https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2905&context=honors_theses#:~:text=In light ofthese beliefs%2C however%2C,a prostitute was not necessarily

If this sounds familiar, read on. This guide will take you through the entire process, from deciding when to go to your first barfine.

Before you leave

The first order of business is deciding when you will go. The two main factors in when are the weather and the amount of tourists. The best time with regards to the weather is Nov-Feb, this is the 'cold' season in Thailand. Of course this is also the period when most people come, which makes it the worst time with regards to the amount of tourists as well.

The opposite is true for the period Mar-Jul, hardly any tourists, but very hot weather (35-40 Celsius). The third option would be to come here in the period Aug-Oct, the rainy season. I know this sounds weird, but don't be discouraged by the fact that it is the rainy season. Yes, it rains, but not nearly as much (or as long) as you would imagine. It is usually an occasional downpour that last for a few hours, nothing that would ruin a vacation. Anyway, this option is probably the 'middle of the road', fairly nice weather and not too many tourists.

To be honest though, you will have fun regardless of which time of the year you come here.

OK, the when has been decided, on to the where. The deciding factors in the where are what you want to do whilst in Thailand, do you just want to enjoy the nightlife or would you like to relax at the beach as well. Please check out the pros and cons of the 4 main tourist destinations:

• Bangkok : Bangkok is well rounded, it has a lot of nightlife and plenty of sights (either in the city or a small trip away). Unfortunately there is no beach and the city is fairly crowded and polluted. Nevertheless I would recommend a few days in this city at least.
  
• Chiang Mai : Chiang Mai is the provincial version of Bangkok. There is some nightlife and some really nice sights, add to this a climate that is a bit cooler and you can probably understand why this is one of my favorite destinations. However, if you are just interested in the nightlife, don't bother coming here. Especially if you are in Thailand for only a week or two.
  
• Pattaya : Pattaya is the ultimate nightlife city, it is often referred to as the 'adult version of Disneyland'. Unfortunately Pattaya does not have much other things going for it. Still, since it is only about 2 hours by bus, it is a great city for getting away from Bangkok for a few days.
  
• Phuket : If you are into great beaches and watersports, this is the place for you. Be warned though that Phuket is very expensive (as is the nightlife here) and in the peak season (Nov-Feb) it gets really crowded here, mainly with western families.
  

So, where should you go? Well, like they say here 'up to you'. My suggestion would be to make your base in Bangkok and make sidetrips to one or more (depending on your time & budget) other cities.

Your final decision before leaving is regarding accommodation, which hotel(s) should you stay in?

Besides the obvious criteria of your budget, there is not really that much difference as to where you stay as long as you make sure your hotel is close to the places you think you will frequent.

One big issue though, if you expect to be taking 'guests' back to your hotel, is the hotel's guest policy. Whilst most hotels don't care, some will charge you extra for any overnight guests, whilst yet others will even forbid it. Charging for guests is especially commonplace in Phuket (guest charges can be as high as 1,500 Baht!).

To help decide on a hotel, check the maps section and the hotel reviews.

As a small side note I think a few words on a required budget are in order. It is obviously very difficult for me to tell you how much you should budget per day, since this is dependent upon several factors (your spending behavior, amount of drinking/partying you intend to do, eating habits, etc.). I will, however, try to give you some rough ideas which might help you budget your trip a bit more.

• Food: Food can be very cheap in Thailand, and just about anything is available. I would recommend you budget around 300-500 Baht a day for food. This includes an occasional meal for 2.
  
• Girls: Expect to pay ~1,500 Baht per long time, and 500-1,000 Baht per short time (Pattaya beerbars are cheaper, say 500-1,000 Baht long time). Barfines are not included in this amount. Prices for massage parlours vary a lot.
  
• Hotels: Prices for hotels vary greatly, but expect to pay around 1,000-1,500 Baht a night in Bangkok and Phuket, Pattaya and Chiang Mai are a bit cheaper (say ~400-800 Baht a night)
  
• Partying: This obviously depends on how much (and what) you drink and on how generous you are buying ladydrinks, a (very) rough estimation would be 500-1,000 Baht a night.
  
• Transportation: In Bangkok you will most likely move around using either taxis and/or the skytrain, I would say 200-300 Baht a day would be enough for transportation unless you plan to do a lot of traveling. Again, transportation in the other cities is a bit cheaper. Please check out the Transportation-page in the guest area for more info.
  
• Miscellaneous: Add some money for miscellaneous (souvenirs, etc.) and unexpected costs as well.
  

Arriving

There are a few ways to get from the airport to your hotel. If you don't have much baggage, and your hotel is in one of the tourist areas (it should if you paid attention when I talked about hotel selections), I would recommend taking the airport bus. For only 70 Baht this is a cheap & comfortable way to get into town. After you get in you tell the lady which hotel you are staying and she'll make sure you will be dropped at the nearest busstation to it.

Your other option would be to take a taxi. You could of course go to the counter near the exit and get one from there, but then you will have to pay the 50 Baht airport fee. A better solution is to walk up to the departure terminal and use one of the taxis that just dropped of someone, no airport fee. Fare into town should be around 150-200 Baht plus express way fees (~40 Baht). For more information on transportation in Thailand please read the Transportation page in the Guest area of this site.

The Nightlife

The nightlife in Thailand catering to farangs (=westerners) consists mainly of GoGo bars, beerbars and discos.

First night out

Note: This is written with Bangkok in mind, however it applies to other cities as well.

It is smart to clean yourself up before going out (take a shower, dress nicely, etc.), because, even though some people will tell you otherwise, the girls do care about your appearance. This does not necessarly mean your looks, but more how you dress, smell (very important to Thais) and behave. I'm not saying you need to hit the bars dressed in a 3 piece suit, but don't go in shorts and slippers either. Casual wear is fine (jeans/slacks and a shirt for instance).

The best tip I can give you is try to hook up with a regular on your first night out. The easiest way to do this is to have a drink in one of the outside beerbars first, strike up a conversation with some of the guys around you, tell them it's your first night and more often than not the guys will be more than happy to explain things and maybe even take you under their wing for the evening. You could of course also try arranging something with a person from the message board before you leave.

Believe me, for regulars and locals it is usually more fun to see a newbie's reaction on his first visit to a GoGo bar. You will be surprised and experience a kind of sensory overload. Can't really help you with dealing with it, nor, do I think, should I. Just go in and let it happen.

Ok, so what is a GoGo-bar and how do they work? The bar will usually consist of a stage with girls dancing in various stages of undress surrounded by chairs and/or booths. There are girls everywhere, dancing on stage, sitting around talking to customers and each other, fixing their makeup or just walking around. Don't be surprised if they don't bother dressing when coming of the stage to talk to you.

The girls walking around in uniforms are the waitresses and there is usually an older women (or a katoey) who is the mamasan. I'm sure you can figure out what the waitresses are there for, the mamasan might be a bit more of a mistery. The mamasan acts like a 'mother'/manager to the girls, she looks after them and can (and sometimes does) negotiate between you and the girl. They are also very useful if you have any special requests (no need to be shy, she has heard everything before) as they know all the girls and can usually tell you which ones would do what you request. You can get pretty specific, if you want a small, dark-skinned girl with big tits that give good blowjobs, tell the mamasan and she'll probably find you exactly what you want.

So, what do you do when you see a girl you like? Try making eye-contact and smile at her, if she's interested she'll come over either immediately or, if she's dancing, after she finishes dancing. Talk to her a bit, buy her a ladydrink and get to know each other a bit. If it clicks, ask her if she wants to go with you. If she agrees pay the barfine and head for the hotel. Make sure you agree upon short or long time beforehand though.

Freelancers & After hours places

The deal with the freelancers in the after hour places is basically the same, smile, make contact, talk a bit and return to your hotel for sanuk. It might be a bit more of a challenge though.

The places I am talking about here are:

• Thermae, the ultimate after hours place to pick up freelancers. You will be able to find anything here, from underage students trying to make some extra money to bargirls that have finished work or are looking for seconds to freelancers that were over the hills 10 years ago. Be aware that this place doesn't get going until after midnight and is at it's peak around 3-4am. It closes around 6am or so.
  
• Angels, the disco in the Nana Hotel. Besides lots of freelancers, a lot of the bargirls from Nanaplaza gather here after work to dance, ... and if they can make some extra money...
  
• German Beergarten. This restaurant/beerbar is always packed with freelancers from late morning until around midnight. New Wave (opposite of the Beergarten) and Busstop (on Soi 4) are similar places.
  

The Girls

Let me start by saying that these girls have NOTHING in common with the hookers in the West. I wouldn't even call most of them hookers, a far better term would be 'rented girlfriends', you rent them for a few hours, a night, a couple of days or even longer. You will not often encounter the "haven't you finished yet?" attitude here, more common is girls waking you up at 5am, because they want seconds (or thirds ).

Having that out of the way I suppose a little more information on these girls, and on how to interact with them, is probably in order. (I guess I dont' have to tell you how beautiful they are, right?)

One of the first things you will encounter is the lack of English most girls have. This however shouldn't deter you into trying to have a conversation with them, we're not talking rocket science here so you should be fine (bringing along a phrase book can be very useful!). I would recommend though that if conversation is a real problem, it might be better to find a girl whose English is a bit better (which shouldn't be too much of a problem).

The second thing you will probably notice occurs when you return to your hotel room, shyness. Even though your 'friend' might have been dancing on stage topless or even naked, lots of them will insist upon showering alone and will come out of the shower with a towel wrapped around them. Forget about leaving the lights on either. Obviously this is a generalization and the other side of the spectrum also exists (although they are less common), girls that start raping you as soon as you enter the room

An uncomfortable moment for most is usually when the girl leaves and it is time to pay her (NEVER pay in advance!). Obviously you could just hand her to money, but if this feels uncomfortable, tell her it is 'cabfare' or that she should use it 'to buy something nice for herself'. With regards to how much you should pay her... Well, basically this is up to you, but for some guidelines I would say ~1,500 Baht Long time, 800-1,000 Baht Short time.

