BANGKOK — Lek, tiny that have much time black hair and a timid laugh, try a keen ‘Ooang Nua’ — a Thai expression meaning ‘little girl on North’ — whoever operate in an excellent brothel try feeding their unique household members home.
Lek, 15, is the most countless ‘Ooang Nua’ hired from year to year of the fresh agriculture villages off impoverished northern Thailand to help you inventory brand new brothels regarding Bangkok.
Best for their light complexions, more youthful girls particularly Lek, about province away from Chiang Mai, usually see themselves residing special ‘teahouses’ that focus on more mature Chinese men who trust consorting which have more youthful girls tend to restore their very own youth and you can powers.
‘The city people came to our very own village and everybody was very happy,’ Lek said. ‘The people confronted with the village headman additionally the next thing We realized I became towards an atmosphere-conditioned bus bound to own Bangkok.’
‘My mother and father obtained 3,000 baht ($130) for me. That’s sufficient to feed them and you can my personal four friends and family for a long period.’
She told you she and two most other community girls which grabbed the newest shuttle so you’re able to Bangkok failed to understand what was in shop to own all of them on big city.
‘Of course father and mother know I’d feel in a great teahouse for the Bangkok,’ she said. ‘But what otherwise could they do? They had no money after all for dining.’
When she arrived in the town, Lek along with her ‘sisters’ from the village received mats to bed on in a bedroom which have several other girls starting from inside the many years regarding 15 so you can twenty-two. Foods and occasional medical monitors in addition to had been offered, she told you.
Even after more half a year regarding the brothel, she has not ventured beyond your building, found in the cardio off Bangkok’s teeming Chinatown region.
‘We aren’t permitted to go outside,’ she told you. ‘One of my sisters made an effort to escape single however, they stuck her and you will overcome their own. We never ever experimented with.’
Lek’s work day starts at the noon and comes to an end in the 10 p.meters., 7 days per week. Much of their particular go out was invested looking at a workbench for the good dingy prepared place learning comic instructions and you will speaking with the most other girls.
Consumers enter the teahouse as a consequence of a network out of straight back roadways, to your an unbarred-air Chinese cafe or more two routes away from rickety stairways. It peruse new distinctive line of girls to your counter, every one of who wears a designated badge.
The purchase price are sixty baht ($2.60) for starters time inside a little cubicle armed with a mattress and a cooking pot from Chinese tea simmering into the a good hotplate.
Lek stays a village girl into the frame of mind, having an effective sense of household members respect and you will an uniquely Buddhist feeling of resignation
‘Usually I sleep with five or half a dozen guys everyday,’ Lek said. ‘Most are Chinese and also the other individuals is actually Thai.’
Lek told you the man away from Bangkok paid back new families of for every single of one’s girls a lump sum payment, according to attractiveness of the newest girl as well as the negotiating ability of one’s village headman
Lek’s relaxed ‘contract’ on the representative which employed their particular try off long stage. However, such as the most other girls, this woman is aware that her well worth towards the teahouse reduces as the she grows earlier.
Their particular mind is concerned about the fresh new Thai New-year vacation out-of Songkhran, popular within the April, whenever she told you she’s going to be permitted to head to their particular town regarding north.
‘I have-not got a good boyfriend,’ she said. ‘I do not think about it. Now all the I would like should be to get a hold of my family on Songkhran. I don’t wish check out the coming.’