What surprised me during a week spent with a group of Thai prostitutes in Phuket, was their strong friendship. Sleeping and working in the same building, for most of their hours together, they were more a group of friends than colleagues – giggling over breakfast with fried eggs and a hangover, watching a movie or spending a day together at the beach. At night, when the streets filled with men strolling by the hundreds of brothels that line the streets, the girls never lost sight of each other: sending text messages when one of them left for a hotel with a client.
What surprised me during a week spent with this group of Thai prostitutes in Phuket, was the strong friendship they had developed. Sleeping and working in the same building, for most of their hours together, they were more a group of friends than colleagues – breakfasts of fried eggs with a hangover, watching television or spending a day together at the beach. When work started again at night and men stroll past the hundreds of brothels that line the streets, the girls took care of each other: sending text messages when one of them left for a hotel with a client.