Some hints & tips:

• It is very common that guys get the urge to barfine the first girl that shows any interest in them. Don't! I would recommend you spend a few hours getting used to the bars first, there are plenty of cute girls anyway.
  
• Try hooking up with a regular. There are plenty of guys around that won't mind showing you around (buy them a beer every now and then!) and you could pick up a lot of good info this way.
  
• Even though the GoGo bars don't open until around 8pm, most of the beerbars open around 2am (some even earlier).
  
• Never pay the girl in advance.
  
• Have FUN! A good attitude is contagious, you will enjoy the bars a lot more if you go in with a smile on your face.
  

Leaving

Trust me you will regret the day you leave here, and will almost certainly start planning your next trip within a few weeks of coming home. Chances are also great you will be hit by, what regulars call, the Bangkok blues (or Thailand blues). This is one of the symptoms of the 'sickness'. I know it sounds weird, but the vast majority of men that come here for the nightlife get hooked on it and keep coming back time and time again. Chances are great you will be one of them within days of arriving here.

BTW, don't forget that you have to pay 500 Baht airport tax on departing Thailand. So, make sure you have some Baht left when leaving.

Can art imitate the turbulent life of the great Pumpuang Duangjan?

Pumpuang Duangjan's real name was Ramphueng Jitharn. She couldn't read or write, though she sang like an angel - a mud-soaked angel from the sugarcane plantations of Suphan Buri.

When she died, in 1992 at the age of 31, she had recorded more than 600 songs on 60 albums and had the whole country singing along to some of the catchiest, sauciest tunes in the genre once firmly associated with buffaloes, peasants and rice fields.

One of the greatest performers Thailand has ever seen, the "Queen of Country Music" also led a life so turbulent, so tragic, and so mired with controversy that is almost too much to be put into a film.

When the film Pumpuang (or The Moon, after the meaning of her Thai surname) opens tomorrow, most discussions will concern the discovery of the young starlet Paowalee Pornpimol, whose appearance and vocal timbre will convince us that she is Pumpuang reincarnated.

But another discussion that no biographers should ever ignore is the elusive fact-or-fiction nature of biopics: The Moon's narrative deviates quite considerably from the reality of the singer's life - that troubled, dramatic life that still made headlines years after the singer had departed this Earth.

It's a perennial dilemma if a biopic should be faithful to the life of its subject. And if it isn't, does it matter, as in this case, when the film sets out to celebrate one of the country's most famous artists? Then again, the biggest question is who could lay claim to the truth of a person's life? The Moon will re-ignite these issues, along with the debate on the discrepancy between public versus private history that often confronts Thai film-makers.

...

Link

http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/international/2852844/The-Thai-Burma-railway-of-death/

Written by Stephen Cleary

After feeling rather stressed out of late running around like a beheaded chicken helping me fiancee to sort out precarious wedding arrangements, I thought that Iâ??d brighten me heart up a bit and go back to write about perhaps my fave subject and that is 'the people of the provinces'.

Well, our webmaster friend here Mr Richard has certainly put a lot of effort into giving yous all an indepth low-down on Thai superstitions and beliefs over the past few months. So, I felt that I ought to get into the act meself with some related stuff along the same lines - stevesuphan style. From what i see, Thailand is a boiling pot for a whole lot of hocus-pocus quack-wack beliefs which have nothing whatsoever to do with Buddhism. Then, as the 21st century kicks in and capitalism has reached every corner of the country it has left all the folk desiring a new Video Phone Nokia, a flashy new Honda Jazz or the latest Lap-top. To appease this suffering due to lack of consumer products the nation has been bent on â??winning the lotteryâ?? to relieve them of their awful existance.

Now, since most folks believe in predicting the lucky number in the thrice monthly Governemnt lottery a whole shab of sceething money making opportunities have arisen in regards to forecasting the number. One very well-known place for making-merit and so finding out the lucky lottery number of the week is here in my province of Suphanburi. Know it or not, Suphanburi is country-famous for two things to say the least one is politicians but most of all â??Singersâ??. At the end of the day, I would have to say that the most famous person ever to come out of Suphanburi has to be â??Phuangphuang Duangchanâ??, even more so than Carabao or a former PM as 'Phumphuang' (Pheung) holds 'legendary' stautus'. If you are a foreigner wondering to the likes of â??Who the heck is she? Then let me say that she is the â??Queen of Lukthungâ??, the girl that gave birth to sexy naughty Thai country music which you can watch 24 hours a day on Thai TV. She died about 15 years ago but the temple in which her ashes are found in Song Phi Nong district is a Mecca for folks to come pay respects on the hope of finding out the lucky lottery number of the week. Praying is done in front of this quite cheesy statue of her that is taken care of by the resident monks.

What on earth her dead body has to do with forecasting the lottery number is a complete mystery to me. Then, just a few months ago it was that time of the year again, 'Ms Phuangphuang's b-day' and the media and thousands of folk arrived at the temple on the day of the lottery, to pay their respects to her statue and to pray that the lucky two-digit nuber of that week would once again fall on her actual birthdate. Sure, did I enjoy having a right laugh, ridiculing a few of the locals here "What kind of crocko-belief is that?, you gotta be pulling me leg!" and was absolutely flabbergasted the next day to read the newspaper headlines of â??Phumphuang has done it again!â?? and we see literally thousands of followers and monks dancing up and down in front of the camera celebrating their lucky win and praying to Phumphuang as if she were some Hindu Queen. Shiver-me-timbers! As for me, i'll have to be a bit more careful with some of me words from now on.

This is just one example of forecasting the lucky lottery number but there are thousands of others. Even my previous next-door neighbours claimed that their pet fish would often swiffle its tail around in the bottom of its tank and lay marks similar to a two digit number. Each time I asked him to why he hadn't won that time around, would reply â??Ooooh, my fish was right but I myself was at fault as I was unable to make out the fishâ??s handwriting properly.

Just last week, the nations â??Sanghaâ?? (if you know readers pls help me trans this to English, I forget) like Buddhism Body of Thailand declared for the umpteenth time that monks producing Buddhist Amulets for financial gain are be stopped! Oh yeah, a lot of folks just love having a belief in a whole variety of Buddhist amulets even though, again, its not actually part of the religion. Now, some of these amulets are worth an absolute fortune with the most sought after â??Somdet Wat Rakrangâ?? fetching mind-boggling prices, I mean up to 30 million baht. Of course these are an absolute hit with a lot of the countryâ??s politicians as it is believed that, if worn, you will be protected from getting shot. ie. if shot, the amulet with its amazing powers will protect the wearer and the bullet will just miraculously vanish into thin air. Well, even if I were given a loan of one I doubt Iâ??d try it out see if it actually works.

Then, for any single men lacking lowly on the â??charming ladiesâ?? scale there are naughty shaped amulets that when hung from the waist, of course under yer shirt, will soon be the cause for a whole string of lusty girls fighting to get their arms round you.

Then, just how many Buddha footprints are there in Thailand? Donâ??t get me wrong but my history book says that The Buddha was born in present-day India. If any of you readers should care to enlighten me on just how Thailand got to be the source of so many of these footprints Iâ??ll more than happy to listen. Having resided at temples from time to time practicing meditation Iâ??ve heard a lot of folklore tales which I never read about in any Buddhist book. One nun I knew once gave me the ins and outs of loads-a upcountry beliefs. Here is one for example â??All you Farang and non-practioners of Buddhism are doomed for an after life of starvation as you never give food to the monksâ?Â. Well, according to her, it was Buddhist belief that giving food to the monks is like an investment policy ie. we well get back all the food we have given to the monks back in the afterlife. Now, I definetly never read about that in any Dhamma book. But I guess itâ??s a good story on getting people to give alms in the morning.

Then, for us men who feel that weâ??re are a little on the physically weak side, get yerself a sacred â??animal tattooâ?? from some well known upcountry monk, who, for just a few hundred baht will tattoo in a big fancy tiger or the what-not on yer body and youâ??ll soon be as powerful as the creature inbedded in yer skin. Just a few months ago, it was reported all over the press about the strange goings-on at one of the nationâ??s temples. It was reported that every one of the young lads who had recently got a â??sacred animal tattooâ?? from some monk there had terrifyingly started behaving like the tattoed animal itself. Golly-gosh! Some of the scenes almost had me in tears of laughter with all these fine lads, apparantly in some kind of hypnotic frenzy, running around the temples on all fours growling away at each other like intoxicated mad tigers. Up to your on belief but I for one will give that one a miss.

Then, we have the world-famous Nong Khai fireballs that amazingly just spring out of the Maekhong river on the last day of Buddhist Lent every year putting on a supposedly completely natural fireworks show. So incredible, that even a movie was made about this phenomenon just a couple of years back. Of course the locals have a lot of belief that itâ??s all true and darned sure its good for tourism but there have been quite a few sceptics too (as normal). Even one newspaper reporter who claimed that some of the fireballs were in fact gunshots from the Laotian side of the river was soon facing a lawsuit from the Nong Khai Authorities. In fact, itâ??s still a darned mystery and even most sceptics canâ??t work out ways on how to fake such a show. This was what the movie was about and perhaps some of it was true. As for me however, Iâ??ll stay here and watch some fireworks show on Sanam Luang instead.

Permalink 16 comments

All written material and photographs are copyright and cannot be used without permission from their owners. Please contact us if you wish to purchase any photographs.

Any Questions about Thailand? | Thai Chat Rooms | Google this Topic!

Comments, Pingbacks:

Do you wanna buy or start your own beerbar? (this feature might make you think again)

The facts below may be hard to accept and it is fair to say that the majority of the star-struck potential bar-owners will totally ignore everything here, to the detriment of their financial and mental state. However here goes...

Firstly there are a few facts that must be born in mind:

• As a farang you can't buy a Beerbar, at best it can be leased for period of about three years.
  
• You will have to pay (in most cases) a large sum for key-money depending on the location, the size and the greed of the owner or agent. Thereafter you will be required to pay a monthly (ground) rent which depending upon your contract (for want of a better word) will be revised upward, normally every year.
  
• At the end of your term of lease if you are lucky, an option to renew will be offered, the key money will be dependant upon the length of the option and on whether you have built up a "good busines" or not. There is also the possibility that the owner might want you out. In that case the key money might well double (or even treble) and so could the monthly ground rent. The chances are that "your bar" will need re-furbishing from top to bottom and whilst the fixtures and fittings may remain your "property in law" the owner can always find a flaw in the contract to lay claim to these.
  

You should also bear in mind that if you do anything through an agent you will be paying between 20%-30% over the odds, this includes leasing bars.

It would be worth doing a costing exercise to establish just how many bottles of beer heve to be sold every day to cover your overheads.

Here is a list of monthly overheads you will be faced with in addition to your key-money and monthly rent: (Remember, this is is not to make you a profit.... Just covering your costs...)

Here is an example of accounting/month&year (Baht)

Average key-money for 3 years Monthly=25,000 (900,000/3 Year)

Average ground-rent=15,000 (180,000)

Electricity(no girls living in)=2,000 (24,000)

Water (no girls living in)=500 (6,000)

Telephone (personal use only)=500 (6,000)

Television=450? (5,400)

Salaries=20,000 (based on 5 girls at Baht 4,000 per month each) (240,000)

Mamasan 15,000 (180,000)

Depreciation (Based on a average spending of 100,000 with selling price of 40% of the cost new after 3 years) 1,400

Total/month= 79,850(958,200/year)

Explanation:

If your Thai girlfriend or wife has never run a bar before (it does not count that she might have worked in a bar all of her working life) she will not be able to run one now. The running of your bar will be in the hands of your Mamasan.

Fact: You are not not allowed to work in your own bar, or anywhere else for that matter, at least not without a workpermit and you stand more chance of being struck by lightning than getting one of those in the beerbar business. Even sitting talking to the customer can (and has been) classed as working and such is liable to a fine between 20,000 and 100,000. A second offence and you will be packed off to your country of origin never to return, wife or no wife, family or no family, business or no business. This after a spell in the monkey-house (jail) whilst the funds for your plane-ticket are obtained either from you (via your bankaccount), your wife or girlfriend (very unlikely), your embassy (equally unlikely) or your family or friends in the country of origin. In some cases this could result in prolonged period of incarceration, an experience not to be relished as any short-stayer will tell you.

This all means that your mamasan will be running your business lock, stock and barrel, possibly, and most advisable, with the exception of the accounts. Do keep the accounts yourself, this does not mean you won't get cheated, you will by just about everybody including your mamasan, but it might limit the extent of the cheating a bit....

Good mamasans are very hard to come by and so by the law of supply and demand their salary is accordingly.

Ladies:

In '97 you could get all you need for between 1,000 and 1,200 Baht each per month, but there is a growing shortage of reasonably good looking and young ones in Pattaya, so the salary is now at least 1,800 Baht and their charge to their clients has gone up from 350 Baht to 500 Baht or higher.

Against these costs, the only return you likely to get is from sales of beer. So many bars sell food now that most only do it to attract customers to drink and do not make a profit on the food itself. The overall 100 Baht commission per girl/per client/per night barely covers the girl`s salary and is not worth considering.

So what are we left with?

With the costs of 19,850 even allowing for months with 31 days, this means your overheads are more then 2,000 Baht/day.

At the current buying and selling prices of bottled beer this means to say that you will have to sell 140 bottles of beer a day just to cover your overheads.

A bit later on while walking about, one Russian hooker came over to me and was making some joking gestures about how tall I was and how small she was. I replied by saying how good her English was. We started talking and in the course of our conversation she told me she has an engineering degree from a Russian university but that most educated/skilled graduates (especially women) have a hard time finding work in Russia, and when they do, it hardly pays anything. That's why this lady had turned to working as a prostitute. Her name was Katarina.

She told me it was a slow night business-wise, and so I asked her if she would care to join my friends and I for a drink. I followed that up by saying that I was married and wasn't interested in her services, but I was interested in talking with her if she didn't mind. She said sure, why not, and we found another bar and ordered our drinks.

Katarina told me she was 24 years old and had been working as a prostitute for the past two years. She had tried for nearly a year after finishing university to get a proper engineering job, but the jobs just weren't there, or as I said earlier, they paid very poorly. So, after talking with some of her friends who had made good money working as prostitutes abroad, she decided to give it a try and had been on the game ever since.

She told me that she had been in Korea for nine weeks now. It was her first time here. She said that although she does go with Korean men (she said she doesn't like them - 'smell like kimchi all the time; have small dicks'), and some of the American soldiers and sailors (her preference as 'they like having fun out of bed too') that are based in the Pusan area, most of her customers are other foreign men. She said with Pusan being a coastal port city, it gets lots of commercial cargo ships from other countries and the men on these ships always spend their free time in port spending their money getting drunk and on the women.

I wanted to ask her what kind of money she was making working as a prostitute that had kept on her the game for so long, but decided not to. So, I asked her what other countries had she worked in. She said she had worked in Thailand before. When she mentioned Thailand, that became the topic of the rest of our conversation after I mentioned to her about my trips there and that I had a Thai wife. Katarina told me that she had worked in Pattaya and Bangkok. One comment she made about working in Pattaya that I found interesting concerns the Russian Mafia men. She said lots of these men come to Pattaya on their holidays, and they always have LOTS of money (especially U.S. dollars) to spend. These men prefer to go with Thai women, but sometimes they miss having 'one of their own' and look for Russian women. Katarina says that the money these men pay her in Pattaya is far more than what they would pay her back in Russia for the same services. Also, she said they pay the Russian hookers more than they pay the Thai bargirls. At this, I asked her if she didn't mind telling me how much of a difference. She told me she was normally paid 4,000 baht for short time and anywhere from 6,000 up for long time. Katarina explained that only the Russian Mafia men would pay this kind of money. She said that many of these men are U.S. dollar millionaires, and don't think nothing of what they pay, however, they are conscious of what they pay the Thai bargirls because they 'don't want to spoil them'. Go figure!

Katarina said it was while working in Pattaya that she went with her first American, Aussie, and British men. She also said that she has done quite a few 3-somes where one of these customers would want her and a Thai lady together. Katarina also said that while working in Thailand she was approached quite often by a Thai bargirl wanting to go with her for some lesbian action. Katarina told me that although she considers herself bi-sexual, she won't go with ladies alone, but only as part of a 3-some with a man. So, whenever a Thai lady wanted her for herself, and Katarina said yes, but only if a man was involved, they would go as a pair on the prowl looking for a man to join in.

I asked her what she thought of Bangkok. She said she liked the city, but that she didn't like all the Arab men approaching her. When she said that, I asked her why. She mentioned freelancing around the Grace Hotel on Suk Soi 3 because that was where she was told by her friends to go, but when she went there, she didn't like there being so many Arab men. She said she didn't go with Arab men because 'I don't like the way they smell; don't they ever bathe?' I told her that since I had never gone with an Arab man myself, I couldn't comment. She laughed at that!

I asked her if she knew about Nana Plaza since it is so close to where she was working. She said she had heard of it, but never went there because her friends told her it was off limits to Russian women. I asked her to explain, and she replied that it was just one of the rules of the game. Sort of a territorial unwritten rule between the working girls, I guess. I then asked her if she didn't like Arab men, then how does she make her money hanging around the Grace Hotel. She said that because the area is known for having Russian hookers, other foreign men as well as Thai men will come there looking for them.

Before we parted, I asked her if she ever planned on returning to Thailand. She said probably, but didn't know for sure. She said if she does, it will be back to freelancing around the Grace Hotel.

With that, I wished her all the best and we said our goodbyes. All in all, I had a very interesting evening talking with Katarina. Although she always seemed upbeat and in good spirits, I did get the impression that she wasn't very happy with the way her life was going. Here was a very attractive lady with an engineering degree (in addition to Russian and English, she also spoke German) but due to the inner workings of the Russian economy, she was no better off opportunity-wise than her Thai counterparts who finish school at the age of 11 or 12.

It's sort of ironic the way the prostitute business works in this respect. Many Thai ladies end up working as bargirls because they have very little education and as a result, very few opportunities to make decent money. On the other side, Katarina and other Russian ladies she told me about have university degrees and language skills, but yet the opportunities to make a decent living in Russia (for women anyway) are few and far between. So, they end up on the game for the same reason their Thai sisters do - for the money.

Cheers,

Bigdog

I personally can't imagine that they really love their girlfriends, and are with them only for the money they receive from them. Money which they might very well spend on fucking other women, or use to support a drughabit.

A lot of these guys work in the same bars as their girlfriends, often as a DJ or tout, or they just hang around outside on their motorbikes (bought by their girlfriends of course).

So, if they are this bad, why do the girls tolerate them?

I don't really have an answer to this, although I do have an assumption. I think that the majority of the bargirls does not really enjoy sleeping with farangs, especially if they are old, overweight, drunk and/or smelly (no offence if you fit that category). They can not really relate to us farangs because of the language-, culture- and often times age-gap.

