Prostitution is a part of most cultures, but for me, it\u2019s not nearly as the empowering or liberating in Bangkok<\/a> as it is in a place like Canada or the US. I first learned this after watching Michael Glawogger\u2019s film, Whores\u2019 Glory<\/i><\/a>, which features Thailand as one of its subjects.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve wandered through one of the straight red-light districts in the city, Patpong, where women in lingerie are out in the streets luring men into their bars. There is a gay red-light district too, on Soi Twilight (or \u201cSoi Pratuchai\u201d<\/i> in Thai), which I recently went to for the first time.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a small alleyway northeast of the Patpong Night Market<\/a>, but it\u2019s so small that it doesn\u2019t show up on Google Maps. As I approached via Thanon Surawong, I was assaulted by a clutter of neon signs reading things like, \u201cDream Boys,\u201d \u201cHot Male\u201d and \u201cFresh Boys.\u201d A reddish-purple turned pinkish glow radiated on street level; it was like being on the set of a steam-punk thriller.<\/p>\n The walkway was so crammed with men that I had to push my way through. Right at the entrance, a waiter from one of the bars tried to usher me to a table that was at the side of the walkway. \u201cOne drink,\u201d he said in broken English. \u201cI\u2019m going to a go-go bar,\u201d I told him.<\/p>\n I learned in Bangkok not to be intimidated by the hustles on the street. This was just business as usual for him, but I was stern, avoiding eye contact even. \u201cI don\u2019t want a drink.\u201d \u201cOne drink,\u201d he repeated. I laughed. \u201cNo, I\u2019m going over there.\u201d I pointed past his shoulder. \u201cCome on, mate,\u201d someone to the side of me with an Australian accent said. \u201cJoin us for just a drink.\u201d<\/p>\n There were two bears in their 50s sitting at a table to the right of the walkway. I found the quiet guy, who hadn\u2019t spoken, quite attractive. He was beefy with big arms and a gut \u2014 your classic bear. \u201cFine, maybe I\u2019ll join for just a drink. \u201dThey both cheered, throwing their hands in the air as a sort of victory.<\/p>\n I took a seat on one of the bar stools next to them and ordered a large beer. They were obviously trashed and told me that they\u2019d just arrived in the city that afternoon. Their names were Andrew and Will, and they were visiting from Melbourne, but Will, the cute one, was originally from Brisbane. It turned out that they\u2019re a couple, so I toned down the flirting, although it sometimes came out involuntarily.<\/p>\n They visited Bangkok often; at least once a year, sometimes twice if they could. It was a vibrant city, which is why they kept coming back. They loved the food, particularly the street food, which I’d only just started sampling, I told them. I had a phobia of intense food poisoning that dated back to my time in India.<\/p>\n Andrew didn\u2019t beat around the bush. He admitted that they had come for the Thai men. They were bona fide sex tourists, it seemed. \u201cWhich go-go bar were you going to?\u201d he asked like a true aficionado. He loved it \u2014 I could tell by his delinquent smile. It made him happy just to ask the question. \u201cI don\u2019t know \u2014 which one is best?\u201d \u201cI\u2019d start at X-Size Bar. It\u2019s just down there where the big \u2018X\u2019 is. They have the hottest guys.\u201d<\/p>\n He gave me the rundown about how these places worked. If you see someone you like, you essentially rent them out and bring them back to your hotel; however, you need to negotiate the cost and the specific sex acts.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of the guys are straight,\u201d he warned. \u201cIf you just want to get your ass fucked hard, then it\u2019s not a problem. If they\u2019re straight, and you want to fuck them though, they may say they\u2019re into \u2018everything,\u2019 but then you take them home and they refuse to bottom. Those ones won\u2019t suck you either.\u201d<\/p>\n He pointed to a cluster of young Thai men sitting around a table at the bar opposite us. They were very thin, twinky types, and were chatting to one another, while looking over at us and smiling. \u201cYou\u2019d be better off with one of them. They\u2019re obviously gay, so you can fuck the ass off them all night.\u201d<\/p>\n The waiter started laughing when he heard him say that. \u201cHe\u2019s gay too,\u201d Andrew added. \u201cWe\u2019ve had him several times. He\u2019ll let you do whatever you want to him. Fuck him, suck him, come all over him.\u201d This made the waiter very bashful . . .<\/p>\n\n\n Hole & Corner appears on <\/em>Daily Xtra every Wednesday. Follow Mike Miksche on <\/em>Facebook<\/em><\/a> or on Twitter <\/em>@MikeMiksche<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Beyond the neon signs and jammed packed streets is a paradise for Westerners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":256,"featured_media":72702,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editorial_slug":"25","_editorial_slug":"","exclude_from_latest_block":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19],"contributors":[511],"topic":[70,73,78,86,118,131,132],"clients":[],"series":[],"timeliness":[58],"editorial_format":[25],"type-of-work":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72700"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/256"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72700"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197370,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72700\/revisions\/197370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72700"},{"taxonomy":"contributors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributors?post=72700"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=72700"},{"taxonomy":"clients","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/clients?post=72700"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=72700"},{"taxonomy":"timeliness","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/timeliness?post=72700"},{"taxonomy":"editorial_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editorial_format?post=72700"},{"taxonomy":"type-of-work","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type-of-work?post=72700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/media_image_style\/public\/assets\/images\/image3.JPG?itok=qdyJAL9u\")
<\/figure>\nSoi Twilight in the daytime.<\/span> Credit: Mike Miksche\/Daily Xtra<\/span><\/div>\n