Worker-owned Thai brothel

In Chaing Mai there is a worker-owned bar/brothel where the women are not subject to the depredations of all the other bar girls in Thailand. Toward the end of the story there is a bit about how workers from local NGOs patronize the place to "study" how it works -- a no-win situation, as they must prove themselves either hypocrites or cheapskates.

A message from one of the latter is said to be written in a message posted on the wall: "I love you more than I can pay." That says it all about the supposedly enlightened and gone-native Western tourist who winds up being more of a drag on the locals than the classic camera-and-Panama-hat type. I once read an article about backpackers in Nepal and Tibet who, under the delusion that they are somehow like penniless monks, wind up imposing on the hospitality of natives and are looked on not as enlightened travelers but as parasites.

technorati: sex work, prostitution,