However, they do want affection, want to be able to talk to a person who can understand them, go out with people in their same age group, and maybe, just maybe even get into a real relationship and have a normal life. And this is where the mangda's come in.

I think that even though the girls are working in the farang-oriented sex-industry and all say "I no like man Thai", that the reverse is true. Most would probably prefer a Thai guy over a farang. Why? Because there will be no cultural and language barrier, and she will probably be more physically attracted to him.

The problem though is that most Thai men would never consider marrying a bargirl, unless they are themselves just as far down the social ladder and might consider her as a meal ticket out of poverty (similar to how a bargirl might look at a relationship with a farang). The kind of guys that work in the sex-industry (either as a tout or DJ, or even as a male prostitute) would certainly fit in this category.

With this in mind, it isn't that surprising that a girl who sleeps with farangs to make money, but is not attracted to them and still has hopes of one day settling down and raising a family, might get attracted to a guy who is in the same low social standing as her, and is probably a lot more attractive to her than her farang customers.

This guy is also most likely gonna be really nice to her, treat her well, and make her all kind of promises. It isn't until later that he will show his true colors, but by then leaving him might not be that easy anymore.

The girl also probably knows that he is not the best catch she could hope for, but in her eyes he is probably one of the better options. Certainly better than marrying a much older farang and having to leave her family behind.

Anyway, all of this is just MHO, and since I am neither a bargirl nor a mangda, I could be completely off target here

BBC News, Bangkok

For advertisers in Thailand, the most spectacular location to promote their products is on the side of the country's tallest building, the Baiyoke Tower in Bangkok.

But the image that appeared there a few weeks ago was not the usual logo for shampoo or a mobile phone company.

It depicted the statuesque head of a mythical Hindu figure, Jatukam Ramathep - actually a combination of two ancient deities, the guardians of some of Thailand's holiest Buddhist relics.

Jatukam Ramathep is depicted on the Baiyoke Tower.

So what was it doing on a Bangkok skyscraper? The answer is that was selling itself, and doing a whole lot better than the rest of the Thai economy.

Thais have always been keen on amulets. Usually bearing the likeness of the Buddha or other religious figures, they are worn round the neck to bring good fortune.

But no amulet has ever been as popular as the Jatukam Ramathep.

Royal connection

These amulets have been made for about 20 years, and were promoted without much success by Police Major-General Phantarak Rajadej, a police chief in Nakhon, the town where the relics are thought to be located.

Phantarak Rajadej's death last year changed everything.

A larger-than-life character who was reputed to possess magical powers, his funeral was attended by tens of thousands of people, including Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, the heir to the Thai throne.

Copies of the amulet were given out at the funeral - many of them not authentic, complained his family - and belief in their mystical powers began to spread, pushing up the value of older versions.

On Sunday mornings, crowds build around the main temple in Nakhon, Wat Mahathat, one of Thailand's most revered Buddhist temples.

The abbot at Nakhon's temple is in high demand.

They file between the heavy white-washed walls into a small room, filled floor-to-ceiling with an array of statues depicting giants and mythical animals, all bedecked with flowers.

There they pray on their knees, holding incense sticks, before the gilded figures representing the two gods, Jatukam and Ramathep.

Almost everyone is wearing one of the amulets, some small, some as big as beer mats and very garish.

To be endowed with real power, an amulet must be blessed by a senior monk at the temple.

So when I visited, there was a long queue waiting to see the abbot, Phra Rajthamsuthee. One group had driven 1500km (900 miles) from Chantaburi to see him.

The temple has an old metal foot-powered press, and a clay mix for the tablets which usually includes sacred material like ash from temple incense.

Big business

I watched the abbot use the squeaky press to make the first few, and then splash holy water on a batch that had already been baked and glazed.

He did not want to talk about how much he charges for this service, but local people suggested it would be US$1500-$3000. No wonder the temple has some ambitious refurbishment plans.

The amulet business has literally taken over the town.

Many Thais are cashing in on the lucrative trade in amulets.

All-day trucks with loudspeakers drive around blaring promotions for the latest series of amulets, with names like the Super-Rich Millionaire series, the Rich as the Heavens series and the Money Falling Like Rain series.

Huge, colourful posters cover every wall. It is a staggeringly lucrative business, estimated by one financial research group in Bangkok to be worth 22bn baht (US$650m, £320m) this year.

Nakhon's little airport now sees four times as many flights coming in every day as it did in the past. Believers come from as far away as China and Singapore.

Mixed motives

I ran into Preston Cheng, a Bangkok-based exporter with a group of colleagues on a day tour to the temple.

His friends kept teasing him that he was already rich, and he did not need the amulet. But he admitted, slightly embarrassed, that he did believe in its powers, and he already owned several of them.

All around him there were stalls selling a bewildering variety of them, some simple clay tablets imprinted with a likeness of the deity, others dyed in rainbow colours or glittering with gold.

I found it hard to fathom the credulity of buyers.

Why would they believe in the powers of amulets now being produced in their tens of thousands? Why do some cost just a couple of hundred baht, others several million?

How do you know whether a "rare" or "first edition" amulet is genuine? And what has this obscure, apparently Hindu deity got to do with modern Buddhism?

Ajarn Narit, a local guide and historian, told me it was partly to do with the times, and partly the nature of Buddhist belief in Thailand.

With the political situation still so uncertain, people feel the need for re-assurance, he said.

Buddhism has always been based on faith in many things, he said, not just one god.

"We believe in reincarnation, in karma, in the accumulation of merit, and it is all too easy to believe in the power of other supernatural beings," he added.

But it is easy to see this frenzy being driven by another, less spiritual motive.

As earlier versions have rocketed in value, people have been buying up later editions in the hope of selling them on for a profit. It works like pyramid selling.

Veteran Buddhist scholar Sulak Sivaraksa is disgusted by what he sees as a perversion of the teachings of the Buddha.

"They've lost their way", he said. "Monks are supposed to renounce money. The teachings of the Buddha have been killed by the demonic religion of consumerism."

And like all pyramid schemes, this one is beginning to unravel.

As I write, with millions of Jatukam amulets manufactured, prices are plunging. But the craze has already made a lot of people in Thailand very rich.

The first reference in literature on the subject of "Nightlife" is found in the British East India Company documents (or a summary thereof found in the book, "British Intercourse With Siam in the 17th Century" by John Anderson, M.D., published first around 1889 and reprinted in 1981). The following quote from that book covers gambling and other vices in Bangkok in the year 1620:

"This vice (gambling), however, was not the only foible of those days, as is amply proved by references to lewdness, nameless diseases, drunkenness, and bastard children now and again cropping up in the correspondence of the (British East India) Company's servants. Morality may have had a lower standard in those days than it has now, but apart from any such consideration, these Englishmen in their Exile, their surroundings so different from those encompassing their lives in an English home, and the novel temptations to which they were exposed, lead charity to be merciful in judging them."

The abovementioned "novel temptations", at this time were focused around night time sampan visits to the ships at anchor in Bangkok. The ships had to lay anchor in Bangkok, as the river was too shallow to allow them to sail to the capital at Ayuthaya. By the way, these nightlife activities were going on as late as the 1960s and may still be going on. One had basically three choices, smuggle the girls onboard, go out in their sampans with them, or go ashore for a short time.

Another interesting tale in the history of Bangkok's nightlife goes back to the 1860s. Back then there was a lively little area in Plaplachai (in Chinatown). Yai Faeng was the famous madam back then, a Chinese woman as were almost all of her girls. She's famous for raising enough money among the "shady ladies" to build an entire Buddhist temple -- Wat Kanikaphol. You can see a bust of her in a niche there to this day. She and her gals also paid for another wat in Thonburi. Her house was in Soi Yai Fang and the locals still sometimes call the temple "Wat Mai Yai Faeng" (Madam Faeng's New Temple).

The farang oriented nightlife started roughly during the Vietnam war, late '60s - early '70s (Before this there were only some nightclubs around Democracy Monument, near the Sorng Daeng Restaurant). The action was still around New Petchburi Road, then called Petchburi Tat Mai or Petchburi Road Extension, aka 'The Golden Mile'. At its peak this 'mile' stretched from approximately Soi 3 to Soi Ekamai. There were bars (Jack's American Bar being one of them) and massage parlours all over that area, but lots of folks went to a sort of grungy area called Saphan Kwai (which by the way is still there, but has turned into a Thai nightlife area). There were also a couple of bars in the upper Sukhumvit area, called Gaysorn.

At the same time the Thai Yonoke was going strong across the street from Gaysorn, roughly where Sogo is now, and behind the old Erewan, the Nana Hotel was the scene. The (original) Thermae opened in 1965 and was always pumping all night long. It was never overshadowed by either the Grace (which didn't really take off until the 70's) or the Nana.

In the mid '70s Patpong started to get going. Early on there were just a handful of bars, most notably the Grand Prix and the Horny Toad next door. The Prix was the first go-go bar on Patpong (opened by an American named Rick Menard in '71/'72) and the second ever in Bangkok. (Nick Jero of Nick's No. 1 fame opened the first go-go bar around 1970, but it never really caught on. It lasted maybe a year.) There was also a great "show" bar near the old Peninsula Hotel. It had all kinds of checks to give warning if the police raided. The routine then was a girl danced to three songs: the first in a bikini, the second minus the top and the third "naked as she came." They showed blue movies on the wall at the same time. Each hour they had shows: gals with cucumbers and squash, the lesbian bit, etc.

After hours the Thai Yonoke Coffee Shop behind the old Erewan Hotel was the place to go. Bars had to close around midnight or 1am and any girl still looking for action went to the Thai Yonok. Another after hours place during this time was the Grace Hotel. The action moved to the Thermae in the '80s when the Grace turned into a Arab hangout and the Thai Yonok was closed down. The Thermae is still going strong today, although in a new location. The old Thermae was far different than the new one though, much smaller and more relaxed.

