Every year, a significant amount of single male tourists from every corner of the world flock to Pattaya, Bangkok, Phuket, and other popular nightlife destinations in Thailand—primarily to have sex with Thai bar girls.
A combination of attributes, including year-round warm weather, affordable prices, and lively nightlife, make Thailand a dream holiday destination for single men seeking sex and female company while on vacation.
Mainly, though, it’s because of how it is with bar girls in Thailand. Bar girls are typically young, slim, sexy Thai women that have a reputation for being playful, easy-going, and fun to be with.
For single men on vacation in Thailand, bar girls are what make Thailand rock.
What is a Thai Bar Girl
A typical Thai bar girl working in Pattaya, Bangkok, Phuket, or any of the famous nightlife and sex tourism hot spots in Thailand can best be defined as a woman who works in a bar and is also a prostitute.
That’s not to say that every girl working in every bar in Thailand’s nightlife and sex tourism destinations is a bar girl.
Bar girls are usually employed at adult entertainment and “naughty” nightlife venues, typically girlie bars, gogo clubs, gentleman’s clubs, and short-time bars.
Bar girls might be employed as hostesses and waitresses in bars and gentleman’s clubs and as gogo dancers at agogo clubs.
Thailand Bar Girls vs Freelance Girls
You can meet freelance girls online, in nightclubs and discos, and in so-called “freelancer-friendly” bars in Thailand. The difference is that freelance girls are not employed by any bar, so unless they have some sort of agreement with the bar, there is no bar fine to pay.
The Thai Bar Girl’s Job
In Thailand, whether they are employed as waitresses, hostesses, or dancers, bar girls are employed primarily to attract customers to the bar.
Inside the bar, bar girls are encouraged to keep customers entertained, so they spend more money on drinks for themselves and on “lady drinks” for the bar girls. It means more profit for the bar, and the girls earn a commission on any drinks a customer buys for them.
For Thai bar girls, bars provide a basic income, plus commission and tips. Most importantly—bars a place to meet customers who pay the bar a “bar fine” so that they can take girls out for an agreed period, known as “long time” and “short time.”
How to Pick Up Thai Bar Girls in Thailand
The formalities of picking up and hiring Thai bar girls for sex in Thailand, whether in Pattaya, Bangkok, Phuket, Koh Samui, Chiang Mai, or any touristy place in Thailand with an adult nightlife scene, are the same.
The formalities, including buying lady drinks, and paying bar fines for “long time” and “short time” with Thailand bar girls, are all explained in this guide to paying for sex with girls in Pattaya.
What is it about Thai Bar Girls?
Other than being stereotyped as a sex tourist, there is no stereotypical single male that visits Thailand for girls and sex. Every guy is different and might want to hook up with Thai bar girls for many different reasons.
Of bar girls in Thailand: for the right price, under the right circumstances, with the right girl, Thai bar girls can be anything a guy wants them to be. From a porn star experience to a Thai girlfriend experience.
A Thai girlfriend experience is what it’s coincidentally like with Thai bar girls, the big thing, which can also happen to be the worst thing about bar girls in Thailand.
Why be a Bar Girl in Thailand
Every Thai bar girl working in touristy destinations like Bangkok, Pattaya, and Phuket, has her own story of how and why she became a bar girl.
Mainly, girls CHOOSE to become bar girls out of necessity and need.
For some girls, especially exceptionally attractive girls, being a bar girl is a way to make lots of money fast or find themselves a rich foreign husband.
The majority of Thai bar girls in the most popular sex tourist destinations in Thailand come from humble backgrounds in the more impoverished northeast (Isarn) region of Thailand.
Issan is a mainly rural region. Much of the work is poorly paid farming work, so a typical bar girl’s parents might be poorly paid rice farmers or similar.
Most usually, they live hand to mouth, in small village-like communities. The family home is often nothing more than a bare brick or wooden building with a tin roof.
In most cases, even if a girl is clever enough, her parents can’t afford to send her to university or college. That means getting a well-paying job is almost impossible. The only options are to follow in her parent’s footsteps or take a similar poorly paid job in a factory, perhaps.
For many of these poor, underprivileged girls from Isarn, working as a bar girl is the best chance they have to earn potentially relatively large amounts of money. Or, if they are lucky, meet their Prince Charming—a wealthy foreign man.
How much do Thai Bar Girls earn?
Thai bar girls usually get paid a small basic salary of around 6000 baht per month. The exception is gogo dancers, who get paid as much as 15,000 baht per month.
Other ways bar girls make money are:
- Commission on lady drinks, 30–50 baht
- Payment for sex, 1000–3000+ baht
- Percentage of shared tips plus personal tips
- Percentage of the bar fine, maybe
A Thai bar girl’s earning potential is dependent on her popularity, which in turn is usually dependent on her looks.
An attractive Thai bar girl working in a popular bar might have at least ten lady drinks bought for her every day and be “bar fined” by a customer once a day. If she works 26 days a month, that means she is earning a minimum of 45,000 baht plus tips.
To put that into context, 500 baht per day for working in a factory would be considered to be above average.
Thailand Bar Girl Laws
- Prostitution is illegal in Thailand, but the law is rarely enforced
- The age of sexual consent is 18 years.
- The legal age for consumption of alcohol is 20 years
- The minimum legal age for employment in a bar is 18 years
Although it’s illegal for girls under 18 years old to work in a bar, it’s not unknown for girls to lie about their age, or for bar owners to “turn a blind eye,” so to speak.
Where to Meet Bar Girls in Thailand
The best places to meet Thai bar girls in girlie bars and adult entertainment venues in the red-light areas of Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket, Koh Samui, and Chiang Mai.
You will find, though, that most touristy places in Thailand, including the popular Thai islands, have a least a few beer bars with Thai bar girls catering to foreign tourists.
Towns and cities in Thailand where ex-pats work and live, such Khon Kaen, Udon Thani, Songkhla, and Ban Chang, also have areas where girlie bars and Thai bar girls can easily be found.
What’s bad about Thai Bar Girls?
Some of the best advice for single men visiting Thailand for the nightlife, sex, and girls:
- Never trust a Thai bar girl
- Never believe a Thai bar girl
- Never marry a Thai bar girl
Of course, that’s stereotyping; there are actually very many honest and trustworthy Thai bar girls.
But, it’s good advice, and if you prepare for the worst, it’s less likely to happen, and you might be pleasantly surprised.
Lies Thai bar girls think you want to hear, which might not be true:
- I don’t have a husband or boyfriend
- I don’t usually sleep with customers
- This is my first week working in the bar
Before you fall head over heels in love with a Thai bar girl, remember this. The most endearing terms of “I love you too much” and the gratifying compliments are often a prelude to “Please send me money.”