Dear Hillary,
Everybody must know by now if they read your column that there is a difference between the girls who work in the bar and the girls who work in regular jobs. What you say is for us to look for female company from the regular job girls. What you don’t say is that the regular jobby ones can’t speak English, are difficult to meet or get to know, while the ones who work from the bars can speak English and are easy to meet and are easy to get to know. For my money, give me the bar girl every time.
Frank
Dear Frank,
How astute of you, my Petal! Yes, there are great differences, and even more than the ones you mention, even such things as educational level. If all you are looking for is some female company, then the bar is the right place, but the problem comes when the customer (guys like you) then falls in love with their English speaking, easy to meet and know girl, and forget the fact that they are customers, not boyfriends. Thai girls do not choose to work out of a bar unless they are looking for quick money, without having any necessary qualifications to put them in high salary jobs. They are using their looks, their (presumed) sexuality and their ability to get money from their customers. You are paying for a commodity by meeting the fees demanded. When you fall in love with someone who is used to being fully paid for, the relationship is not really on the emotional plane, but in the financial one. And like all business deals, you can get burned. And many like you do. As you wrote “For my money, give me the bar girl every time.” And that’s what it is, Petal, your money and you are entitled to spend it any way you please, but don’t complain if you find it has all gone, and the girl’s “affections” with it. There is a phrase in business called ‘due diligence’. Apply it, Petal.