Soi Cowboy was started around the late '70s and quickly became the expats hang out, since Patpong drew the tourists and cost a bit more. Today it is still pretty much unchanged, a lot more relaxed and laid-back than the fast paced NEP and Patpong.

The myth that Cowboy started Soi Cowboy is proving most resilient. It is however, just that; a myth. The Cowboy Bar was one of the first bars on that soi when it opened in '76-'77, but there was another bar in the early '70s on Soi 23 which had a side entrance to what is now known as Soi Cowboy, and could probably lay a claim to being first. However the first bar to be truly located in the Soi, and the bar that started it all, was the Gold Label owned by an American called Jim George, which opened in 1975 ('73?) and lasted 2 or 3 years. It had up to three floors of activity in its heyday. It was located at the place where Baccara is now.

Bernard Trink is probably responsible for the name Soi Cowboy. In his weekly nightlife column he used to refer to the soi with 'behind the Shell station on Sukhumvit', but started using the name Soi Cowboy in early '79.

Around that same time the first katoey bar opened, the Zanzibar (formerly Gold Label). Like most katoey bars on Soi Cowboy since though, it did not last long.

The highway expansion in 1983 caused Soi Cowboy to be shortened by about one lane, which didn't affect any bars, as in those days, there were none on the Soi that close to Soi 21 (Soi Asoke). The widening of the road was caused when they 'overlaid' the Rachadapisek extension on top of Soi 21 - Rachadapisek being one of BKK's ring roads.

The extension however, did affect some bars. Across Sukhumvit from Soi 21 was Soi 16, and when they built the Rachadapisek extension past the Tobacco monopoly lakefront, they cut off the entire top of Soi 16 as well as widening Sukhumvit itself for about 100 meters each direction to facilitate turning into and out of Rachadapisek. This caused all of the shops to close down, and they all had to cut about 3 meters off the front of their buildings (and build new fronts on them). This caused the Rosemary 1 and Rosemary 2, the Three Roses, The Rainbow and the Sunshine to move out. These moved to Nana Plaza starting it all - before that there was just Lucky Luke's at the entrance (and it wasn't a hot scene), the pub Woodstock (which is still there, although it has move a bit further in), and a few restaurants and shops.

Nana Entertainment Plaza (NEP) has only been around since the early '80s. It took years to get going, but the night market at Patpong drove a lot of people to Nana in the early '90s. Since then it has expanded (and still does so), and has become Bangkok's number one (farang) entertainment area.

In the beginning there used to be a lot of Arabs. However, they found they weren't welcome rather quickly (by the mid-80s anyway), since so many of the patrons were workers on holiday from Saudi Arabia. The Saudis so restricted the expat workers there that the expat workers told the bar owners to keep all Arabs out. In roughly 1984 several bars had signs saying "No Arabs Allowed" on the door. The local expats didn't mind them, but the farangs from Saudi just did not want them around at all. And these farangs spend more money in a few weeks holiday than the locals would in a year.

At roughly the same time (1983) a dancer at Hollywood Royale (now Rainbow 2), called Jib, decided it was time to move up in the world. She bought a small place next to Hollywood Royale, brought a couple of girls with her from her old bar and started Pretty Lady (now Obsessions). This quickly turned into the raunchiest, and therefore most popular, bar in the plaza. A few years later she started Pretty Girl (recently renamed to Pretty Lady) and you can still find her there almost every night, sitting outside.

Until '96 the Plaza consisted basiscally of just two floors, the third being empty. This changed with Johnny taking a risk and opening in total 3 bars on the left side of this floor. A year or so later a disco, Masquerade, opened up on the opposite site, but this didn't catch on and soon disappeared. It has since been replaced by Carnival.

Around this time ('97/'98) the first outside bars started appearing in the, until then, parking lot inside the Plaza. Since then the expansion has spilled unto Soi 4 itself (and continues to do so) with the Golden Beerbar leading the way.

Late 1998 a new entertainment area opened up, Clinton Entertainment Plaza, right next to Thermae. When it opened it consisted of several open-air beerbars, which did not do too well. A year later things improved a bit when the first GoGo bar opened up, Flowers-a-Go-Go. This was followed in early/mid 2000 by several others, causing the open-air bars to slowly disappear.

At roughly the same time though, more and more beerbars started appearing at what has become known as Asoke Plaza, a piece of (previously) unused land on the corner of Sukhumvit and Asoke.

Shows

On a little side note, the shower shows which seem to be rather popular lately all started in a bar called the Lipstick on Patpong in late 1986. (The owners supposedly were a Thai brother and sister who had been educated in the States. Since they found there education still didn't get them any great jobs in Bangkok, they opened a couple of bars. Firecat was the first, Lipstick the second.)

Lipstick was actually designed to feature the shower bar at one end. Every evening the shower show went on several times, with the dancers soaping their body and gyrating erotically. Saturday nights were a treat, since the girls would also shampoo their hair. All the other shower shows have been copied from this one, with minor variations. By the way, the owners couldn't figure out how to put a shower in the older Firecat, so they put a bathtub on stage.

The last couple of years has seen another big increase in shows, and they are getting more outrageous. Shower shows are still the norm in most bars, but now they are usually followed by dildo shows. Carnival was the first bar to feature such a show during the tourist season of 1999/2000, and it has since been adopted by several of the other bars.

Late 2000 saw the practice of using live animals in the shows, with a girl inserting fish, a frog and even a bird up her pussy before 'spitting' them out again. This show was restricted to Hollywood 2 and Carousel though (both owned by the same person).

Due to the crackdown that started in 2001 though, all shows in NEP have been banned. Shows can still be found in Patpong and Soi Cowboy though.

A common theory as to its origin is the one that derives it from the word 'farangset' (french). The French were one of the first westerners to establish relationships with the Thai kingdom, and were refered to by the Thais as 'khon farangset' (french person). Since the Thai could not distinguish other westerners from the French, they started using the same name for all westerners. Over time this word changed into 'farang'.

However, more recent studies have shown this to be untrue. The most widely accepted theory now is that the word is derived from the word 'Frank', and spread from Europe through the Middle East to Asia. The Thais most likely borrowed the word 'farang' from the Persian and Indian traders in the 17th century. The Persian word was 'farangg', and was probably used to refer to early Portuguese traders and subsequently to all Europeans (ie., non-Muslims).

Regardless of its origin, people seem to be confused as to whether it is a derogatory term, like 'nigger', 'gook' or 'whitey', or that is merely a colloquial way of saying foreigner. I would tend to think it is the latter, although it can certainly be used in an insulting manner.

My wife, for instance, never refers to me as 'farang', she uses 'khon tang chart' (foreign person). She does however use 'farang' when talking about westerners she is not close to, but always addresses (and refers to) my friends with their names, usually prefixed with 'Khun'.

To me this indicates that 'farang' is used only when speaking about people you are not close to, like one waiter telling another to bring the food to 'that farang'. I don't think the waiter is insulting in this example, just using an easy characteristic of the customer to identify him to his colleague.

As mentioned, the term 'farang' can easily be used in an insulting manner though. Someone calling me, or refering to me as, 'ay farang' would most certainly piss me off. It would be the 'ay' part (which is a very rude way of addressing a male person) rather than the 'farang' part that I would take offense to. Just as I would take offense to someone calling me 'ay Sanuk'.

The manner in which it is pronounced could also turn it into an insult, or a way to show contempt. But then again, the word 'westerner' or 'foreigner' pronounced in the same way would produce the same result.

I do think it is bad though, if you are refered to as 'farang' (or 'boksida', which is the Isaan/Lao equivalent) by the family of your wife/girlfriend. Again it is not so much the use of the word, but rather the underlying meaning. As mentioned earlier, I think that the term 'farang' is not used with people you are close to, and whose name you know. Therefore, if your wife's/girlfriend's family does refer to you by using 'farang', it means they have most likely not accepted you into the family, and you are still considered an outsider.

For instance, whenever I am upcountry with my wife's family, they either address me/refer to me as Khun Sanuk, Phii Sanuk or Luung Sanuk (depending on their age). Never farang.

So, is it derogatory? I honestly don't know, but I would doubt it. I think it could be used as such, but I don't think it is usually meant to be derogatory. I suppose it all comes down to the context and how it is said.

Smiling protesters hide a grim reality of propaganda and murderous violence

Chandler Vandergrift, Special to Times Colonist

Published: Thursday, December 11, 2008

Last week, Thailand's worsening political crisis seemed to ease due to two key issues being resolved.

The Constitutional Court dissolved the controversial, yet democratically elected, Somchai Wongsawat government. This, in turn, caused protesters to end their weeklong siege of Bangkok's international airport. After months of growing violence, calm has returned to Bangkok.

Yet calm is likely to be fleeting at best. This is because the protesters, rallying under the People's Alliance for Democracy flag, have proved not only to be a challenge to the government but have threatened the country's democratic institutions.

Email to a friendEmail to a friendPrinter friendlyPrinter friendly

Font:

* *

* *

* *

* *

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

To be fair to PAD, the country's institutions were already weakened several years ago by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin's party, Thai Rak Thai, and its latest incarnation, the People's Power Party, shrewdly manipulated the country's democratic institutions in the quest for power. The electoral process, judiciary, police, media -- even the seemingly untouchable palace -- were all tarnished in the political fray culminating with the military's surprising coup d'etat in September 2006.

But where Thaksin compromised state institutions, PAD leaders have succeeded in destroying them.

