The Girls in Thailand

A common sight in Thailand is a white guy walking hand-in-hand with a Thai girl. At first I naively thought, how are these guys meeting Thai girls?

The girls are professionals, of course. You can tell by how they dress: tight jeans or a short skirt, fashionable top, knock-off designer bag, always a bag, for contraceptives and other necessities.

Some guys hire a girl for a month or however long they're here and she takes care of everything: food, shopping, sex. You wonder what the girl does in the moments she's alone. In a movie she would vomit, or cry in the shower, but I don't think that's what it's like for most of them. Here, sex is only sex. It doesn't represent anything special and it's a way for a lot of people to make a living.

Walking by the bars is a strange experience. They employ girls to lure in the male tourists. As you walk by they hoot at you, and if you walk close enough, even if you're careful to avoid eye contact, one may physically grab you by the arm and try to drag you in. Escaping from a 90-pound Thai girl is harder than you think. Asking politely to be let go certainly won't do the trick. I've developed a kind of swim move, writhing with the arms while driving forward with the legs, followed by a quick burst of speed to deter pursuit. That usually works.

If you read the blog, you know that I'm kind of obsessed with measuring myself by how people, especially girls, respond to me. In a way the rug has been pulled out from under me. Smart or dumb, funny or boring, good-looking or ugly, none of it matters here. You pay you get laid, you don't you don't, simple as that. There's no jealousy, at least not the same kind as in the states. If you see a guy with a hot girl, you know you could have one as hot or hotter for a fixed price. And while I am susceptible to coolness envy, I don't really have any money envy.

Maybe this is a better system than what we have in America. We worry so much about sex, about what people think of us sexually. As a country I would say we have a very unhealthy relationship with sex. In Thailand they remove a lot of the doubt and uncertainty. Every time I think it through, I come to the same conclusion: I should just get drunk and bring home a girl. But I keep chickening out.