General Reports

My bad buddy... I did not intend what you interpreted... but my impression after reading through about 20+ pages was that this thread discusses a lot of interesting things other than just the BF/ST/LT prices... which is awesome! I am not complaining at all.

Don't get me wrong that I did not want to RTFF - just that the estimates I got did not make me feel comfortable enough mentally about the prices.

Don't be mad at me - we are all a community and have to learn from each others' experiences ... so peace! I need all the help and advice from experienced folks like yourself... and thanks for being around - it certainly helps :)

Take care and have fun,
-Rakesh.


[QUOTE=Traveler1234]Define recently...mine is 'being lazy'
Define participation....mine is 'ignore list'

:([/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Easy2007]I think its important to reconfirm here that the girls work multiple bars. [/QUOTE]

Goes without saying, just like we hit a few places so do the FL. I've seen many the same ladies all over Nana area from soi 3 to soi 8 this past week and a half. Not just one place, if an area is dead they move on, just like we do. There were some absolutely stunners on the walk from Soi 4 to Soi 8 today.

[QUOTE=Rbamane]My bad buddy... I did not intend what you interpreted... but my impression after reading through about 20+ pages was that this thread discusses a lot of interesting things other than just the BF/ST/LT prices... which is awesome! I am not complaining at all.

Don't get me wrong that I did not want to RTFF - just that the estimates I got did not make me feel comfortable enough mentally about the prices.

Don't be mad at me - we are all a community and have to learn from each others' experiences ... so peace! I need all the help and advice from experienced folks like yourself... and thanks for being around - it certainly helps :)

Take care and have fun,
-Rakesh.[/QUOTE]
If you read 20+ pages from all the threads you would have a very, very good idea about all the prices and things to do and places to visit.

Come back with specific questions and we will help you.

So RTFF.

I agree, I have read only the 20 pages or so from one of the Thailand threads... need to do it in all of them, thanks!

[QUOTE=Duniawala]If you read 20+ pages from all the threads you would have a very, very good idea about all the prices and things to do and places to visit.

Come back with specific questions and we will help you.

So RTFF.[/QUOTE]

Do any of you have reports/stories to offer of bringing "furry handcuffs" from your local sex shop while on your vacation to Thailand. I have a pair of furry cuffs that are tempting to bring in Feb. And have used them on a gal who I recently had an affair with in NYC who loved to wear them while being picked up and screwed hard. Cowgirl. Against a mirror. This took place in a NYC short-time hotel. Expensive at $60 per hour when I had visited and she got a real kick the couple of times that we broke the mirror and there may have been consequences.

Luckily, I had signed my name "Mickey Mouse" at the front desk upon registration and could not be tracked once having left the hotel. And when we went back to the hotel, we had different front desk clerks most of the time.

Any stories? Lucky for me, she loved the "M" in "S&M"!

I just found that Superrich in Bangkok who give by far the best exchange rates have them online.
Here is the link. You need to register (its free) to see them.

[url]http://www.superrich1965.com/node/40[/url]


Attached: an example Ratesheet for Jamuary 19, 2008. Just compare it with Bangkok Bank.

Nope Tiger, in person, both places are buying a $100 USD bill for 3285 baht. Exactly the same rate.

My experience is that, absent a clerical error, i.e. one place has yet to update their daily rate sheet, and the other has, that the best and the worst banks in Bangkok won't vary by more than around 5 baht (~15 cents) per $100 USD.

I did once stumble across a branch of a bank with a day-old rate sheet posted that didn't comprehend an overnight 0.36% drop in the dollar, so that morning, I changed $500 there. Another branch of the same bank 3 blocks away had the correct (12 baht/$100 USD lower) rate.

[QUOTE=Member #2041]Nope Tiger, in person, both places are buying a $100 USD bill for 3285 baht. Exactly the same rate.

My experience is that, absent a clerical error, i.e. one place has yet to update their daily rate sheet, and the other has, that the best and the worst banks in Bangkok won't vary by more than around 5 baht (~15 cents) per $100 USD.

I did once stumble across a branch of a bank with a day-old rate sheet posted that didn't comprehend an overnight 0.36% drop in the dollar, so that morning, I changed $500 there. Another branch of the same bank 3 blocks away had the correct (12 baht/$100 USD lower) rate.[/QUOTE]It's not the buying rate I talk about. It's the spread. I manged to buy USD (20 bills) from Superrich at a rate 10 Satang less than their selling rate of 100s. Now go and compare that with any money changer. The rate BKK Bank publishes at 32.85 is for wires not cash.

Never been to Thailand, but I have a question about something I was reading elsewhere:

"Thailand has legal prostitution yet many Thai prostitutes were trafficked from Burma or Cambodia and live squalorous lives like animals--many contract aids, they are not permitted to say no to men who don't want to wear condoms--they suffer even under legalized prostitution."

To what extent is this true, or does this pertain only to certain segments of the market like brothels that cater to Thai men, or is it general.

Please don't reply and say this is not true unless you have fairly detailed knowledge of Thai society that goes beyond the tourist experience.

