Angels of Pattaya: Inside the Secret World of Thai Prostitution

by G.T. Gray

Angels of Pattaya offers a unique insight into the world of organised prostitution in Pattaya. In their own words, the bar girls of Pattaya reveal how they became involved in vice, their lives, their hopes for the future and what they think of their “customers”. Many are poor and uneducated, others come from relatively well-to-do Thai families. Some engage in prostitution out of desperation for money, others out of greed. Some even view it as an easy lifestyle which allows them to drink and party all night and sleep until the afternoon. A few say they hope to meet a good man who will take them away from prostitution.

Their confessions will make you laugh and cry, cringe and applaud. This book will change your perception of the women who work in Pattaya's go-go bars forever.

‘In my life many thing happen no good. I not know why. I am not a bad person. If I cry, I cry everyday. So I stop, now nothing make me cry again. And my heart turn hard.’ - Fon, 29

Genres: Nonfiction

225 pages, Paperback

First published March 20, 2012

Reviews

[Xandra Noel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I always wanted to find a book like this, and I actually found it in the Bangkok airport and I thought: this is going to be such a great read on the plane back home. Was I right? well... NO.

Dear author, you said you used a translator, so why on Earth are you making the girls sound stupid as if they can`t connect two words together? I think that this is the first sign of disrespect you showed these girls.

Also, the interviewer can be so judgmental sometimes, when the girls say they can`t chose another life, he just goes in and gives an obvious solution, as if they didn`t even consider it. I very much disliked the fact that he was biased and was constantly judging these ladies.

During the interviews, all the questions are practically the same and we can only see the author`s side of interest. Not once he considers to ask about the feelings of the girls, bad experiences with a client, what actually happens when they go with a man, not sexually but emotionally. There were 27 opportunities to hear every aspect of a prostitute`s life, but they were only answering the same boring and not interesting questions over and over again.
To sum up, dear author, I hope you read this one day because you had such a great opportunity and ruined it with male trivialities.

[Jasmin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gotta say I'm really dissapointed. The book includes 27 "stories", most of which are all the same: young poor girl wants to help her family, her friends tell her how to make thousands of paths at one night and she found herself having sex with "farangs". Most of them have ended their schools, have kids and none of them family know what they really do. I got the point after fifth story, during next 22 I wondered why am I reading the same stuff all over again.

The biggest dissapointment was to see that "stories" are actually interviews. 26 interviews with same point of view, questions and contents. I really waited for thaiprostituted to tell about their life with their own words. Instead of how much they earn or how long hair they have, I would like to have heared about their deepest thoughts. Yes, there was also talk about how they feel about their work and stuff but also very much information that doesn't interested me at all.

Another annoying thing was that the answers of prostituted were written in Thai-English. English is not my native language but it was still superannoying to read the text like that. I can't imagine how somebody who really can speak english could ever read that without becoming pissed.

Even if most of the book was totally rubbish it had it good sides as well. I've been in Thailand many times, I've seen how things are going in the otherside of the world and I've see their pain. But I know that many don't have. I really hope that reading this book can change people's view of prostitution and help them to see that doing something like that doesn¨t make people any worse than working in office or shop.

There were times when I enjoyed reading this book. But in the end it was just boring. It was supposed to change my life, wasn't it? Yes. Did it change me? No. With better way to bring things out it probably had. If it had been a novel about prostituted and their life I'd have loved it.

It's sad to say that this book was bad 'cause it had all the possibilities to be everything but that.

[Eddie Blatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A number of factors are relevant when assessing a book: literary quality, interest, pace, relevance, personal empathy, etc. Ultimately, the satisfaction it brings comes down to one’s own taste and experience. On occasion, I can even forgo technical attributes if the stories resonate with that experience. Having spent several months in Thailand over the past two years, including stays in Phuket, the interviews in this book did hold my interest, even though most of the women interviewed pretty much depicted the same set of circumstances. Perhaps that is the strength of the book – there is a convincing thread throughout. Sad, hopeful, happy, there is a real human flavour to the women of Pattaya.

