"We don't know if we will survive" say Thai Sex Workers in Chonburi

[Dodger]

I'm going to say this Christian. Living off of your parents money and living the life of an efete 19th century poet means you're simply not qualified to offer financial advice to anybody and certainly not a South East Asian sex worker.

Sometimes I think this is the way that all Thai boys view farang.

To them, we're all rich and spoiled with pampered lifestyles to begin with. And the fact that we give them so much money (in their terms) for receiving so little in a return (a one hour roll in the hay) makes us a bit naïve and gullible in their eyes as well.

In their eyes, they're not the ones who need financial advice - WE are.

[latintopxxx]

dodger....do u think the gogos live under a rock....???...they all have access to TV/internet/MTV...they know how we live in the west/japan/korea....etc...they are fully aware that bht1000 is the price of a mains in an average restaurant back home...u must still think that the natives are all stooopid and uneducated

[gerefan2]

.they are fully aware that bht1000 is the price of a mains in an average restaurant back home...

BUT they are not fully aware that bht6000 is the price of a fuck in an average city back home...

[Dodger]

dodger....do u think the gogos live under a rock....???...they all have access to TV/internet/MTV...they know how we live in the west/japan/korea....etc...they are fully aware that bht1000 is the price of a mains in an average restaurant back home...u must still think that the natives are all stooopid and uneducated

You're missing my point.

They know exactly what our money buys us back in our homelands...no argument there. But the fact that we can spend 1000 baht on a meal without batting an eye makes us appear wealthy to them, as compared to their standards.

The average working boy see's farang as being wealthy...spoiled (having everything that they want)...and being terrible at managing money, solely based on what they see farang spending on sex (and other obsessions). They appreciate it, don't get me wrong, but according to what I've heard from the working boys who I've befriended over the years, this is how the average farang is viewed.

The irony here, is that they're absolutely right.

[goji]

You’ve probably heard this before but if they can give good financial advice why didn’t they listen to themselves and retire years ago?!

Some do and manage to retire at around 50, off their own earnings & investments. Others even earlier.

BUT they are not fully aware that bht6000 is the price of a fuck in an average city back home...

Probably just as well, as ultimately the price is set by the local market. Anyone going to Pattaya does not expect to be paying Zurich prices for food, hotels and hookers.
Those working in Thailand should optimize to maximize income in the local market, unless of course they can find some loophole which allows them to go and work in a high income country. Which seems to be very rare.

[Dodger]

Those working in Thailand should optimize to maximize income in the local market,

Let's not forget the fact that the money they charge for short-time sex is sometimes - what's referred to as a "loss-leader". Where the tip is appreciated, but they're more interested in the long-term residual financial benefits., This is where those regular monthly contributions start hitting his bank account when the farang is back in his home country.

I would wager, that on average, the tips a working boy earns are probably slightly less than half of his total earnings. That's just throwing a dart of course..as each boy has his own earning potential.

Thai sex workers have been honing their skills at this for centuries.

I overheard a farang talking in a bar once who was ecstatic over the fact that he was enjoying wonderful sex with a bar boy who was shacking up with him for the entire length of his holiday and only giving him 500 baht a day for his services. Ten minutes later he was showing his friends pictures of the house he just had built for the boys mother. What was really amusing (to me anyway) was later that evening the farang's "boy" walked into the bar with a swagger like Captain Jack Sparrow wearing a gold necklace that was so heavy he could hardly hold his head up straight...LOL.

[a447]

BUT they are not fully aware that bht6000 is the price of a fuck in an average city back home...

I also don't think our friends in Thailand understand that for many of us, sex in their country is an absolute bargain - at home I'm paying around 5 times what I pay in Pattaya. Mind you, nobody has ever asked me about how much I pay in Australia. So I'm happy to spend a little extra by taking them out to nice restaurants of their choice and buying them some clothes. Nothing over the top but just an extra way of thanking them. And I still come out on top.

Dodger's observation regarding how the boys see us as being wealthy and spoilt is spot on, IMHO. As for being seen as "naive" or "gullible", I'm not so sure. Maybe they see us as being generous because they know we can well afford to be. In which case I'm surprised they don't charge us more!

Shhh...

[Oliver2]

True enough but there are also misapprehensions on the part of the Thais. They see how much we spend on air travel and usually on hotels and these expenses, to them, are so enormous compared to how their parents live that they assume we have unlimited wealth. Few of us do, and this is particularly true of some expats.

I spent a lot of time trying to get through to P that my income, totally dependent on pensions, is more than adequate for what I do in Thailand and for supporting him but is not unlimited. I think- and hope- that he understands this but I still use certain manoeuvres to hammer it home. For example, if he wants large amount- most recently for a new motor cycle, the cost of which was way beyond his resources- I told him he must wait a few weeks until I had money in my account.

One of his friends visited his falang in London a few years ago. It was not a success. The falang lived in a small apartment in the suburbs. Not an interesting area by any description. The Thai was left alone while the falang worked and he was bored, there was little for them to do, the falang couldn't spend money like he did on his annual holiday, was too tired in the evening anyway....and so on. But most of all, the living standards weren't what he expected. A cramped flat in a tower block surprised and disappointed him after experiencing 4* hotels in Pattaya.

[Old git]

So.. when WILL Thailand get back to tourist normal?

Vaccination seems really good at reducing severity, but if it was good at stopping spread, the UK would be post-Covid by now. In the UK, a snapshot survey of people around the country suggested that most won't know if they've got it because they won't bother to test if they only have mild symptoms, and more telling, most said that if they tested positive, they wouldn't formally become a statistic and put people through the grief being pinged. There's a strong indication that the reported 200k cases per week is probably a million or more.

With around 96% showing antibodies, that has to be a lot of people with antibodies getting infected now - but so far, people getting the bug more than once is very rare, so there's hope that once the great majority have had an encounter with the real McCoy, as opposed to the vaccine, cases will subside.

What is the real number in Thailand? is 150k recorded cases per week really one million? Maybe two million..?

In Europe, Covid fatigue is setting in - people are getting resigned to living with it, and getting their lives back.

- When will Thailand buy the same narrative, and open the tourist flood gates again?

Are they ready to lose another high season - or not..?

[goji]

So.. when WILL Thailand get back to tourist normal?

Vaccination seems really good at reducing severity, but if it was good at stopping spread, the UK would be post-Covid by now. In the UK, a snapshot survey of people around the country suggested that most won't know if they've got it because they won't bother to test if they only have mild symptoms, and more telling, most said that if they tested positive, they wouldn't formally become a statistic and put people through the grief being pinged. There's a strong indication that the reported 200k cases per week is probably a million or more.

With around 96% showing antibodies, that has to be a lot of people with antibodies getting infected now

"when will Thailand get back to normal" ought to be a separate topic and is worthy of that.

I went into London on the train recently. For the first time since March 2020, the train was nearly full and perhaps less than 10% were wearing masks. Now they have the vaccine, most do not expect to get severe infections and want to get on with their lives as normal. There is so little fear they don't even want to wear a mask. (I wore an FFP2 mask).

I suspect that if Thailand sustains over 0.4m vaccines per day for the rest of the year, they will also be looking to get back to normal later in the year.

Incidentally, the UK antibody stats are for over 18s only. The antibody incidence rate in under 18s is likely to be far lower.