Hi Apollo,
I'm not really the best one to explain this. Marc26 or AB22 could do it better, but I'll try. It was pointed out to me that when you go around to the beer bars, picking out the prettiest girls that you see, then they see you coming, and they are dealing from the position of strength. After having this pointed out to me, I noticed the way the stunners in the beer bars would look at me, sizing me up, flirting and reeling me in. Once you bought them a few rounds, and they see that look in your eyes that you are all goo-goo about them, then they've got you. They throw out their bait, you bite, they reel you in. Then they ask 2000(or maybe more). If they know they really got you hooked on them, then they won't even negotiate, and you may as well pay it.
The alternate approach is to hook up with a buddy or two and just hit the bars to hang with your buddy(s), have a few laughs, and have a good time. Don't even try to pick up a girl in a beer bar, unless she is coming on strong to you, and wants to go with you when you and your buddy leave her bar to go to another bar. Don't drink at the same bar all night. When you're leaving her bar, if she wants more than 1000, she will normally tell you then. If she wants more, just blow her off, and move on.
Then before or after 2:00, head for the discos, which were open to 3:30 AM when I was there. Focus more on having fun with your mates than on picking up girls. But scope out the girls, and notice which ones are checking you out. At that point it is all an eye contact game. From the eye contact, you assess which ones are interested in you. If a girl keeps checking you out, give her a smile, and be friendly. You are trying to get her to bite on your bait instead of vice versa.
The basic philosophy behind this approach is that if you go out to have a good time with your buddies, you relax, loosen up, don't focus too much on the women, and just are there to have a good time, then when you are having a good time, that makes you more attractive to girls. In other words, a guy who looks happy, having a great time, is more attractive to them. Because it makes you look like somebody who is fun to be with. Think about it this way, when you look at the girls, if a girl is depressed and another one is smiling, happy, full of fun, which one is more attractive to you. The happy one, right?(all other things being equal).
With the girls, it is kind of a waiting game, too. After they leave the bars and go to the discos at 2 o'clock, then they usually try to hook up with a guy who appeals to them. But as 3:30 approaches, they are drunker, and their standards start to drop, same as yours do. Especially, at 3:30 at Baya Beach, when most of those girls are looking for somebody to take them to Safari. And if you end up alone at Safari at 5:30 or 6:00 AM, there are always girls up in the barhouse in the back that start hitting on the guys because they really want a date and that is the last round-up.
As you can see, if you are a go-back-to-your room at 2:00 AM guy, this approach doesn't work quite as well. But if you are a stay out drinking 'til 6:00 guy, then I think you will have probably at least a few opportunities during the course of a night where a girl that you have been eyeballing, and giving the go sign to, will come on to you, and you decide whether to pick her up. Personally, I never discuss price, unless the girl brings it up. If they don't mention it, then you slip them a 1000 in the morning. Didn't have any complaints. As well as in the bars and discos, this approach applies to the girls hanging around on the street and in the restaurants and pool halls on Sansabai.
Using this approach, I only once paid over 1000. That was to a girl who asked 1500 and I didn't negotiate. She was 20 yrs. old and IMHO, she was a stunner, one of the prettiest girls I saw while I was there. But realistically, unless you are pretty good looking, or Mr. Personality, you are not going to get a lot of stunners this way. If you absolutely must have a stunner, then taking your pick and paying the asking or a little less, may be the way to go. But I did go with many very nice ladies, who came up to my minimum standards and often well above that. Usually, I had a better time with them, as well, because the whole idea is to find one who, while being attractive enough to you, also picks you out as someone she would like to be with.
The ones grabbing at you as you walk down the sois are usually not that good-looking. Or they rope you in only to sell you drinks, or pass you off to another girl in the bar, since they are waiting for a BF, or just don't want to go with you. You can spend a lot of time and drink money on this approach to either end up with a girl who is pretty mediocre, or paying 1500 Baht for an average nice-looking girl, or more for a stunner. And it can be pretty discouraging and put you in a bad mood.
It is all about keeping yourself in a good mood. It is a game. It has its pitfalls. You learn with experience. Somtimes you don't connect with anyone, and you are faced with either going the late, late night route out to Safari, or else, taking your pick of the girls in front of Tai Pan or on Sansabai at 4:00 AM, who are usually not so good-looking, although I did twice find very good-looking ones that way just by luck.
At the end of the day, when you use this approach, you have to have a minimum standard of what caliber of girl is acceptable to you, and never settle for less, even if it means going home alone on the odd night, which did happen a couple of times to me.
As I said, I am sure others could explain it better than me. But last year at Songkran, all the girls were asking me for 2000 and settling for 1500, except for a few who settled for 1000 or 1200 and b*tched about it. And when I think about it, this year the girls I took from bars were two at 2000 each, both stunners, both unwilling to negotiate(one worth it, one a big pain in the ass), and two others at 1500 each, neither worth more than 1000, and one at 1000, well worth it, and she came onto me big time, not vice versa. Those were all in the first couple of weeks there, except the 2000 Baht pain-in-the-ass stunner.
All the others were met on the discos or on the street, 1000, usually with no bargaining except for the one mentioned for 1500 and one other for 700. Actually there was one other that I only paid 500 to :embrassed(there were reasons why), and she was calling me again and again, even after I cut her pay, and she was well worth 1000. These girls also mostly worked in bars, and would have probably asked more if I had picked them out at their bar.
JayBee