My Relationship with a Freelancer

[Guest]

With the closure of the Delphi board, I am shifting the thread to his board. I have reposted Parts 1 to 11 for the benefit of those who have not read it.

Part 12 is in the making, so hang in there.

[Guest]

Part 1

I have been in Bangkok for over a year. I got myself a Thai girlfriend. We have been together for a year.

To me, she was different from the others. She was a freelancer. She wasn't from Isaan nor the Northeast, but from Bangkok. She didn't complete high school. She didn't danced in bars or worked soapy massages. But of course, I couldn't confirm any of the information. Despite her lack of education, I think she was pretty damn smart (or I was pretty damn stupid). You could tell from the way she dealt with people - street smart, and able to smell a scam from a mile away. She was quite a looker as well. Quite a lot of people mistook her for a popular Thai actress "Tom".

We have stayed together for a year. When we first met, she was freelancing with her older sister. Her sister had a Thai boyfriend, basically a mang da, living off the sister's earnings.

A little about her background. She worked in a Japanese MNC factory on the cassette making production line, worked in some village industries, became a mistress to some rich Thai guy for a while before leaving him because she didn't want to be another one of the numbers, despite being offered an apartment and a car. Prior to meeting me, she was working with her aunt, sending Thai females to other countries on social visit passes and getting them work in one form or another for a couple of weeks before returning to Thailand. She was stopped by the foreign immigration on one of these trips and was denied entry into that country and was sent home. Her passport was endorsed with a stamp that practically made the passport useless.

When we met, I long timed her. The next morning before she left, she told me that if I would like to do some sightseeing, I could call her on her mobile. At that point, I called her mobile on the spot. Of course, I couldn't get through. I told her that she was pulling a fast one on me. She laughed and apologised profusely, saying that it must have been cancelled because she didn't pay her bills. In any case, we made an appointment to meet at Robinson, Ratchadapisek that evening. I told her that I wanted to know what Thais normally do to pass their evenings.

I waited for 30 minutes before she arrived. She looked just like any other beautiful Thai lady that you see commonly on the streets. No signs that she was plying the trade. I guess they stick to a different dress code when they are not working. We did some shopping. She was happy that I had allowed her to purchase more makeup than she wanted. I was "kon dee, jai dee maak" (a good person with a very good heart). I figured that if she was kept happy, I might get to do more sightseeing.

She then brought me to see Talaad Huay Khwang (market) where the ordinary folk would do their purchases from. I was amazed by the variety and the low prices. I saw these portable stores lined up by the roadside, enough to cover at least a football field. They were selling almost everything - pirated tapes and CDs, perfumes, cheap bags, clothings, shoes, household items, daily produce, and of course, cheap Thai food. I asked her where she stayed and if I could pass by her house. She showed me the general direction and said it was a bad idea to go anywhere near her house because she didn't want her neighbours to talk and didn't want her mother to know that she was freelancing or going out with men. It turned out that her mother owns one of these portable stores selling food and she helps out her mother during the day time.

We didn't eat at the Talaad. She brought me to this seafood place at Ratchada (beside Jusco) where they had a live band performing. Had a feast that night. Never ate so much in my life and never had someone feeding me so much in my life. She said I was too thin and I should eat more. I didn't have a single clue what the live band was playing, but it sounded like rock ballads and everyone around was having a good time dancing and drinking away. I suppose this is what they called Sabai and Sanuk.

I didn't see her freelancing for a week. She said she was busy helping her mother in the mornings and was too tired to come out at night. She could have been plying her trade elsewhere, but I gave her the benefit of a doubt. The next time we met, she told me to meet her at the Hyatt Erawan. That was when I met her sister. Her sister was taller and had a bigger frame. Her face looked like one of the recent Miss Thailand. No one could tell from the features of both of them and say that they were sisters. I sat at the bar alone while they both went around talking to the farangs. When the place closed, I paid for the drinks and left. I saw both of them walking away with a farang. I was mad as hell thinking that she called me out to see her work. I got into a cab and headed home. Then she called my mobile and asked me why I left without her. I told her that I thought she was working because she was walking away with her sister and someone else. She told me she wasn't working, just helping out her sister. She wanted to see me. I told her to come to my apartment.

She arrived 20 minutes later with some supper. That was the first time I tasted som tum and those fried insects. She loved the mang da. I was drunk as hell that night. I couldn't recalled what the mang da tasted like, but I sure remembered the som tom was phet maak maak!! I kin phet mai dai, mai shob phet. She laughed, relishing her som tum and mang da. We cuddled in bed like we had known each other for a long time. She told me she couldn't bring herself to go with someone else that night after she saw. Her sister needed some money to see a doctor. The sister didn't speak English as well as she did. The sister has a blood condition that required a regular checkup, so she had to help the sister hook up with someone. The boyfriend couldn't help coz he didn't have much money and his job didn't pay as well as freelancing did. I told her I didn't have much money that night, so I couldn't pay for her long time. She didn't mind. She said she enjoyed my company.

She talked about herself that night. I merely listened. She was trying to raise money to get another passport done since the last one had an endorsement. She wanted to change her name (which she eventually did) for the new passport, and hopefully do a contract with some Thai man to say that she is married to him so that she could use his surname for the passport. But it ended up that the whole process cost Baht 200,000. She couldn't raise that kind of money. She said she need Baht 5000 to do the name change and to convince the passport officer to issue her a new passport under the new name. I told her I wanted to see Pattaya over the weekend, and I would pay her for her long time for 1 night. In addition, I would pay for the bus tickets to and from Pattaya and the hotel. She said she had to check with her sister first. After a few days, she agreed.

We left for Pattaya on a Saturday morning and arrived in the afternoon. Throughout the whole bus journey, she acted as a tour guide, telling me about the towns and the villages and what they were good or famous for. You could tell that she knew quite a bit about her country and that she had travelled around quite a fair bit. I did't quite enjoy Pattaya. The acres of bar beers just didn't turn me on. The Alacazar shows were fully booked out, but we had a great seafood dinner. We ended up in a disco and stayed until 2 am before getting back to the hotel. I had wanted to visit the beach next day, but she said the beaches were dirty. We ended up at the hotel pool. She modelled and catwalked in her swim suit. I became fashion photographer for 20 minutes before the sun got too hot and strong. She was afraid of getting too dark and same as "farm girl". It can get quite exasperating having a girlfriend who is too concerned about her looks. She takes forever to put her makeup on and we don't usually get to stay long in the sun. I personally love the sun. Anyway, I wasn't a great photographer, but she loved all the pictures. It became part of her "model" portfolio. We did this "model" portfolio thing a couple of times more over the year we stayed together. I didn't really enjoyed Pattaya as much as I enjoyed her company. We returned to Bangkok on Sunday evening.

