'We don't know if we'll survive': Thailand sex workers left struggling as COVID-19 lockdown drags on

[webfact]

Night entertainment venues in Thailand have remained shut for months after the government ordered such venues to be closed temporarily to control the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo: iStock/PeopleImages)

 

Pichayada Promchertchoo

 

BANGKOK: For Anna, the Walking Street of Pattaya is more than just a famous red-light district. It was her workplace for the past 12 years.

 

It was here, among the rows of nightclubs, bars and massage parlours, that she and other sex workers welcomed tourists from around the world. Many people have built their lives here and others came to seek a better future.

 

Today, the Walking Street of Pattaya City in coastal Chonburi is no longer a place of entertainment and opportunities. Night entertainment venues that had provided jobs for many sex workers are shut. There are no bright neon lights at night and no pumping music. Tourists have vanished since last year when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Thailand. 

 

“It’s so depressing,” said Anna, who is known along the Walking Street by her moniker. “Nowadays, by 6 pm, Pattaya looks like an abandoned city. There is hardly any sign of life on the Walking Street. This makes me want to cry. This place used to generate income and build the future for so many people.”

 

Full story: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/thailand-covid-19-sex-workers-jobless-starving-2108501

 

 

-- © Copyright Channel NewsAsia 2021-08-16

 

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[A1Str8]

I don't see the problem. Everything is moving online anyway. 

Including prostitution. Just get the clients online. More money in your pockets. Less hassle. Improved schedule. 

Webcam with the suckers overseas. Have onlyfans. If these ex bar girls have some brains soon enough they will start making so much money they will giggle at their old workplace and salary. 

[thaibeachlovers]

Just another sob story the media love. Bar girls have always faced being redundant during low season, and usually go back to the village they came from, or look for other work.

[CrunchWrapSupreme]

Here's my report from the moo ban. Yes, the young ladies have been showing up at grandma and grandpa's here and there, with a noticeable difference between them. Some are obviously in a better mood than others. Those who managed to snag sponsors from when they were working, and those who didn't. I have a hard time finding sympathy for the latter. They had plenty of time to develop better social skills, attitudes, and definitely better English, instead of all that time on the barstool playing on their phones, gossiping, drinking. Now they stomp around the moo ban with a permanent scowl on their faces as they head to sell food by the road.

 

Online sales, indeed. Some girls we don't see come out until the afternoon. There's no clubs or bars to go to, so they're up late in their rooms doing something. Not just bar girls, but HS grads who then didn't go to uni, jobless, nothing else to do. The wife hears they're TikTok-style messaging apps where they do livestreams and doods toss coins or whatever at them. Hey, if it's bringing in more money for the fam, more power to them. Much better than the young men who lay about, and other than yelling about whatever's going on in their online game, do absolutely nothing.

Edited August 15, 2021 by CrunchWrapSupreme

[Mickeymaus]

"There is hardly any sign of life on the Walking Street. This makes me want to cry. This place used to generate income and build the future for so many people.”" 

 

This is exactly the problem. That girls like you see this as a future...

[hellohello123]

I didn't realise walking street was the only area on earth that had tourist numbers slashed due to the pandemic.....

 

 

[wasabi]

Sure wish I was there to help them one and all but the lax vax situation makes the go-gos a no go.

[bkk6060]

3 hours ago, A1Str8 said:

I don't see the problem. Everything is moving online anyway. 

Including prostitution. Just get the clients online. More money in your pockets. Less hassle. Improved schedule. 

Webcam with the suckers overseas. Have onlyfans. If these ex bar girls have some brains soon enough they will start making so much money they will giggle at their old workplace and salary. 

I agree makes sense.  But, many of them actually enjoy sharing a room with other girls all on their phones, the game and drinking with customers, partying in a bar or Gogo with friends.  

[sezze]

3 hours ago, A1Str8 said:

I don't see the problem. Everything is moving online anyway. 

Including prostitution. Just get the clients online. More money in your pockets. Less hassle. Improved schedule. 

Webcam with the suckers overseas. Have onlyfans. If these ex bar girls have some brains soon enough they will start making so much money they will giggle at their old workplace and salary. 

Sure there are online spots , and some will earn good cash , but most will not . And online isn't at all the same like real , if you think so , there was no reason at all for them to exist last 20 years , plenty of free porn on the internet . "But i pay for internet porn " , ok good for you , paying content imho only matters if you have the option to meet the girl , but who am i to judge , let the public decide . They won't get any money from me , and i think that goes for the most of the people.

