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| Issan girls, yesterday |
I was supping on a pleasantly chilled Tiger beer at a small bar on Bangkok’s busy Sukhumvit Road recently, and got chatting to a relatively cute Issan chick.
We got chatting, and taught each other a few words in English and Thai - always a good ice-breaker. Most Thai girls working in bars are desperate to improve their English, whilst learning to speak Thai is the single biggest difference between those who have a good time in Thailand, and those who have a great time. So it really is mutually beneficial.
We got talking about the difference in attitudes to skin tone. Every 7-11 shop here in Bangkok is stocked with skin-whitening cosmetics. Thai girls (and guys) want to be as pale-skinned as possible, as it’s considered way more attractive than dark skin.
Back in Farangland, of course, the vain classes are spending their cash on fake tan or sunbed treatments in order to darken their skin, and appear more attractive in our own culture.
The concept that we ding dong farang folk actually pay money to darken our skin is a great source of hilarity to the Thais, who are equally bemused when they see legions of big-nosed pale-skinned white guys walking proudly through the streets and malls of Bangkok with their brown Issan girlfriends.
Just why, my companion asked me, do farangs like Issan girls more?
Well, maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think we particularly do. Pale-skinned Thai girls can be stunningly attractive to us too. The only difference is in availability and ease of procurement.
We see the white-skinned Thai girls in shopping malls, in Thai discos, on the MRT, and so on. But because there’s no bar-fine mechanism in place in those situations (yet), many of us don’t even bother. But if we want to get busy with a bargirl from Buriram, it’s a simple matter of strolling into any bar of ill-repute with a couple of thousand baht in our pocket. We’re just lazy.
I explained all of this, and she smiled and cocked her head, before replying:
“Yes. Issan girls are easy”.
I wasn’t going to argue with her.
Of course, not everyone is as enthralled with Issan girls - as Stickman’s latest column opines:
If farang men did only one thing to improve their relationships with Thai girls, everything in their lives would change. No ISAAN girls. Period. For fun, as a bar girl, ok. But not for girlfriends or wives! I have friends who have lived here for a long time and more than a few ONLY go out with Thai girls who are NOT from Isaan. And it is AMAZING that they don’t have girlfriends who squander money, date motorbike drivers, talk bad to them, and so on. The Isaan subculture will not even let a girl have a good life, because even in she has money, or a good boyfriend, she cannot handle it. She always blows it. When I think of all my friends who have good relationships with Thai girls they always seem to be girls from Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Bangkok, Lampang, Lamphun, wherever but RARELY ISAAN. Isaan girls are for FUN, not relationships. WAKE UP and smell the reality.
http://www.stickmanbangkok.com/StickMarkII/TheBangkokEffect.htm
I always thought Stickman’s wife was from Korat. But I suppose I must be wrong…
Although I have very limited experience in this area, what experience I do have is from the deep south Thailand, Sungai Kolok area. Best of the best were always from Chang Mai ….. Well , let’s hope Sticks wife is NOT from Korat…. or hope she cannot read !!!
View all comments by LongPlay
Stick’s wife is definitely from Korat. I’m certain that Stick didn’t write that little rant, but it’s a good example of why he should credit his sources.
There are southern and Chiang Mai girls to be found in Bangkok gogos (and even a leuk kreung or two if you look hard enough). At least 90% are Issan girls though.
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
Enough of these generalisations although I have come to expect them from Stickman.
A close friend has been living with an Issan girl (Korat to be precise) for 15 years and has found her to be genuine, money conscious, honest and faithful.
All a bit boring, at times, which is probably why he has strayed rather a lot in the last decade or so.
His last dalliance lasted three years and was with a bright, Bangkok-born, university-educated twentysomething who could teach your average Issan girl a lot about cheating (last count she had four boyfriends, all foreigners living overseas who make regular trips to Thailand, on the go) spending (could go through a hundred thousand baht in a couple of weeks - “my eyeliner costs 1,200 baht!”) and bitching.
Correct. He found her fun to be with and, as he told me ad nauseum, she had the sweetest of pussies.
As I said, never mind the generalisations, just play the field. As BBB said in a recent comment, a lifetime is not enough to enjoy everything that is on offer in Thailand.
View all comments by Sideliner
The least money-focused girl I’ve been with here was from Ubon… arguably the heart of Isaan.
The most money focused girl I’ve known here was an ivory skinned beauty (who wore blue contact lenses) born and raised here in Bangkok.
My current LBFM is a ‘tweener’ from Jangwat Petcaboon… not quite Isaan, but close. She pulls a steady stream of cash out of my pocket without quite being money-grubbing.
