One good sex tourist is worth 100 Chinese tourists for Thailand’s economy.  Take Big Bill for instance.

What one good sex tourist does for Thailand’s economy

Big Bill pays his Thai girlfriend 30000 baht  every month.  Which is slightly less than $1000 a month.  But now that Big Bill’s gone back to America for several months, she gets to stay in his condo.  The condo is 1400 square feet, has two bedrooms and two bathrooms.  His girlfriend, Noi, rented a 6000 baht room each month.  Which she shared with 2 other bar girls.

Big Bill has also bought a car.  And a Yamaha Nmax motorbike as well.  But now that he’s in America, Noi gets to use it everyday to transport herself back and forth to work.  Noi no longer has to work in the bar however.  And that’s because Big Bill is giving her almost $1000 a month.  She’s got a restaurant job now, which pays her 10,000 baht a month, which is enough to pay for all her expenses.   This leaves her with up to 30000 baht a month that she can use to support her family.  Which includes her mother and father, two sisters in their early teens, and her ten year old brother.  Not to mention her two daughters.

But Big Bill is much more than just one good sex tourist

He’s a superstar when it comes to fuel injecting Thailand’s economy.  Big Bill hired a Thai driver to drive him around in his car.  But since Big Bill’s large condo has two bedrooms, he allows his driver to stay in his spare bedroom.  So the Thai driver gets to stay in a beautiful condo for free.  While collecting a 15000 baht a month salary.

Big Bill also employs a Thai woman to clean his condo.  She comes nearly everyday.  And cleans for an hour or so.  Then she goes back to her regular job.  He pays her 5000 baht a month.

So how many Thais is this one good sex tourist supporting?

Starting with his Thai girlfriend, he’s supporting her, her mother and father, her two children,  one brother and two sisters.  Then he’s supporting his Thai driver and his young daughter.  And God knows how many extended family members the driver is helping out.  There’s the cleaning gal,  her two children, and her mother and father.    So he’s supporting at least 14 Thais.  But—keep in mind the ripple effect this all has on the Thai economy.  All these Thais he’s supporting are supporting other Thais.  Thais who own shops in the local markets.  The beautician who does his girlfriend’s hair.   Clothing vendors all of these Thais buy from.

Big Bill also spends a lot of money in Pattaya’s bars

Especially the go go bars.   He buys a lot of ladies drinks.  And each time he buys a go go dancer a drink. she’s getting a 50 baht commission from the bar she’s working for.  Oftentimes, Big Bill will take a wad of twenty baht bills and throw them at the go go girls.  Whether most of us consider Big Bill to be a fool is not the issue.  My point is he’s one good sex tourist.

Yeah, I know.   A lot of people think Big Bill’s a real fool.  But he’s got a huge heart.  And he knows that when he dies he can’t take it all with him.  But my whole point is this.  Who’s worth more to Thailand’s economy?  One good sex tourist like Big Bill?  Or 100 Chinese tourists?

So what are 100 Chinese tourists doing for the Thai economy?

First off most Chinese tourists go everywhere in large tour buses.  And these large tour buses are too much for most city streets in Thailand.  Such as Bangkok’s or Pattaya’s.   So they clog up the streets in the cities and slow traffic down to a snail’s pace.  These tour buses also kill and injure a lot of people because of the incompetence of so many of their drivers.

There’s nowhere to park all those large tour buses.  So their drivers park them all along the cities streets.

Road construction crews built all these traffic lanes to handle the needs of normal drivers.   And certainly not for bus parking lots.

What we have here it a wholesale constriction of entire cities roads.  Thanks to the huge proliferation of Chinese tourists.  And this proliferation is rapidly spinning out of control.

In fact, I might go so far as to say that the police and other authorities are selling entire traffic lanes so that the Chinese tour companies have a place to park their buses.

But let’s get back to what 100 Chinese tourists really mean to the Thai economy.

Approximately 45 Chinese tourists  will fill up a single tour bus.  So it takes two large tour buses to hold 90 Chinese tourists.  Now just imagine how much traffic just two tour buses can screw up?  Or how many meters of a single street it takes to park just two tour buses?

