[QUOTE=DRRonin;1655278]I am rather mystified by people who just can't accept not only what their eyes tell them but what the facts tell them. They must be Republicans!
Its all changing here and changing quickly. We have seen as countries advance economically the scene both diminishes and the prices increase. It happened in Japan and Korea. It will happen here. Its happening already. When I first started coming here 20 years ago it was as likely that a working girl was from down south or the Chiang mai area or from Bangkok as she was from Issan. As those areas prospered over the years the working girls from those areas dried up. I would guess today that at least in the venues of gogos and fls, 95% of the girls are from Issan. Issan is now slowly (due to some degree to the hated Thaksin policies and also to the money pouring in from Issan people who work in Bangkok) also advancing economically. Thus their numbers are also diminishing and pricing is going up. This combined with demographics, westernization, a better educational system and social media have created a trend that is not likely to turn around unless something dramatically bad crashes the economy. As prices continue to increase mongers will slowly fade away when their cost threshold is reached. We all have one. That will change the scene even more and will continue to effect the number of girls in the business.
[/QUOTE]I agree to an extent although with couple of caveats that may or may not be legitimate. Forgetting about the fact the baht is stronger against the dollar than it was when I first visited Thailand about twelve years ago, prices haven't gone up that much although long-time at go-gos has become disfavored among many girls and therefore the price for [I]that[/I] has increased more than for other options. The oil massage places most frequented by those on this forum charge exactly what they have for about a decade, with the exception of Bamboo's 500 baht anal surcharge and extra 100 baht for a session. Barons, then Tulip, and then Snow White, Mango, and Cherry have remained the same price for ages. And for those establishments as well as the go-go's I wonder whether the mantra the girls don't look as good as they used to reflects more that many of us have become rather jaded by now. I look at the pictures of the girls I took at the oilies 10 years ago, and then compare them to those today, and frankly don't see much, if any, quality difference. Similarly, although I find the majority of the go-go girls unattractive now, I always have although might have been satisfied to pull a girl who was not so attractive when the Bangkok scene was new to me (and my testosterone level a bit higher) while I am less inclined to do so now.
As to prices, ten years ago short-time at a go-go was 1500 baht, now it is 2000 (although I am hearing some are now getting 2500). The increase is probably less than the overall inflation rate over that period of time. Prices at the soapies have increased, but places like Nataree haven't increased [I]that[/I] much over the last decade, again forgetting about the value of the baht.
Yes, eventually things may deteriorate in the P4P scene more significantly as the economic situation continues to improve (assuming it does; let's see what kind of turmoil breaks out when the King dies, e. g. , and whether that will be the straw that breaks the Thai economy's back), but so far it hasn't been too bad IMHO, certainly not like Brazil which has gotten out of reach for many mongers both in terms of the P4P pricing and overall costs of a vacation (hotel, food, etc.).
For me what makes the P4 P scene seem a bit expensive in Bangkok is not so much any increases in pricing, rather it is I spend a lot of time in Jakarta where there still are bargains to be found. But as time goes on, the Jakarta scene may also start feeling the effects of economic progress (or more depressingly, the effects of what seems like an increased level of Muslim fundamentalism in Indonesia).