(To be continued)

Part 2

I was starting to fall for her. Friends and colleagues told me not to get too involved. Perhaps, I was idealistic, optimistic, naive. I thought she was different. She just wasn't lucky because she came from a poor family background, and she didn't have the opportunities that others had to make it. Well, I had nothing to lose. If it all works out, I'll have a great companion for the rest of my life. If it doesn't, I would have learnt some conversational Thai, saw a little bit of Thailand, experienced first hand how a Thai lived, worked and thought, and understand what Thailand is all about. I thought the balance tilted in my favour.

Her passport was ready for collection, but the immigration officer wanted another Baht 10000. She told me about it and she needed to find the money for it. I offered to help. I didn't want her to work. I gave her the money for the passport.

April was a great month. It was full of holidays. That meant more sightseeing for me. It was about a week before Songkran. I told her I wanted to see Khao Yai and I would like her company. She said she had to ask her sister's permission first because Mom will question her disappearance for 3 days. I got the sister's blessings. We rented a car and headed to Pak Chong. We stayed over at Nakon Nayok for the night. I made it clear that there will be no payment to her. Instead, I will pay all expenses. She agreed. The car rental and petrol made up the bulk of it. So we drove from Bangkok to Rangsit, passed Singburi, Lopburi and finally arrived at Nakon Nayok in the evening. Along the journey, she told me the hazards of driving in Thailand, how the lorry drivers will take drugs to keep awake, how it is not safe to be the first or only vehicle on the road facing oncoming traffic coz you never know which "ba" or "mao" driver will crash his car/pickup/bus/lorry into you, and whatever happens, whether you hit a car or a dog or a person, never to stop. That was Driving in Thailand 101.

We circled around Nakon Nayok for a hotel. She couldn't recall which hotel she stayed the last time she came. In any case, I got her to go into the hotels to do the enquiries. I told her basically the room must have a hot water shower, aircon and that the hotel accepts credit cards. With her negotiating, I always got good rates. Beautiful faces make deal closing easy. Amazing, she remembered where the town disco was. No prizes for guessing where we spent that night after dinner. Yes, we hit the town disco!!

Suburban discos are unlike Bangkok discos. People are more reserved. They don't stand up and dance, and even if they do, they don't go that much wild. You don't see much of that skimpy dressing. We were the only 2 wild ones in that disco, dancing and gyrating to the music that the DJ had to offer. I got a little worried when almost everyone started staring at us. Back where I came from, fights and killings started from stares. She said they were just curious, they had never seen anyone having so much uninhibited fun. I took her word for it.

The next day, we headed for Pak Chong. It was a long drive, but the country scenery was breathtaking. And I got my tour guide explaining to me what each place was famous for. We passed by the Chokchai Ranch and the famous Chokchai steak house. She said we will stop by there for lunch on our way back the next day. Pak Chong was near Khao Yao. The air was fresh and cooling. We were tired from all that partying the previous night and the long drive. If there was a disco in Pak Chong, I never saw it. And I was glad. We stayed at a hotel in Pak Chong. She didn't liked it too much. Complained that the water was too hard and that spoilt her hair when she shampooed.

For the short period of about 4 weeks that I knew her, I found that she has different lifestyle. She gets up late in the mornings. I guess this was usual for people who work at night. She doesn't take regular meals, says that it ruins her slim and sexy figure. She snacks a lot, or takes little portions of food in between meal hours. Her only form of exercise is whatever she does at the disco dance floor. She is extremely particular about the shampoos and the conditioners she uses. You see, she had very long hair. It goes all the way down the back, about 4 inches off where the tailbone is. Took her 3 years to keep it. That became a conversation piece for everyone she meets everytime we go out. With her movie star looks, who wouldn't want to talk to this gal!! Plus her great EQ when it comes to dealing with people, we got great discounts and service everywhere we went and people didn't like making things difficult for a pretty gal. But for me, her lifestyle was hell. I keep regular meal hours, otherwise my gastric kicks in. I love the sun and exercise. I hated snacking. And everytime she eats, she liked variety. More often than not, we end up ordering 3 to 4 dishes, she will take a couple of mouthfuls of each dish, and I was to finish up everything else, on top of what I take during my regular meals. Rather than waste the food, inevitably, I ended up finishing up all the stuff. That's what I call force feeding!

We left Pak Chong and proceed to move towards the general area of Khao Yai National Park. We made small detours here and there on her recommendation so that I could see the beauty of the natural surroundings. Of course, she never got out of the car everytime we stopped. Too hot and too much sun. I got a little frustrated. This was my holiday. I wanted the sightseeing. I wanted to take pictures and enjoy the sights. And I don't give a shit about the sun. I gave her a piece of my mind. She wasn't too pleased. We started arguing in the car. Her reason was that the areas we were at were too deserted. Someone could have easily shot us or robbed us and got away with our rented car. She had a point. I was too pissed with her anyway to really listen. In my anger, I cancelled our trip and started driving back towards Bangkok. I never saw Khao Yai. And we never stopped at Chokchai steak house. This was our first fight.

(To be continued)

  2133.6 in reply to 2133.5 

Part 3

The ride back from Pak Chong was a quiet one. She was clearly upset. I had broken a cardinal rule of Thai culture - showing my anger and displeasure. The silence was eerie. She refused to look at me throughout the journey, only staring out the the her window.

When we finally reached my apartment, she took out all her stuff from the car, without saying anything, and walked down the long soi leading to the main road in the hot dusty afternoon. I felt really bad. Perhaps the silent treatment did it. I drove the car out of the car park and caught up with her. The afternoon sun was beating down on her mercilessly, but she didn't care (this was the girl who was afraid of getting dark). My outburst had hurt her more. I asked her to get into the car and told her that I would send her back. She refused, told me that I was tired and I should rest before returning the car in the evening. I pleaded with her, she finally relented. But again, throughout the journey, she was quiet.

I thought I would do her a favour by sending her to the doorstep. But she refused to tell me where she stayed. I insisted and ended up driving in circles in the sois. I got lost and she refused to say anything. In that afternoon, I broke the cardinal rule again - I got mad again. I finally dropped her off at Jusco where she took a tuk tuk.

I returned the car to the car rent. I was upset - at myself, at her and for breaking the cardinal rules. As I was a foreigner, she had to give her particulars as well for the car rent. Somehow, she was reluctant to give them when we rented the car. I suppose she was afraid that if anything happened to the car, she would be partly responsible.

She called me to enquire if I had found my way back from her place to the car rent. I told her she didn't have to worry about having any sort of trouble as I had already returned the car. I guess she was worried about me more than the car, but at that point, I didn't think so. I later found out from her that she was impressed at the fact that I managed to find my way back from her place, given that the traffic situation in Bangkok can be so unpredictable.

That night, she was freelancing again with her sister. I guess she needed the money. I pulled her aside. She was slightly miffed that I was interrupting her work. I told her if she needed any help, she could approach me. I also told her I liked her and didn't felt good about her working. It was clear she needed the money. She did not mince her words. Having fun and going out with me was one thing. But bills had to be paid. If I didn't provide the funds, she had to get them from somewhere else or someone else. That's reality for you. The damage? Baht 20,000 a month. I thought she was underestimating herself. From my observations of her before I longtimed her, her hit rate was about 80%. She worked an average of thrice a week, each time an average of 2 short times. At an estimated Baht 1000 per short time, her take could be Baht 24,000. But at the places that she was freelancing, almost no one charges Baht 1000 per short time unless you're really desperate for the business.

I had my conditions: She was to stay with me if I paid the rate. She was also to stop freelancing. We had a deal. Our relationship had moved to another level.

(To be continued)

[Guest]

Part 4

I knew more about her when she moved in. She didn't speak much of her father, always of her mother. She hated her sister, because all the sister cared about was herself and her boyfriend, who was a loser in her eyes. Her sister refused to lift a finger to help the household. No money was given from the earnings. Instead, she had to help the mother at the stall. That explains her culinary skills. She loved the Koong King instant hoon sen. I am a klutz when it comes to cooking. Yes, I can do instant noodles, fry eggs and cook rice in a rice cooker. Anything more is beyond me. But she turns instant hoon sen into a mean dish. Then again, I am not fussy with food, anything is tasty. But whatever she cooks sure beats room service. Can't say much about her housekeeping skills. The maid cleans up the room everyday because I stayed at a service apartment, but she arranges my stuff quite nicely and does some of the laundry and washing. I had to help her with ironing and sewing, not that she can't do those, but she preferred the way I ironed her stuff and handled the needle and thread.

She had intended to go overseas again if I hadn't made her the offer to move in. The move overseas was for her anakhot (future), she said. She often commented that the young go-go dancers and freelancers didn't plan for their future, that they were doing it for the fun and the thrill of it, wasting away all the money they earned on gambling, partying and useless boyfriends and at the end of it all, did not have anything to show for their old age. She wanted to be different. She wanted enough money quickly to get a business going, maybe have a small provision shop, some land upcountry and a huge savings account for a rainy day. I told her I was happy that she thought that way and I would assist her in whichever way I could. Afterall, I loved her. It was for our anakhot.

She keeps herself pretty up to date on what's happening around. She watches the news on TV daily, not just on one Thai channel, but on all the Thai channels. She also watches the Discovery Channel dubbed in Thai over duo sound. And not forgetting Cinemax and HBO with the Thai subtitles. Her command of English was not that great, but we don't have much difficulty commmunicating using the more common daily terms. She speaks and understand more English than some of the people in my office. I think she can't read English, but I am not too sure about that. She shows no interests in computers nor technology, but loves the fact that we don't need to rewind CDs. Her main interest is fashion and looking beautiful. I had a tough time pulling her away from those computer photoshops where they imposed a digital photo of your face onto the body of someone else. She loved those. I must have spent at least Baht 1000 on those. We had her in kimonos, wedding gowns, covers of Elle, Cosmopolitan. She also loved the photo sticker machines. These were stuck onto the mirror in my room.

We couldn't quite decide what we wanted to do during Songkran. It was my first Songkran in Thailand. I had not taken up an offer to go with friends to Chiang Mai. I certainly did not want to stay in Bangkok during the festivities. We managed to rent a car on the 2nd day. We headed up to Phichit, where the sister was staying with the boyfriend for the holidays. They stayed in a little hut, less than 60 square metres, among the padi fields. I doubted if they owned or ploughed any land. The boyfriend's mother was quite aged.After picking up the sister and the boyfriend at Phichit, we headed up to Phitsanoulok. Along the way, we stopped at Bung Si Fai, a reservoir, for lunch. There was this huge crocodile statue of Chalawan, a Thai folk tale. She explained the whole story to me. Passing through padi fields of Phichit and having previously seen the fruit stalls along the roadside at Khao Yai, I am fairly convinced that this country is an extremely self-sufficient one, perhaps due to the encouragement of the King.

We arrived at Phitsanoulok in the heat of Songkran in the afternoon. Our car was totally splashed. I wished I had rented a pickup, that way, we could have retaliated. We found a hotel and checked in. At usual, she remembered where the town disco was. We were suppose to hit the disco that night. We changed something comfortable for getting wet. She decided to go with the white tight T and white tennis skirt that I had bought for her. We didn't come really prepared with the Songkran battle gear. We just purchased small plastic basins, just talcum powder and some water pistols.

We plonked ourselves in front of this shop that had huge speaker belting out Thai songs. There was a huge tank that everyone was taking water from. We joined in the fun and had a splashing time for about 20 minutes. She was gyrating to the music in her wet wet tight T and wet short tennis skirt. What a sight. She became the centre of attraction for all passing cars and pickups. Everyone was aiming their water pistols at her and us. Nasty! We were soaked to the skin, our clothes had multiple colours as some people had added dyes in their water. Some used ice cold water. That was Songkran, it was fun. Until someone at the shop said we couldn't take water from THEIR water tank. That sort of spoilt it all. What is Songkran with no refill, no reload? That guy was a real wet blanket (pardon the pun). She couldn't be bothered. She just jumped onto a passing pickup, and didn't return until half hour later. I felt cold and miserable and returned to the hotel first.

We never hit the disco that night. I had dinner from the hotel restaurant. The three of them took the car out and ate somewhere else. I was left alone at the hotel room. I was really worried that they would crash the car. When they returned, we both shared one bed, her sister and the boyfriend took the other single bed. I couldn't get any sleep that night. I wasn't complaining about snuggling with my teerak (darling). The boyfriend was snoring away the whole night. We checked out the next morning. I paid for the room, and all the stuff that they had cleaned out from the minibar in the room.

When we returned to Bangkok, I told her that I didn't quite enjoy myself, despite this being a holiday for me. Afterall, she had wanted me to have fun. Firstly, I told her that I felt ostracised when she left on the pickup and when she left me in the room alone. Next, she didn't tell me that her sister and the boyfriend were staying with us for the trip and lastly, for cleaning out the minibar. She said she wanted to enjoy herself too and that I shouldn't be so stingy about paying for the room and the stuff in the minibar. This is Thai style, she said. Everyone has fun and a good time. To me, it seemed like we have different values, different ideals, different standards, different attitudes. And having to explain all this in English who didn't understand very much of it isn't easy as well. At the end of it all, she probably thought that I was the unreasonable one. To her, it was live and let live, it didn't matter, mai pen rai. To me, this communication and cultural barrier is one that had to be broken, if we were to have a future together.

(To be continued)

  2133.14 in reply to 2133.12 

Part 5

It was about 2 weeks after Songkran. She had not moved in most of her stuff. I had given her money in weekly installments instead of on a monthly basis. I figured it was easier on my wallet and the chances of her squandering everything all at once was less. On top of this, I bought her clothes (at least a top and a bottom every month), makeup and perfume (picked up from duty free everytime I fly overseas for business or for visa runs), paid for groceries, and picked up the tab everywhere we went. I always had my suspicions as to what she does whenever I am away. I had called the room and her mobile everytime at odd hours just to check. Sometimes she answered her mobile, sometimes she didn't. On the occasions that she didn't, she told me she had gone out with her sister or friends. She assured me that she was not back into the trade whenever I was not around. It had never occurred to me to engage a PI. Guess I'll never find out if she really meant what she said. Nevertheless, everytime, she said that she will sabaan (swear) before the Buddha. I gave her the benefit of a doubt and believed her. She had placed most of the money I gave her into her bank account. Baht 2000 will be paid to someone. I had my suspicion that it was her boyfriend or husband. She told me that it was for a loan her mother had taken from a relative. Again, I gave her the benefit of a doubt. Indeed, love must be blind.

She was suspicious that I might have a wife or a girlfriend back home. I had no reason to lie. I had neither a wife or someone keeping the fire burning back home. I told her that I have no reason to butterfly and if I could give her the benefit of a doubt, I didn't understand why she couldn't do the same for me. She said that all men are butterflies, and Thai men more so than others. That was why she said she never liked Thai men. I told her I was not Thai and if she wanted, she could follow me on my next trip. This satisfied her a little, but it still did not stop her from subsequently doing her routine checks on me everytime I returned home late from the office due to work or business meetings. She thought I had gone to one of those massage places. Such checks have been the subject of a lot of our little tiffs. The test that she used was a subjective one. She will sniff my clothes and me from head to toe. If I didn't smell like a rotting fish, it meant that I had patronised a massage parlour, had a nice shower plus a little bit of extra before coming home. I worked in an office and I usually had my colleagues order a take-away for me for lunch. I don't perspire much either. If I had no reason to leave the office that particular day, there is no reason why I should smell like a rotting fish.

I had just returned from one of my trips. She had met me at Don Muang. I had noticed that she was not her usual self. Perhaps I was away longer than usual. I found that she had shifted a lot more of her stuff in when I arrived at the apartment. She told me that her mother "pai wat stay with Buddha you Kanchanaburi" (going to stay at the temple at Kanchanaburi) the following week. She wasn't sure if her mother was returning. Her mother usually makes these trips to Kanchanaburi in a van with some of her friends and stays there for a couple of weeks before returning. This time, her mother had told her to take care of herself, find a good man, get married, get a home and then look for her in Kanchanaburi. These words had a sobering effect on her. For the first time in her life, someone close to her was leaving. I later found out that during the time that she was with me, her mother has thought she had abandoned her and decided to live at the temple instead. Her mother had given up the food business and stopped all payments to the bank for the house they were living in. In any case, according to her, the loan installments were in arrears. She said that they couldn't stay in the house for much longer. And they couldn't take anything in the house except their essential personal belongings and clothes. I guessed the bank must have gotten a court order of some sort to take over the property. She brought whatever stuff she could to my place, plus some kitchen utensils. She was really upset that night. It would be difficult to fake something like this. She clung to me tightly that night. I felt like I was her last hope and probably the answer to her mother's wishes.

For the next couple of months, we lived like a couple. I would bring home her money. She would do the laundry, the cooking, teach me Thai. We would go to the movies, the disco, shop for groceries and watch Thai TV together. She would explain to me the storyline, what the characters are saying. I learnt quite a fair bit of my Thai from watching Thai game shows, music videos and drama serials. With her, I also started buying lottery tickets. She's always hoping to strike the big one. Of course, she never did. I managed to strike the small prizes twice for about 10 times I bought the tickets with her. She would usually collect the money and spend it. We had some good luck and some good times. Until the business of the provision shop came along.

(To be continued)

Part 6

We made a few adjustments to our lives when she moved in. I had to look for a bigger apartment instead of putting up with a studio. She was given the task of hunting for an apartment. I told her that she must be comfortable with the apartment, afterall, she was the one moving in. She returned with several quotations. We viewed the apartments together and finally settled on one. I made it a point to return home early after work everyday. I wanted to spend more time with her and I enjoyed her company. If there was something at work keeping me back, I would let her know. Nevertheless, she was suspicious everytime I returned home late. While it was normal for the nature of my job to have long hours back where I came from, it was out of the ordinary, according to her, for anyone in Thailand to work such long hours.

Somebody once said you can't have too much of a good thing. There was only so much housework you could do before it became boring. Especially so for someone who had an active nightlife. Perhaps the excitement just wasn't there when you're washing someone else's dirty underwear. Somehow, it was difficult to make the switch. Some part of her wanted to go back. I did not realize that. I thought she was happy with the arrangement. Afterall, she was the one that proposed the amount and agreed with the deal. Life was not just about money afterall. This was when she approached me about looking for a job.

I did not object to her having a job. However, I objected to the nature of work that she wanted to do. Her new job will bring her back to the same circle of people that she was with previously. Only this time, she was working in bars and lounges. I reminded her of our agreement. She said that she would only serving drinks and talking to customers. No short time or long time. I didn't agree.

This was how the provision shop (she liked to call it "mart") came about. The idea was to rent (or buy) shop space below an apartment block or near apartment blocks and operate a mart to sell provision and daily necessities to residents. This would give her something to do, something that she wanted to do, and hopefully, something that will let her earn a decent living for the years ahead. She never had any experience in retailing. I thought that the amount of time she spent helping out her mother previously would have taught her something, but I guess it never rubbed off. She was not able to do a simple cost-income analysis, she was not able to estimate how much overheads she would have to incur monthly. Perhaps it was too much to ask of her. All she knew was to buy the products and to sell them. I gave her a simple run down of what she had to find out and what she had to do to maintain a profitable business - monthly rental, utility charges, one time payments for racks, shelves, fridge and other essentials for the business, costs of items, target market audience. It was not difficult for her to learn and understand. Afterall, like I said, she was smart and she learnt quickly. She made some notes, and visited her neighbourhood provision shop to talk to the owner. She also started searching in the classifieds for suitable venues and equipment.

I had to find a way to fund this venture. I didn't come from an extremely well-off family. I did not have much savings either. My salary was sufficient to feed 2 persons, but it was barely sufficient to set up a business venture of this nature. On one of my trips back home, I went to the bank and took a loan amounting to Baht 180,000, to be paid within 2 years. I estimated this was sufficient start up the venture as well as to keep it going for 3 months if things weren't moving too quickly.

For the next 2 months, our weekends were spent visiting venues and assessing suitability, looking at current provision shops on how they operated and talking to owners, comparing prices of products at the different hypermarts for low cost items. It was an enlightening experience for both of us. The retail industry is extremely competitive. Rentals didn't look realistic. Owners were asking for unrealistic prices. Current mart owners looking to give up their businesses had a reason - there wasn't sufficient traffic to sustain the business and the high rentals bled it further.

After much hunting, she found an existing mart near her previous home (as luck would have it). The owner was an elderly Chinese lady who owned the whole block of apartments. She was getting too old to manage the mart, so she had decided to rent it out and collect rent instead. There were about 60 rooms in that block, mostly filled. The tenants were made up of married couples, young singles from other provinces working in the nearby supermarkets and shopping malls or in Bangkok. It reminded me of the varsity dormitories. Rental for a room was cheap, about Baht 3000 to 5000 a month, excluding utilities. There were houses near the apartments as well, housing multiple families, mostly working class. Some were involved in the clothing and textile industry, sewing up pieces of cloth together or putting finishing touches to clothes to be sold. Some were bottling drinking water (Polaris and the like), making and selling ice, selling cooked and uncooked food, car repair, second hand bookstores, anything they can think of to eke out a livelihood. This venue was more promising than most of the others that we had seen. We could see that business was brisk.

