When I talk to some of my friends who live back in the States they have their own internal jokes about what it means to live in Thailand. They have this impression, which I suppose is somewhat deserved, that Thailand is just a destination for sex tourists to travel to and that by living here, that I am also engaged in that sort of behavior.
While I will admit that this is a rather large part of the culture and there definitely are a lot of places to acquire ladies of the night, I do not like the fact that people automatically assume that this is the ONLY reason why anyone would want to be or live here. There is so much more to this country that just prostitution. I kind of get upset when they tell what they think to be funny jokes about how I must be surrounded by ladyboy prostitutes at all times. I got news for anyone out there that thinks that this is what Thailand is all about: Prostitution exists everywhere in the world including where they happen to be.
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For someone that doesn't live here or even just someone visiting that only hits the major tourist spots, they might think that this entire country is like this and they couldn't be more wrong. The only places where giant places or streets like this exist are in the major tourist areas such as parts of Bangkok, Phuket, Hua Hin, and of course the most famous one Pattaya. Chiang Mai, where I live, has an area like this but it is not very popular at all. It is called Loi Kro (probably spelled that wrong) and it is the red-light district of Chiang Mai.
Why does Chiang Mai have one of these? Well because it is one of the most visited tourist places in the entire country. When someone is visiting here they might have a look down that way but for people that live here, we rarely ever venture to that part of town. For one thing, it is a massive hassle with the "hello hansome man" calls constantly heading your way, the overpriced drinks, and the general nasty state of these places. They are all the same for the most part: There are some girls scantily clad hanging out, there are multiple pool tables, neon lighting and music that is played entirely too loud in order to compete with the nearby places that are also doing the same thing.
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The red-light district here in Chiang Mai is sort of a den of sadness as it searches for an identity. Since the bars are forced to close early here, they have incorporated a Muay Thai boxing ring into the center of all the "action." I have seen a couple of fights here and not only are the not at all world-class, but they also seem staged. In one of the fights I saw the referee in one fight was a participant in the next one. That doesn't seem right now does it?
I get annoyed when people who have never been here just presume that Thailand is just a place where degenerates go to get prostitutes because while that demographic certainly does exist, very few people that aren't fresh off the boat actually go to these places. If you ever find yourself in one of the famous red-light streets you may notice a very decisive lack of Thai people that are there. That's because they don't go to these places and they are almost exclusively meant for foreigners.
This isn't to say that Thai people don't engage in "ladies of the night," they certainly do. They just do it in more covert ways that are in out of the way locations.
So if you are coming to Thailand expecting everything to be sexual all the time you can certainly find that. You will also find a lot of your money leaving your wallet and probably have massive headaches all the time from the nearly guaranteed hangover. There is so much more to this country that just the seedy areas and I don't like that the international community, many of whom have never even been here, just assume that this is what all of us that live here are getting up to. That isn't the case.
There's tons of awesome nature here and in my opinion the best beaches I have ever seen anywhere on the West coast primarily in Phuket.