I recall this converstaion several times with my old Thai friend the gay magazine publisher and of course over a long period of time (well over two decades for me) one makes observations:
- There is no standard recruitment process.
- Many bars regularly put ads in up country newspapers (of which there are many), often with comments about salary of 30,000Baht a month, which of course is way beyond the dreams of typical uneducated country boys. Often same ads say it's a waiter job in a Bkk or Pattaya or Phuket restaurant where farangs give unbelievable/massive tips.
- Reality is that some boys borrow money to get to Bkk or wherever, find out that it's dancing boy bar etc., and are to some extent trapped.
- Other bar managers mamasans (Thai) do regular recruitment drives (visits) in country cities / towns. One example is a bar (since bought out and amalgamated into a bigger venue in Patpong) where 99% of the boys came from Kalasin, the managers home town. He did regular recruitment trips there and brought boys back with him. I'm also aware that the Thai manager of one of the high profile bars in Pattaya (boystown area) does the same thing, and most of his dancing boys come from either Udon Thani or Nakorn Sawan.
- Obviously some boys are enticed by friends already working, and in some bars there is a small bonus to bring other boys.
- Another aspect is that some bar owners who find boys who turn out to be highly popular will give these boys some form of incentive to stay. Example: manager has a new worker who is offed every night and has many regulars, manager (often without telling the boy) pays for a motorcyle then gives the boy the motorcycle plus vaguely mentions that this is actually a loan which must be paid back to the mamasan. This has two implications: 1). Trap the boy into staying, and/or 2). Tell the boy that the monthly payments will be reduced if the boy provides regular sex to the mamasan. The boy (like it or not) is now trapped to stay with the mamasan.
- It's true that many managers / owners / mamsans insist that job candidates must first have sex with them /sleep with them before they can start work. My magazine publisher friend say that this is simply manipulation and exploitation and nothing more.
- Magazine friend says he's never heard of 'training'.
- I recall a specific conversation with my magazine publisher friend many years ago. He mentioned that the term 'gay bar' was a new term perhaps forty years ago, perhaps when soldiers started to visit here on R&R from Vietnam (not sure of this point). Prior to that bars and venues with boys were known as 'boy bars' with all sorts of customers, male and female. Magazine friend say 'boy bars' have existed in Thailand for hundreds of years.
- When I first came to Thailand the old style bars / cafes with many girl singers were everywhere. Most of these places also has a smaller number of boy singers. The customer paid either cash or with plastic roses for the selected girl or boy to sing a selected song or to dance (waltz) with them. In reality it was the first step in taking a 'worker' to a private room for further activities. I went to these venues many times, 99.9% of their customers were Thai men, who had no concern whatever about whether customers selected girls or boys. I had a number of nice experiences with boys from these venues myself.
- Many years back it was not uncommon to go the many 'boy host bars' on Sukhumvit and observe a Thai man bring in a younger Thai lady (girl perhaps late teens, and probably the Thai man's younger sister), the man would talk with many of the working boys, then the brother would select a young man to take his sister to a hotel for her 'first experience', with lots of instructions about 'take it slowly', 'don't frighten her', 'don't hurt her', etc. Perhaps this still happens, I don't know.
- Of very recent times I recall an incident when a farang customer came back to one of the bigger venues in Patpong and demanded his money back because the boy was not gay. The farang owner kept repeating 'this is an introduction service, nothing more, nobody promised you a gay boy, and nobody promised you any level of service'!
|