SEA Field Trip: It's Called Bangkok for a Reason
6/24/2008 at 9:46 AM
Tags: Southeast Asia Field Trip, Southeast Asia Travel, Sex, Sex Travel (all tags)
Can't afford a European vacation this summer? Do what our contributor Claire Duffett did: Explore Southeast Asia instead.
We lied. More common than spicy street food and heavy foot traffic in Bangkok is the sight of a balding, middle-aged man with a pockmarked face, potbelly and ponytail striding alongside a beautiful young Thai woman.
Their arrangement is apparent and immediate. Rather than get horrified, saddened or disgusted (and at times, my boyfriend, who co-wrote this travelog, and I felt all of the above), you'll have to accept if not embrace Bangkok's most common trade in order to enjoy the city.
Though we can't endorse such an exploitative industry--hell, we don't even eat veal because we pity baby calves--no trip to Bangkok is really complete without a visit to Soi Cowboy, Bangkok's most famous red light district.
Women on the street in platform, patent leather heels and short lycra dresses coo at men walking past. "What a handsome man!" they exclaim to said ponytail-clad degenerates. It's a challenge to discern who's more pitiable: The beautiful Thai woman selling her body or the white dude who flew across the globe to pay to get laid. (Maybe it's us: We strolled the place and even stopped into a strip club.)
Strippers crowded onto the stage wearing nothing but thigh-high boots. They stood awkwardly, nodding their heads to the music's beat, gingerly covering themselves with one hand as they held the pole with the other.
Gone was the sexually liberated guise of Western strip clubs. Instead, women with limited options stood before a crowd of ogling men, as Johns pointed out their choice and bought their companion for the night.
Related Stories:
· Bangkok Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Southeast Asia Field Trip [Jaunted]
Leave a Comment
Not yet a member? Click here to become a member.
Already a member? Login below: