Than seeing the desperate White man with the under-aged native girl in Thailand!?

Ok, granted there may be a FEW exceptions out of the trillions a year, like everything else, that may indeed be (TRUE LOVE).. White man goes to Asia for vacation, and falls in love with a local and they live happily ever after.

Every other case is simply REPULSIVE. Vomitous. From seeing these lone males travel from thousands of miles away to Thailand (there are other countries with high Sex Trafficking.. but here among the highest) wander around the night markets, to seeing them enter strip clubs of underaged females, to seeing them taking them back to their hotel’s.. for ridiculously low prices. 20$ average.

I’ve also seen many of them at airports, leaving or arriving from some nearby resort destination with their thai girl (you can tell these girls are natives.. either prostitutes, escorts by their attire.. or maybe just normal girls there for a good time). They stand besides each other awkwardly, with nothing to talk about. The girl shows affection once in awhile to the man to gain attention, the man awkwardly replies (there are no smooth ones that know how to react, because if they were smooth, they wouldn’t be there paying for a girl).

Ok, maybe I’m being too harsh. Because To each it’s own right? Let bygones be bygones? But it’s an ongoing issue and discussion among many individuals, whether they are Thai-Americans who travel back, or anybody traveling to these destinations and seeing it with their own eyes. Many men here may even be married. Yes, there are local Thai business men that exploit their own women. There are many reports on CNN, etc on the high sex trafficking in Thailand and many other countries. And there are many different factors to it that are way more complicated to resolve than we think.

1) Tourism has brought Thailand MUCH money throughout the years. The beautiful beaches, cheap shopping, great food..
2) & Sex Tourism – strip clubs, brothels, lady boy shows, ‘massage parlors’ w happy endings, cheap child prostitutes… LOTS OF MONEY, poured into the Thai Economy.. esp from Western males that come here and spend 1/5 of what they’d need to back in their home country for a whole package with these girls. Ask for a menu and they’ll show it to you happily.
3) Many poor families have no choice but to send (or sell) their young daughters to this field. Sad reality.
4) Some girls find it the easiest way to make money (but that goes the same everywhere, developed country or not.)
5) The most common religion – Buddhism, not to say that it allows it.. but does not address such actions as STRICT and THREATENING (in this life, and afterlife) as other religions of the world – Judaism & it’s branches.

There are so many more factors to it. Maybe some of these Thai girls find it empowering, as other girls do, paid or not, to get attention from men in this manner. Some girls want a green card, so if they succeed in getting these guys to fall in love with them, they may have the ‘better life’ they had dreamt of abroad.

And then there’s always that other common discussion of men & Asian fetishes.. How they perceive Asian women in Bed & as Wives VS Western women. Once again, To each it’s own. I’d just wish these men would go for women over 18. And as a punishment, there’s a very high chance these prostitutes are men. Good luck hunting boys.

In our last morning in Yangon, awoke at 6 am, got breakfast upstairs at White house hotel. The owner was kind enough to put us in the taxi ride with another traveler to save money. Everyday we meet a few travelers all with different interesting stories. I love all of them. This individual is a Chinese guy in his 20′s who had just finished a year working in Saudi Arabia in Consulting for the Government. He was now traveling SE Asia and about to head home to Venice Beach. We shared the ride to the airport and learned of each other’s stories.

The plane from Yangon to Bangkok was at 8:35am. Once we arrived in Bangkok airport, we had a flight to Krabi (Southern Thailand beach) for 1:30pm. We were lucky that they had a flight earlier that the airline would put us on so we boarded the 10:30am. I was a bit concerned for our checked in baggage since it was unclear when she asked us to check it in with Oversize baggage. We did anyways, got on the plane and got to Krabi. We got there around 1:30, and our baggage wasn’t there. We checked with customer service and they said it must have gotten on the other plane, what a bitch. She assured us that they’d ship our bags back as soon as she got it by 5, so we got on a taxi and head to Aung Nan, a beach town, and from there, headed on a boat (only way to get ehre) to where we are now Ton Sai beach. Ko Phi Phi is where my favorite movie THE BEACH was filmed, but its all along these islands. I have to say that upon arrival, I decided this is the prettiest most surreal beach I ever seen in my life. The water is aqua-greenish blue, with high cliffs that surrounds the water. Ton Sai is famous for rock climbing, so you see a buncha young people hanging off these rocks by a string.