How the Chinese Tour Bus System works

The average Chinese tourist doesn’t have a lot of money to spend.  So here’s that happens.  The typical Chinese tour company offers cut rate airfares to the droves of Chinese tourists now flocking to Thailand.  So let me float out an arbitrary number out there.  “How does $150 airfare sound to you, from Shanghai to Bangkok and Pattaya?  Sounds good doesn’t it?  Let’s now tack on another $75.00 for five nights in a hotel and total transportation costs by tour bus.  That’s a total of just $225.00.

But there’s a catch.  And that is you must stay with your tour bus group.  Well, even if you don’t, without your tour leader you will be lost in a city such as Pattaya or Bangkok.  You can’t speak a word of Thai and chances are your English skills are absolutely worthless.

So the tour bus takes you everywhere.  And your fearless leader, your tour leader makes sure that you spend all your money in just the right places.

These are the places that will give your fearless leader a commission on every shirt, every pair of pants, every vase, every lunch or dinner that you now have to pay for out of your own pocket.

So the little makeshift noodle shops are now springing up everywhere.  These are the places your fearless leader will be taking you.

As for me, or my German, or even my Russian friends.  None of us would ever be caught dead eating in these low life restaurants with their cardboard walls and cheap tin corrugated roofs.

As for well established businesses here in Pattaya such as Pattaya to U (for computer repair) or Best Camera Shop at Tuk.com.  Do you think these places will be getting any Chinese dollars?  Never.  And neither is the Naklua Pen Bar whose clientele is mostly German, American and English.  Or a lot of good restaurants such as Heidelburg, Tavern, Robin Hood, Queen Victoria.

And speaking of Pen Bar, I have a little story on this one.

Now I’ve known Pen for 12 years now.  She’s Thai and she really knows how to run a bar.

In comes a single solitary Chinese guy.  Pen asks him if he wants a beer.  The Chinese replies no.  He must wait for his fearless tour guide leader to arrive with the rest of the tour group.  Meanwhile a group of Germans are sitting at the bar.  Who are buying their Heinekens for 90 baht a bottle.

Finally the fearless  leader of the tour group arrives.

“How much are you selling your beer for?” the Chinese fearless leader asks Pen.

“90 baht” Pen replies.

“I’ll bring my entire tour group in if you sell everyone bottled beer for 145 baht,” the fearless leader offers.  “You and I can split the 55 baht so we each get 27 baht,” he adds.

The problem is Pen is an honest Thai lady and she wants no part of this arrangement.  The tour group’s fearless leader immediately departs taking his Chinese horde with him.

So what happens to all those commissions the Chinese tour group leaders are getting?

Most of it’s going to their big bosses over in China.  And this is how they are able to offer such cut rate  air fares and hotel prices to all these Chinese armies of tourists who are inundating Bangkok and Pattaya.

Rich people here in Thailand are getting even richer because of all this monkey business.  While the common everyday Thai of little to modest means is getting screwed.  He gets to put up with all the horrible traffic these tour buses are causing.  He gets to see all these Chinese tourists dirty up his beaches, and his city’s parks, while they piss all over his sidewalks.

Think I’m joking?

I remember sitting at the Pen Bar one night when a single Chinese came into the small bar complex’s parking lot.

There’s a public restroom he could have used for just 5 baht.  But he either didn’t know about it or simply didn’t care.  So right at the far end of the parking lot he unzipped his pants and urinated right on the pavement.  This was just thirty meters from all of us.  In full view of the entire bar.  I couldn’t restrain myself.  And screamed  out to him, “Asshole.  You are a fucking idiot.”  Thais lose respect for someone who loses his temper.  But not this time.  The entire bar applauded when I called  the Chinese out for being a dirty pig.

I much prefer the Russian tourists now.  They go about their business as individuals, couples or small groups.   I think most Americans perceive Russians as barbarians or unthinking nitwits.  But I’ll tell you what.  Go to Koh Larn Island.  Or the the Siracha Khao Kheow Zoo..  You see white people, and I’ll just about guarantee that they are Russian.  The rest of us?  We Americans, Englishmen, Germans, Norwegians, etc?  You will find us in the bars.  With not a lot going on upstairs.  But I’m finding out that most of these Russians are go getters.  And they sure aren’t using the tour buses.  Like those lackeys following their Chinese tour leaders around.

But One good sex tourist, cultured or not, is worth more than 100 Chinese tourists.