Not far behind the facade of smiling cheering protesters is a sophisticated propaganda machine that has whipped up followers into murderous frenzy by inciting right-wing ultranationalist rhetoric to attack government institutions and any media voices critical of its campaign of violence.

But most worrying is PAD's well-armed and organized militia.

PAD militia members have been running amok in Bangkok seizing and looting government buildings -- even occupying Government House, the Canadian equivalent of seizing Rideau Hall or 24 Sussex Drive, detaining and beating citizens and police, blockading roads, intimidating the press, and being involved in vicious running gun battles across the city.

Gone virtually unchallenged by state institutions, the PAD militia has operated with relative impunity. The judiciary and the police are still smarting from violent PAD encounters. The army also ignored orders from the government to rein in the militia, proving that Thailand's armed forces conduct their affairs with autonomy and self-interest rather than from orders from the prime minister's office.

But most worrying is the PAD assault on democracy itself. PAD leaders, who claim a uniform distaste for any sitting government, are also united in their contempt for Thailand's rural poor. They argue that rural Thais are too ignorant and too easily bribed to be trusted with democracy. The People's Alliance for Democracy holds as one of its primary tenets the removal of voting rights for rural Thai people. If PAD leaders get their way, millions of rural poor, already economically disenfranchised, will also be democratically disenfranchised.

This week, as politicians jockey for a new government and the airport slowly reopens, there is optimism that the crisis has passed. This optimism is ill conceived.

The deep fissures that lie at the root of this recent crisis remain while democratic institutions have been destroyed. Without these institutions, Thailand's deep-seated political conflicts will again erupt into violence and a bloody return of mob rule espousing their politics with boots and fists on the streets of Bangkok.

Chandler Vandergrift is a Calgary native working in Bangkok. He is a graduate student working on a master's in conflict analysis and management at Royal Roads University.

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008

Do Thai girls kiss?

Yes, most of them do, but the majority of them is not that good at it. Girls who have had some experience with farangs (either a boyfriend or enough customers) will usually not have a problem with kissing, but the ones that lack this experience may need some teaching.

Something I have noticed, which is most likely related to inexperience, is that a lot of the girls are 'sloppy' kissers, and often you end up with saliva all over your mouth and cheeks.

How about french kissing?

This is something that even less girls are into, and even if they will allow your tongue in their mouth very few seem to let their own tongue wander.

Obviously there are exceptions and I have known several girls who loved inspecting my tonsils

And what is this 'sniff kissing' I hear about?

With a sniff kiss a girl will bring her nose and lips very close to your cheek (or anywhere else actually) and 'sniff'. I know this sounds rather weird, but it is actually very nice and I personally have grown rather fond of it.

One explanation I have heard for the origin of this custom is that women used to 'sniff' their kids to smell if they were clean. True or not, I don't know.

Do the bargirls mind if I kiss them?

While this obviously differs from girl to girl, I would say that most don't mind, and in fact many may even initiate the kissing. While kissing is not really a Thai custom, the bargirls know that their customers like it and seem to have adapted accordingly.

Massage parlour girls will likely be a bit less inclined to allow kissing, probably due to less contact with Western men/customs as well as in an effort to keep it a more 'professional' relationship.

Is kissing in public acceptable?

No, not really. Whereas people probably won't be to bothered when you give your girlfriend a quick 'sniff kiss' or peck on the cheeks, a 'real' kiss full on the lips might attract a bit of of disapproving stares.

Even though showing affection in public is becoming more acceptable, I would recommend to keep kissing in public to a minimum.

Link

Even though the vast majority of Thais are Buddhist, animistic beliefs are still a big part of daily life for a big portion of the Thais; especially (though not exclusively) the lower educated ones. I would say that most Thais are superstitious up to a certain degree. While some may belief in ghosts and dreams unquestioningly, others may not really believe in all this superstition, but try to err on the safe side, "just to make sure".

There are many different forms of 'magic' and supernatural beliefs: animist-buddhist, brahmanist (a lot of the court ceremonies are performed by brahmins, like the famous plowing ceremony for example) and purely animist. Many regions also have their own very distinct forms nowhere else found.

Whatever the origin though these beliefs can, and often do, greatly influence decisions like whether or not to move to a new house or what is the best day to get married, but also more mundane stuff like predicting the winning lottery numbers.

Dreams

A lot of the superstition is linked to dreams, and many people belief that dreams can, and do, tell you what is in store for you in the future. Every dream seems to have a meaning, and certain aspects in the dream are linked to aspects/events in real life, for instance dreaming about a snake chasing you means someone likes you, while dreaming about losing a tooth means that a relative might die soon.

Most people know the meaning of the important dream images, and for the more obscure one there are dozens of books one can consult. These books will also tell you which numbers are associated with the dream images you have seen, which of course is great for playing the lottery

It is also believed that the dead, and especially dead relatives and friends, communicate by entering dreams. They may use dreams to warn you of impending danger, or ask for certain items/food, which can be given by donating the items to a temple in the deceased's name.

Ghosts

Thailand is riddled with ghosts and spirits, or "phii" (rising tone), some are good, some are bad. Some of these ghosts are the souls of death people which have not yet passed to the afterlife, but often 'phii' will refer to what we in the West may call spirits. These spirits are more unique entities, rather than the 'remains' of people, and are usually associated with something, a tree, a rock, an animal, etc.

For example, "phii khluay taa nii" is a spirit of a beautiful woman in a Thai dress that lives inside a banana tree and who comes out at night. Men seeing her will run over to hug her, but she runs back into the tree and the guy ends up hugging the tree.

Also, when nature calls and there is no alternative to using the countryside, try avoiding the old, big trees. Apologize to the spirit and explain that 'you are sorry, but that there is no alternative'.

Not all the spirits are so benevolent though; "phii pop" are evil spirits who live among the people. During the day, they seem like a normal person, but at night they go in search of food (they are said to love chicken). While out searching their body stays in bed, but they take their head with them. They tend to avoid people, but may use clothes that are outside to wipe the blood of their mouth. If a person would boil this cloth, the spirit will come running over because it hurts their stomach. They will then do anything you want to make you stop boiling the cloth.

Another ghost is referred to as the "widow ghost". She supposedly searches for a husband and sometimes takes men while they are sleeping. When men die in there sleep it is sometimes attributed to this widow ghost taking them.

To fool the ghost, men who have been scared by a suspicious death, may resort to disguising themselves as women.

In the old days almost everything in the daily life of Thai people was dominated by these spirit believes, even the architecture and direction of houses. For example, banyan trees were never planted next to houses, as they are said to be easily possessed by spirits. Broken Buddha figurines are said to be unlucky, and are disposed under a banyan tree in a temple. Look at many banyan trees, they are all around Thailand dressed in some cloth, incense is placed under them. All of that is done to placate the spirit housed in the tree.

This is just one of the many rules for a wide variety of different plants.

Nowadays, though, these kinds of spirits, both good and evil, are not really common anymore, certainly not in the cities.

Ghosts of dead people are more still very common though. It takes 3 days before a person knows he or she is dead. The ghost will then return home to collect the clothes and other personal belongings he/she needs for the afterlife. They will also talk to the living, but the living can neither see nor hear them. Dogs, on the other hand, are said to be able to see them and it is said that when a dog howls he is seeing ghosts.

These ghosts are almost always benign.

A very famous example of a ghost returning to the living is the story of Ngarn Ngak. Ngarn Ngak is the ghost of a woman who died while her husband was away fighting a war. Upon his return she continues taking care of him, her husband does not know. Other people however do, and they try to tell him, but she scares away all of them. (For a more detailed story check: http://www.thaifolk.com)

Her body is said to be laid to rest at Wat Mahabut, in Prakanong, Bangkok, and it attracts a lot of visitors every day.

Spirithouses

Whenever a house is build, the spirits of the land are disturbed, so a spirithouse (san phra prom) is build for them, in an attempt to pacify the spirits so they will not haunt the house. Spirithouses are shrines in the shapes of houses, and may contain figurines.

Regular offers of incense, fruit, water, garlands, etc. are made to the spirits to please them and guarantee the safety of the house.

These spirithouses are very common, and just about every house/office has one.

A very famous spirithouse is the one next to the Grand Hyatt Erewan. During the building of the hotel, there were a lot of accidents and other setbacks, so a monk was called in. He said that a spirithouse was required to please the spirits in the area. After it was build, the accidents stopped and work continued on schedule. The spirithouse, called the Erewan Shrine, has since become very busy, attracting worshippers from all over the city.

Spirithouses aren't the only form of evidence of superstition though, many of the Thai-style buildings have two "gah-lae" sticking out of the roof (the wing-like decorations). These "gah-lae" are meant to ward off evil spirits.

Little mirrors, usually decorated with various symbols, serve the same purpose, but I think this is more a Chinese custom than a Thai one.

Possession

Closely linked to ghosts is also the topic of possession. In some areas in Thailand, families have their own family guardian spirits. They are usually consulted through family mediums who are advising people in trance. One kind of family spirit is always kept secret though, it is the "phii kin kon" ('ghost who eats people). A family who has this protective spirit has to observe some very special rules, and people marrying into a family having this spirit as a guardian are said not to have a very long life.

And when haunted houses need exorcising, specially trained people are called in, who with the aid of a tool called "mai song" can pin point the graves of people. During those ceremonies some protective deities are moving into the "mai song", and possess the arms of the handlers (there are always two). The exorcism is an enormously energetic activity, where the spirits are exorcised with a lot of noise and running around.

Ceremonies

Many of the ceremonies performed in Thailand have some underlying animistic beliefs. The tying of white, or colored, strings around the wrists of visitors for instance. By tying these strings the giver wishes the receiver happiness and good fortune. A string-tying ceremony is part of most (all?) Thai traditional weddings. Another ceremony is the "gae bon". When an oath is made, that when some wish comes true, the ancestors have to be presented with a pig's head and some sweets in a short ceremony early in the morning. In the old days often a Buddha, usually called "buccha" Buddhas, was carved and placed in a temple or cave as well.

