[Hobbsy]

Originally Posted by Hep

When I was in LOS the first time I stayed 5 days with the same girl. She was scheduled to go home to Khon Kaen where she lived during the period where I was there but I had her plane ticket changed. She left home for KK the same day I departed home to Denmark.

When I returned home we talked a bit over email and I did think she was a nice girl. She sent me some pictures of her everyday life in KK and for me it was interesting to talk and exchange views with a person from such a different culture. I did not have any intentions of bringing her back to Denmark with me but I did plan on seeing her again should I ever go to Khon Kaen.

After a couple of months she wrote me that she needed some money because a family member had died. I had of course read the numerous stories on this board about the “buffalo is sick” etc. but still I was really considering what to do. Basically the money wasn’t that big an issue for me and it wasn’t something that I would miss in my daily life. However, it was more the concept of sending her money that I was thinking about. As LIL and many of the others write here, why send money if you are not going to pursue a relationship or want to do “charity work”. Many people, especially in underdeveloped countries need the money more, so if I wanted to send money for charity purposes it would be better to send the money there. Take Pakistan after the earthquake. Millions of homes are destroyed and the winter is setting in soon. Prognosis state that maybe 100.000 people will die from the cold as they don’t have sleeping bags – 20.000 bath would do a world of difference there whereas it probably wouldn’t make a big difference to the Thai girl in question.

One thing is for sure though.. If I hadn’t read this board here and read about the “scams” to get money I would have sent them to her. Reading this board gave me some pointers and opened my eyes to the different way things work in LOS.

After a lot of consideration I decided not to send her money and wrote her that at this time I could not do it and I hoped she would understand. Well sure enough she understood and needles to say I did not receive any more emails from her.

At my first trip I also met this fantastic girl named Oi. Unfortunately she had already hooked up with an aussie guy but I got to know these guys and spent my vacation with them. I remember thinking “damn why didn’t I see her first” many times during my vacation. She was sweet, had a sense of humour and more importantly had a functioning brain.

I did not expect to see her again, but when I returned this time in November I ran into her again. She had just returned to Patong 2 days before me so that was damn good timing.

This girl has really gotten under my skin. I know she is a BG and I am aware of the fact that I did pay her money to stay with me. I am also fully aware of the fact that she is still in Patong right now doing her stuff. I am not too happy about that but that is the terms and I knew them to begin with.

Having said all that, there is no doubt that I want to see her more and the reason why I am coming back in January is simply to spend time with her. I want to see if this can lead anywhere good and if things turn out the way I hope, the next step is to get her a tourist visa to Denmark so she can come visit me here (if she wants to that is).

There is no doubt in my mind that if she wrote me now asking for financial aid I would send it to her straight away. Maybe I would end up loosing some money if I have misjudged her, but that is a chance I am willing to take.

What it all comes down too I guess, is that it is up to everyone self what they want to do with their money and that there is no “normal” scenario. It is different for everyone as we all have different backgrounds, morals and ethics.

One good thing about Crustasians post is that the many first timers to LOS that reads this will know that sponsoring a girl don’t necessarily mean that she is yours exclusively. I know I benefited a lot from similar posts prior to my first trip to LOS. If I hadn’t read this board I would have been a sitting duck in the many pitfalls in LOS for newbie’s.

As a personal opinion I do not consider the odd gift of money to help in situations that have arisen as 'sponsorship'.

At a guess I would say the 'average' sponsor is sending these girls 10k baht a month. I base this on what many girls have told me they are receiving.

So what I consider a sponsor (again personal opinion) is someone who is paying the girls a wage if you like (the amount is not important) in the hope that they will not need to work in a bar or freelance.