you have guys on here who visit red light districts and that's it. that's their experience of a country. obviously, sin was a regular working girl when dennis met her, and i'm sure thailand has plenty of SOLID marriageable women like her. agreed, she's a nice steal for DJ. having worked in brasil, i can tell you that ex-pats, temp visas, npo workers, etc hide from gringo tail chasers. they make everyone look bad, and sometimes the natives don't distinguish. but of course, gracie, as usual, will tell you different to sell you a house without the deeds, but it's the only way he knows how to fly.
I don't think things are so cut & dried to be honest.
Plenty of expats take the odd lunchtime/afternoon soujourn for a soapy massage or whatever tickles their fancy - just in a discreet location like this :
http://www.poseidon2000.com/ Certainly most of the customers in this place are rich Thai men. Or a slightly less upmarket place, where you'll see mostly Japanese and Westerners :
http://www.thonglormassage.com/index1.html These are expats, professional positions with wives and families that take a time-out to get serviced by a professional.
Being an expat here, you are often expected to take guests to the go-go bars. They ask you to. It's one of the first things they'll ask after dinner. I have taken numerous senior execs to go-go bars. In my experience, I have yet to meet a married man that came out here on business and didn't fuck a tart. Not one in 14 years.
The Japenese and Koreans have infiltrated the 'western' go-go scene now, so in any of the bars, you can expect half or more Asian guys and the girls like them much more than westerners. They are lovingly referred to as "4,4,4" - 4 inches, 4 minutes, 4,000 Baht. The gringo tail chaser is a dying breed and the Japanese are now much more open about their mongering.
The Japanese have their own red light district, where Westerners are generally not allowed to go. It is the Japenese that are the biggest mongers. They have just tended in the past to keep to their own areas but are now branching out to places like Bacarra, where the girls dance on the glass floor/ceiling upstairs with no knickers on. I get a stiff neck thinking about the place.
So - in my opinion, if you are in regular business (not embassy related) and you regularly recieve foreign visitors, then you will not really be able to avoid the scene entirely. Certainly if you have Japenese guests, these nights out will help seal the deal.
It cannot be overstated how much prostitution is responsible for factories and other business being located in Thailand. A Japanese decision maker, when faced with Vietnam, Laos or Thailand will ALWAYS choose Thailand because of what he can do there on subsequent business trips.
It is for this reason that (somewhat jaded) expats like myself call Thailand "The Pussy Economy". I am not saying this is right. It is just what it is.
As for myself - I don't go to go-go bars unlesss I am escorting someone around the places. I find them tedious in the extreme but of course I got here in my mid-20's and did more than my fair share so I can't claim to be totally virtuous or anything like that.