Spells

Another very common form of superstition are spells and charms. Look around you and you will see many of them, usually in the form of Buddha amulets or special tattoos.

Amulets

Most of the Buddha amulets are worn (or glued to dashboards) as a good-luck charm, not that much different from a Catholic wearing a cross. However, there are special ones, usually with the image of a certain revered monk, which supposedly protect the wearer from specific dangers.

The amulets are manufactured by mixing a lot of different plants and herbs together; the most powerful ones are when the ashes of a dead famous monk are mixed into them. Fairly common is also the use of a little bone fragment of a dead parent as an amulet.

"Palad kick" (amulets shaped like a penis) are very well known, and highly collectible amulets. They are usually worn by men around the waist, and are used to attract women. They are made of wood, buffalo horn, clay or ivory.

For more information check out: http://www.luckymojo.com/penisamulets.html

Similar to these "palad kick" are the very distinct black magic/love charms, the so called "ai ngan i boe". They are extremely explicit sexual amulets showing couples in almost any imaginable sexual position, and are used to attract the opposite sex. A women trying to break up relationship will for example place such a figure, which she obtained from a 'moh pii' in the bed of a couple she wants to break up. A prostitute might place a figurine in her bra to attract customers. Men might wear them around their waste to attract some women.

The most powerful ones are said to be from Surin/Cambodia. While they were very common in the old days, they are not used much anymore. Finally, another very powerful, very rare amulet against ghosts is a Chinese "paa yan" given out at some of the very gruesome Chinese graveyard festivals . While wearing them a few rules have to be observed: no alcohol, no meat from cows, turtles, frogs, elephants as well as some other animals.

Tattoos

The tattoos, or "sak yan" ('magic tattoo'), are something a bit mystic though. They are often applied in a temple by a man, called a "khruu" (teacher), who uses a long (roughly 2 foot) metal stick. The tattoo is made by tapping the top of the metal stick, which causes the pointed tip to break the skin and insert the ink. During the process the tattoo artist chants an incantation to weave the magic into the tattoo.

The tattoos usually consist of sacred images (animals, Buddhas or temples) as well as a written part, and can be placed on just about any part of the body depending upon the type of blessing it is supposed to give.

For more information on traditional tattoos, please read the Traditional tattoos article.

'Voodoo'

Finally, there are the 'voodoo' type spells, for which the province of Surin (next to the Cambodian border) is famous. According to the Thai folklore, the people from Surin are very adapt at making potions that when mixed through the food or drink of a person will cause the victim to be very susceptible to the wishes of the person giving him the potion.

The most common use of this seems to be women giving it to men, these men will then fall in love with the woman and she will take all their money before moving on to the next. Yes, that's right, love potions!

Whereas I seriously doubt this works, there are a lot of Thais who will swear to it that they do. And they all seem to know someone who lost a husband (or a wife) to these potions.

Mia nois (minor wifes) are said to use these spells as well, in order to take away the man from the mia luang (major wife).

What they will do is take a sanitary napkin with menstrual blood, burn it and mix the ashes with the food of the victim. The longer the man will eat these ashes the more he will forget his mia luang.

Another method involves a "phoo moo" (a kind of fortune teller/witchdoctor). The phoo moo will make two dolls (one female, one male) using nails, hair and a picture of the people involved. These dolls are then tied together, facing each other, with white string and then buried in the ground beneath the house. This will keep the man at home.

Fortunately, using these spells is not without consequences. Using it for vile purposes, like putting a spell on someone with the intent of making them do your bidding, will have serious repercussions for your next incarnation for instance.

BTW, if you ever get something from a Surin girl which you think is suspect, move it under your leg 3 times to break the spell

Folklore

Besides the aforementioned superstitions, lots of Thais belief in the more traditional superstitions, like walking under a ladder is bad luck. Most of these, like their Western counterparts have no real explanation, and can be very much 'out there'. One of the weirdest ones I have heard is that you are not supposed to cut your hair on Wednesday! And no, I don't have a clue as to why you should not.

What is surprising is that there are a lot of these superstitions related to relationships, giving you girlfriend certain gifts cause the relationship the break up.

Here are the ones I have heard of:

Don't give your girlfriend:

• earrings; if she loses one, you will break up
  
• a watch/clock; your time together is over
  
• shoes; they may cause her to walk away
  
• a handkerchief; you are giving her something to cry in, because you are breaking up
  
• a knife; you are cutting ties
  
• perfume; she smells bad (get around this one by having her 'pay' for it, 5 Baht will do)
  

Unfortunately, there are no taboos about giving gold, cars or condos

Obviously not all the folklore superstitions center around relationships.

For example, if you meet some people who have just been talking about you, you are said to have a long life. And if you sneeze, it means that someone is talking about you.

Not all of the folklore beliefs are good though, for instance if you talk about something bad happening before it happens, it is more likely to happen. So, if you go on a trip don't say stuff like "I hope the bus won't crash" or "I hope we won't miss the plane".

This belief is also the reason that when Thais look at a newborn baby they always say how ugly he/she is. If people would say the baby is beautiful, it might anger the spirits who would then take the baby. Giving the baby a nickname is also done to avoid attention from evil spirits.

Oh, and to all you bearded guys out there, facial hair is seen as a sign of dishonesty.

Numbers

A big significance is also put on numbers. For instance, have you ever wondered why all the Thai TV Channels have odd numbers? The answer is fairly simple, even numbers are considered bad luck.

For this same reason you will never see anybody burn an even amount of incense sticks, or wear an even amount of Buddha amulets.

The number 9 though is considered very good, because its pronunciation is very close to the Thai word for 'exceed' (as in 'more than'). For this reason dowries (or bride-prices I suppose) tend to end in a number of 9s, with each 9 increasing the meaning of the original number.

Whereas the number 9 is considered good, the number 6 is considered a bad luck number. The Thai word for 6 is the same as the word for 'dropping'. So, while 9 will increase the effect of the initial number, a 6 will decrease it.

Just as with 'normal' numbers, a lot of importance is associated with dates, and especially birthdates, and for most important events, a specific date is determined. These events range from weddings and religious ceremonies, to the buying of a house or a car.

Monks are usually the ones who, with the aid of a lunar calendar, determine the date for these events.

Color

Color too, plays a role in the superstition in Thailand. It is believed that if you dress with the color synchronized with the day, it will bring you good luck. The colors listed below are appropriate for each day:

• Color of Monday is Yellow.
  
• Color of Tuesday is Pink.
  
• Color of Wednesday is Green.
  
• Color of Thursday is Orange.
  
• Color of Friday is Blue.
  
• Color of Saturday is Purple.
  
• Color of Sunday is Red.
  

Black is not a lucky color for conservative people. If you go to a party of Thais with an average age over 40 years, please avoid dressing in black. People reserve the black color for funerals. However, if you go to a party of the younger generation, black is trendy. The best way is to ask the host.

Closing

I am fairly certain that I have only scratched the surface when it comes to superstition, and will most likely never get a true understanding of what drives these beliefs, especially since I am neither religious nor superstitious.

Nevertheless, I hope that this has been useful and I would welcome any feedback.

The term barfine is probably rather poorly chosen as it is not a fine as such, although some people seem to think so judging by a newbie I overheard in a bar once. He commented to the mamasan "Why do I have to pay a fine, I don't think I did anything wrong?"

Put simply a barfine is the price you pay to the bar to compensate them for the loss of an employee for the remainder of the evening/night. The barowners reason that more girls in the bar brings in more customers. By taking out the girls, it becomes harder for the bar to attract more customers; hence, they expect a compensation fee, the 'barfine'.

Contrary to the bars in other countries (the Philippines for instance) the barfine only buys the girl out of the bar for the night. Nothing more.

The barfine is not an 'all-in' price, therefore any 'extra services' are to be discussed with the girl, although of course all of them know exactly why you are paying their barfine, and are to be paid to her directly.

The amount of the barfine differs from bar to bar, although it is mostly in the 150-250 Baht range for beerbars, and 400-600 Baht range for GoGo bars. Barfines for waitresses and showgirls are usually higher, and in some bars these girls are not barfinable at all (or only after a certain time).

If you wish to barfine the same girl for several days in a row, talk to the mamasan since you may be able to get a discount.

In most of the bars the girl does not get a cut of the barfine, although some of the bars pay the girl a bonus for every barfine she gets over a certain quota.

So, you pay the bar a barfine to get the girl out of the bar, and you pay the girl for any 'services' she provides.

Cheers

Here's the deal... Thai girl is either approached by a recruiter, or they seek out a recruiter on their own.

It seems that the one's who seek one out on their own, are familiar that many exist, and many said that he/she was located in their neighborhood (I should note that much of what I read were many actual interviews, with the Thai girl herself). The reasons for them seeking one out is extremely varied... literally across the board. Drunk, loser husband who won't change his way's, and she feels the need to take control, to village girls seeing 2-3 local families building nice house, and knowing it is coming from daughter working in Japan and also seeing her come back very rich, to the working go-go dancer who hears of the riches to be had there and wants to check it out. I think also, that the average Thai girl sees Japanese man as being very rich. Certainly the ones in the trade, already. Almost all, who seek one out on their own, realize that prostitution is part of the deal. But very few, unless they have a friend who had actually done it, understood what they were to be facing.

