Arriving in busy, industrialized Phuket, Thailand filled us with nostalgia for the quiet and friendly South Pacific. We were overwhelmed by the availability of virtually any commercially-produced product we could imagine. For a week, we stayed busy finding our way through the city and buying various odds and ends for the boat.
We were anchored in Ao Chalong Bay with over 50 other sailboats, more boats than we had seen for the entire half year we were in the Solomon Islands and PNG combined. We didn’t know most of the cruisers here, but we did meet up with a couple of our single-hander guy friends we’d hung out with in French Polynesia. About half the boats in Ao Chalong are captained by male single-handers. We were soon to discover why.
The Anchorage at Ao Chalong
Our friends, who we’ve decided to name Bob and Fred to protect their privacy, invited us out drinking one night. Staying up past our bedtime (of 9pm) and sitting in loud smoky bars is not something we enjoy doing. However, Bob is not into hiking, and he was good sport enough to join us on a couple of steep strenuous hikes in the tropical heat of French Polynesia. We decided to adopt his positive attitude and join him on an outing that he enjoys. Our night on the town proved to be an enlightening experience into the Thai sex market. We had noticed the Thai hookers sitting at the bars up and down the road near the pier catering to Western men, but we did not realize that hookers are everywhere around here. You can even pick up a hooker at the corner mini-mart! Bob, our guide for the evening, informed us that the going rate for a hooker is 1000 Baht ($33 US) a night. If you take a girl home from the bar before closing time, then you must also pay the bar a 300 Baht fee ($10 US). Bob is trying to complete a circumnavigation but has spent all of his savings and is now living on credit cards. Since the whores do not negotiate a price before having sex, Bob discovered he could get away with only paying them 600 Baht ($20 US). They give him a disappointed face, but don’t say anything. He also waits until they are off work to avoid the bar fee. The Thai hookers in this area cater exclusively to Western men, or farang. Most dream that a farang will decide to marry them and their future will be blessed with financial stability. This does occasionally happen; although for the average sex worker, it is only a slight possibility. Most of the hookers speak limited English, but are very eager to learn to improve their chances. From other sailors, we’ve heard that the women are so eager to please that when you take them to your boat, after sleeping with you, they will clean and even polish the stainless steel! Needless to say, many of the single-handed sailors in Ao Chalong Bay have multiple Thai “girlfriends”. Our night began outside the local mini-mart, where our friends Bob and Fred got drunk on cheap beer before heading to the bars (where beer is more expensive). Then we went to a bar, where we played pool. The bar was full of Thai hookers and single farang men. Sue noticed she was the only non-Thai non-hooker female in the entire bar. After this bar, Bob and Fred decided to venture down the street to a bar we have decided to name, The Crazy Bar. Again Sue was the only non-Thai non-hooker female in this bar too. Fred and Bob went off to dance with the young Thai hookers, while Graham and Sue sat on bar stools and talked with one of the Thai hookers, named Lek. Lek told us she was from Northern Thailand and had moved to Phuket about a month ago. (According to Bob, all the hookers say they have only been working for a month, so we are not sure if she was telling the truth.) Lek then taught Sue a few words of Thai. When we turned around to see what Bob and Fred were up to, we saw Fred with a long pool que between his legs and three young Thai hookers straddling the other end. The girls were gyrating their hips and laughing and giggling. Very good actresses. Then we looked to the other side of the bar and saw an older Thai hooker sitting in the lap of disgustingly over-weight man in his 50s. He was groping her, and she was just sitting there staring off into space with a mixed expression of boredom and disgust on her face. Sue must have looked disturbed, because Lek immediately asked her if she was okay and put her arm around her reassuringly. Lek is very sweet. Bob later explained to us that the hookers decide who they want to go home with. If they do not want to go with someone, they don’t have too, although the bar does expect them not to be too choosy. Most likely this means that the younger ones have a little more choice in the matter, but the older ones get stuck with the gross men, since they do need to make money after all. At this point we decided we’d had enough for the night, so we headed home after our first and last night in the Phuket red light district.
A Peaceful Sanctuary in Busy Phuket
October 2010
