For some western men, coming to Thailand and meeting a bar girl (polite word for prostitute) is the norm. For others, they meet a girl, she seems nice, they date and, later on, they discover she’s a prostitute.
For those uninitiated in the wiles of Thai bar girls, it’s actually quite easy to tell if a girl is a bar girl or a good Thai girl and, from there, make up your mind which girl you’d rather be dating.
English Language Skills – While both a bar girl and a good Thai girl may speak good English, usually the sign a girl is a bar girl is the type of English she speaks. If the girl you meet speaks semi-fluent English but with an emphasis on slang and less appropriate swear words, there is a chance she is a bar girl.
Well brought up Thai girls learn correct English and, in many cases, overly correct English. They often don’t use a lot of slang (as they don’t know it) and it’s rare to meet an average Thai girl who uses bad language or swear words when speaking English. If the girl you meet laces her speech with many expletives, it’s often a dead giveaway what her job is.
Style of Dress – While style of dress is changing in Thailand and many younger Thai girls now wear much more revealing clothing (short skirts and dresses, tight tops etc), if the girl you meet is wearing a skirt barely covering her rear end, a sleeveless shirt that isn’t leaving anything to the imagination and lots of gaudy accessories, it’s almost certain you’ve met a Thai bar girl.
Related reading: Where and how to meet a good Thai girl — it’s not that difficult. They’re everywhere
While many younger Thai women will wear more revealing clothes, few will wear clothing showing off body parts nobody should be looking at. The average Thai woman may wear a short skirt (but not so short it’s not even covering her panties) but it will often be paired with a modest shirt that to western standards is quite demure.
Good Thai girls too will always wear a bra, even with a spaghetti strap tank top, so if the Thai girl you meet isn’t wearing one, there’s a miniscule chance she isn’t a bar girl.
Make-Up – Of course, Thai girls wear make-up, they love it. A bar girl though will often wear make-up that’s too bright, too loud and just too much.
If bright red lipstick, caked on blusher and dark eye shadow with loads of mascara is on the face of the girl you meet, the way she wears it is a good indicator of her profession. Unless she’s in a Thai rock band that is, and that’s quite rare.
Tattoos – Having a tattoo used to be an almost 100% indicator the girl you met was a bar girl. In the last few years though more Thai girls are getting tattoos, although nothing like in the west. At least 80% of good Thai girls would never consider getting a tattoo, with that number lower in the under 20s group. Some good Thai girls do have them, but look at the location of the tattoo to give you more of a clue.
If a girl has obvious tattoos on her legs, ankles, arms and back of neck, she’s much more likely to be a bar girl. Not a hundred percent indicator, however, as I know two good Thai girls that have a tattoo on the back of their neck, it’s still rare enough to be a pretty good clue.
Also, the more tattoos the girl has, the more likely it is she’s a member of the oldest profession.
Behavior – The biggest indicator a girl is a Thai bar girl and not a good Thai girl is behavior. Most Thai women are shy and extremely unlikely to approach a guy first (some do but, again, it’s not common). If a girl comes up to you first, talks to you, flirts with you, buys you a drink and is as aggressive as some western women, you have a 90% chance she’s a bar girl.
Add onto that loud behavior, drinks a fair amount of alcohol and swears a bit, and you’ve almost hit 100%. Good Thai girls are sweet, demure, polite and non-aggressive. If the girl you just met is not, don’t be surprised if you bump into her again at one of the local red light districts.
Overall, it’s easy to figure out if a Thai girl you meet is a bar girl or not. Ninety nine percent of Thai women are what is known as ‘good Thai girls’, girls who have been brought up in an average Thai family where being a bar girl would be as bizarre to them as taking a shuttle to the moon.
And, before my male readers start talking about me judging, again, I don’t judge the bar girls at all. Most of them got in the business for financial reasons and, if that works for them, more power to ’em.
All I’m saying is it’s good to know who you’re meeting, then you can make up your own mind what’s important to you and what you want. Nothing more than that.