The landlady wanted Baht 60,000 for the business. This was to include the items in stock, 2 small and old refrigerators, some old and rusting racks. Rental was Baht 3000 every month, excluding electricity. Price was not negotiable. I would not have paid more than Baht 20,000 if I had my way. But I could see that she was genuinely interested in running the business and in making a success out of it, so I relented. In addition to that, we got rid of the 2 old fridges, got a big brand new display fridge. That costs Baht 30,000. Then she wanted to buy new racks. That was another Baht 8,000. We had to stock up on certain items that were lacking. Another Baht 20,000 went into the items. Her sister and the boyfriend came over and helped in giving the premises a new coat of paint. All this was done within 2 days. The landlady didn't allow us to close the mart for fear that the tenants would complain. I didn't understand why the tenants would complain. Easily within 50 to 100 metres of either side of the apartment, you could find another mart. Perhaps it was the convenience that mattered. That could explain why business was brisk despite the competition.

We had to open the mart early in the morning. This was to cater to residents who were leaving for work. They would grabs some sandwiches or coffee before they leave. Also, the ice delivery people would deliver ice twice a day, once at 7 a.m and once at 1 p.m. We used to take ice in the loose and unpacked form. This was how the landlady used to do it. The ice would be stored in a metal box and left to be sold or to melt, whichever happened first. Ice is a brisk commodity amongst the residents. Most of them do not have fridges, so when they need ice for drinks, they will purchase ice. We will pay for a huge bag of ice for Baht 40. We would sell a small bag for Baht 5. Our takings from ice would amount to about Baht 80, depending on how much had melted away. That's 100% profit. Then it only made sense that to purchase a freezer to store the ice to eliminate the wastage. The freezer amounted to Baht 13,000. Our takings from ice increased by another Baht 30 per huge bag. We later switched to packed ice to increase our profit.

I had advised her to note the suppliers of different items - Coke, Pepsi, ice, sandwiches, household supplies, beer etc. Where needed, she could contact the suppliers to replenish stock. The strategy was to move the items quickly and obtain a quick turnover. We noted that most of the residents preferred Pepsi over Coke, Beer Chang or Beer Leo over Beer Singha (lower prices). Carlsberg and Heineken would not move at all (too expensive). We had to sell cigarettes in different amounts - 2 sticks, half pack, full pack. Nobody smokes Marlboro or foreign cigarettes. Local Thai cigarettes like Falling Rain (menthol) sell better than Salem (cheaper). She was also told to do stock check and the accounts daily so that she would know which items were moving quicker.

Kids are a different market altogether. They like almost anything new that we brought into the mart. Every week, she and I would go to Lotus at Fortune Town to buy new candy or snacks in bulk. Snacks or crackers with toy gifts attract the kids. We had a few kids who would visit us an average of 5 times a day, each time sampling a new type of snack. Sometimes we would ask them why they were coming to the mart so often. They would say that their father had just returned from work and would like to spend some quiet time with their mum (to put it nicely). We could imagine how difficult it was to make love in a one room apartment when you have 2 to 3 kids around.

At that time, Lotus at Fortune Town just opened. There were lots of items on promotion. On one occasion, a carton of Beer Chang was going for half the price of what we would pay if we were to order it from the suppliers. However, each person was only limited to 2 cartons. It was a one day promotion. We arranged for her sister and the boyfriend to help us in the purchase. We arrived at Lotus 5 minutes before opening hours. There was already a crowd forming. The sister and boyfriend did not arrive as expected. She enlisted the help of 2 guys who were motorcyle taxi riders. We paid them Baht 50 each. It was a mad rush for the Beer Chang. Within 30 seconds, 12 pallets of Beer Chang found new owners (each pallet had about 48 cartons or more). Between the 4 of us, we managed to wrestle a total of 12 cartons. All the beer was paid by my Amex Card. We queue and paid at 6 different lines just to beat the system. We saw other people amassing as much as 30 to 40 cartons of Beer Chang. They came with their brothers, sisters and grandmothers. It was clear that these were mart owners as well. I had to rush off the work. We transported about 4 cartons of Beer Chang to the mart and left the rest locked up in the storage service. These were later retrieved in the evening.

All in all, business seem to be turning out alright. But the money was slow. On an average, I estimated total profit to be about Baht 20,000, after deducting stocking costs, rental and utilities. On top of this, I was keeping to our arrangement and giving her money every week. She started cooking up ideas as to how to make more money quickly. One way was to sell the business. She started advertising in the classified. She figured if she could sell the whole thing for Baht 160,000, it would have been a good deal. I told her that if she could do that, it would be good. If she couldn't, it would still bring in a steady income. There were a few enquiries, but no one was serious. They couldn't afford the price.

There was no doubt that it was tiring work. She had to leave our apartment at 6:30 a.m. by cab to reach the mart at 7 a.m. We didn't close until 11 p.m.. I would go to the mart after work to help her do the stock check, lock up and return home. By the time we got back, it will be close to midnight. It wasn't easy, it was tiring. She had no time to do her own laundry, no time to look beautiful, and no time to have fun. There were no holidays, no off days and worse, there was no one to help her. I tried to make things more bearable for her. I bought her a stereo set (Baht 11,000) so that she could play her favourite techno CDs, and a mat with pillows so that she could take a nap in the afternoon when things went slow. The sister and the boyfriend were jealous of her good fortune. They claimed they were too busy during the day time (doing nothing to help her. Once a week, they will visit and keep her company and to drink. Of course, they had to pay, she made this clear to them. It wasn't long before she started drinking with them and drinking alone at the mart.

I caught her drunk on a few occasions. She was either drinking with the sister and the boyfriend, or drinking with some of the male residents, or drinking alone. And when she was drunk, she made mistakes. She sold things at the wrong price, she gave the wrong change. I told her that I understand it was not easy maintaining the mart. I told her to hang in there and we will figure out something. Maybe we could get her sister to assist and work on shifts, or hire someone to assist. Her sister did mention that she wanted to quit the freelancing scene and start on some business. She was also interested in buying over the mart, but the price was too high. I told her to go easy on the drinking as it was affecting the business. She agreed, but continued to drink.

On that fateful day, she was drinking in another room near the mart with some of the male residents. The mart was left open and unattended. The cash drawer was not locked and the money was left inside. She was having a blast of a time. When I arrived at the mart, there were some customers waiting to purchase something. I had to apologise profusely in what little Thai I knew. I pulled her away from her party company and told her that this was not acceptable. If she had wanted a break, she could have informed me and I would have filled in for her. She was too drunk to understand any reason. I told her to pack up and go home and let me take care of the shop. She was upset. She started hitting and pushing me around and messing up the place. In defending myself, I hit her in the stomach. That was a big mistake. She got really mad. I had to carry her out of the mart and lock her out.

