Confessions of an HIV-positive prostitute (in bankok)

[NorthAmericanguy]

"From her appearance, Pui, 31, (not her real name) looks like a perfectly normal, healthy Thai woman. But she is actually HIV-positive. By day Ms Pui is a part-time cleaner and a mother to a 16-year-old daughter; by nights, she is a freelance prostitute, working along Sukhumvit Road. She has sold her body for the past eight years.

PHOTO : MAXMILIAN WECHSLER

Ms Pui, who keeps her condition a secret from her family and friends, has unprotected sex with customers, even though having sex without a condom is probably how she contracted the disease in the first place.

"Now it's too late for me to think what I should have done better in the past. Surely I would do things differently by insisting on a condom. I was careless."

A life on the streets was never what she contemplated when Ms Pui left her native village in Loei province in northeastern Thailand about 13 years ago, to look for work in Bangkok. She made the move so she could support herself, her young daughter and her parents.

"I'm not the only one who has done it. There are many other girls who left poverty-stricken villages and came to Bangkok looking for a better life, but not all ended as prostitutes or HIV-positive like me. It was not my intention to become a prostitute, but because of a lack of education [she only had six years of schooling], I couldn't get a well-paid job here," she said.

"When I came to Bangkok the first time, I was about 18. I could only find an unskilled job in a factory, for 4,500 baht a month.

"It was enough then, but as my parents were getting older and my daughter growing up, I needed more money.

"I wanted her to be well-educated so she could get a good job, and not end up like me. And the only way to make extra money was to become a prostitute. I started when I was about 23, and I've been doing it ever since," Ms Pui said.

"I was definitely infected by a farang, because at that time I only went with them, but now I'll go with anyone, whether they are Arab, African, Japanese or whatever, provided they give me money," she said with the same degree of coolness she displayed during the entire interview.

She doesn't know when she was infected, or who did it.

"It might have been the first man. Who knows?" she said.

Ms Pui goes out looking for customers about 6pm daily, except on Sundays, which she spends with her 16-year-old daughter. Because she is relatively better looking than most of the other women working the streets, she says she can get customers almost every day.

"I'll walk or stand on the pavement of Sukhumvit Road between sois 3 and 5, and sometimes sit in open bars. Since Middle Eastern men prefer fat girls to skinny ones, who are in the majority, I usually have no problem finding a customer.

"I charge 1,000 baht for a short time and prefer not to use a condom, because it's faster. I can make money easily and go home. I'll take only one customer per day, and if I can't then I'll go home at 11pm.

"I can't stay too late because I must get up at 6am to send my daughter to school and then go to work," she said.

Ms Pui doesn't show much consideration to her foreign clients and readily agrees to, and even encourages unprotected sex, despite knowing that she might infect not only her customers, but also their wives and girlfriends as well as other prostitutes. Some of her foreign customers, she says, take two or even three women every day.

Surprisingly, Ms Pui blames men for the problems she faces, but denies she is seeking revenge by deliberately infecting them.

"Most of the men, especially from the Middle East and Africa, won't use a condom. Every man who takes girls from the street should realise the risk of contracting HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases. It appears to me that they don't really care, so why should I? I'm HIV-positive, they are not!

"The business around Sukhumvit is getting worse for Thai women because of the influx of prostitutes mainly from Uzbekistan and African countries. They'll stand on the pavement the same as we do and approach foreigners who are passing.

"This gives us a lot of competition, because many men, especially from the Middle East, like to take them," she complained. "For sure, I'm not the only one who is HIV-positive working on the street. There are others as well."

Other street women and transsexuals who are joining them on the street in increasing numbers will have sometimes two or even three customers in one day.

"What can I do? I need money now more than ever before. My daughter is a bright student and I want her to continue her studies at a university, so that she can get a well-paid job when she grows up and not end up like me.

"She wants to be a doctor, but I doubt that this will be possible because I don't have enough money to give her that kind of education."I also have to take care of my 65-year-old ailing father.

My mother died six years ago, when she was 44. She didn't want me to have an abortion; at the time I was only 15-years-old.

