Sexpats. Sexpats. Asking where the hookers at~

The guy here isn't "Bassist", but he does have his own set of stories I'll share one day.

 Back in the ancient era of spring 2006, Bassist sat next to me at the bar in Itaewon. Handsome fellow. Charismatic. We worked together and he had only been in Korea for a few weeks.

"So, where can I find the girls?"

I looked up from my basic boy Long Island Iced Tea and swiveled my head around the bar. "I see a lot of them here. Have at 'em."

"I mean the hookers. I don't do relationships."

"Oh?"

I don't do relationships either. That's one of the downsides of having my particular brand of spicy brain. They always bring more pain than joy. Partially because understanding motivations is hard. And partially because the spicy brain lures in certain types of predatory women. After a while I just stopped.

Then again, I don't hate my own company like most of you seem to do. You need to work on that.

Bassist went on to explain that all women are bitches and money drains... and... oof. If you know this type of guy then you know the rest of his list of problems women cause that ruin his relationships that he's totally innocent in. Him just being a well-meaning man with strong morals constantly being ruined by no-good wimmins.

"So when I get into a new town I say, 'Where the hookers at'?"

"Huh."

"And they're better at fucking." 

"Uhn-huh."

"And none of their bullshit afterwards."

"Ah."

I point over my shoulder out the window. "Hooker Hill is just across the street. On the way to the mosque. You can't miss it. It's pretty famous."

He downed his American beer, pushed off his stool, and opened his wallet to pay for his drinks. "You coming?"

I became exceptionally Canadian. "No thank you. Not my scene. See you Monday."

_____

Here's the embarrassing thing about all of this. He's far from the only expat who has asked me about prostitution. I've never and likely never will. (I won't rule it out because if I ever get cancer I plan to go out in a way that would make the Klingons sing of my glory.)

Turns out if you're a doughy white guy in Asia people just assume. I get it. There's a history.

 I only knew what everyone else did. Seoul used to have a number of very visible and easy to find red light districts. Literally next to a busy train station sort of easy to find. That one used to be the last stop for new military recruits before they were sent to go shiver up at the DMZ for two years. It became a landmark.

In recent years the city has aggressive in razing their red light districts to the ground and replacing them with skyscraper apartments. They say it's because they want to clean up the city. I say it's because most of the business has moved online and they don't have to worry about losing bribe money.

Also, the companies building the apartments doubtlessly threw in a few won.

_____

Bassist was at least simple in his desires. Most expat fellows show up looking for the type of woman that only ever existed on TV in the 1950s. I'll write about them at some point.