Any racism in Bangkok nightlife?

[Guest]

Any racism in Bangkok nightlife?

 

My 1st trip to Bangkok is next week. I am from US with south Asian (Indian origin). Is there any racism or color (dark skin) discrimination in massage parlors and bars in Bangkok? If yes, can you list any such places I should avoid and recommend joints that are open to customers with dark skin.

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

Unfortunately there is. A friend of mine from the UK was just here for several weeks and was told at a couple of places (including Long Gun) that the bar was 'members only'. Utter bullshit of course.

 

Many of the massage parlours also have a surcharge for any non-Thai / non-Asians and it is likely that they would place you in that category as well.

 

Having said all of that though, I would not let it put me off on visiting as in the majority of places you will have no problem.

 

Sanuk!

[Guest]

Is there any racism or color (dark skin) discrimination in massage parlors and bars in Bangkok?

 

Firstly I should say that I am a white (native?!) Brit, so my views and experiances will be coloured accordingly (pun intended).

 

IMHO the short answer in yes, but fortunately the Thais are the world's most freindly Racists as IMHO it is based mainly on ignorance rather than an innate prejudice against a particuler group.

 

To me the Thai "Racism" (for wont of a better word) is a mixture of Nationalism (Thailand is no 1 and if you are not Thai, it can be looked at as bad luck for you - go figure!), Xenophopia (a fear of foreigners, although it could be argued that this is in fact justified bearing in mind Thailands history, including spending the last couple of centuries trying to avoid being colonised by Europeans!), colourism (The lighter shade of skin the better / more attractive / higher status, even amongst Thais) and just plain old Ignorance (which generates an automatic dislike of anything different or not easily understood).

 

In my opinion (in the P4P arena) the biggest colour bar is the BG's past experiance in that they know that customers from Africa and the Sub continent tend to have less money to spend - and even those that do have money are more "careful" with it, than say, a Drunken Brit.

 

My advice to you is not to get overly hung up on it, as money AND attitude tends to mitigate most things in Thailand. This is I guess easy for me to say - but I should mention that just because I am a whitey European does NOT mean that I am not treated like a second class citizen (after all, not only do I have the "bad luck" not to be Thai!, but I am also a Foreigner). and IMHO more importantly, I am quite often a drunken twat.

 

From a practical perspective I would make clear ASAP when you hit a bar that you have arrived from the USA (as this indicates decent money to spend) and spend a few dollars getting aquainted with the Bar and BG's and vice verse - once someone gets known as a "good potential customer" (a whole separate subject!), any colour issues tend to become secondary, if not fall away completely. In my experiance, if you are drinking in a BarBeer area, once you are known in one bar (for good or bad!), word about you has a tendency to spread fairly quickly amongst the girls. (gossiping is the BG's no 1 pastime!)

 

 

I am sure that others here will have had different experiances and a differing interpretation of the situation and of course I have somewhat simplified and perhaps over generalised things, as I do not want to be writing this all day.

 

No point giving you the names of any Bars to avoid, as the BG's change all the time.

[Khun_Kong]

studmuffinbobby said:

Any racism in Bangkok nightlife?

 

My 1st trip to Bangkok is next week. I am from US with south Asian (Indian origin). Is there any racism or color (dark skin) discrimination in massage parlors and bars in Bangkok? If yes, can you list any such places I should avoid and recommend joints that are open to customers with dark skin.

 

SMB-

 

Good words from 1-More. Hard to expand on that.

 

Racism has many different colors and undertones and 2 people in the same environment can have a completely different experience of the degree of racism.

 

I see you're from the US. Whereabouts? Do you feel that your environment there is racist?

 

I was born in Selma, Alabama, a locale known as a bastion of liberalism and acceptance of others. The racism as it exists in Thakland is a ghost of the racism shown there.

[thai3]

 

Good post and you are right in saying attitude is the key here. I don't remember chocolate steve reporting being turned away from bars. One thing though I think it depends on what type of foreign devil you look like these days. Post sept 2001 looking arab/middle eastern is more likely to be met with hostility than if you look black american or indian.If it were me I would make some effort to appear less middle eastern rather than emphasising it. Who wants to go into LG anyhow -peter

[Guest]

If it were me I would make some effort to appear less middle eastern

 

 

Last trip I did not bother to shave off my beard again - I KNOW the BG's love a man with a beard :) . Never had any problems :: ::

 

 

On a seperate subject, the beard is great when playing pool with the BG's, kissing me on the cheek makes for a great forfeit for them which does not involve money (I never take money from them when gambling), and it is a forfeit which they usually REALLY want to avoid! (IF they win they get a drink - I often like them to "work" for their free drinks!)

[chelseafan]

Rascism is not only limited to Falangs, the Thai's themselves tend to be racist towards their own. Those with very dark skin are looked down (in general) by those with dark (yet lighter) skin. They tend to think that the former are poorer due to having to endure manual labour (working in the fields in the sun all day).

IMHO, it's rather like the Indian "caste" system.

[Guest]

My impression is that the colour stuff amongst Thais is more of a class thing, rather than racist. I am not sure how the "caste" system works - isn't there also some religious b#llocks involved as part of the universal attempt of trying to keep "us" peasants in their place?

 

The irony is that I beleive that back in the 18th / 19th century in europe the paler skin denoted the higher classes, because they did not work out in the sun. Which at some point switched 180 degrees sp that having a tan showed you could afford the leisure time to do so, rather than being pale and pasty from working in a factory.

 

Of course then the masses "discovered" Majorca and then skin cancer "arrived" - not sure what skin colour now denotes..............

[OCgringo]

OK,, from a California white guy, often sunburned

 

yes there is racism , mostly against blacks and Indians,

saying that its mostly because of experiances with them, so if you wear "traditional" Indian clothes you will be more ignored.

 

But its not against Americans or Brits etc, so once they figure out that you are from the West most of the racism goes away.

 

At least that is my experiance hanging around Nana Soi 4 area,

if you go over to Soi 3 / grace hotel area its not the same.

[thai3]

One_More said:

 

Last trip I did not bother to shave off my beard again - I KNOW the BG's love a man with a beard :) . Never had any problems :: ::

 

Hardly the same issue as you are white. Try shaving it off next time then try to find a girl who will admit to liking a man with a beard. These girls are prostitiutes, we pay them to act as if they like us, but not having any problems is not the same as them liking you! Do you really think they like fat smelly foriengers all over them night after night, get real-peter