"The child's father, a 20-year-old Thai man, left me before she was born, and never contacted or supported us.

"I haven't had a boyfriend since and I don't think that I want one now. I like to stay alone with my daughter."

Ms Pui discovered she was HIV-positive about two years ago after she applied for a manual job with a government agency and was told to have a medical examination before she could start work.

"When I saw the result, I was devastated and tore the medical certificate to pieces. I couldn't sleep, eat or do anything for days, and I cried constantly. I thought: 'I am dead.'

"I thought that my sick father and daughter would lose their only breadwinner, and it made me miserable and it still does. After the blood test, I didn't contact the government agency. "I couldn't go back and tell them because others would find out sooner or later about my misfortune." It took her a few days to pull herself together and to find a full-time cleaning job with a private company, where she earns 7,500 baht a month, and importantly for her, there was no compulsory medical check-up required. At the same time she returned to Sukhumvit Road, looking for men.

"As my income from cleaning is not enough, I have to subsidise it by going with men. There's nothing else for me to do. I have to pay 2,500 baht for a room and utilities, send 2,000 baht monthly to my family and look after my daughter." At Spectrum's request, she went to a city hospital and took a further test, which confirmed the original result.

After her first HIV test, a doctor suggested she start taking a cocktail of anti-retroviral drugs. She refused, saying it would result in pimples on her face. "Even now, I'm not taking any medicine or getting treatment. But I'm otherwise healthy, apart for an occasional cold. In fact, I'm getting fat. I now weigh almost 75kg."



http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/investi ... prostitute

[Repatriate]

I'm pretty sure I know which soi those girls hang out at. They are hardcore freelancers who target after hours punters. The bunch of them that stand out there are usually pretty nasty looking with a lot of ladyboys. You'd have to be crazy to pick up one of those freelancers because they are basically the girls that establishments won't hire because either they got kicked out, are diseased, or some other sketchy issues.

[NorthAmericanguy]

Random comments from the article:





"I know some of the girls in the photograph above, who are clearly recognizable. None of them truly support "poor" parents. That is BS. They often waste more in a day than most Thais spend in a month. Most of the money is wasted on clothes, shoes, jewellery, boyfriends, alcohol, drugs, cosmetics, gambling, and the lottery.

It is quite true that most of them have Thai boyfriends or husbands. They actually stand around in the street nearby drinking beer, while their wives have sex with customers. You can go see this for yourself between Sois 3 and 7 at any time.

The majority of these street girls claim they do it for aging parents and family. This is not commonly true. All of the ones that I know do not send more than the occasional thousand baht home. Many have actually received cash assistance for their family from sympathetic foreigners, but have stolen it and used the money for themselves. Most of them rent quite expensive apartments and spend money as if it grew on trees. Their lifestyle perpetuates itself, requiring more and more money.

I am not particularly sympathetic to these girls because I have always had difficulty in employing staff in my businesses, and I and my managers have offered hundreds of them a job. The problem is that they don't want to do honest work. There are, for example, millions of Thai people raising a family on 7500 baht or less - but these girls have nothing but contempt for decent people who work honestly to support themselves.

Over the years I have seen so many of these girls succumb to HIV. The percentage figure is high. Most of them have several other STD's as well. They rarely ever take a full course of antibiotics. It is common to see the diseases spread rapidly amongst their circle of friends. They do not seem to care very much, just go ahead and pretend everything is normal until one day they vanish from sight, and go back to their village to die.

As for their families, I have visited many over the years. A great many. Few that I have seen I would consider to be really poor. Most are actually farmers who could easily live very well, and do not really need much. Previously, they were pretty much self - sufficient. But nowadays they want mobile phones, beer to drink, new televisions, pickups, new houses - which they think they are entitled to. They dump this huge responsibility on their female children and sit on their backsides waiting for the cash to arrive. I usually find many young male members of the family sitting around doing nothing, the parents are indeed ignored while they drink and sleep. I do not see much support for aged parents here. And the kids are generally still going to the free village school.

How many Thai women in the villages have engaged in this occupation? Well, almost all women in most villages I have stayedd in speak rough bargirl English. They sure did not learn it in the village school.

