Pattaya

Kiew

I've been thinking a lot about the bar women I met in Pattaya this summer. I came by the bar they were working by accident, but somehow I ended up staying for hours and hours, talking with them and exchanging stories. 


I told them about growing up in Denmark, never feeling at home anywhere. I love Thailand, and when I think and dream, I do it in Isaan. But sometimes I feel like an outsider, because people look at me differently, when they find out I was raised in a country they haven't even heard of, far far away. A white country.


And they told me their stories and why and how they ended up in Pattaya.


I ended up talking a lot with one of the girls, Kiew - because we're both from Chaiyaphum. She looked pretty sad. But whenever a customer came over, she instantly cheered up, laughing and smiling. 


At one point, I was being pretty blunt. I asked her how it was, to sleep with a man for money. I wanted to hear it from her point of view. Kiew told me she came to Pattaya, in hope of finding a good white man who could marry her and take her with him to a European country, in order to start a new life without poverty. Problem is, the men who come to Pattaya, aren't exactly looking for wives. And the few who does, are surrounded by  tons of bar girls with the exact same dream as Kiew. So the competition for a white man in Pattaya is tough as hell. 


The sad thing about it? Almost all of the bar girls in Pattaya are from Isaan. Home sweet home. Life in Isaan is tough. It's the poorest region of Thailand and there's so many young men and women from Isaan, traveling to either Bangkok or Pattaya, in hope of finding a job (you can't really be anything else than a farmer in Isaan), just to come back a few years later, more confused than ever. 


It's depressing how many Isaan girls who head off to the big cities, thinking they can get work as a maid or a cleaning lady, just to end up as prostitutes. I'm not judging them or anything, it's just sad. But I guess that makes me appreciate what my mom did more than anything right now. If she didn't marry Lars, then I might have been a girl like Kiew right now. 


It's sort of interesting to see how different people of various backgrounds see it. Most Western women I've met, talk about the Thai women as helpless poor mail order brides or bar girls with no self respect. But in Thailand, it has nothing to do with a lack of self respect at all. It's about surviving and earning money to send back to the parents in the village. If you want a good life, then you gotta fight for it. That's just how it is.


Anyway. I find it weird when people assume my mom is a helpless mail order bride. She's one of the bravest women I know. She changed her own life, mine and our entire family's life by coming to a foreign country to marry a man she didn't know. She didn't do it because she was forced to it, but because she was determined to see me grow up with all the opportunities she never had.


So to all you haters. Holla at me when you've tried being in my situation. And by that, I mean being so poor that dinner sometimes consisted of insects and hand caught crabs from the rice fields. Then I might take your respond serious. 




Anyway. It was nice hanging out in Pattaya with Mathias. We met some pretty cool and random people and had a good time sailing a bit, getting drunk every night and what not. But it bothered me a lot that he complained over the hotel we lived in because of the other guests. Bitch plu-eash! We stayed their for free (thanks to my moms awesome connections) and it was 2 minutes from the sea! How can you complain about that?! Listening to him whining made me want to exclaim something a la ''omg lulz go find another hotel with a huge ass pool where you can stay for free then''. 


Other than that, it was great times. I liked being in Pattaya with Mathias. We walked around exploring the city day and night, drank whiskey while swimming in the pool when it got dark and talked about this and that in the hotel room. 

Kiew and a costumer

Kiew and the annoying customer

Kiew and the customer again

One of the bar girls with a farang man.

Mathias looking awkwardly terrified.

Kiew and her best friend

A street vendor

At the beach. Which I'm sure you couldn't figure out.

An Isaan street vendor in the middle of making nam tok

A man trying to sell me underwear

A protective big brother

On our way to an island

Fun times

An abnormally long line of waiting tourists.

Farang having fun

Water, air, city.

Taking a photo of Mathias taking a photo.

Seasick Japanese chicks

Passing a  fancy fishing boat.

A ladyboy

At the beach

Tired man

Mathias

A tired hooker and her sister.

An Isaan woman making me yam dtahle!

Gief me

Mathias and some metal dudes we met at a metal/hard rock bar.

Mee Suk :)

A man and his dog, chillin 

Love

Aww

AWWWWW <333333 X 50000

Kiddo

Some girls promoting a store. 3 woman and a ladyboy.

A Pattaya street.

Cool chicks

Hah, she's in heels!

Amulet man. Because surely 1 amulet isn't enough.

A little girl and a stripper pole... 

Cute and disturbing.

Happy ladyboys & sunset

Nice earring.

Happy kathoey

Man or woman?

Kiew again

It's a trap

Ping pong show, sex tourists, a funeral and Bangkok photos

My summer was pretty fucked. Why? Because a pregnant dwarf stole my bag which contained my passport, MasterCard, Visa, plane tickets, keys, cellphones and cameras. And yes, I do know that it sounds like something straight out of The Hangover II, but that actually did happen. 

See. Pregnant little person and me. Believe me now?! >:(

Oh. And I slept right next to a dead body for 3 days. Gotta love Isaan funerals. 

But all in all, my summer was goodio. Traveled with a friend for a month in Thailand, then I met an ex boyfriend near the Burmese border who I went on a road trip with. After that, I met up with my some Thai chicks I used to live with once and partied on with them in Bangkok. Crazy times.

