(as an aside, I thought prostitutes are usually fully-paid up front; opebo or anyone else know the standard here?).
Yeap, that's how the system works here too.
Some kind of luxury hooker hired-for-days-for-an-orgy scenario is just about the only scenario I can imagine that might conceivably deviate from that rule. And even there it's hard to imagine.
Yeah, they're paid afterwards here, mostly, in the 'farang oriented industry'. I mean it is only fair. If you paid before, how would you know you'd get anything?
Though it is true that in most of the world pay-before is the standard, and for Thais in their own venues, they mostly pay before.
I think it has something to do with the fact that it is
incredibly rare for white tourists to underpay or otherwise 'cheat' working girls here - Europeans, Australians, North Americans really do have a good reputation here: Most girls would prefer to go with any of those nationalities for literally
half the money they would charge Arabs, Indians, etc. Also, interestingly, the prices they charge
their own people are generally a bit higher as well, despite the reputation that a 'farang takes and hour, Thais take 10 minute'.
Interestingly though, the most sought after customers are of course east Asians - Japanese and Korea - the old saying goes '3 inches, 3 minutes, 3000 (baht)'.