It started to rain, so they said the baggage would get here the next day. We decided to check out the next beach over – Railay, which was a matter of a climb through the rocks beach front.. about 25 min.. The tides were coming up but we managed. At Railay, its more commercialized, more expensive hotels, more families and higher end travelers than backpackers.. We sat at a bar, i ordered Thai Whiskey ‘Sang Son’ – not so good but worth a try. Then we head back before dark.

Hung out at a bar by our hotel and met some more interesting people. I went to sleep by 10.

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It started POURING monsoon rain all night, I could barely sleep. My PMS is kicking in and its not good company when you are trapped at a beach. This morning they said no boats would be able to get here nor can we get anywhere because of the weather. It seems almost Hurricane-ish how windy it is and how fast the currents are coming in.

Trying to stay positive. It’s 4 now, and our baggage wont be in until the weather condition improves. We have a flight out of Krabi to Bangkok on the 14th. I hope that we dont get trapped here longer than that or else we’ll have to spend another hefty bill on a one way flight out!

It’s Chad’s birthday today. He turns 27. I need to stay positive for him! All he wished for his birthday was some hot Swedish girls to magically be around. Unfortunately for him, most travelers we’ve come across are Hot Aussie boys or Hot French boys in pairs or 4′s (Very fortunate for me).. pretty girls only w their bf’s.. or dikey French girls w Dreads and tattoo’s. Maybe he’ll get lucky tonight if some hot European girls show up!

The beach is beautiful here but it does get boring since the population of locals and travelers amount to no more than 50-100 per beach.. There are several beaches along this shore.. with activities such as Scuba diving, rock climbing, snorkeling, diving, kayaking to do.. But when it’s raining, theres nothing u can do but to Read, or to drink.

I took a walk earlier to a used book shop to trade in this chick flick novel i jsut finished “Mr. Maybe” — I recommend all hopeless romantic girls to raed it… I got the book from Tiler for Xmas, as part of a book club she started. We’ll have to discuss wen im back. It’s extremely cheesy and extremely an easy read. The jist of it, is a girl in search of Love & marriage. And it’s a matter of whether you let yourself go with the guy who you have full chemistry with, but he lacks in the material things you’ve dreamt of for yourself in the future. And then meeting the man you’ve imagined yourself marrying, all perfect on paper but no chemistry there. It put a lot of things about your own life & hopeless romanticism into perspective.

The book store had a policy of trading in 2 books for one of their books. So i paid them half the price of a new book that I got, for $2 “The Piano Tuner”. It’s set around 1900 about a pianoist tuner from London who is ordered to a small village in Shan State, Burma (where we were at) to tune a piano for a Colonel there – for the pay of a year’s salary for 3 months there. And through his journey, he describes Burma back in that time, India, the colonies, etc, and whether or not he decides to go back to the life he knows or to stay. (that’s the synopsis i got from the back of the book.. I’ve yet to read it.)

That sums up my trip until now, we’re about to head back to our side of the beach TON SAI. (look up pictures on the internet for a clue of how beautiful it is!) hopefully the rain has stopped so we can get out of here tomorrow to stay on track of our travel plans. On to Cambodia – Siem Riep to see the Angkor Wat next on the 14th!!!

We missed our flight by 10 minutes this morning. Was at the airport at 6:40 am, gate closed at 6:30. Our flight to Burma is non-refundable.

