You've also got to remember that young foreign males are still a relative minority in Thailand. For every young guy that shores, you've got ten to twenty older guys happy to plop down a buck. Us long-termers are also a minority - even most young guys are just breezing through and happy to pay on a holiday. And for every young guy who "gets it," there are plenty of young guys who don't get it or just don't care - they'll also pay to play.
Then you get a lot of women who are playing long-term game, with 3 - 5 older (and younger) foreign men who are stuck working back in their own countries sending them money every week to help with their bills and to keep them from working in the bars (haha good one). Once they get a decent set-up like this going, they just go out to the clubs, have fun, and fuck guys that they're attracted to. In a case like this, you can bet they'll still take the $30-$60 if they can get it, but if not, they don't sweat it too much. They know the bills are paid (some are even making more than us on the steady income from their sugar daddies).
For many, they know if they fuck enough guys for "free," some chump will eventually fall for them and start "helping them out" from abroad while not in the country.
Here's a quick story about the shit that goes on. When I first got to Samui I was banging one prostitute on a regular basis. She understood a bit of what I said, though there were often miscommunications, but barely spoke a lick of English herself.
But every couple of days or so I'd get some text from her in perfect English. "I want to make love with you." "I'm missing you right now." "I want to see you." If I wasn't busy, I'd go bang. This was one of the hotter girls I banged over there, easily - hottest slut I ever saw in the after-hours clubs in Lamai, at least by whiteboy standards - so I kept going back for more. But being new in town still, it was really stumping me why our texts were such perfect English when she didn't speak it in person. I decided that she must just be too shy to speak it in person.
So one morning we're lying in bed and I'd been rattling off to her in English all night while drunk, convinced she actually understands me and is holding out. I kept doing it in the morning and she kept getting frustrated and demanding, "Why?! Why? I no speak English. No understand." It was probably even more guttaral than that, with some Thai words thrown in, but I understood the gist of it.
"Nah, nah, I know you speak English," I said. I pulled out her texts and showed her one or two. "Mai tawng ai (Don't be shy)."
After heckling her about it for a bit, she went over to her dresser and pulled out this notebook and opened it up for me, acting embarrassed. Inside the notebook, she had all her English/Thai translation notes written down. She had apparently been just copying them down from the notebook as she texted, which explained why she often didn't reply to my perfect-English responses (they weren't in her book).
I sat there looking through it, but I still didn't see any of the kind of shit she was sending me via text. It was all basic shit like "How are you doing" and "I'd like to buy some cheese" type shit.
From some sudden impulse, I took it out of her hands and flipped right to the back. She started freaking out and trying to grab it back, having a near panic attack. I just held it out of her reach, grinning, wrestled her down, and told her not to worry and that I didn't care. After her reaction, I had to see what the big deal was.
After a bit of this, she finally settled down.
I opened to the back again, and in the last pages were all the "bargirl" translations someone had written down for her to romantically seduce the men she was fucking.
Some of the text she'd sent me were there, and other stuff like:
"I think I'm falling in love with you."
"My heart hurts with you gone."
I don't remember much of what was there, but it was all shit like that. Some other phrases about needing money because her sister was sick and shit like that, if I remember correctly.
In other words, it was her bargirl English phrase guide. lol
I sat there reading through and picking on her a little bit and then she acted like she was mad. After I reassured her that it was no big deal for me and that I'd never be a customer anyways, she lightened up. She even showed me pictures of her Thai boyfriend, who she was in love with (he lived in her hometown still), and a few white guys who were sending her money and taking care of her.
One was a middle-aged guy who wouldn't be able to get a date to save his life - but she insisted she loved him and thought he was handsome because he had a big nose and he "take care me." Another was a younger, normal-looking dude who also obviously thought she was some kind of win.
I banged her off and on the whole time I lived on the island but every once in a while you'd show up to the club and she'd be there with some other guy, usually older but not always. One time I even ate at the same table with her in a street restaurant while her and the older guy from the pics sat across from me. lol You could tell he really was in love with this girl, but she was so far out of his league it really wasn't that surprising. I had some other slut with me and even though she was with this guy she sat there making jealous comments the whole time, acting mad at me, and this guy was so inexperienced with women he hadn't a clue.
Any time I saw her out with her customers, I'd keep my distance and hit on other girls. I think she was developing a crush - a lot of them do, just like any girl fucking the same guy on a regular basis - because I'd start catching her glaring at me and sometimes she'd ditch her customer by the end of the night to come hang out with me. I'd also get random late-night texts and all kinds of head games you'd get from a fuck-buddy who was getting serious.
Real point being that these girls pick and choose their nights to give it up for free, and most have "passive income" coming from guys overseas they milk for rent money and money to help buy grandma a new water buffalo and some chickens. It's a pretty solid scam they've got going if they're any good at it, and if they need a few extra bucks they pick up an old guy and get it. And even thought they're heartless working girls, they like to bang young guys, just like any girl their age does, and they even develop feelings.
If I was to be completely honest, it's not that hard to eventually feel sorry for them and the life they're handed. But if you're smart, you also see how it poisons them, and you watch yourself.
As a young guy living in a tourist area for a while, you simply accept it for what it is and don't take it personally. And if you're not a dick about it, they'll keep getting in touch with you. Hell, if they see you enough times, it's like you've all got this big scam going together because you "get it" - if you were devoid of morals, it probably wouldn't be hard to make some extra cash helping them with their online love letters and other sugar daddy scams. Constant free pussy on a foreign island and steady cash to pay for it - in another reality it wouldn't be the worst gig in the world...
And when they're busy, there'll always be some other girl having a slow night or just out to have some fun. Or tourists, which I argue again are a better deal for most westerners.
Here's yet another thing about the prostitutes. Many get paid even if they don't fuck! How's that? Well, the ladybars that employ women don't actually require the women to bang customers who barfine them. Sure, it's somewhat expected by some places, but a lot of ladybars make it clear that a bar fine means the lady gets released from her work duties and gets to go hang out with you. So if a guy bar fines her, she might go out with him for a couple hours and watch after him all night, but it doesn't mean she's putting out, even though she already got her commission. She won't make that extra dough, but she's already made something at least, and in the end it's really up to her.
And then I'm sure you get plenty of cases where she goes directly back to the guy's room, fucks him, goes home to wash the puss (if even), and heads out to meet up with her friends at the club, which in a tourist area may stay open until 5 or even 8 am.
Look, don't think you'll show up and every single white guy is walking into the club pulling out hot prostitutes to bring home. Even most of these prostitutes are ugly - just as the majority of women in any given population tend to be ugly - as mentioned in all the Thailand threads, a lot of guys are so thrown off by the amount of easy pussy and the exotic look that they over-rate the women quite a bit. And you've also got to remember that most of these easy girls and hookers in the bars are dark-skinned Isaan women. To Thai people, these women are the bottom of the barrel, but to most white men they are the cream of the crop.
After you live there for a while, you tend to side with the Thais on this, for better or worse. It is what it is.
It's a complicated, confusing world, G. I wouldn't worry about it too much as I really don't see it being your scene. Just be aware of how rampant it is in any tourist-centric bar situation if you do go.
I advise getting away from the tourist scene completely if you want the real thailand potential. Most never do.