand is for Thais. No one sees that part – it's kept very quiet and discreet. The prostitution for foreigners comes with entertainment, lights and hoopla, so it stands out more. Contrasts are always more noticeable too – big foreign guy with little Thai girl are a lot more noticeable than Thai man with Thai prostitute.
More importantly – and it's horrible to say – we care more about our own. When guys from America, Europe and Japan go for "sex tourism", it offends our first world sensibilities. Americans – like their European and Japanese counterparts – respond with a mixture of disgust and prurient interest. It's somehow worse and more shocking because, as the song says, "One night in Bangkok makes a hard man crumble…."
Thai prostitution is a huge industry in large part because monogamy is relatively new for Thais. The current and uber-venerated king, Rama IX, is the first to have one wife. It has only been since 1946 that his example and eventually Thai law reshaped the country and the culture's polygamist practices.
Rama V – the "King and I" king – is the other uber-venerated king whose picture remains common on walls and mantles today. He single-handedly marched Siam forward culturally, politically and militarily. He ended slavery in Siam. He is responsible for Thailand being one of only two countries in Asia to have never faced colonization (Japan being the other). He also had four queens and 149 additional consorts and concubines.
Old habits die hard. While it becomes less so with time, it remains fairly acceptable for Thai men to stop off for a prostitute here and there. It's a vestige of the polygamist culture and considered somewhat unreasonable to expect a man to be sexually faithful to only one woman. Thai men usually go to the right barbershops to find their prostitutes.
Given this cultural proclivity, it wasn't a giant leap for Thais to happily provide prostitutes for American soldiers on R&R in Bangkok. This spawned the very outward, loud, flashy way of using bars and clubs to entertain and sell prostitutes – which continues today. The three major spots of which I'm aware, are Soi Cowboy (a tribute to our boys in Vietnam), Soi Nana and the Patphong area – Silom Road, Sois 1 through 4. There's also a "coffee shop" called Thermae which is best known to expats as a place to pick up a prostitute without the expensive drinks of the other areas and at discount prices.
Nothing is really hidden and there's absolutely no shame or qualms found in the prostitution districts of Bangkok. Patphong is the largest of the three and the one designed most for tourists. The bars in Patphong expect curious, gawking and giggly tourists – including women and couples – to come passing through and are happy to charge them cover and drinks to see girls dancing on bars and using different…body parts… to shoot darts, open bottle caps, or launch ping-pong balls.
If a foreigner is going to crumble during one night in Bangkok, he'll most likely find his pieces on the floor of Patphong. If he's a gay man or she's a woman wanting a male prostitute, it'll be on the floor of Silom Soi 4.
Soi Cowboy and Soi Nana are more for the serious sex tourists and expats going out for a night of fun culminating in going home with a girl. We chose Soi Nana because Emily wanted to see the real deal.
Soi Nana is blocks from some of the city's nicest hotels and restaurants. The four-star Landmark Hotel is around the corner. Malls, fine dining, boutique shopping, Thai restaurants for foreigners (as opposed to the real Thai food on the streets) are all along Sukhumvit Road. Nana is one of the literally hundreds of sois branching off Sukhumvit. There is nothing seeding leading up to it. No dark alleys. No sketchy parts of town. There is no difficulty finding it. In fact, it's conveniently located by the Nana Skytrain station.
Like so many others, we took public transportation to Soi Nana. A two block walk and a left turn off Sukhumvit and there it was. Along our walk there were a few signs for short-stay rooms at reasonable prices. We passed a man in the company of four, young, scantily clad Thai girls asking a proprietor for a room that could accommodate the five of them. Emily did a double take.
Once we turned into the soi, we had a multitude of choices and went into the complex of bars to our left. In a three story, open courtyard there are perhaps 15 or more different bars including three bars in the center of the courtyard. Each of the bars against the sides of the building had a back room with a "dance club". Up in a corner was a sign advertising rooms – short stay for 300 Baht, all night for 890 Baht.