I started to call her sister on the mobile and told her what has happened. Perhaps the sister could help calm her down. That was an even bigger mistake. The sister and the boyfriend arrived in 10 minutes. I let all of them back into the store and I explained the situation to them. What they said amongst themselves, I wasn't very sure, but I was certainly labelled the guilty party. Within minutes, the boyfriend caught hold of me, refused to let me go, allowed her to gather her stuff and the day's takings and together, they went off. I was really upset. In a foreign land where I did not speak the language and I had absolutely no assistance whatsoever and no understanding of the mentality of the people, I was clearly on the losing end. Emotionally and mentally, I was devastated. I couldn't understand why this had happened. The mart was what she wanted, I was helping her fulfil her dream. I had trusted her and I had thought this was the way to go. This was to show that I cared for her and her future, and that I was even willing to get a loan from the bank to help her. The dream became a nightmare. It was too much for me to handle at that moment. I had no choice, but to call my Thai colleague from work for help.

My colleague arrived about 45 minutes later. It was a good thing I knew where the sister and the boyfriend lived. They were all there. Neither she nor I were in any position to say anything nice about each other at that point in time. She was too drunk and I was too upset. She wanted to break off the relationship and leave. My brain was too drained to make any sense. I left the whole situation to my colleague. He agreed to all their requests. We all returned to my apartment where she packed her stuff and left. We made an appointment to meet up again the next day to settle any outstanding matters.

My colleague did a good job calming me down and knocking some sense into me. Despite what had happened, I still loved her and felt for her. My colleague had advised me to end the relationship right there, cut my losses and run. He was of the view that I had been scammed. My emotions got the better of me. I told me colleague to negotiate with them on my behalf. My bottomline was to get her back and start on a clean slate. We would sell off the mart. However, as I was holding the keys to the mart, I told him to negotiate from a position of strength. Our position of strength was not strong enough. She was the one that entered into the contract with the landlady, not me. She had a right to transfer the mart to anyone she wanted during the period of the contract. That was her position of strength. It was my money, but her mart. The mart was not my concern, she was. I agreed to accept Baht 70,000 from her sister for the mart, Baht 60,000 upfront and Baht 10,000 by the end of the month. I was right to insist on full payment, but my colleague dissuaded me from it. To date, I never got the balance Baht 10,0000.

She didn't agree to move back with me. She had rented an apartment near the mart. She said that she need some time to think about it. She did mention that she wanted to work overseas again. I didn't want to lose her. So I ended up moving in with her.

(To be continued)

[Guest]

   

Part 7

It was not easy for me to move in with her. The conditions were spartan. There was one wardrobe and a dressing table. There was no fan, no TV, no radio, no dining table, no fridge, no kitchen. Switching on the aircon increases the electricity bill at the end of the month. We had to sit on the floor when we eat. The phone was only for internal calls. You can't make calls out. She opted for that since she had her mobile. I would have thought that calling from a fixed line phone was cheaper. It was her rented apartment in any case, so I didn't complain. My sole purpose was to convince her to return.

To and fro my work place or my apartment to her apartment was an hour and a half (30 to 45 minutes each way), if I took the tollway and if traffic conditions permitted. Everyday after work, I would take a cab to her apartment. Usually, I would call her before I arrive. She will meet me at the entrance to the apartment since access required a key card. On the way, I'll pick up dinner. If not, we'll eat out at nearby Jusco, or at clock tower near Talaad Huay Kwang. I usually ended eating what she ate - som tam poo (papaya salad with crab), khanom chin nam ya (soft rice vermicelli with spicy fish gravy, bean sprouts, basil leaves and chilli). These 2 items formed her staple diet. Sometimes, she will supplement it with some rice. This became my "get slim and scrawny" diet.

We will shop for necessities from the talaad (market). Huay Kwang looked like a slum district. You have many little cramped living quarters. I was told that a lot of it was government housing. You have lots of kids running around, begging and fighting. You also have people sleeping on the streets. The market never sleeps. It seems to be open all day long and all night long. Roadside stalls remain open for long hours. You can get food at any time of the day. You can buy the same stuff from Patpong or Mah Boon Krong, but they will probably cost you 30 to 40% more. Nobody speaks English. I did notice that there were lots of tourists from China moving around in that area.

I was given to understand that you can rent apartments for as little as Baht 2,000 a month. At the upper end, you have the nice condominium apartments that cost Baht 8,000 or more a month. She paid Baht 5,000 a month for hers. I was also given to understand that a lot of the soapy massage or karaoke girls working in the Ratchadapisek area lived here and that explained why the market operated until wee hours of the morning.

I would head straight to her apartment from the office, spend the night and return to my apartment in the morning before work for a change of business wear and for laundry. My bed was never slept in. I usually spend less than 1 hour in my apartment. The travelling wore me out. It also gave me a different perspective of the way of life of the working class in Thailand. Taking a motorcycle taxi out from her apartment to the main road every morning became a part of my way of life. I also had to fight early morning traffic going into the central business district. I could imagine how much worse the traffic conditions could have been before the economic crises.

The other residents at the block of apartments found it strange that a person like me frequenting the apartment. It was even stranger since I was a foreigner. There was no doubt some talk as to her background, and a lot of speculation as to mine and probably too many variations of what our relationship was all about. People probably heard about what happened at our mart (it was about 50 metres from the apartment). Still, in front of me, they treated me as civil as they could be.

We did mostly what she wanted to do during the weekends. Most of the time, it meant lying in bed and phat phonn (rest, relax), getting up only for a drink of water, to go to the toilet or downstairs for som tam. Having no fridge meant we couldn't store food, so it was like we had to hunt for food everytime we got hungry. I could imagine this was her way of life (perhaps slightly better with a fridge and TV) before she met me. For entertainment, it was the local pub with a live band, drinking Sang Som or Spey Royal (Thai whisky) with soda and ice. For a person who liked to be kept occupied, it was hell and torture for me. With hindsight, it was good training for od thon (patience) and a good time for doing nothing but resting, relaxing and healing the mind and the heart.

We didn't speak much during that period. Individually, we had a lot of healing to do. There were too much thoughts to sort out. My head wanted out, my heart wanted to continue. I had the impression that she knew what she wanted all along. The mart didn't turn out to be it. The lifestyle didn't turn out to be it either. In the end, it turned out to be money.