And here's why. Local Thai recruiters when approached, or scouting, will present different stories to both camps. To the one approaching him, he realizes that they have some idea that prostitution will be part of the deal. So... he tells them that he will take care of all costs and paperwork to get her there, the money is great, and all he wants is reimbursement of funds spent, and a little profit. She might have to work 1-2 months to pay back debt, but after that, she can keep everything. In some case, girl was told she was going to be working in a restaurant, and her providing sex, was optional. I think also, that girl has visions of working there to meet rich Japanese guy, who will take her for his bride. A situation that could well happen for, and in fact, many stated as their ultimate goal.

Now to the ones that are approached by recruiter... this gets more complicated, and again... very much varied circumstances. Here, most recruiters will search the northern sections of Thailand, especially during 'green season', when rice is growing, and not bringing in any income. It's so very sad to say, but the fact is parents are approached, and offered baht to sell their daughter. Of course, they are told, as is the daughter, that she will be working factory, or restaurant. She will have to work a while to pay back employer for cost of getting her there, but after that, she can send home all that she makes. On top of that, recruiter will give parents something like US$1,000 right away. I can't believe that parents don't know the deal, but from interviews with girl, many were only too happy to be able to 'save the farm'. How exciting... see gets to see the world, and parents are provided for, also. A once in a lifetime deal.

OK... recruitment accomplished, be it approached by girl herself, or recruited through searching the countryside. What happens next, is that they are taken to an apartment in BKK. The area was always the same, but I forget where. I'm not familiar with it. When they get there, there will be anywhere from 3 to 15 girls in same apt. Also present is a mamasan (escort), and several Thai guys. The rules are then explained. At this point, reality set in for some of them, but not others.

Cannot leave apt, without escort (and need a very good reason to do so), cannot make a phone call or any other form of communication with the outside world, and they should not speak among themselves. They are, from this point on, monitored 24/7, and there lives are totally controlled. After an average of 2-3 days, they are taken to airport. During this 2-3 day period they are versed on what to say at immigration, and what not to say. It varies here, as some will actually be taken to get married during this 2-3 day staging process. Some had a man show up at immigration posing as her husband (a man she never met, and never saw again). Others were simply handed a passport, and told what to say.

But, at BKK airport, the drill always seemed to be the same. They were told which line to get into. And what to say, if anything. Most times, immigration didn't say a word, and filled out forms for them, then passed them right through. It is very obvious, from all interviews, that things are not right here, but I don't want to delve into this area, and is a subject best left not commented on, for the survival of this board. I hope you all get what I'm saying here. Khun cow jai mai? (you understand?)

On the plane, many were handed a different passport to use upon entering Japan, and were directed to a certain line. (Khun cow jai mai?)

So... they are in Japan. Most are confused about what is going on, but going with the flow. What happens next varies. Most are taken to an apartment where other girls are present. They are taken out in groups of 2-3 and brought to different restaurants over a period of 3-4 days. Same situation exists for them. Watched, and controlled, every movement. During this 2-3 day period, they are introduced to mamasan, who is there 24/7. It is at this point, while in Japan hotel room, what the real situation is. And this is where it gets good, listeners.

The girls are told that the debt they owe to come here is US$20,000 to $US40,000, and they must work this off before earning a dime. In every case, they (Thai girl) are absolutely shocked, to say the least. They then confiscate their passport, and tell them that they are in Japan illegally, and will be arrested on the spot, if found out. The days that follow are them being brought to many different restaurants, some a days travel away. Eventually, a 'restaurant' owner will strike a deal with the broker showing his wares. Usually in the field of US$11,000. The contract deal has been struck. Girl is sold for US11,000, but must make 20 to 40K to get released from contract.

These restaurants are called "snacks" in Japan. Many of them are legit restaurants that offer "sex take-outs" at night. Almost all Thai girls are brought to these places as their initial place of employment. By this time, girl know that she has been sold into prostitution, and what debt she needs to work off, before making any money for herself. What happens if she declines? They have taken her passport. She ain't going nowhere, and she knows it. This is her fate, and she knows it.

At this point, I gotta interject. I've read many detailed interviews with Thai girls placed into this situation. I gotta get up early tomorrow for work, but for the life of me, I cannot understand the mentality of these girls. I swear to God, you will not believe the average story as to how this whole scenario usually plays out.

Conditions in these 'snacks' are pretty much the same. They are never allowed to leave, except with a customer, who will bring them to a hotel down the street, to be serviced. They work from 6:00pm to 3:00am in the snack as hostesses. They then get up at 9:00am to clean restaurant, and serve lunch. After, they usually work in the garden behind the restaurant, and other chores. If caught eating anything from garden, a fine is imposed, and added to their debt. All had to work 7 days a week. ANY infraction from the rules results in additional debt. They are only allowed to keep extra tips. This money they must use to buy necessities like food, medicine, etc. They were all required to take birth control pills every day, especially on menstruation cycle. This stopped them from having periods. One girl who worked for 1.5 years said when she got back to Thailand, she bleed for 2 weeks, non-stop, when not taking pills during menstruation any longer.

Most were brought to doctor 1 or 2 times during their time there, by mamasan. They were never told of the results of these 'tests'. One girl interviewed heard "blood positive", but at the time, did not know what it meant. She did not realize she had just been diagnosed with AIDS. She was then sold into another contract, which I'll get into later. Doctor visits were for mamasans benefit, but cost was added to their debt, at greatly inflated prices, as was all expenses incurred by mamasan. Rent, rice, etc. was added to their debt monthly, equal to 4-5 times the actual cost. Breaking house rules also means an addition to their debt.

House rules: Cannot speak Thai, or tell anyone they are from Thailand. Where they live has cameras and motion detectors to limit their movement. They are under 24/7 surveillance. Cannot even go to store without a guard. While under contract, this is the case from the time they are brought to hotel in Bangkok, until they are released from contract. There is always a handler 24/7.

The sex: They are required to sit with customers in snack. Any customer wanting to take them, they could not refuse. If a customer took them before, and beat her, she HAD to go with him again. When they came back beaten, they would be penalized for not satisfying customer (additional debt). Many snacks insisted on a minimum of 2 customers a night (if not... additional debt was added). Average was 4. Men paid average $180-240/hr. All night is $340. Girl cannot refuse ANY request from customer. If customer complains about not being satisfied, additional debt was added, and in many cases, she was beaten by mamasan for non-submission. Whatever the customer wanted, she was required to comply, no matter what. Another threat was that if she did not do as customer wanted, she would be sold into another contract, starting the whole process over again.

Time element: Some girls worked like crazy, and paid off their debt in 3 months (US$25,000 to US$40,000, the average seemingly to be US$30,000). With additional debt (room and board, incidentals, etc.) this works out to a couple of hundred customers. But this was not the norm. Many stayed 1 year, or more, to work off debt. Their accounting, and mamasans, never jived. In many cases, girl was accounting that debt was almost paid, just to have mamasan say they had US$10,000 more to go. Additional debt was always added to their account, without any knowing how much, or why. They all seemed to resign themselves as this being their fate. To complain would mean additional hardships, so all felt that they just had to keep working, until they were released from contract. "Up to you, mamasan" kind of mentality.

Drugs: Are forbidden by mamasan. Soâ?¦ many use cough syrup to numb themselves to the reality of their situation. Two cases of acute psychosis resulting from this. One is still in mental hospital in Thailand.

Escape: The dream was that a customer would buy out their contract. A rich Japanese man would take her for his wife/mia noi. In some cases it happened. If caught soliciting this with customer, she would be fined, and beaten, so they has to walk a fine line. The threat to them was that if she escaped, the police would get her (they took her passport), or they would send yakuza to find her, and kill her. But... not just her. If they could not find her, they would kill family back in Thailand. If yakuza did find her, she would be put into 'black cage'... a yakuza hotel where she would have to work for free indefinitely. Also the threat of being put into the ocean. While these threats were common among all interviewed, not one knew of a specific case. In fact, there were several successful escapes, all without repercussions. One BK girl refused to go home for a year, fearing she was being watched, and didn't want followers to know where family lived.

Resale: Girl sold to buyer for $11,000. Girl must produce $30,000 to be released. Then she is free. Think again. Many work 2 months reducing debt, only to be re-sold into a new contract, starting her back to day 1. Many mamasans use this as a threat against girls. "Shape up, or I'll resell you". One case was a girl finishing up 1 year of working to pay debt. 2 weeks to go before she could keep all the money she brought in. Snack caught fire, and owners sold her into a new contract. She was not happy about this. But no passport, and the threats of yakuza, she ended up going along. She felt she had no choice.

Contract ends: Soâ?¦ girl finally services enough customers to satisfy contract. Initially, in all cases, they had no idea what was entailed as far as the conditions they would have to work under. They were all duped, in one way or another. In a few snacks the girl was actually allowed to write home (but never with a return address, because that would tell family where she was, so they could never write her); all were read by handlers before being sent out. Family back home has no idea what is going on. So... what do you think? Girl runs back home on first flight out of Narita. She has just gotten out of a contract that makes her go with many men, 24/7, and must do whatever they ask her to, no matter what the request. A far cry from what she was told to get her there... Guess again.

Aftermath: 90% of these Thai girls stay there. A few freelance, but the majority enter into a new contract. Many in the same snack they came from. Why? The snack owner doesn't care whom he pays the US$11,000 to. So... the now free Thai girl sells herself back to the snack owner for $11,000 and enters into new contract. She then promptly sends $11,000 to family back home. Because she is able to do that, it's all been worth it, in her eyes.

WTF???? Oh my God. Reading about this, I'm starting to realize just how powerful the need instilled into a Thai girls brain is that she has the responsibility of taking care of family. It's of such a powerful force, that I have no understanding of. In almost all cases, girls had trouble finding the money to get home. Everything they made went to family back home.

I have so much to learn.

High Thaied

Article from Bang Kwang Prison

Cheers