Some people travel to see different landmarks, hear different languages and taste different cuisines.
I travel to have sex with women all over the world.
Sex tourism is a booming global industry. In several little corners of the world, sex is sold as openly as vegetables at a farmer’s market. It’s a commodity as common as a sack of potatoes.
These places sound like heaven to a horny bastard like me, so shortly after graduating college, I convinced a buddy to travel the world in search of sex with exotic women.
We mapped out two legs of one long erotic journey, one in the Caribbean and one in southeast Asia. We planned stops in sex worker hotspots, places where prostitution is legal or police just look the other way — places known as “sexual Disneylands.”
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THE CARIBBEAN
In the U.S., sex is almost exclusively arranged in the confusing context of dating. But in Caribbean countries like Cuba, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, sex is a transaction.
Outside the murky waters of romance, it’s much simpler to negotiate. You don’t have to seduce her, saying sweet nothings about your undying love and commitment. You just have to say the right price.
Dominican Republic
In the Dominican Republic, prostitution is legal. However, sex with minors is illegal, and many of the sex workers are underage. Asking for a hooker’s ID isn’t an ideal way to start off a sexual encounter, but it might be a necessary evil to avoid getting locked up abroad.
Men from all income levels can purchase some time with a prostitute in the Dominican Republic. Whether you want a cheap street walker or a high-end escort, buying sex is straightforward and convenient.
In Costa Rica, where prostitution is also legal, sex workers are built into the fabric of the culture. There, it's not uncommon for young Latin American men to have their first sexual encounter with a sex worker, paid for by dad, who is eager to test his son's “manhood.” These men then continue buying sexual services well into old age. Elderly men are endlessly spotted seeking out hookers in San Jose bars.
In Cuba, prostitution is technically illegal, but no one seems to give a damn. Pimping is especially prevalent here, although Cuban pimps, known as jineteros, have a terrible reputation for their treatment of sex tourists.
The United States Department of State defines jineteros as “street jockeys” who specialize in swindling tourists. Most jineteros are smooth-talking English speakers who go out of their way to appear friendly. However, these men are career criminals, and have a habit of using violence to ultimately rob tourists blind.
In Cuba, prostitutes have perfect accommodations to the get busy with their clients — they’re called love hotels, and they offer anonymous pay-by-the-hour bedrooms. Thankfully, the Cuban government doesn’t police these areas. Quite the opposite, the country recently announced its intentions to open state-run love hotels, to cut down on the ever-popular practice of public sex.
Costa Rica
We planned about a week in each Caribbean country, then set our sights on Southeast Asia.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
The sex tourist spots of southeast Asia offer much more than young women in mini-skirts smoking cigarettes outside of seedy motels. The culture seemingly revolves around sex workers and their clients. The nearby bars and restaurants, hotels, massage parlors and saunas, live entertainment productions like peep shows and cabarets, all profit off these interactions, as well.
Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines are famous sex destinations for their red light districts. Sex shops, strip clubs, brothels and bars make these spots adult playgrounds for the sexually adventurous.
In Thailand, there are an estimated 3 million sex workers. These young women congregate at “girly bars,” where the typical American social experience is turned on its head.
Women throw themselves on even the most unattractive and socially awkward of men. They laugh at all their corny jokes and express fascination with every mundane story. You buy them drinks throughout the course of the night, and at the end, you spend a few extra bucks to have sex with them.
Thailand
My buddy and I were a little worried about being duped by one of Thailand’s well-known “ladyboys,” transgender women or effeminate gay men who are nearly indistinguishable from the female prostitutes. Finding out we’d been flirting with a beautiful man might bruise our fragile sexualities, but we decided it’s a risk worth taking. When in Rome, right?
At our next destination in the Philippines, it’s possible to buy a threesome for about a hundred bucks. At 40 to 80 US dollars for a girl for the entire evening (and a tip of 15 to 30 dollars per lady), we could make our favorite fantasies come to life for pennies on the dollar.
Just like in Thailand’s girly bars, sex workers in the Philippines typically masquerade as bar girls. Upon entering one of these “go-go” bars, you stand in front of a stage and watch the ladies dance. If you like one you see, you get the manager to fetch her. You can interview her to see if she’ll perform whatever kinky shit you had in mind, and then come to an agreement on the price.
The Philippines
The sexual fantasy this vacation had come to embody began falling apart once we shifted focus to our final stop, Cambodia.
In Cambodia, prostitution is illegal, but tolerated. The country held all the same promise as Thailand and the Philippines, if not for one pronounced problem: sex trafficking and child exploitation.
Of course, these concerns had popped up once or twice when researching other sex tourism hot spots, but in Cambodia, extreme poverty exacerbates the sex industry’s darkest consequences.
In Cambodia, parents sometimes sell their own children into sex slavery, while others are tricked into the industry. A child’s virginity is very valuable and is often auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Turning over in our minds this horrendous black market, our once thrilling vacation plans began to feel tainted. The idea of unwittingly contributing to a market for trafficked children overwhelmed any ideas of cheap threesomes with exotic prostitutes.
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A number of studies have found that while international trafficking and child exploitation do occur, they amount to a small portion of the sex industry.
However, our anxiety still overwhelmed us, and our sex tourism vacation was put on hold. If we ever overcome our fears to follow through, Cuba, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Thailand, the Philippines and Cambodia will be waiting for us.
Until then, those sexual Disneylands will remain another unfulfilled fantasy.
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