Editor's Note: Over the next little while I am going to share some stories told to me by a girl I met in 2017 at a bar in Koh Pha-ngan, an island in the Gulf of Thailand just north of Koh Samui. Koh Pha-ngan is famous for its Full Moon Party with attracts upwards of 20,000 party-goers, sometimes more, every month. I met her in a bar on the outskirts of Thongsala, persuaded her to leave the bar and travel the length of Thailand with me from Surat Thani to Hua Hin and on to Chiang Mai. In that time, I got her to share some of her stories. These are her stories, and my understanding of them. I remain in touch with her to this day.
Question: What was it like, that first month? Did you go with a man every night?
Yes, I was with at least one man every night that first month. With some men, it was 'short time' in a room at the back of the bar, meaning they got one shot. There might be one or two of those a night, or sometimes these men would take me back to their room for 'short time' if they were staying close by. I usually let these 'hotel' men have a second shot for free if they treated me well. Sometimes they reciprocated with a tip. Sometimes it turned into 'long time'. Sometimes it was just free. It depended on the character of the man. Some had good hearts. Some didn't. That's life.
The bar itself opened in the afternoon, but most girls didn't start working until the early evening, and we usually stayed open until around 3 am. Most foreigners don't realize that the girls often sleep in a room at the back of the bar. In some places, that room doubles as the 'short time' room. In other establishments, it is separate.
Then there were 'long time' customers where a man would keep me overnight and into the next morning. In those cases, I would usually get fucked two or three times that night and at least once again in the morning. Sometimes a man would keep me for three or four days, and sometimes even longer, but that first month I got fucked at least once every single night.
Question: How did you come to work in a bar?
A cousin of mine encouraged me to join her at her bar in Koh Pha-ngan. I asked her what it was like. She said it mostly involved sitting with customers, drinking, playing games and chatting with them. I told her that I couldn't speak English and that I understood only a few words. She told me not to worry, that I'd soon learn enough to get by, that the men were understanding, and that Google Translate would help. She said I would get 30 Baht for each 'lady drink' that a customer bought for me. I asked if would have to have sex with customers. She said it was up to me. Some girls did. Some girls didn't. I could pick and choose, and if I chose to do it, I could set the price. I could charge more to do it with old or ugly men, or I could decline, and I could charge less if there was a man I really liked, or even nothing at all, but she said that in that case, I would have to pay the bar fine myself, which was 300 Baht back then.
I had my doubts. First, I hadn't had sex in years, not since my dead-beat husband had left me for another woman. Second, I doubted that any foreigner would want me, a thirty-two-year-old mother of three, especially one whose husband had left her for another woman. Where I'm from, in Phetchabun, it seemed that no man really took notice of me, so yes, when I went to the bar, I went with great doubt. Third, like many women from rural Thailand, I was both attracted to and afraid of foreigners. Still, I decided to go out of desperation. We simply couldn't survive on 200 Baht a day.
