RAWBangkok

I occasionally get emails from friends overseas or even blog readers who are planning to come to Bangkok for the first time.  They are at different times looking for information, ideas, opinions or reassurance.

I do my best to answer their questions fully.  Often I find myself dispensing the same advice again and again.

Occasionally an email will have a slightly different flavor to the questions asked, and my responses will vary slightly from the norm.

I got an email recently from a guy who is on his way to Bangkok soon, and he wasn’t primarily interested in the P4P scene, saying that he’d never been with a lady of the night, but it seemed that he’d heard enough about Bangkok to consider it.

He also didn’t want to go on ‘temple tours’.

I wrote back to him recently to offer a few ideas about Bangkok, and since invariably some of the people who trip across the site will be in a similar situation, I thought I’d offer my reply as sort of an “open letter” to all Bangkok newbies who aren’t primarily interested in P4P, but also haven’t completely ruled it out.

It’s no great feat of writing, just a quickly composed set of thoughts in reply to an email, but hopefully you may find something in the email useful or thought provoking.

Mate,

Bangkok is a very different place… I suspect you’ll enjoy it. But you’ll know you’re not in Kansas anymore.

You mentioned the “Why Thailand?” PDF

In fact, before I came to Thailand for the first time, on the recommendation of a friend I spent the cash to buy the Why Thailand? PDF. I found it useful and worth the price, but it is basically a guide to the pay for play scene, and little in there that you wouldn’t get from reading multiple websites online. It is a handy single source, with lots of good basics like “What is a barfine?” but also is only one man’s opinion. It was well put together.

Four years later it looks like a freshman primer, but at the time it gave me lots of good information.

Most things are cheap here. Sex, tailored clothes, lunch… especially when you’re paying foreign dollars. Most Thai people live on an income of US$500 per month or even much less. It’s not unusual for people (think 7-11 cashier) to earn US$200 per month, or even (maid) US$130 per month.  That’s not to say that all Thai people are  poor… there’s a growing middle class in Bangkok especially, and plenty of very wealthy Thais.  But average workers get by on a very slender amount.

For all that it is, at times, an odd publication, Lonely Planet often provides good insights about where to go for a good time. Bangkok is short on a lot of cultural pursuits like museums, art galleries, etc. It’s also not long on beaches or other natural beauty.

The river is significant, but not beautiful. A day out on a river and canal tour in a private boat with a driver can be an interesting way to see the city from a place that most people never see.

Some temples are pretty much “can’t miss”. Fortunately, three of them (Wat Prakeaw, Wat Pho and Wat Arun) are all right next to each other near the river.

Food is a big reason to do Bangkok — especially if you like it spicy. You could eat in a different food place every meal of you entire life and not eat in all the places available in Bangkok.

There are few live music venues, but they are mostly listed on Bangkok Gig Guide. I used to wonder at the dearth of live music until I started going to member clubs (g-clubs)… There’s a live band in every one, and there are hundreds of member clubs, so in fact, there’s actually a lot of live music, it’s just hard to see it.

Some places worth a look for live bands:

Mojo – Soi 33 (pop & rock)
Titanium – Soi 22 but expensive (rock)
Hard Rock Cafe – Siam (rock)
The Rock Pub – Ratchatewee (heavy metal)
Tokyo Joe’s – Soi 26 (Blues)
Brown Sugar – Lang Suan (jazz)
Ad Here the 13th – Samsen Soi 2 (blues)
Saxaphone – Victory Monument (various; jazz)
Hillary Bar 2 – Soi 4 (rock)

One of the hardest things for me to adjust to initally coming from the well-groomed and orderly city of Sydney was the utter chaos that surrounds you on the streets of Bangkok. Broken sidewalks, crowded with sidewalk vendors and pedestrians, walking in the streets, elephants blocking your path, apparent chaos in the traffic…

Now I love it for what it is. It is Bangkok. As you say, Thais are different than Japanese, and this is one of the many ways. Now when I go to American cities I gaze around at all the open space and ask myself, “where are the people?” “Where is the life?”

You said you’ve never been with a hooker.

I won’t say that you should start, but I also won’t say that you shouldn’t. That’s up to you.

I will say that if you’re gonna start, Bangkok may be the best place in the world to do it. There are some very “hard” women in the P4P scene here, but it’s actually not hard to sort through them and get to some real gems. Again, reading websites like TFS2M can help you stay up to date on where you’ll get ‘attitude’ and where you won’t, and where you’ll see ugly old skanks, and where you can find fresh young girls.

If you don’t get overwhelmed by the sheer quantity and apparent quality (believe me, I still do today sometimes, and most people when they first arrive find it jaw-droppingly abundant) then you can take your time and find a girl who will give you the kind of experiences that you’ll always remember, and remember fondly.

Some guys want to have two women together. They go straght to Eden Club.

Some want high turnover at low prices. Soi 7 Beergarden.

You get the idea.

I like my girls to offer a ’sweet’ girl-next-door service. I want them to talk with me, kiss & cuddle. I want them to ’spoon’ with me after sex rather than racing to the shower, getting dressed and heading back to work.

On any given night there are hundreds — possibly thousands — of girls who fit my description massed together in two or three places in Bangkok just waiting for me to come along and find them… like diamonds in the sand.

The hard part is just sorting out the diamonds that I want from the sand that I don’t. I’m not after girls with ‘attitude’ and I don’t need a porn star in the bed. I have, over the four years I’ve been here, learned how to find what I’m after, but honestly, except for possibly the bottom 25%, Thai bar girls are the easiest hookers in the world to like and get along with.

The transaction with them often feels like a normal bar-pick up situation. All you need to get over is handing them some cash at the end.

But that’s just my opinion. Again, do as you please with the bar girls… take ‘em or leave ‘em. Whatever makes you happy.

I’m not sure what else to tell you. If you have any specific questions, send them and I’ll try to answer.

Take care,

WW