Day Four – 1000฿ for me??

The only bright (and red) side of doing a research on smoking is that we get to visit shady red light districts. I have to first clarify that we only did observations and none of our boys got naughty.

 

It was indeed an eye-opening experience, though we did not enter the shops and only observed from outside. I am not sure about Singapore’s own red light district, but the one here at Chiang Mai is just filled with Caucasians, with little Asian tourists or even locals.

 

Well, I am not here to mock their jobs, be it the females standing outside each bar or the man making alcoholic drinks behind the counter or the old lady and young boy selling overpriced flowers. Some may think that these jobs are of lower social status and I am lying if I say that I have never thought in that way. However, seeing them in person allows me to emphathise with them better and the first thought I had after leaving the area was, ‘Who would want to do that if they have a choice?’ Call me naive if you want but I like to think that each of them have a story behind that led them to work there.

 

Money makes the world go round. It sounds overly materialistic and some of them hipsters may beg to differ. Personally I think this is a part and parcel of life that is here to stay for a long time. There is almost nothing you could do to change it.

 

‘You can’t buy happiness‘ sounds like a feeble attempt in comforting people with lower incomes and asking them to be contented with whatever they had. Happiness is a state of mind, and you certainly cannot buy that. But, you can buy yourself a new pair of shoes for which you have worked hard for. The shoes is a symbol of your hard work and it fuels your happiness because you know you deserved it.

 

What I saw today was not about people doing naughty things together, but Thais fighting to stay alive and make a living. There was a demand for it from the tourists and they supplied it, just like any other markets. It may not be the most conventional way to earn money but they are still using hard work and labour to exchange for it. The trip down to this district definitely changed my impression about them and further affirmed my belief in keeping minds open and you will always be able to learn something no matter what you do and where you are.