Sunday, January 07, 2007

Book review: Hedonist World Sex Guide

At Amazon.

4 comments:

caroline said...

On further research from this link:

Why do men aim to pay as little as possible for the prostitutes in Asia?

Why not keep once dignity, pay them what a Western wallet can afford and let them feel a little valuable maybe for the first time in their life?

The Player said...

The principle is perhaps not to pay more than the locals for the same thing. With that sort of superficial research, you can only know this for sure in the entry level market. Even in this case, you expect wealthier clients to buy more time and tip more.

Many high end markets are not accessible to these tourists. Few would go for that anyway. It doesn't help the image of an exclusive club for the locals, to hold a bachelor party.

caroline said...

Well reasoned and you are right
:-)

Maybe not a point to pay more then the locals however trying to get a good deal or bargain with sellers of sex, in any part of the world is in my opinion a little vulgar

The Player said...

On 2nd thought, it's more complicated. Firstly, it's reinforcement. The stereotypical guys travel far so their pocket stretches far. So these books and websites cater to that sort of market. The researched materials in these sources are naturally superficial - you read a paragraph and go to the place. Nobody wants to read a chapter to analyze where to go. Without comprehensive info, guys have limited choice of places to go.

Actually those constant "bachelor party talk without a single political word" affects you, even though you only read a bit to get some directions. There are some awakening moments when I'm in the middle of something, I would say to myself "what am i doing?", "what do I care about $1 more for the taxi?" That sort of thing.

Bargaining depends on local culture. Tourist will be most happy for internet listings with fixed prices. There are places in Asia with all internet ads containing price, compared to a few % in US. The listed price are also more firm than US.

In Argentina, the peso used to be about the same with USD. But they can't accept that the value devalued to 1/3. For years after devaluation they tried to charge 3 times more for American tourists.

As for Indonesia, if you buy anything, the rule of thumb is never pay more than half the asking price.

You can't blame it all on the tourist. Say some bar girls think they worth much more than the others. When an American navy ship is in the port, the price shoots up.