How The Pandemic Has Upended The Lives Of Thailand's Sex Workers

[DerbyDan]

20 minutes ago, WineOh said:

Spot on mate.

My wife came from a poor family.

She worked her backside off being a waitress to fund her college education and buy a plane ticket to the USA.

She then worked even harder whilst there and paid her way through university.

Now she is a director and a shareholder in her company and is reaping the benefits of all the hard work she put in years ago.

 

If you want a better life then you have to work for it.

And if you don't want to work for it then don't complain when all the easy money dries up.

it's as simple as that.

for every person who makes it like that there are 5 who end up broke and poor

[Lacessit]

23 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

They will tell you anything when they are after a customer or off their heads. They don't like it when the easy money dries up though

 

 

Colin's relatives sound like ours, they are not fortunate, they are just normal. Some just take the lazy way out without thinking about their futures, cop a baby or two and they just pack them off back home for the relatives to look after. We need to get over this fantasy of rural Thailand of being populated by people who have to choose between poverty or sex work- they don't and it's just an excuse propagated party by the customers of sex workers.

Government work is not "normal". It's an eagerly sought after sinecure here. For many, it's another ticket on the lazy bus. Tell me the last time you ever saw a government servant here busting a gut. There's a police checkpoint not far from my GF's village that is permanently unoccupied after the stroke of noon.

Not all people in rural Thailand choose sex work, the ugly ones can't.

[CharlieH]

Off topic and flame post/responses removed.

[HashBrownHarry]

20 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Government work is not "normal". It's an eagerly sought after sinecure here. For many, it's another ticket on the lazy bus. Tell me the last time you ever saw a government servant here busting a gut. There's a police checkpoint not far from my GF's village that is permanently unoccupied after the stroke of noon.

Not all people in rural Thailand choose sex work, the ugly ones can't.

I've seen plenty of 'ugly ones', even their basic salary in 'fun town' etc would be more than they could make in the boondocks.

[ThaiFelix]

1 hour ago, colinneil said:

 

What a load of rubbish, to my knowledge only 1 girl from this village went to Pattaya to sell her body.

My wife is 1 of 4 sisters, each 1 of them works as civil servants/ teachers.

Quite the opposite here.  I personally know at least 10 women from my small village who work/worked in the sex trade.  Even right next door 2 of their 3 daughters work in bars in Pattaya and Phuket just as their mother did.  We have also seen an influx of young women returning to the village since the pandemic started.  The unfortunate thing is most sit at home partying while there aged parents still go out "tending the rice and digging cassava roots" because their returned  daughters refuse to do the work.

[teacherclaire]

.

Empty and closed bars and way too many scars. 

 

 

    

[Ventenio]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

to build a cement house

no truer words have been spoken

[ChakaKhan]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Mos grew up in a poor province on Thailand's northeastern border, eating fish from the river and leaves foraged from the forest. He wanted to eat pork and pizza.

Was getting paid to eat pork, then can spend the bacon on pizza.......Im available for any cute chinese gals if they want to take advantage of me  ????

[onebir]

"How The Pandemic Has Metaphorically Upended  People More Used to Being Upended Literally"

[Pilotman]

3 hours ago, Laza 45 said:

Self-righteous moralizing serves no purpose..

well said.

[Pilotman]

1 hour ago, DerbyDan said:

for every person who makes it like that there are 5 who end up broke and poor

more like  100 

[ChakaKhan]

"Boys, boys, boys, where are you going," the women said as a couple of men strolled by. "I love you!" they yelled at strangers. They pretended to swoon and called every passing man handsome. One woman, tilting on her stilettos, tugged with her full might at a man's arm to pull him in and perhaps oblige him to buy her a shot. He wrestled his arm free and walked on...

 

Ahhh a rite of passage most of us here have gone thru since arriving in LOS ....

 

. As a foreigner, the Thai people they met eyed him suspiciously. They asked her how long he'd been in the country, trying to determine if he was a disease vector. When she brought him back to her family home in Isaan, A's mother decamped to the local temple, afraid she would catch COVID-19 from him.    Not sure if calling me a farang or disease vector is worse!? ????

 

If anyone read the article and say the pics of the gals in them , that in itself might explain why there are no customers.....ugh..even after a bottle of sangsom...nope!

Edited February 4, 2021 by ChakaKhan

[OneMoreFarang]

2 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

It's nonsense to suggest as the article does that it's a choice of dire poverty or sexual exploitation. Cassava roots and rice paddies or selling yourself in some seedy bar in Pattaya, really? The reality is those from Issan who actually had some motivation are now teachers, civil servants, pharmacists and bank workers like our family members from a poor Issan village. About 400 homes and only one is known to have left for the whore houses of Pattaya over the years, the others just got off their bums and worked hard, they may be still paying off student loans but that's normal everywhere these days

I agree, most people have a choice.

Obviously 1,000B per hour or more is not paid in Thai factories. But even with factory jobs people receive enough money for a basic life.

 

I think we should not judge people one way or the other. Is it smarter if a girl goes to Pattaya and makes a lot of money? Or would she be a better girl if she would work for 300B a day somewhere in a factory?

I think it's everybody's personal choice. One job is not always better than the other job. It's different - like people are different.

And some girl can handle those bar jobs well. They are still sane after a decade or more in that job. Others need only a few months to mess up their lives and brains permanently. 