When she finally spoke, she said that she wanted to work overseas again. It had to do with her anakhot (future) again, her dream to own land and car, a fat bank account and never having to worry about food, clothing and shelter for the rest of her life. According to her, freelancing or institutionalised prostitution in foreign countries for 6 months would easily bring her Baht 300,000, at the very least. She only had to do this for a year and she would be comfortable for the rest of her life. She was looking to go to Australia or Hong Kong. Her sources had told her that a visa could be easily arranged for her to get to these places to stay for at least 3 to 6 months each time. I thought she was out of her mind. The thought of money must have made her crazy. I told her to consider carefully. It wasn't difficult for me to convince her that Hong Kong was out of the question. During that time, there were reports in the media about Hong Kong immigration clamping down on Thai women going to Hong Kong on tourist visas and the horror stories of women locked up by the Hong Kong mafia for years for the flesh trade. She wanted to do it for 6 months, not 3 years, so that easily frightened her. She was more keen on getting into Australia. The people she had met or spoken with had all told her about the wonderful stories of making it rich in Australia, returning to Thailand with all that money made to buy land, car and not having to worry about working for the rest of their lives. I never thought it was easy to get a visa to visit Australia, nevermind staying for 3 to 6 months (having read the postings here recently, I now know the process is difficult). She was not convinced. Her sources had told her that it could be arranged.

My heart took over and told my head to make some mental calculations. I told her that I still loved her and it would make me sad to have her do something like this, especially since it was dangerous. Moreover, she just had a new passport. It would be difficult to go anywhere on a new passport, especially if she was a single young Thai lady. I told her that for her anakhot, I will give her Baht 250,000 within 3 months (Baht 50,000 for the 1st 2 months and the balance before the end of Year 2000), about the same amount in half the time she would normally take. This was to show her that I was serious about her future and I was serious about our future. I wasn't going to get my fun just having her around while I was working in Thailand and then dump her when my posting was over. This was to secure her anakhot if I went back on my words.

I also said that because I loved her, I would do what I could to make sure that she could use her passport with the least of fuss wherever she went. This would also help me when I need to bring her home with me when my posting ended.

She was a little hesitant accepting the offer. She actually gave it some thought. To her, it was not only the money that mattered. It was the time factor. She was not getting any younger as the days go by. If she were to wait till I dumped her, she was worried that she may not have the same pull factor given the fact that she would have to compete with younger and, in all probability, more beautiful girls. The passport issue was not a problem to her because she thought that she could easily buy another passport under the identity of a different person. Nevertheless, the idea of being able to travel in her own name and a genuine travel document probably appealed to her as well.

She took 2 weeks to think about the whole matter. Throughout this period, I continued to stay with her at her apartment, shuttling everyday between work and her. After almost 8 weeks, my body and mind couldn't cope with the tiredness and I fell sick. It was then she agreed to move back with me. She had placed a one month deposit with the landlord and the agreement was that she would stay for at least 3 months. If the lease was terminated in less than 3 months, the deposit would be forfeited and she was to pay for 3 months rent anyway. But she wiggled her way out of paying the 3 months rent and ended up paying what she stayed. I told you she could get her way. And she'd probably do the same to me too.

(To be continued)

Part 8

I had made it clear to her on no less than 10 occasions that I had loved her and that the eventual plan was for her to follow me back home when my job posting ended after 2 to 3 years. Leaving her behind was never an idea that I had. Whether she believed that or not, I couldn't tell. Nevertheless, I had to do a lot of planning for what was to happen in the next 3 months. Money was the first matter that came to my mind. It was a problem, but not one that I couldn't solve ultimately. The passport issue was slightly trickier.

As I had mentioned previously, her first passport had some endorsement. It turned out that she was helping her aunt (mother's sister) escort girls to South Africa. She had done this a couple of times. What she would do is to make sure that the girls get through customs, live at the hotel, freelanced at night, handed their earnings over to her and do not run away. The earnings would be handed over to the aunt when she met up with them in South Africa. She said that she was not involved in the freelancing, just merely "chaperoning". Her aunt lived in Ram Intra, made lots of money from this form of human trafficking. The aunt would "pai farm, pai mountain, ha puying suai suai" (go to the farms and the mountains, literally, to the countrysides, to find beautiful women) promise them the moon and the stars and the life of the rich if they were to work overseas. The aunt would pay for the airtickets, immigration arrangements (lubricate the immigration authorities for passports and easy transit through Thai immigration), accommodation and assignments in foreign countries. In return, the girls would work for the aunt for 6 months to a year, after which, they are free to do whatever they want. The aunt will take a percentage of their earnings to pay off the expenses incurred. The girls are usually sent to South Africa (Johannesburg, Cape Town) or Australia. Once the girls arrive in the the respective countries, some may have arrangements made to obtain long term visas, depending on the situation. In Australia, it involves getting into a paper marriage of some sort with a native Australian male. On this particular occasion, the South African immigration authorities refused her entry into South Africa because she did not have enough funds on her for the visit. She was denied entry and sent back to Thailand on the next available flight. An endorsement was made in her passport. She made a stopover in Singapore and apparently, according to her, the Singapore immigration authorities made copies of the documents. She didn't understand what the documents were nor what the endorsement was. But she was certain that she will have problems using the same passport again, and therefore the need for a new passport.

I wanted her new passport to be stamped by a country with strict immigration policies. Singapore was ruled out since there was a possibility that she might be refused entry. I had planned on going to Japan, reason being, she had a good command of oral Japanese. She could understand what was being said on the Japanese cable channel. I had suspected that she had worked previously in Japan, or in Thaniya or had a Japanese boyfriend. She fervently denied, saying that she had learnt it all at the language school, just like she did for her English. In the end, I chose Hong Kong for the reason that it was having a strict policy against Thai women entering its territories and it was a place she had to see for herself to believe what it was all about after hearing all those rags to riches stories from her friends. Moreover, she didn't need to apply for a visa to enter into Hong Kong.

She was a little skeptical about the whole plan. She didn't think it would work. According to her, the Thai authorities wouldn't even let her pass immigration unless she could show reason why she was going to Hong Kong, a confirmed return ticket and hotel accommodation whilst in Hong Kong and sufficient funds. Further more, she told me of stories about couples travelling together being questioned in separate rooms by immigration officers to make certain that the female wasn't being trafficked for illegal purposes. Better safe than sorry, we went through a list of possible questions that immigration would ask, including favourite food, birthmarks, types and colour of underwear etc, and made certain we came up with the right answer. We booked ourselves on a package tour to Hong Kong during one of the long weekend holidays in Thailand, just so that we could use the premise that we were going with some of her fellow countrymen for a short holiday. I gave her Baht 20,000 prior to the trip. All the exchanges on Silom Road did not sell Hong Kong dollars. I didn't think immigration was a problem. Boy, was I mistaken.

We made a point to reach the airport early and that was a good thing too. I stood behind her at the immigration queue. It never occurred to me that Thais leaving their own country needed to fill up arrival/departure cards. I never had to when I left my own country. She didn't remember she had to either, until the immigration officer grilled her for it. It was an oversight on my part, nevertheless, she was close to tears. The immigration officer was not too keen about saying nice things about her forgetfulness. Neither would the immigration officer give her any cards to fill and demanded that she obtain the card from the airline check-in counter (despite the fact that the immigration officer had a stack of these cards at her counter. I saw this when I pass her counter after I cleared immigration). She went out, I left the queue to wait for her, just in case there were more surprises. She returned with the card, and got it filled up in Thai (like she had done on her previous trips), and joined the queue again. Again, the immigration officer refused to process, saying that the card had to be filled in English because the information keyed into the computer was in English. She went out to obtain another card, this time, I had to help her fill up the card in English.

