BANGKOK — Lek, tiny which have long black colored tresses and you can a timid laugh, is an enthusiastic ‘Ooang Nua’ — a Thai phrase definition ‘little girl regarding North’ — whoever operate in a brothel try eating their unique friends home.
Lek, 15, is the most numerous ‘Ooang Nua’ employed on a yearly basis away from new agriculture villages from impoverished northern Thailand to inventory the brothels from Bangkok.
Recommended for their white complexions, young girls particularly Lek, regarding the state out of Chiang Mai, often find on their own surviving in unique ‘teahouses’ you to definitely focus on older Chinese men exactly who faith consorting that have more youthful girls usually heal their very own youthfulness and vitality.
‘The city man concerned the community and everyone try thus thrilled,’ Lek said. ‘The man Sjekk ut her exposed to our very own town headman and also the next thing We realized I found myself into the an atmosphere-conditioned shuttle sure to own Bangkok.’
‘My parents received 3,000 baht ($130) personally. Which is enough to provide all of them and you can my personal four friends and family for a long period.’
She said she as well as 2 almost every other town girls who got the latest shuttle to Bangkok failed to know what was a student in shop getting all of them regarding the big-city.
‘Of movement mom and dad knew I would personally become working in good teahouse inside the Bangkok,’ she told you. ‘But exactly what otherwise you’ll they actually do? They’d no money after all to possess food.’
Whenever she found its way to the metropolis, Lek and her ‘sisters’ in the village got mats so you can bed in a room which have a dozen almost every other girls varying inside the age from fifteen to help you twenty two. Ingredients and you will occasional medical checks plus have been offered, she said.
Even with more six months from the brothel, this lady has maybe not ventured outside the strengthening, located in the cardio out-of Bangkok’s teeming Chinatown area.
‘We commonly permitted to wade additional,’ she told you. ‘One out of my personal sisters attempted to run away one-time but they stuck their particular and you will beat their. I never attempted.’
Lek’s workday initiate in the noon and you can ends up about ten p.meters., 7 days per week. The majority of her go out are invested standing on a bench when you look at the an effective dingy wishing space learning comic instructions and speaking with the latest almost every other girls.
People go into the teahouse owing to a maze of right back avenue, on the an open-air Chinese bistro or more a couple routes from rickety steps. It peruse the fresh line of girls to the counter, all of whom wears a numbered badge.
The purchase price are 60 baht ($dos.60) for just one hr into the a little cubicle armed with a bed mattress and you may a container of Chinese tea simmering to the an effective hotplate.
Lek remains a village girl inside the mindset, which have a strong sense of family relations support and you can an exclusively Buddhist feeling of resignation
‘Usually I sleep having five or half dozen men day-after-day,’ Lek told you. ‘Most is Chinese therefore the people is Thai.’
Lek said the guy off Bangkok paid the categories of each of one’s girls a lump sum, with respect to the attractiveness of the brand new girl as well as the negotiating expertise of your own town headman
Lek’s casual ‘contract’ on the representative exactly who hired their own was away from indefinite cycle. But like the most other girls, she actually is conscious her worthy of towards teahouse diminishes since she develops older.
Their particular thoughts are concerned about the brand new Thai New year vacation from Songkhran, renowned in the April, when she told you she’ll be permitted to go to their unique village about northern.
‘I have never had an excellent boyfriend,’ she told you. ‘I don’t believe about any of it. Right now most of the I want is always to come across my loved ones on Songkhran. I don’t want to consider the coming.’