 

[NCC1701A]

"N" still looks good. But I told her not to let her roots grow out like that. She never listens. 

[NCC1701A]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

He says the job was fun, and the pay was great. He saved up enough money to build a cement house for his family in the countryside.

no mention of pickpocketing? 

[Moonlover]

4 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Tough times for them and families, maybe learn a lesson to save and not get into debt

Hypocritical comment from one who clearly didn't even bother to read the article.

 

Disgraceful.

[CrunchWrapSupreme]

My in-laws live in a moo ban out in the Issan sticks. Whenever we visit we see a lovely lady in her 40’s living with her mom down the road. Not ugly, but not at all a stunner. We hear she used to sell food in a market. Now lately she gets by selling salad rolls by the road.

 

I’ve got this lonely buddy back in the States who hasn’t had much luck dating. I’m always telling my wife about his latest misadventures. He looks ok and has a decent job, but I’ve sure you’ve heard it’s been real tough over there. So her and I figured, why not try hooking him up with a simple girl from the village, surely uncorrupted by the effects of modern, Western life.

 

We got her Line ID and made the connection. They got by for about a week through Google Translate. Then suddenly it came, what he’s heard before in his attempts at online dating. Some claimed “emergency”, and a specific request for just 200 US Dollars, along with her bank account number. Haha. This sweet, unassuming little lady. Why specifically ask for US Dollars? Why be familiar with the “sick buffalo” bar girl tactics? Either she was one, or is acquainted with them. Way out in the sticks, I’m talking 30 mins drive to the nearest town, not much of a town really.

 

It’s really quite a pervasive, integral part of this society, given its pervasive inequality. It’s the kind of survival anyone might resort to being up against a wall. Which the minted BKK hi-sos with their impenetrable, generational wealth, connections, plastic surgery and Ferraris, couldn’t give a flying flip about.  

 

Just work hard? For a couple of hundred baht a day? Just go to university? Sure, with that kind of money? Hope to get into some company, where nearly all decent positions have already been spoken for well in advance, as daddy plays golf with them? Give me a break.

[KarenBravo]

4 hours ago, ezzra said:

The same can be said of thousands of other professions and work types, and the are all suffering, this pandemic isn't very kind to no one...

 

Oh, I don't know about that............Food delivery companies like Grab and Panda are doing a roaring trade as are some of the restaurants that almost exclusively cater to them.

Freight forwarders like Kerry have sprung up everywhere and are also seeing good times.

 

Other than that, I agree with you.

[PatOngo]

3 hours ago, Lacessit said:

The average cement house

....would blow away in the wind, however, mix it with some sand, aggregate and water and build a CONCRETE house, it might just last!

[Dagfinnur Traustason]

6 hours ago, Laza 45 said:

Self-righteous moralizing serves no purpose..

And stupidity by not thinking about saving, looks like a no winner as well. ????

[CharlieH]

A post commenting on Moderation has been removed. Forum rule10.

[DepDavid]

5 hours ago, colinneil said:

 

What a load of rubbish, to my knowledge only 1 girl from this village went to Pattaya to sell her body.

My wife is 1 of 4 sisters, each 1 of them works as civil servants/ teachers.

Not being argumentative, but the poorest of the poor can’t afford to pay the money required to get the good jobs. Not making excuses but forward thinking and action/results are not the most prevalent here. Maybe if they were taught that “you have to start somewhere “ like take the job in the coffee shop then work your way up, maybe things could be better. 

[Mike Rodik]

if only thailand would invest in descent education, than those poor girls would not have to sell sex for money

[HarrySeaman]

6 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Tough times for them and families, maybe learn a lesson to save and not get into debt

 

Try saving when you need every bit of what you earn to live and to take care of family members or to repay your family for the sacrifices they made raising you.

 

Saving and thinking ahead are great, if you can afford them.

[skorp13]

It has hurt a lot of them for sure. However there are other jobs out there. I know some that have gone to work for grab and food panda and a nephew just got a job in a factory in Chonburi so there are other ways to make a living if this particular trade isn't working out for them anymore. I wish them well

[miamiman123]

7 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Tough times for them and families, maybe learn a lesson to save and not get into debt

Don’t spend is the key but at that level it’s nearly impossible to do 

[SomchaiCNX]

5 hours ago, Sujo said:

Because he saved enough for a house and providing for his siblings to go to college.

 

Too busy working to provide for others.

Indeed, spending  a lot of money on a lousy (Thai) degree that brings in almost nothing and does not support anyone. If he is happy with his job and he provides for his siblings, who are we to judge him?  Probably a lot religious brainwashed people on this forum.  The biggest prostitutes that I know are politicians.

[scubascuba3]

3 hours ago, Moonlover said:

Hypocritical comment from one who clearly didn't even bother to read the article.

 

Disgraceful.

Plonker post

[RichardColeman]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Mos, 26, was a "moneyboy" — a sex worker — at a gay bar in the Thai tourist hub of Pattaya. For him, it was a dream come true.

I guess if you're gay and like old gay men then yes it is a dream come true. My own personal dream of flying like superman has yet to come true, so he's got that on me.

[scubascuba3]

37 minutes ago, HarrySeaman said:

 

Try saving when you need every bit of what you earn to live and to take care of family members or to repay your family for the sacrifices they made raising you.

 

Saving and thinking ahead are great, if you can afford them.

I've met enough girls to realise they waste loads of money, giving it away, merit, all sorts of nonsense