It is seven in the evening and Nana Plaza is coming to life. Neon signs are flickering on; flowers sellers and peanut sellers and garland sellers are already making their rounds; vans briefly block the narrow passageway into Nana to make last-minute deliveries of ice and soft drinks; sounds of music, laughter and motorcycle engines pierce the humid air; wispy curls of incense smoke rise above shrines dedicated to Brahma, Buddha, locals gods and various animist spirits. Dancers are enjoying last minute chili-flavored snacks or are already inside the go-go bars putting on their makeup. Men in short-sleeve shirts are laughing and drinking with the women working the beer bars, and killing time before the go-go action begins. Uninhibited eroticism permeates an evening air already so full of sensual promise that the Marquis de Sade himself might feel the need to run for cover.
As she walks through Nana Plaza to enter the bar, Lek can feel the appreciative gazes of men following her and she cannot help but smile: men from around the world come here to watch her dance, and the income she makes from the bar and from nocturnal trysts with men has become far greater than anything she might have earned in another profession. In another year or so she can buy a bit of land or a small apartment of her own. But for her greater salary and greater freedom she has paid a price. Although Bangkok nightlife is free from the sordidness of most Western capitals, Thai bargirls must accept their place as social outcasts. They are free to say no to men they dislike but making love with men is an essential part of their job and may bring them far more income than their bar salary. Most dancers accept it as part of what comes with the territory. But, as a popular Thai song says, “She sells her body, but not her heart.”
Her heart is most likely with her family to whom she sends a proportion of what she makes; for it is most of all in the eyes of her family and village that she must be seen as a success. Many bargirls feel the pressure of success so strongly that they refuse to return home even to visit until they can afford to do so in style. One bikini-clad beauty explained it this way:
"When I left my village many people say I no can do well in Bangkok; they think
I go back home right away. But I no go back. And, soon, I have enough money to
go back and bring lots of gifts. Everybody know I be bargirl but if I have money
and gifts they no can say nothing. OK, you handsome man—you buy me drink now?"
The day will probably come when her heart will be given to her own child whose Thai or foreign father will have simply decided to leave her. Several dancers working in the nightlife areas have a young child, and their determination to provide their child with a better life is a very strong one among all the entertainment girls, whether dancers, bar waitresses or massage parlor girls. As with any large group of people, the personalities of Bangkok’s entertainment girls run the gamut from extremely honest to outright devious. When it comes to flattery, a few of the women may still compliment a man with the familiar, “You number one,” but most of them are disarmingly candid.
copyright © Dean Barrett 2001
"I was immensely touched; her youth, her ignorance, her pretty beauty, which had the simple charm and the delicate vigour of a wild-flower" Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim