The Gold Rush – Selling Picks and Shovels in Thailand
Written by: The Pretender
March 26th, 2016
7 min read
Original published URL:
https://www.stickmanbangkok.com/readers-submissions/2016/03/the-gold-rush-selling-picks-and-shovels-in-thailand/
Gentlemen,
In this submission I would like to talk about the phenomenon known as the gold rush and the parallels it has with us western men seeking intimacy in Thailand.
Throughout history there have been a number of examples of gold rushes in different countries. One of the biggest occurred in California in 1848. On May 12th 1848, an ambitious merchant named Sam Brannan shocked the tiny port town of San Fransico, California with an electrifying announcement “Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!
Rumors had been circulating for months about a group of laborers who had been building a sawmill in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, some 100 miles east, when one of them spied the gleam of gold in the racing water. Few in San Francisco had believed the story. Now Brannan showed them proof.
Once it became clear that the rumors of gold were for real, nearly everybody in California thought, "Can I drop what I'm doing and make a fortune mining gold?" A whole lot of people decided, yeah, they could. And off they went.
Within a matter of days, most of San Francisco's 800 residents rushed off to the gold fields.
"The whole country resounds to the sordid cry of gold! Gold! Gold!" one newspaper reported, "while the field is left half-planted, the house half-built and everything neglected but the manufacture of shovels and pick axes." Sam Brannan had started the frenzy, but he had no interest in digging for gold himself. An elder in the Mormon church, he'd come to California in search of a place for the Saints to call home, and been so impressed by the abundance of the region that he'd stayed — even though most Mormons opted to settle farther east, near the Great Salt Lake. By chance, Brannan had opened a general store in Sacramento, not far from where the first nuggets were later discovered — and now, he saw an easy path to riches.
Sam Brannan was a commercial genius. And he realized that his store was going to be a goldmine, literally speaking, because he could sell everything that was needed to the miners right at the site where the gold was being dug.
In the three months following his announcement, Brannan outfitted so many would-be miners that receipts at his store totalled some 36,000 dollars (over $1 million in todays money). Meanwhile, he continued to spread the word. Under the banner of the newspaper he published, the California Star, he put together an extra edition extolling the "mineral riches of California," packed two thousand copies onto the only form of cross-country transportation then available — a team of mules — and sent it east to St. Louis.
It would take a good four months before the so-called "mule-train express" reached its destination. In the interim, Brannan planned to stock his store with every pick, pan and shovel he could lay his hands on. It was only a hunch — but he was willing to bet that 1848 was going to be a very good year.
Gold had been discovered many, many times, through the centuries — by the Hittites, by the Egyptians, by the Spanish. And always in the past the gold belonged to the czar, to the king, to the emperor, to the person who had power, who had the capacity to say, "No, you keep out. This is my gold." In California, there were no forces here to protect the ownership of the gold. It belonged to those who could take it and carry it back home.
People knew they could dig up the gold in California, put it in their pocket, no taxes, no inhibitions, no controls, no one here to keep the onslaught of tens of thousands of miners from rushing in and sweeping up the gold and taking it away.
What happens during a gold rush is a great many men drop everything and rush to a destination sometimes very far from home in which to seek their fortune by becoming miners. Most of the miners fail to find gold. Some find it but most don't. Most miners end up poorer but wiser for the experience. The great lesson of gold rushes throughout history is to be the people who are selling the picks and shovels. The people who are mining the miners. These are the people who did well or got really rich during the gold rushes of the past. In the book Think and Grow Rich there is a quote that more gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the earth. How very true!
Thailand is our gold rush, gentlemen. We are the miners but instead of mining for gold we are mining for youth, beauty, intimacy and love – a new and better love life in the arms of an exotic Thai woman or ladyboy. We are miners because of the situation at home. Divorce, separation, irritation at the behaviour, expectations and entitlement of western women, the rise of institutionalised feminism – these are the things that have forced our hands. Forced us to buy our picks and shovels, leave our homeland and try our luck at mining the hearts of the Thais in the Kingdom of Thailand. Instead of newspaper articles about gold in California we read submissions on Stickman's website proclaiming the wonders of Thai women. We keep thinking that maybe we too should try our luck at mining and maybe we too can strike it rich by capturing the heart of a beautiful, exotic Thai person who will treat us with the dignity, respect, kindness and consideration we all desire. We western men – we miners seek to capture the elements from our beautiful young Thai persons heart which have been completely mined out from western women in our homelands under institutionalised feminism. That's why we dig for gold in the intimacy gold fields of Pattaya.
Who are the people selling us miners the picks and shovels we all need whilst in Thailand? Why – it is the bar owners and the young, beautiful Thai women and ladyboys who work in the bars. It's the motorcycle taxi riders who take us to the bar, the restaurants that sell us our meals, the supermarkets where we shop for groceries, the 7/11 where we buy our supplies of bottled water. It's the hotels and condos that rent us our rooms. It's the love hotels and short time room operators and the pharmacies that sell us our condoms and lube. It's the airlines that sell us our plane tickets and the taxi drivers which take us to and from our resort destination of Pattaya. The picks and shovels we need are mostly not physical and the gold we seek in the hearts of the Thais is often by no means permanent. Our gold is intangible but it's a great symbol of what we men will do for sex, intimacy and love.
In traditional relationships in the western world it is western women who are mining us western men for real gold. For our property, money, assets and labour. All we ever really wanted was love. To think that us men are such romantics that we would give up everything for the love of a woman. There is a lot to be said about the kind and loving nature of men given the lengths we all go to for women. During the gold rushes throughout history the vast majority of the miners were men. Men in search of gold in order to build a better life for themselves and their families. Men willing to put themselves through incredible hardships in order for their wives and families to prosper.
Never forget your male nature and your role as a western man in Thailand, gentlemen. You're a miner just like I am. The gold you seek is in the hearts of the Thai people. The bar owners are selling us the picks and shovels we need to mine the hearts of the Thai women and ladyboys. They sell us alcohol. They sell us bar fines. They sell us fun and good times. The women and ladyboys themselves are also selling us picks and shovels. They sell us their time, their intimacy and their personal services which are the invisible, intangible picks and shovels – and with those picks and shovels we will continue to mine their hearts for intimacy, sex, fun and companionship. Some of us might even find love if we're lucky. After all – some miners during the gold rush really did get rich! After all is said and done however the pick and shovel sellers will certainly do well out of us just as they always do during a gold rush.
In July I will return to the gold fields of Pattaya, Thailand and continue mining for the affection, intimacy, sex and fun times in the hearts of the women and ladyboys that work in the bars of Soi 6 and Soi Buakhaow. I hope to see you there with your picks and shovels.
All the best Gentlemen!
The Pretender