One day we ended up in a strip club at Patpong street. Right after we entered, some chick started doing a ping pong strip show. It wasn't because we were like ''aw hell yeah, we're going to a strip club!''. We were basically just going to pick up a friend who works in the club as a bar girl, but because she was 30 minutes late, we waited for her in the bar.. and then, BAM! Ping pong show in your face!

Fuck, it was gross. I mean, I didn't know chicks could have so much stuffed up inside. especially not living things.. Like a toad. But that was nothing compared to the razor blades.. Fuck. Ping pong shows are fucking sick. 

When I saw the razor blades, I wanted to choke on my own vomit while smashing my face in with a hammer. I fucking wanted to die instead of watching it, that's how gross it was. Especially because the uhmm.. Dancer? Fucked up with the razor blade show and ended up cutting her vagina instead. Auch. 

But yeah. Seeing that side of Bangkok really made me sad. Especially because I saw all those old fat white men acting like they're kings and what not. 

I hate when people are judging couples where the female is Asian, but seeing sex tourists in my country, taking advantage of poor young girls? FUCK. 

I fucking hate sex tourists. And this actually reminds me of once  I encountered a sex tourist on the beach in Thailand. I was sunbathing alone (my friend were buying ice creams for us meanwhile) when this old creep in speedos walked over to my spot (why are all the old creepy sex tourists in Thailand wearing speedos and man thongs?). It was a pretty nasty sight. My eyes pretty much burned up by seeing him standing in front of me. 

Anyway. He smiled to me and moved closer and closer. Eow. Then he asked me where the Pattaya sign was.. Which was a pretty stupid question, since the Pattaya city sign is as big as the Hollywood sign.. So yeah, the Pattaya sign was as fucing easy to spot as the freaking sea from where we stood. 

And then after moving a bit too close to me, he asked me ''how much?'' and then continued saying ''I will pay you good'' in really loud and slow English. 

Unfortunately for him, I could clearly understand his accent. Why? Because the man was from the same country where I moved to as a child. Denmark. 

So I guess I scared him pretty badly, when I said ''fuck af med dig, klamme stodder'' in perfect Danish, which basically means fuck off you gross perv. 

I guess that was a bit rude of me to say that, I mean, I could just have said ''please go away'', but argh. I really can't stand sex tourists. And the fact that he thought that he could just walk up to me like that and ask ''how much?''. Nasty!

And now moving on to the funeral story. 

Well. My great grandmas BFF died. And when there's a funeral going on in the village, it basically means that it's time for hardcore partying to honor the deceased. Relatives and friends and their friends friends and their relatives and their friends and etc were invited. People ate, drank and gambled (which is illegal in Thailand but considered ok during funerals) for a few days in a row.. Next to the freezer thing in the living room where the deceased laid. 

And when it was time to sleep, all the important relatives slept in the same room where the deceased were, to keep the spirit of the deceased from being too lonely. After a few days, the partying stopped and the body was cremated at the local wat (temple), where the entire village were gathered to show one last respect to my grandmas BFF (I love that word). 

I wish funerals in the West would be like this. I'm not talking about sleeping right next to corpses, but I like the part about gathering people to celebrate your loved one by remembering all the good things and honoring that by trying to stay positive. I didn't see anyone at the funeral cry. But that is not because people were cold, that's just because we don't have the same view  on death as most Westerners do. That's at least what I think. 

ANYWAY. Bangkok pics:

A beggar at Pratunam market with paralyzed legs

Pratunam wholesale market

A grandma and a little girl sitting outside their family run store.

Street vendor at Pratunam

An old Isaan man taking a break in the big city & local Bangkok people 

Bangkok

Street vendor

Even though he's just a kid, I'm not that worried about him. Kids who grow up in Bangkok are really tough and they're  amazingly good at keeping up their spirit, even though they live harsh lives.

Me and doctor Nitiporn, my soulmate. 

Taken at the Panthip Plaza bridge

A woman and her young daughter begging at the Panthip bridge

2$ shoes, anyone?

A hippie guy and his girlfriend who walked right past the little beggar girl while talking about saving the world, ending poverty, world peace and whatnot.

Chinatown - Yaowarat road area. 

The man insisted on showing me and Mathias (the guy I was traveling with) his gangrene infected toes. First he asked for a few baht. Fine enough. Then he asked for more. Again, fine enough. Then he asked for 1000.. And then 1200.. And then 1500

I tried walking away from him, but damn  he was fast!

A mother comforting her son. Love :)

Monks checking out laptops

Paralyzed beggar

Rich bitch. Oh wow, 63 dollars!

Thai street food. Yum!!

A group of friends eating at the same spot. Cross the bridge at Platinum Mall and you'll see the street food place. They have the best food in Bangkok :) And it's cheap too. Me and Mathias only spent 3 dollars combined on our dinner. Yum stuff!

Nomz!!

Nice apartments. Me and my aunt. 

Om nom nom

Nomz extreme

Mathias & flash

Our samlor driver. Dear white people: Please stop calling samlors for tuk tuks.