[QUOTE=Frannie]..."Thailand has legal prostitution...[/QUOTE]Who said that? not only is prostitutin illegal in Thailand, neither does it happen. Read the Thai newspapers, they will proof. Even barfines have nothing to do with Sex and Bars are no brothels!!!! Ask Giotto when in doubt.

[QUOTE=Frannie]Never been to Thailand, but I have a question about something I was reading elsewhere:

"Thailand has legal prostitution yet many Thai prostitutes were trafficked from Burma or Cambodia and live squalorous lives like animals--many contract aids, they are not permitted to say no to men who don't want to wear condoms--they suffer even under legalized prostitution."

To what extent is this true, or does this pertain only to certain segments of the market like brothels that cater to Thai men, or is it general.

Please don't reply and say this is not true unless you have fairly detailed knowledge of Thai society that goes beyond the tourist experience.[/QUOTE]


You repeat a scurrilous accusation from some unnamed news source and then say not to rebut it except from fairly detailed knowledge. I would suggest you should not repeat the accusation unless you have fairly detailed knowledge that it is true.

Nothing I have read supports your assertion, except obvious propaganda from anti-prostitution groups. That being said I don't know.

Horatio

[QUOTE=Tiger 888]Who said that? not only is prostitutin illegal in Thailand, neither does it happen. Read the Thai newspapers, they will proof. Even barfines have nothing to do with Sex and Bars are no brothels!!!! Ask Giotto when in doubt.[/QUOTE]

Yes, technically prostitution has been illegal in Thailand since 1960, but the prohibition is not enforced, and the "Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act of 1996" which outlaws the hiring of prostitutes under the age of 18, seems to tacitly admit that hiring prostitutes over the age of 18 is more kosher. In any case both laws seem to have been enacted because of foreign pressures rather than any internal desire to enforce them. It is widely known that a large proportion of Thailand's tourism industry is sex tourism related, even if Thai authorities prefer not to publicly acknowledge such.

[QUOTE=Horatio]You repeat a scurrilous accusation from some unnamed news source and then say not to rebut it except from fairly detailed knowledge. I would suggest you should not repeat the accusation unless you have fairly detailed knowledge that it is true.

Nothing I have read supports your assertion, except obvious propaganda from anti-prostitution groups. That being said I don't know.

Horatio[/QUOTE]

No it is not an official news source, and I feel that it is almost certainly inaccurate, so I am looking for first hand information that would help to rebut it, or at least help me to understand better where this idea might come from.

For example, I know that the official position in Thailand is that condoms must be used at all times in all brothels, on pain of closure, but has anyone first hand experience of being told that they must use a condom? Or first hand experience of being offered sex without a condom?

[QUOTE=Frannie]Thailand has legal prostitution.[/QUOTE]

Not true. Prostitution was outlawed around 1960. Yet, of course it persists, like it does in the US, Canada and any number of other countries where it is also illegal.

[QUOTE=Frannie]many Thai prostitutes were trafficked from Burma or Cambodia and live squalorous lives like animals--many contract aids, they are not permitted to say no to men who don't want to wear condoms--they suffer even under legalized prostitution. To what extent is this true, or does this pertain only to certain segments of the market like brothels that cater to Thai men, or is it general.[/QUOTE]

Again, this is mostly not true. While there are Burmese and Cambodia prosititutes along the Thai border, mostly in truck-stop brothels, catering to Thai men, and while certainly most would prefer not to be there, few have been trafficked there in the strictest sense (i.e. abducted), but were probably brought in illegally. The "squalorous" situation you describe was quite prevalent 20 years ago in some areas along the border. But, even then it was as not pervasive or widespread as your quote supposes and has improved extensively in recent years. These type of places represented a very small percentage of prostitution in Thailand. If you read this board it becomes obvious that the prostitution business is mostly above-board, and quite sophisticated. The vast majority of mainly Thais women (not Burmese and Cambodia, as you suppose) are in it by choice. While the use of condoms is apparently rather slapdash in the Thai border brothels, I would say that, women are not forced to have unprotected sex, except by the pressures of economics (i.e. they get more money if they go bareback) and by their own ignorance. There has been a huge public education and AIDS awareness program in Thailand over the last 10 years and while still a problem, especially in rural areas, AIDS has been checked and is slowly declining.

[QUOTE=Frannie]Please don't reply and say this is not true unless you have fairly detailed knowledge of Thai society that goes beyond the tourist experience.[/QUOTE]

I've lived here 11 years. A university colleague of mine did a very in-depth research project on every aspect of prostitution in Thailand, from street hookers trolling around Sanam Luang and under Pinklao Bridge in BKK to Farang-oriented GoGos to truck-stop brothels in the north. Besides my personal experience of P4P and what I have heard and read over the years, my knowledge of the business comes from him.

Addendum:
I am curious as to why you are asking these questions? Your posts have the faint undercurrent of some pious, Christian-right do-gooder operating on incredibly spurious information.

[QUOTE=Old Thai Hand]Not true. Prostitution was outlawed around 1960. Yet, of course it persists, like it does in the US, Canada and any number of other countries where it is also illegal.



Again, this is mostly not true. [/QUOTE]

Thanks, very helpful.