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Similar amounts of money can be made by bars and massage parlors catering to Rangoon’s moneyed class—well-heeled businessmen, government officials and their sons. A young waiter at Rangoon’s Pioneer Club held up the fingers of both hands to indicate the multiples of thousands of kyat reaped nightly in profits by the city’s successful establishments.

The protection bought for the young women working in these places isn’t available, however, to the street walkers at Bogyoke market, the city’s bus stations and other public places. They ply a risky trade, constantly on the watch for patrolling police.

One 20-year-old told me: “I was arrested last month and had to pay 70,000 kyat ($59). Some of my friends who weren’t able to pay are now in prison.”

It’s not only the risk of arrest that haunts these young women, though. They are a vulnerable target for drunks and other men on the prowl in Rangoon’s ill-lit streets. Rape is an ever-present threat.

HIV/AIDS infection is another hazard. Although the 20 or so sex workers I talked to all said they asked clients to use condoms, one 27-year-old from Hlaing Tharyar Township conceded that sometimes they consented to unprotected sex.

Market pressures limit a Rangoon sex worker’s influence over her clients. “If I reject a customer there are many others who’ll accept his demands for the price of a meal,” sighed one.