Outreach

Soi Cowboy - a small street just off a major thoroughfare downtown. Like a county fair, there is an arching sign with oversized bulb lights flashing. The sign is dusky blue - covered in a thick layer of black pollution. Surrounding the entrance is a parade of street vendors that send up clouds of burning spices that sting my nose. I involuntarily hold my breath as I walk. Hundreds of falang (foreigners) men bustle around. I fight the urge to hate them all - remembering that it is love, not hate, which heaps coals on the head of sin.

As we turn onto the street, we walk under the blue-grey sign to an image of hollywood movies or vegas. A full corridor of flashing neon from my ankles to the fifth story and draping over the street too. It is busy like any other street, but exaggerated as there are thousands of people within the two hundred yard stretch.

We walk slowly, passing vendors with wheeled carts hassling us to look at their cheap skirts or shish-kebabs. Each building is connected to its neighbor. They are all three to five stories tall and about 30 feet wide. Each building starts with a ground level porch. Johns fill the porch tables releasing pungent smells of lust and alcohol. Each John has two or three girls at his table, all with drinks, all scantily clad. Cori and Jup recognize a girl on the porch of a bar called "Kiss." She is dressed in a tight black dress that covers what is necessary but leaves little to the imagination. She is strikingly beautiful, her face pale and smooth with eyelashes that grace her perfect eyebrows and frame her big brown eyes. Her long black hair reflects the flashing red light of the bar's sign. She's smiling and calling to each man who passes. She holds a sign that proclaims the happy hour special 60 Bhat ($2) beer. Her smile grows from big to giant when she sees Jup and Cori. They greet with bows and affectionate hugs. Three other girls who match her image scurry over for warm hugs. Chelsey and I are introduced around. They are all interested in us and excited to catch up with Jup and Cori on the latest gossip. I felt so welcomed and loved by them - anyways - that is their profession.

In the background, girls with black bathing-suit bottoms and red lacy tops flow in and out of the heavy velvet curtain that separates the indoors from the street. Johns follow close behind, eyes glued to the most shapely parts of the delicate Asian bodies.

After 30 minutes of laughing at my pathetic Thai and the girls' attempts at English, while Cori and Jup had much more interesting conversations on the side, the bar manager - a trendily dressed, attractive woman in her thirties - playfully reminds the girls of their duties inside. We exchange happy goodbyes and promises to go bowling next week and walked on to the next bar.