Emily needed a prime viewing location, so she went straight for one of the bars in the center of the courtyard. Over expensive drinks, we could watch it all go down. Each bar was filled with Thai "bar girls" who sit around and wait for foreign patrons to come around and take a seat. They then go over, make conversation, have him buy them a drink and if things are going well, he gets a shoulder massage. That's the first indicator that they're heading toward a deal.
Some guys talk with multiple girls, others with just one. Conversation usually turns quickly to touching and hand holding. Some guys come in groups, drink, have fun and enjoy the girls' company before they break-off and go home. We saw one group celebrating a birthday with the help of their bar girl companions. Others guys are there to get down to business. We saw guys leave with one, sometimes two or three girls. A large majority of the guys are 50 and older, and of those many are very overweight.
Still others come with some curiosity and timidity like a couple of early 20's Japanese guys who blushed every time a bar girl flirted or touched them.
Two bar girls were spoon feeding dessert to two old, Chinese guys at a table near us.
Before a guy can take home a bar girl, he has to pay the bar a fee for her. The bar is her pimp. I overheard two bar girls talking and one saying something about another girl needing to talk to their "mama-san" (the term for a Madame) before the girl could go. It sounded like the guy she was working wasn't playing by the rules and the girl was having trouble getting him to close the deal with "mama-san", so the other girls were helping her.
After awhile, Emily had to go inside a "dance club" to see what happens there. So, my wife dragged me to a strip club. On a long stage in the middle of a dark room girls lined up, shaking their butts methodically to dance music. All wore thongs, some wore bikini tops and others went topless. Each girl had a number tag pinned to her top or her thong. Waitresses too have tag numbers. A guy sitting at a table could ask his waitress or the bar manager to have any girl come over to him. And they did.
Some guys came in, had expensive drinks, stared intently at the girls and then left – presumable not liking what they saw… Others came, chatted up some girls, paid the manager and left with one or more girls. At some tables, the guys we enjoying the company of the girls. One table had a 60-something year-old guy sitting with a 20ish Thai girl and while he had her on reserve, was intently watching the girls shaking it on the stage, ignoring the girl he had already chosen. It was weird.
After watching it for long enough and being disgusted by the number tags, Emily was ready to leave. I really didn't want to go in the first place. So we left. On the way out and down the street, was one of the best selections of street food I've seen. Not surprisingly, it was mostly Issan – Northeastern food.
Most of the bar girls come from the very poor Issan provinces. The good money they make in Bangkok and Pattaya makes a huge difference to their families. When they return home, they are usually treated with respect and love for the sacrifices they make for their families.
Also not surprisingly, there were stands grilling hamburgers and spits roasting shwarma. Foreigners have to eat too – and the bars don't serve food. We stopped at the 7-11 at the corner to buy some water before heading home. It was filled with Thai bar girls with their guys having the guys pay for snacks and beverages before heading "home". A girl needs her refreshment, I suppose….
To wrap up the story of our sordid little adventure, I'll answer the question I'm often asked on this topic. How do I know all this?
First, you don't live in Bangkok and not know all this. Secondly, when I worked in Bangkok, in my office of about 15 foreigners – I was one of the few that didn't spend their evenings and especially weekends down at the bars, bringing home bar girls. But I heard about it everyday at work.
Like Emily, I was curious how it all worked too. My friend Jay – a British guy my age who I worked with and remain friends with – took me on the grand-circle tour of prostitution-land. He lived in a house with his older cousin at the time. The older cousin also taught English and used his earnings largely "entertainment". Jay and his cousin had two housemates who did the same thing. So, Jay took me around to where his cousin and housemates spent their time.
In the end, if it's not your scene, it's rather boring. If you're not into the bar girls and working toward a deal, it's like being in a casino with no money. However, we did run into our boss during our brief stop into Thermae. We never got hassled at work after that.
Sent from m y iPad
