I had a one night layover in Bangkok on my way home so I hooked up with a friend who has lived in Thailand for the last ten years. We married a Thai woman that he met in the US and emigrated.
We went out into the entertainment area for the farang.
Taxis are now metered in Bangkok and that is probably a good thing. No more 10 block rides for ten dollars. Rates start off at 35 baht-about a dollar and then meter from there by the kilometer.
We visited the old patpong area-where I went first went twenty years ago when my friend took me to Thailand. It is a mere shadow of its former self. The soi is filled with vendors selling everything from pirate videos to t-shirts. The go-go clubs are still there but with little to speak of in the way of clientele.
The mode of operation hasn't changed much. Girl approaches, cadges a drink and then tries to get you to buy her out of the bar. Quotes a price for sex that is about ten times what the rate should be. Some things just never change. The most popular clubs are now down at Nana Plaza.
There is something pathetic about watching the interaction between the bar girls and the sex tourists. There is no language interaction since the tourist knows no Thai and the bar girl only knows enough "business English" to complete her sale.
The girls have no face and neither do the tourists. It is all just about the money. . . . Most of the girls are from the outer provinces and not local.
Bar girls always lie but then- so do the tourists. The tourists, however, dont seem to realize that the girls have them pegged from the start.
Some of the girls have joined marriage agencies. They claim in their profiles that they have college degrees or are secretaries etc. etc. And how would someone ever know. . . . . .
I wouldnt trust a girl from the northeast living there in Bangkok or working in, frequenting, visiting, or standing in the vicinity of the nightclubs. Decent Thai women don't do that. And they dont go to cocktail parties to meet farang either. Bar girls do.
Been there already. . . .