[Andreas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short interviews with prostitudes and escorts in Thailand, mostly in Bangkok and Pattaya.

A poignant and important documentary project, this book uncovers how these many, many women lead their lives. Mostly coming from abject poverty, they have a chance to build a better life for themselves and their families by entering the "oldest profession". The interview are candid, uncensored, raw, and while often heartbreaking they are also sometimes full of hope, even joy. The last interview, with an American bar owner, is a perfect capstone.

https://www.books.rosboch.net/2025/11...

[John Collings · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though there is some insight in this book about the lives of women who work the sex trade in Thailand as told from their perspectives through interviews, the length of the piece did not need to be as long as it was. G.T. Gray went out and interviewed over twenty women and one man to see if he could get to the heart of why they chose to go into this business and what it was like to have to work it. The interviews were then transcribed into the book and every once in awhile there was a follow up session to see if anything had changed. The problem is that every interview follows the same questions without much deviation, and the stories are so similar that there really is no point to look at so many of them in one collection. I would have said that four or five of them would have sufficed to have made his point, and the last interview of an American man that opened up a beer bar in Pattaya really wrapped things up nicely, but it still did not seem to be enough material to make a book out of it. Still, it does give Thailand some perspective especially when you see older men with younger Thai women. It highlights what is really going on in each situation.

[Sacha Declomesnil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this book at the hotel I am staying in Chiang Mai. Read it in one evening. Short stories of prostitutes lives. Often same story. Born in a small village, uneducated, got a kid, got divorced, or man just flew away, needed money to help family raise him, became a sex worker. Some do drug, some worry for their future, some save a lot, many hope to stop soon, within a year or two. Or three. Not that soon after all. For them sex is not a bad thing. Better than drug, better than stealing, and much more money than being a maid.
Not very well written. Not a lot of variety in questions nor in answers but It still provides an interesting glimpse on the life of those thousands of women we see « waiting the bus » or in fancy bars everywhere in Thailand.
I somehow got the weird idea that the owner of my hotel was one of those interviewed women who succeeded to escape this life and pretends that some traveler happened to leave the book behind them after reading it... who knows. I’ll leave it behind for another one to read it too though.

[Ian McHugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives an interesting insight into prostitution in Thailand from interviews conducted by the author with over 20 women. The stories are similar in many respects but this does not detract from the overall message conveyed that ‘the life’ of a Thai girl involved in prostitution is not a pleasant one. The inclusion of an interview with a bar owner at the end was timely and useful for further context too. Sadly, the uniformity of the stories and the way they are presented makes for a rather repetitive read - even though there are some ‘memorable’ stories here. Additionally, I feel there is undoubtedly stories of forced prostitution and trafficking that are not shown here and the illustration of these would give Gray’s work a far more important and serious ‘worth’.

[Globe Trotter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book in one of the bookstalls in Central Festival, Pattaya. I was looking for a book to read and this book was under the section "Thailand Interests". So I thought since I am in Thailand I should read a book that I can't find easily back home.

This is an interesting book. Although I do feel it is a little light in content. The interviews do not go into too much depth into the mentality of the working girls in massage parlours and gogo bars. This only scratches the surface.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

In their own words. Insightful.

[Jacob Saavedra · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to hear about the lives of these women in their own words. I felt that it paints a complex picture of why they do what they do and helps you understand them better.

[Ann-Triksden Süld · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up on a whim from a book fair. It was too repetitive and the interview questions were very simple and all the same for every girl. I was reading the same thing for 200 pages.

[Ckthinks · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the unavoidable realities of Thailand is prostitution. I really didnt understand and couldn't comprehend some of the things i saw such as empty bars filled with 50 prostitutes... why? Especially when the country otherwise has such a conservative attitude towards sex.
So i saw this book and i picked it up... and long story short these are the effects of global economic disparity. Poverty mixed with war leads to desperation which leads to prostitution. The stories are heartbreaking... some of these girls really dont have alternative options... and this means sex is never for fun; it is for children... or for money.

[Matthew Zuckerman · Rating 2 out of 5]

insightful but very repetitive

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insightful but very repetitive.

[Shady]

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...#