We walk outside, after 10 minutes of silence and regrets, we got back up and revised our plan:
Options:
-Wait til tomorrow for another flight? (there’s only one a day from Air Asia which we were flying). Hell NO! We couldn’t stand one more minute in this city!
-Fly to another country? Laos or vietnam now? But then we’d lose our way back flight too.
-Go to another city near by Bangkok then go tomorrow morning to Burma?

After browsing through our options, we thought maybe by luck, theres another flight to Burma today, but another airline? We go inside, only thing available is Bangkok Airway, for 150$ one way, it was 40$ one way when we booked. We decided to take it. Money lost, but time is money, and easily a weekend tab out with the friends in Los Angeles.

They say life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react. I feel lucky to have a positive attituded travel buddy. We moved right along, in exchanging crisp new bills for Burma (they’re very strict over there with currency exchange), and bought an international Charger. In the airport now and about to board.

“Curiousity Killed the Cat”

Bangkok Nightlife is gross. Very gross. At least the touristy parts. I could have told you that the first time I stepped foot in the city. Besides the middle aged lone white males that wander the streets, I’m just not a fan of visiting big cities while abroad. But I thought that since we’re here, might as well make it the most.

Here’s what happened. My curious anthropological instincts and journalistic mind lead us to see the “Ping Pong Show” in Pat Pong Alley. Pat Pong alley itself is decent, a raunchier version of Khao San road. On the right with knock off clothes in back to back stalls, and the left with wide open doors, into a sneak peak of that’s available to you for a very low baht rate – 15 year old pale girls with 50 yr old men guts & manly faces attempting to sexually lure you in the strip club. Then seconds later while failing, spreading their hairy legs and crotch in the air begging you to come and promising you a good time.

But no, I couldn’t just settle for a standard raunchy strip club. I had my persistent mind set on the worst of the worst. For those that aren’t familiar, it’s a strip show (or SHIT SHOW) of women shooting ping pong balls out of their –you know whats– into shot cups. Not that I wanted to see if for personal arousels, was just curious to take this sex trafficking district into a new level, to encounter first hand the types of women there and their enviroment.

We were approached every minute by some greasy, scronny dark Thai man with a laminated card on the “Ping Pong Show”: 200 Baht to see ping pong shoot out with water, 300 Baht to see 2 shoot out. They offered a 20 Baht tuk tuk ride to the show, free charge of show to outskirts of China town, near Pat pong.

We took our own taxi of 80 Baht to Pat pong because I wanted the REAL THING. We were approached right out the cab to see the show, for 100 Baht, 2 beers, free show. I accepted excitedly, Chad trotting behind very reluctantly and skeptical.

He lead us up dark narrow stairs off the road into a 2nd story shady strip club. The moment we entered, the heavy doors shut immediately behind us. It was a rather empty bar with 5 foul looking girls on stage in just a thong. We sat and 2 beers slammed on our table by a haggardly old woman, i double checked by asking her if it was 100 Baht for 2 beers, and free show? “Yes” she agreed.

Thereafter a repulsive gorilla looking he/she came to our table topless telling us she’s thirsty and needed a Cola. We said No. A cup landed on our table which I will assume where the ping pong ball would land into. Without a thought, I hopped 3 feet horizontally. I, for the life of me, as my last dying wish is to not have that ping pong ball ever touch me, or even get within breathing distance from me, contracting some unkonwn STD’s.. or possibly even the next worldwide Pandemic.

[ Just a thought: Anyone ever wonder if maybe Pandemic's in history have been broken out from ping pong balls that have shot out of underaged girls vagina's? Well, there's something to ponder about in your down time today. ]

The whole club’s attention seemed to be shifted towards us, I believe we were the only foreigners. It was smelly very shady, and Chad wanted out immediately. He had mentioned it reminded him of a time in Russia years ago, when the Russian mafia tricked him & his buddy at a strip club into paying 1500 Euro’s, gun to their heads. So without even drinking the beer, we got up in attempt to sneak out & leave. We debated whether or not to even pay the 100 Baht we agreed to, because not only did we not take a sip, we didn’t even see the lady open it, not knowing what she could have slipped. As we were about to step out, we hear some large lady gesturing to the cashier “PAY! PAY!” I pull out my 100 on the table, and turn to leave again.

