June 18, 2006
Female sex tourism in Thailand
Here's an interesting item, Just a holiday romance, in Pattaya Today, a newspaper for the resort town in east Thailand. Author Bea McConnell asks:
Word on the street has it that middle-aged women will flock to Jamaica and the Gambia in their hundreds in search of what they much prefer to call a holiday romance.
Yes, this is really happening. It's not just word on the street, and I have explored this phenomenon in Jamaica, the Gambia, and many other places, in Romance on the Road.
Here's something I didn't know:
It also appears that Chinese women are getting in on the act, although they do not favour the African or Afro-Caribbean types. They prefer to stay closer to home, and closer also to what they know and understand.Consequently, women from Hong Kong and Taiwan are holidaying in Beijing where they can purchase the attentions of a "duck" (or yazi) if they feel like a bit of company. Just imagine, you can shop till you drop all day as you buy new items for your wardrobe and a little something for the folks back home, and then in the evening you can buy yourself a sexy young drinking companion to talk to, flirt with and even take pleasure with later in the evening.
... Apparently Chinese women are also a bit picky and favour the men from Manchuria where they tend to be taller than the average oriental man.
The author then asks:
So where is all the action in Thailand? How come women aren’t flocking to the Land of Smiles for a little paid-for hanky panky in the sunshine?
I was a little surprised to read this, because I report in RotR that Western lesbian tourists indeed go to Pattaya itself, and that flocks of Japanese women (straight) visit Phuket, while Western women (straight) also visit Bangkok and Koh Samet.
I sent this e-mailed Letter to the Editor to Pattaya Today:
Dear Editor,Regarding the item, "Just a holiday romance?" (June 16), Bea McConville asks, "Where is all the action in Thailand? How come women aren’t flocking to the Land of Smiles for a little paid-for hanky panky in the sunshine? Why is there not a ‘scene’ here for women to dip into when they are in need of a little attention?"
Well, the answer is easy: The action in Thailand is in Phuket, Bangkok and Koh Samet, where tens of thousands of Japanese women visit Thai beach boys each year.
As I write in
Romance on the Road:
"No one wanted to look into the spike of female tourist arrivals on Phuket and figure out what was going on — except a lone Thai demographer. Sairudee Vorakitphokatorn discovered that
during the years 1990 to 1994, numbers of female Japanese visitors to Phuket soared from fewer than 4,000 to more than 40,000, and they began to outnumber male Japanese tourists. Beach boys reported that Japanese women, usually aged 18 to 27, comprised 70 percent of their clients."Vorakitphokatorn's findings provoked a storm in Japan, where women in fiercely protested the report.
Anthropologist Cleo Odzer also entered into affairs with Thai men in Bangkok and Koh Samet, and discussed other Western women "playgirls" as well. There are also reports of Western lesbians visiting Pattaya to consort with Thai women.
Sincerely,
Jeannette Belliveau
Beau Monde Press
Baltimore, Maryland USA
It's surprising a local publication doesn't know about female sex tourism in various locales in Thailand!
Update July 20, 2006: A female travel friend of mine reports active holiday romances between American women and Thai guys in Chiang Mai. One woman visited Chiang Mai as a result of friction with her Japanese husband, who she left at home.
This is significant in that it supports a viewpoint presented in RotR: That female sex tourism has expanded from beach resorts to a vast number of destinations, including mountainous regions such as Chiang Mai and Nepal.
- posted by jbelliveau at 1:03 PM in Love, Sex, Romance and Travel
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