Stereotypes abound here. Like everywhere, they may contain general truths but fall far short of actually being ‘jing jing’.
View all comments by werewolf
Skin color isn’t a factor, although my idea of a continuing relationship is one that continues until 4am.
View all comments by PB
Skin colour isn’t a factor but growing up in a bush is!
View all comments by meister
To be fair wasn’t that piece from Stick’s email inbox? That section of his weekly is just a paste from his Inbox. Granted, the rest of his weekly minus the lead story is pasted from his sources for the most part, bad one’s I might add, and I agree he should credit his sources there but the excerpt above was explicitly from a reader. I’m not defending Stick in general btw, I thought his comeback articles have been horrible so far but that blurb was definitely not his and he makes that clear.
View all comments by pmmp
Yup, it says “FROM STICK II’S EMAIL INBOX”. My bad.
Although I’m sure that wasn’t there on Sunday…
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
I believe it was previously above the Email Header, and seemed to be a blog from Stick, himself… I think it’s since been relocated. I confess to having been stricken by the same thoughts about his dear wife on my first reading.
View all comments by werewolf
Neither all issan girls are sex workers nor all Bangkok girls are good. In the west it is common for office going girls or students to hang around in bars after work or after study but in Thailand only hookers hang around the bars. Of course there are some exclusive bars and ent. areas where there is no sex trade ,where students or office going girls hang out in the weekends. There are lots of issan girls working in garment factories, offices, hotels and other establishments. The first opportunity for an outsider to meet thai women are in the bars and just like in the west these guys think that these women are normal thai girls and some takes it like hitting jackpot by hooking up with stunning thai beauties.It was always too late when they are married and the realisation that he is marrying a hooker just like the ones in Soho.
The point is you can never tell the occupation of a girl by looking at those beauties walking around the shopping malls, cos they look and dress similarly.Its a good thing that one can speak Thai so that he could talk with the bar girls. Ask them about their work if they are pretending to be office workers or students.Ask them why they hang around the bars almost everyday from late in the evening till early morning and if they still insist then either the girls are superhumans or you need some head cleaning.
So for the final time lets stop this confusion of mixing hookers with good normal girls. Let me tell you about one incident a few years back. A group of tourists visited patpong one night and the next day they started eveteasing a normal Thai girl who was walking in the Phahurat area of Bangkok, a few minutes later the girl’s brother came with his friends and started beating up all the outsiders whoever happen to be walking there at that moment.Around 30 innocent nonthais were beaten up before the arrival of the police. The moral of the story is just like any other women in any part of the world you need the right connection and atmosphere to get to know a normal thai girl.If you are a student or teacher you are likely to know students, if you are working in Thailand you will have thai office going friends both male and female. If you are a newcomer you end up with a bar girl, at a price.
There are bangkok born and brought up girls working in the sex industry due to poverty or the result of a broken home.One good place to find these girls is the Plaza ent. at Makassan near sukhumvit soi 3. And you need a vehicle to roam slowly around Sanam luang and Lumphini park early in the evening. When you see groups of young girls hanging around just stop the car, they will come to you and you can start the business talk, but you need to learn thai. If the deal is struck they will jump into your car,probably two or three girls and they will take you to a short time hotel nearby. These are young bangkok girls and mostly on drugs or from broken homes and certainly illegal and so not healthy for immigration purposes. Highly not recommended! you can just check out but never go in a taxi they will never come near a taxi.
View all comments by John
Welcome back John.
All good points - the tale was about the Issan girl telling ME that “Issan girls are easy”. I’m not the one doing the generalising (for once).
Interesting about the street girls not coming near a taxi. I’ve cruised the streetwalker soi behind the Siam Hotel on Petchburi Road in a taxi plenty of times with no problems - the drivers usually find it hilarious, and the girls don’t bat an eyelid.
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
Screw the taxi.
I do streetwalker soi on foot.
gets a lot more reactions, gives me time to chat and just heightens the fun.
View all comments by Smitty
I think, at the moment, right now, that the best Thai girls come from the Phillipines.
View all comments by Pants Elk
A rather uninspiring piece BB. Seems that you wrote it with the only aim of having (another) go at Stickman. Granted he is due some critcism but really you can do a lot better than this….
View all comments by MSB
Pants Elk…… I would agree…. as I am married to a Filipina right now !!
Sometimes it pays to broaden your perspective!!
View all comments by LongPlay
Hi MSB. It was supposed to be an insight into our own stereotypes and prejudices, contrasted with those of the girls themselves. Maybe I could have done better. Maybe you’d like to write a reader’s submission and show us how it’s done? All are welcome…
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
I’m amused to see that Stick’s updated his weekly column layout to include the following heading:
Result.
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy