There are 4 main red light districts in Bangkok. They are Si Cowboy, Nana, Pat Pong, and Queens Park Plaza on Soi 22, the street I live on. Of course I am most familiar with Queen's Park Plaza for a variety of reasons. My first exposure to Queens Park Plaza was when I was living in Malaysia and visiting Bangkok every other weekend. It was a short flight of about an hour and I flew in on a Friday night night and out at 6 am on Monday. That gave me 3 days in LOS (Land of Smiles). A teacher buddy of mine introduced me to QPP (Queen's Park Plaza).
QPP is unique in that it has no Go Go bars and is more or less a rabbit warren of small pool bars. They are small bars, about the size of your typical Starbucks back home. They have one or two pool tables, about 5 small tall tables with 4 stools around them, a bar, and about 7-12 girls, aged 18 to 35 years of age. I have never counted but I would estimate there are 20 of these bars in QPP.
As you walk around the plaza you will find groups of girls sitting outside the bars, sitting inside the bars with men, or playing pool. Most of the girls that work these bars are good pool players as they have nothing else to do but practice (at least before the smart phone and facebook) or eat. You will be welcomed by 'Welcome, come inside, play pool, have a drink', 'Handsome man ...', Where are you from?, ' Where you go?', etc.
I like these bars because the girls have clothes on, they are 'chat' friendly, and there is always someone to play pool with. I have mentioned before that I like to play pool. The bars open up early or often stay open 24 hours a day. The girls start arriving at 3 pm, 6 pm, and 9 pm. I still frequent 4 of these bars as I have many friends, including bar owners, mamasans, girls, and food stall operators. Most everybody knows Jaidan's name and they all vie to hold him for a while. Rendezvous bar is my favourite as it opens up onto Soi 22, has a breeze, has a great happy hour until 6 pm, and is a great spot to people watch. I have met many farang men, and couples at this bar and I enjoy chatting with the newbies and expats I meet.
The first bar I bar fined a girl at was Meow Meow Bar. A buddy and I decided to go listen to some live music down in Nana at a place called Hillary 2 and we decided to take two girls with us for the gfe (girl friend experience). My first Thai girl was called Pai and she left the bar industry about 4 years ago to retire to her village. She was 35 and lots of fun. I subsequently bar fined Pai a couple of times over the next 2 months.
I know the owner at Meow Meow and would often stop in to play pool with her as her English was very good. She was about 40 years of age and the interesting thing about the bar was her daughter also worked as a bar girl (20 years old) and was very popular with the clientele. I never did work up the courage to ask mom how she felt about introducing her daughter into the industry. My guess is she would say the industry had been good to her (and it had) and that in time her daughter would take over the bar. I would imagine her daughter was pulling down 50,000 Baht a month.
The 'jackpot'! I would be remiss in not mentioning the 'jackpot'. What most of these girls want, more than anything else is some good looking, young farang to fall in love with them and 'look after them'. What this means in their eyes is they have a hi-so life style and get to sit home, eat, sleep, watch TV, and facebook their new life style. One must remember that when you 'look after' a Thai girl, you will also be expected to 'look after' their family as well. This may involve sending money home to mama every month among other things. This is pretty typical, but it does not have to be, if you choose the right girl. More on what 'right' means later. For the 'jackpot' to happen, the farang must have a job or be retired in Thailand. The other alternative is taking the Thai girl back home to your own country but Thai girls prefer to live in Thailand to be close to their family.
There are also minor jackpots. These are farangs that come visit Thailand every 6 months for a couple of weeks at a time looking for the 'love of their life'. They have lots of money to spend and live the good life for two weeks while they are here. Thai girls think that they must be filthy rich. The farang invariably falls for the Thai girl and does not want her working the bar anymore and tells her that. She agrees, but details the amount she needs to stay out of the bar. This is usually 30,000 Baht which is the amount she makes every month in the bar. After all she has a family to support back home and the house needs a new roof, etc. So the farang ponies up the $1,000 a month to keep his honey out of the bar while he is back home, saving up and dreaming about his next 2 weeks in the LOS.
I know some bar girls who have 4 of these small jackpots on the hook at one time bringing in an income of well over 100,000 Baht a month. The weird thing about it is that they have 2 months of actual contact with these farangs and they still work the bar the other 8 months, for additional money. These girls are the top 20% and will be young, vivacious, and lots of fun to be with. I think of them as the 'sharks' of the bars fishing for farangs. Sooner or later the farangs catch on to the game but not before they are fleeced for a year or two. I know a few girls who have done this and have even had the unsuspecting farang over to dinner. I often ask myself who I owe my loyalty to ... a bar girl I have known for years or a farang passing through her life for a few weeks at a time.
Enough about jackpots and farangs getting ripped off. The flip side of all this is the punter who flies in for a few weeks with some money to splash around who tells the girl to take the next 2 weeks off and then has the time of his life and then disappears without paying the girl anything! She takes the chance ... just like buying a lottery ticket!
I also warn bar girls about going too young with a lifer in Bangkok. This is a story I have heard many time. Bar girls meets handsome man. She is 22 and he is 32. He lives with her for a decade and then boots her out of his condo when he is 42 and she is 32. It seems he has found new 22 year old to take him to 52 at which age he may settle or go one more round. So, am I promoting old farts and young girls? Actually the Thai girls refer to old farangs with young girls as 'snakes'. Thavorn often teases me about being a 'snake'. I am speaking from experience. I know many expats working in Bangkok and the lure of Bangkok is the 'young' women.
So, what is a good mix imho? I have found 30 and 50 makes a good match, or even 35 - 55. You will find a Thai girl of 20 does not have much life experience worth talking about, whereas a Thai woman of 30 has had many more life experiences than a western woman who may not even check out of her parents home until their late 20's or early 30's.
I often see western couples pointing at an older farang male with a younger Thai woman making some comment that I am sure is not all that flattering to either. It does not help that a Thai woman of 30 often looks like she just turned 20 years of age.
I often think of Pierre Elliot Trudeau who dated Margaret Sinclair. He was 48 and she was 18. They married at 52 and 22. Canadians at that time thought it was cool. As it turns out, Margaret was too young. She went wild and rebelled. Good old Pierre had his last child when he was 76, a girl who we seldom hear about.
Part 3 will continue as I talk about my first Thai GF.
TTYL
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