[OneMoreFarang]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

It was her workplace for the past 12 years.

She should have retired years ago.

Pretty young girls don't have any problems finding sponsors.

[sezze]

1 minute ago, OneMoreFarang said:

She should have retired years ago.

Pretty young girls don't have any problems finding sponsors.

Most Thais only think today , and if they studied a littlebit maybe tomorrow also , but never 5 or 10y infront.

[tandor]

1 hour ago, CrunchWrapSupreme said:

Here's my report from the moo ban. Yes, the young ladies have been showing up at grandma and grandpa's here and there, with a noticeable difference between them. Some are obviously in a better mood than others. Those who managed to snag sponsors from when they were working, and those who didn't. I have a hard time finding sympathy for the latter. They had plenty of time to develop better social skills, attitudes, and definitely better English, instead of all that time on the barstool playing on their phones, gossiping, drinking. Now they stomp around the moo ban with a permanent scowl on their faces as they head to sell food by the road.

 

Online sales, indeed. Some girls we don't see come out until the afternoon. There's no clubs or bars to go to, so they're up late in their rooms doing something. Not just bar girls, but HS grads who then didn't go to uni, jobless, nothing else to do. The wife hears they're TikTok-style messaging apps where they do livestreams and doods toss coins or whatever at them. Hey, if it's bringing in more money for the fam, more power to them. Much better than the young men who lay about, and other than yelling about whatever's going on in their online game, do absolutely nothing.

...they were always selling..Im sure they will adapt.

[malibukid]

34 minutes ago, sezze said:

Sure there are online spots , and some will earn good cash , but most will not . And online isn't at all the same like real , if you think so , there was no reason at all for them to exist last 20 years , plenty of free porn on the internet . "But i pay for internet porn " , ok good for you , paying content imho only matters if you have the option to meet the girl , but who am i to judge , let the public decide . They won't get any money from me , and i think that goes for the most of the people.

covid has killed it.

Edited August 16, 2021 by malibukid

[nausea]

I guess the real tragedy for these girls is the loss of prime income generating time. No doubt others will replace them if the scene should return, and income disparity in Thailand remain such as it is, but for them personally, they're lost years. As for online stuff replacing the scene, I don't see it. The Pattaya, Sukhumvit soi 4, soi Cowboy, Bangla, etc., "Hangover" style experience, was a  package, with partying and real personal contact being an essential part, for both the customers and the girls, giving your average western bloke and Thai girl a taste of the "playboy" lifestyle, usually reserved for the very rich or beautiful.

[WEBBYB808]

4 hours ago, A1Str8 said:

I don't see the problem. Everything is moving online anyway. 

Including prostitution. Just get the clients online. More money in your pockets. Less hassle. Improved schedule. 

Webcam with the suckers overseas. Have onlyfans. If these ex bar girls have some brains soon enough they will start making so much money they will giggle at their old workplace and salary. 

You are correct,  on line further could benefit  them by not forcing  them to drink less and not turning  them into raging alcoholism,  it would lower cost, and put more in the ladies pockets  where it should be, as bars get a cut for really no reason.

[Dukeleto]

But but but I thought the government said there were no such thing as sex workers! I thought Pattaya was becoming a family resort style destination? They have the perfect chance now seeing as it’s all apparently stopped to rebrand and open up as “family destination”. When it does all finally open back up again, after the world wakes up to the fact that good old Covid-19 and it’s many variant mates, like seasonal flu, are here to stay. Pattaya will re-emerge exactly the same as it was before and incredibly quickly too. Hopefully this time with a little more appreciation for the tourists that fund it all. Although knowing Thais I have far less confidence in that sentence than the rest of my predictions. Within a few years the majority will back to bashing foreigners and tourists as the scum of the earth and we don’t need them…funny that!

[raccos21]

They still can try this.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/she-quit-being-icu-nurse-033357368.html

[Sydebolle]

Fake news - as per the local government (or at least those ministers not caught with their trousers down to their ankles) there is no such thing like sex workers and/or prostitution. 

Now you can all go back to your room and be ashamed of yourself to think such things about Thailand. 

On a more sombre note; the entire business went completely underground and is, most likely, covered by a network through social media, be it Line, WhatsApp, Tinder et al ........

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

This makes me want to cry. This place used to generate income and build the future for so many people.”

Generations of poor governance has destroyed Thailand.

Instead of a government having real policies and growth plans they have sat back and stayed the same, large family monopolies, self serving politicians, and rife corruption at every level.

Without tourism there is no second industry for thousands if not millions.

Entertainment owners, sex workers and the whole supply chain of every day workers has collapsed.

Industry is largely led by foreign owned corporations, if they ever left the country would implode.

Thailand needs to invest heavily in home built businesses that it owns and controls, giving the populous work options, not relying solely on foreign investments.

 

[kevin612]

12 years, she is too old now. She should have enough money by now.

[BestB]

Rentals 30%~50% cheaper, discounts on many services. Hookers double their prices and crying they do not have money ?

 

here is a thought charge half pre Covid prices and then you do not have to cry 

[hotchilli]

1 hour ago, hellohello123 said:

I didn't realise walking street was the only area on earth that had tourist numbers slashed due to the pandemic.....

 

 

It's not, but it was one of the few countries that were reliant on it.

[hotchilli]

4 minutes ago, kevin612 said:

12 years, she is too old now. She should have enough money by now.

She obviously lived for the day... no future plan

.

[NanaSomchai]

5 hours ago, A1Str8 said:

I don't see the problem. Everything is moving online anyway. 

Including prostitution. Just get the clients online. More money in your pockets. Less hassle. Improved schedule. 

Webcam with the suckers overseas. Have onlyfans. If these ex bar girls have some brains soon enough they will start making so much money they will giggle at their old workplace and salary. 

One could argue that if they REALLY had some brains, they would have chosen a different career path to begin with. But that's just me.

[tonray]

2 minutes ago, NanaSomchai said:

One could argue that if they REALLY had some brains, they would have chosen a different career path to begin with. But that's just me.

Very often circumstances, born into poverty, being responsible for elderly parents and grandparents, don't lend themselves to choosing a different career path as easily as you make it sound. Thailand is not a place where opportunity abounds for those on the lower end of the socio economic scale. I wish there was opportunity for education and meaningful careers for these ladies but reality sometimes doesn't match hopes.

[sezze]

I am thainking , you do hell did you meet , i never ever seen a girl even the girl who were online ,

3 minutes ago, NanaSomchai said:

One could argue that if they REALLY had some brains, they would have chosen a different career path to begin with. But that's just me.

all is easy if you ever had a school/study . Most never had , even if there was in their village they never cared until it was too late . I know this from personal girl i know, having carried her around from 3y old , and now she is like 13 and nobody got anything to say to her . She doesnt care and since im not there all the time and it isnt my family who am i to say ... she grow up like this . *I surely have donei , but 1ear in and 1 ear out .

[JWRC]

There is something not "right" about this post because we have been told there is not a sex trade in Pattaya, whose telling porky's?

[Trujillo]

Wouldn't it be nice to read an article that actually investigates this situation, and not just just some pap blow-by?

 

There is nothing about just what the former bar workers are doing now to provide for themselves and their families. Clearly, very, very few have stayed in the red light areas, so what about the ones that went home? What about the renters of the bars? What about the owners of the bars? 

We know by looking at the slow train wreck that is happening here that nothing will be even remotely back to normal for years. Where are the comments from the government agencies tasked to deal with small businesses and "hostess bars"? What about comments from the anti-prostitution groups here? Are they over-the-moon about the decimation of the sex trade? They should be thrilled that the "scene" is all but gone, right? 

 

This article could have been written by any ex-pat with made-up quotes. It does not inform and tells you nothing. Just a few facts and whining. Pathetic.  

[OneMoreFarang]

51 minutes ago, WEBBYB808 said:

You are correct,  on line further could benefit  them by not forcing  them to drink less and not turning  them into raging alcoholism,  it would lower cost, and put more in the ladies pockets  where it should be, as bars get a cut for really no reason.

Just in case someone asks you: Drinking and getting drunk is part of that job, and lots of girls like it. In some bars they serve(d) tequila shots for free for the girls at the beginning of the night to bring them into the right mood. And its seems the girls loved it.

[ChipButty]

Im sure lots of these bar girls would do well in 7/11 given their language skills and powers of negotiations but the requirements from 7/11  for a shop assistant is set to high for a bar girl, most of them