Now most villages are getting telephones, and with it, cheap ADSL internet. Internet shops are sprouting quickly in rural villages. The owners usually also have a very profitable business arranging contacts for parents to sell their kids for sex via the social networking websites. They arrange retouched photos of the village kids by professional photographers. A search on any hard disk will also turn up hundreds of photos and pictures of their kids in revealing clothes, and sometimes no clothes at all. Regular songthaews are provided to ship the kids down to Bangkok for sex sessions with both Thais and foreigners. Many kids are sold to Thai families who want both a maid and some girl to service the men in the house. Many of these kids are very young. And what kid can refuse to have unprotected sex?

The kids become accustomed to working as prostitutes, and the cycle continues. The situation is getting worse, not better."

[newlife]

I used to sleep with hundreds of whores when I first arrived here.

now, I've stopped just because I just can't risk getting something like that.

I guess it's not a deadly disease anymore, but the thought of having something like that in me is really frightening.

[green1976]

Random comments from the article:





"I know some of the girls in the photograph above, who are clearly recognizable. None of them truly support "poor" parents. That is BS. They often waste more in a day than most Thais spend in a month. Most of the money is wasted on clothes, shoes, jewellery, boyfriends, alcohol, drugs, cosmetics, gambling, and the lottery.

It is quite true that most of them have Thai boyfriends or husbands. They actually stand around in the street nearby drinking beer, while their wives have sex with customers. You can go see this for yourself between Sois 3 and 7 at any time.

The majority of these street girls claim they do it for aging parents and family. This is not commonly true. All of the ones that I know do not send more than the occasional thousand baht home. Many have actually received cash assistance for their family from sympathetic foreigners, but have stolen it and used the money for themselves. Most of them rent quite expensive apartments and spend money as if it grew on trees. Their lifestyle perpetuates itself, requiring more and more money.

I am not particularly sympathetic to these girls because I have always had difficulty in employing staff in my businesses, and I and my managers have offered hundreds of them a job. The problem is that they don't want to do honest work. There are, for example, millions of Thai people raising a family on 7500 baht or less - but these girls have nothing but contempt for decent people who work honestly to support themselves.

Over the years I have seen so many of these girls succumb to HIV. The percentage figure is high. Most of them have several other STD's as well. They rarely ever take a full course of antibiotics. It is common to see the diseases spread rapidly amongst their circle of friends. They do not seem to care very much, just go ahead and pretend everything is normal until one day they vanish from sight, and go back to their village to die.

As for their families, I have visited many over the years. A great many. Few that I have seen I would consider to be really poor. Most are actually farmers who could easily live very well, and do not really need much. Previously, they were pretty much self - sufficient. But nowadays they want mobile phones, beer to drink, new televisions, pickups, new houses - which they think they are entitled to. They dump this huge responsibility on their female children and sit on their backsides waiting for the cash to arrive. I usually find many young male members of the family sitting around doing nothing, the parents are indeed ignored while they drink and sleep. I do not see much support for aged parents here. And the kids are generally still going to the free village school.

How many Thai women in the villages have engaged in this occupation? Well, almost all women in most villages I have stayedd in speak rough bargirl English. They sure did not learn it in the village school.

Now most villages are getting telephones, and with it, cheap ADSL internet. Internet shops are sprouting quickly in rural villages. The owners usually also have a very profitable business arranging contacts for parents to sell their kids for sex via the social networking websites. They arrange retouched photos of the village kids by professional photographers. A search on any hard disk will also turn up hundreds of photos and pictures of their kids in revealing clothes, and sometimes no clothes at all. Regular songthaews are provided to ship the kids down to Bangkok for sex sessions with both Thais and foreigners. Many kids are sold to Thai families who want both a maid and some girl to service the men in the house. Many of these kids are very young. And what kid can refuse to have unprotected sex?

The kids become accustomed to working as prostitutes, and the cycle continues. The situation is getting worse, not better."

I don't know what this poster means when he speaks about kids.
Does he means 7,8 year old or adolescent girls,boys to be 12,13 or 14?