This big Pimp lady guards the door and whips out her pricing card. HOLY SHIT!
–1 Drink 300 Baht
–1 Show 1000 Baht
–1 Person 1500 Baht

Soon, 2 more people surround her blocking the door, then 4. I was about to piss my pants! We tell her we have no money, and that guy told us 100 baht. She looks around, cold-hearted evil bitch, “Who told you that? I dont see anyone, he’s not here anymore is he!?”

“Pay UP!”
“You come to my show, you want to leave without paying?”

She said something along the lines like “You come to my show, no pay, then you take off your clothes, and let’s see” *slightly tugging my shirt*

I dont know if it was the lighting, but it sure looked like she had cat eyes. They were hazel and glowing in the dark, the scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. The man who brought us there was no longer there. He must have made his commission for the night. Gone home to his family of 6 to feed, or maybe to a higher end Pong Show up the street to spend OUR money.

Chad pulls out 1000 Baht, I pull out 1000 “That’s all we have, sorry”. They open the door and let us go. That’s about 70$. For nothing, not even a sip of beer. But I will say that’s the price of a lesson. And not being stupid enough to follow a man into a show out of simple curiousity.

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My safety zone had been raped. Raped of all Innocence, here in Bangkok. Ready for the Road!

I had a cigarette after. I rarely ever smoke. Hopped in a cab and went back to our lovely hostel. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home! Even if home at that moment is a Lonely planet recommended hostel with smiling OF AGE Thai front desk workers, English families and Finish frat boys downing beer in the pool room.

Dutch Expat & Thai Massage

At our Hostel is an Information desk. A Guy & A girl from Denmark have been here for 2 years with their established tourism business called Jysk Tourism. They set up their business in many surrounding countries, answering questions at front desk, in hopes you buy a package from there. We didn’t buy anything but they were of great help as they’ve been around. We inquired about the best & cheapest thai massage in the area.

“You want JUST massage?”

“yes, please”

“Ok, here is a place you go to. Mention my name. They give you no trouble.”

We walked the few blocks into a small alley with 4 massage parlors. The lady in the front offers us the price list. 300 Baht for 1 hour. We tell her Kim sent us. She breaks out a huge smile, ear to ear, “You mean…. Meeester Keeemmm?” Yes we nodd. “Ohhhh, Okk (cannot hide her smile and excitement hearing his name), I give you guud price. 350 Baht for 90 minute.”

Fantastic!! Whatever this Dutch man has done, great, we get a discount. That’s 10$ for a 90 minute massage. We are lead to the 3rd floor massage room. Basically there are thin mattresses on the floor within mattress apart from each other and curtains that divide us. The massage I’d rate it a 5/10, but it was better than nothing.

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Thai Lunch

We were approched by a Thai business man who runs the Shangri La 5 Star hotel near by. It’s his day off he says, he suggests this excellent Thai restaurant near by, the tuk tuk will take us for 20 Baht. Ok sure why not. We get there and it’s a Lavish seafood restaurant. We’re exhausted and tired so we agree to eat there, about 7$ a meal, the man gets commission off whoever he takes we assume. It ends up being a great meal, although feeling taken advantage of, and learning for the future. We got a Tom Yum Seafood & yellow curry Pork dish with a side of rice. Yum

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After having a rather eventful day, went back and took a power nap. Wake up at 8 pm and good to go again to our Bangkok night adventures I had been looking forward to more than the day activities. We head to Khao San Road, which is known to be the most happening backpackers spot filled with bars and shopping. I’m no fan of Bangkok, but while I’m here, might as well make the most of it. The 1/3 mile alley is filled with delicious smelling food carts and trendy clothing/accessories. Im definitely coming back the night before departure to stock up! We stop at a Thai restaurant for dinner & our first Singha Beer (the National Thai beer).