For me,even if i know Thailand is quit a crazy country and some parents will sell their children to pedophiles,i think it's true in many parts, that young girls of 13,14 year old for examples, will prostitutes themselves not only because their parents pushed them to do that but because they are willing to this to have quick money .

It's becoming a national sport for girls out there to get a westerner,it's so instilled in their minds by various method,that when i go there,as a 35 year old,i got many times some weird smiles and proposition coming from teenage girls who were 13,14 for example.

One day,i was with a friend in a village and one 15 year old girl who was there waited that adults went away,and asked me straight away to go f**k with her now.

I was confused and surprised about that..i dunno if she expected money or what..but this is Thailand as we say.

Some times also when i travel around the countryside,many young teenagers girls say to me that they "love me",that they want know if i have a girlfriend or something..i've been even stalked some times by groups of 14 year old something who followed me around the villages and trying to make contact with me.

In my last trip i went with a buddy to his ladyboy darling family.
At one moment,3 young girls,who where in my opinion around 12,14 year old,came where we where and stood behind me like 10 minutes and after they came back and the 3 looked at me frankly like during 5 minutes.

I felt quit uncomfortable about that,even if it's not the first time this happen,but i think that in the countryside,girls quit young are confronted to sex or something similar very early.

We always talk about western pedophiles who goes there to prey for their victim,the best headlines for manginas and feminist but what about the local pedophiles?

It's a well know fact that Thai men like young women...i would say very young..not a kid of course but they would not say not to a 14 year old cutie, even if the law forbid it.

A 30 year old woman is starting to be considered as old in Thailand.

I think it's true that kids and especially teenagers are very early sexualised, so at a young age they have attitudes that we won't see so obviously here in our countries.

[paresnath]

How do Hiv positive people deal with knowing they gave it to there girlfriends or others? My girlfriend was diagnosed as hiv positive a week a ago. I tested negative 3 months ago and negative again last week. Well if I come back positive in a couple of months it confirms that I gave it to her. If you knew all the details you would know it was me too. Well what I want to know is how do you deal with knowing you gave Hiv to the person you love? I'm having a real hard time living with myself.
__________________________________
yahoo keyword tool ~ overture ~ traffic estimator ~ adwords traffic estimator

[cadams84]

I can't believe she would keep passing it on to people not wanting to use protection and say that she doesn't see it as revenge. I would prefer my partner and I be tested before having unprotected sex not only to prevent myself from getting anything but to keep from having a child that would be born with something from its parents sleeping around.

Depending on what they have I can't say that would keep me from marrying them either though. I also believe marriage is for life and if you plan to be together for life it doesn't really matter anymore. Just try to prevent it as long as possible. I am not just talking about HIV, I am talking about any STD.

If I found out that I may have passed HIV to someone else I would be crushed, but its hard to say who gave it to who if you both do not get regularly tested. It can take these things a long time to show up cant it?

[targetguy]

There was a aids infected gang member here in the usa that was in the paper as having slept with many women and he forgot to mention it to them. Now they can pass it onto many more. In nevada i am told that after a person spreads the disease to another more then once they are incarcerated the rest of their lives. I f this spreading of aids is to end that may have to be a solution and a moral life.

[NorthAmericanguy]

How do Hiv positive people deal with knowing they gave it to there girlfriends or others? My girlfriend was diagnosed as hiv positive a week a ago. I tested negative 3 months ago and negative again last week. Well if I come back positive in a couple of months it confirms that I gave it to her. If you knew all the details you would know it was me too. Well what I want to know is how do you deal with knowing you gave Hiv to the person you love? I'm having a real hard time living with myself.

Hay bud I'm sorry to hear about your situation. From what I understand there is a white Western guy in Thailand who is helping treat people with HIV. Are you in Thailand?

[Blue Murder]

Funny how no one in the thread is calling her sick or evil. Where is the outrage. I mean, if we're going to get up in arms about western feminists, why not get up in arms over eastern murderers?

[chanta76]

Bluemurder,

How about those HIV positive expats running around Thailand? If you want to play with fire expect to get burned.