We were referred to the officer in charge. The officer in charge questioned her as to where she was going, whom she was going with, the duration of her stay and requested to see sufficient funds. The officer then took my passport, and wrote in her passport that she was travelling with me, citing my name and passport number and the date of return. All this was written in Thai. I would have understood if this was written in English, but I didn't understand what purpose it might have served if it was in Thai. Nevertheless, I had a photocopy of her passport with me, in case she started having a different agenda when she arrived in Hong Kong. The whole Thai immigration ordeal took more than 45 minutes. It was a good thing we were there early.

The whole thing left her visibly shaken. It was, for her, an embarrassing and humiliating event. She almost wanted to abandon the whole thing. Who knows, Hong Kong immigration could be worse. I comforted her by changing some of the Baht 20,000 into US dollars. That way, Hong Kong immigration wouldn't make a fuss about insufficient funds.

We landed at Chek Lap Kok. I must admit it looked much better than Don Muang. The awesome structure somehow gave it an extremely cold and unfriendly look, a little overpowering. The internal subway system from the plane to immigration was a hassle. In any case, while we were walking to the subway system, we were stopped by a Hong Kong immigration officer. He asked us our purpose of coming to Hong Kong, the duration of our stay and asked to see our confirmed airtickets and hotel bookings. With that, he allowed us to pass. We later saw some women (a group of 5 or 6 of them, mostly in their early 20s) being detained. We took another 45 minutes to clear immigration, due to the lack of immigration officers manning the counter. That had somehow convinced me that no matter how dinghy or how good your airport is, if immigration clearance is slow, it leaves an undelible bad first impression on any foreigner visiting your country. At immigration, there was no hassle from the officer. She wasn't even required to show sufficient funds. She was given a 30 day tourist visa. Mission accomplished.

Despite the mountainous geography of Hong Kong, I was quite impressed by the transport system and the general infrastructure. The trip from the airport to our hotel took another 2 hours. It was late afternoon by the time we reached our hotel. We ate at a Thai restaurant near the hotel. She had to get her fix of som tam. Nowhere as good as what she would get from her usual roadside vendor, but som tam nevertheless. We paid close to 5 times the price for it. We then went shopping along Nathan Road and Jordan.

This, was shopping paradise. I am no fashion expert, but for the price of what she paid at Pratunam, she got better looking stuff, more fashionable, more hip in Hong Kong than she would in Bangkok. She found better designs, better colour selection, in some cases, better workmanship and materials at same or lower prices than Bangkok. Of course, there was an abundance of "Made in Thailand, Sold in Hong Kong" type of stuff. Savvy as she was, she avoided those. This trip had turned out rewarding for her in more than one way. Now she could return to Bangkok in the latest of fashion designs and show to her friends what being fashionable was all about. I was glad for her. We didn't hit the night spots that night. Too tired after that immigration ordeal and after all that walking and shopping. I never saw her walked so much before. She said that the pollution in Bangkok made it impossible for her to walk long distances, but in Hong Kong, the air was much cleaner. You could feel the bustle of Hong Kong as you walk down the streets. Back in Bangkok, I was overtaking everyone on the sidewalks. Here, everyone was overtaking us. Had Thailand made me slow or was Hong Kong just too fast for me?

We had a guided city tour the next day. Not that there were much sights to see (some monuments, some temples, and some scenic places), but I thought it was important for her so that she knew more about Hong Kong other than what she heard from her friends and other human traffickers. Since it was a tour group from Thailand, the tour guide spoke in Thai all the way. I stood out like a sore thumb. The guide had been working in Hong Kong for more than 10 years. The guide spoke English, Thai and Cantonese fluently. As with all guided tours, we ended up in shops - jewellery shops, Chinese medicine shops, souvenir shops. We were informed that one could take a train from Hong Kong to China and you could apply for a visa too, if required. Of course, we didn't have the time, nor the interest. The guided tour took a full day and by the time we returned to the hotel in the evening, she was too tired to go anywhere. During the tour, my girl had asked some of the people what they had planned to do. The common reply was, "Nothing, not interested in shopping, everything's too expensive, food was different, mainly stayed in the hotel." It seemed strange to me that you would pay all that money to fly to another country and not go around, but just stay in the hotel. That didn't make any sense to me, but that was just the way things were. I was keen to try out everything in a foreign land and I was glad that she was too. Except for the fact that everytime we ate, she requested for nam pla (fish sauce), chilli, or condiments. I guess we all have different ways of adapting.

It was time to go home. We hit the duty free shops for perfumes and cosmetics. I didn't care less. This is the home stretch. Nothing wrong could happen now. And nothing wrong happened. Immigration at Don Muang was usual - 45 minutes for foreigners, longer for Thais. No questions asked.

Phase 1 was a success. But one visa endorsement does not say much, especially one from Thai immigration that states that you travelled with your boyfriend. The passport required more validation. It had to be good enough, in my mind, for her to travel on her own without any hassle. That was my aim.

(To be continued)

[Guest]

Part 9

The following 2 months after the Hong Kong trip were great. We took a few short trips around Thailand in between. Life has never been better. Perhaps she had seen that I was prepared to commit and she was prepared to make the same commitment too.

We took a short weekend trip to Koh Samet. I was not prepared to drive to Rayong, leave the car in some place while we were on the island for a couple of days. Instead, I asked her to arrange for alternative transportation. She chartered a mini-van instead. She did the payment, so I didn't know how much it cost. In any event, it would have been cheaper than renting a car.

The driver was a little taken aback when he discovered that there were only 2 persons going on this trip. He was expecting the mini van to be packed. The trip took a little longer than expected. Afterall, you can't really go very fast in a mini van. We reached a pier in Rayong to take a ferry to Koh Samet. The ferry operators also allowed us to booked our accommodation before we reached the island. The pictures of the bungalows really looked appealing. We were promised a beachfront bungalow on Hat Sai Kaew. Again I left it to her to negotiate the ferry prices and the accommodation. She usually got the better prices in any case. We had to wait for about 20 minutes for the next ferry as the last one just left. We wandered around for a while. There was an empty shophouse for rent nearby. She told me it would be great if we could rent it and operate a minimart (again!!??!!?). I merely smiled.

After 30 minutes, I asked her to check if the ferry was ready to leave. I wanted to get onto the island quickly and hit the beach. They told us that we had to wait until the ferry was full before we could leave. That could take forever!! On the other hand, we could pay a little extra and a speed boat will leave in 10 minutes to take us to the island. We had enough of waiting. We paid the additional Baht 100 per person. We waited for another 10 minutes and the speed boat left with the 2 of us and 5 other teenagers who paid Baht 600 per head. If that wasn't a rip-off, I didn't know what it was. This was just the beginning.

The beach was beautiful. I had not seen whiter sands since Koh Samui. The waters could never been clearer, invitingly cool and refreshing, glittering in the hot and sweaty afternoon sun. The beach front was at least 50 metres long, clean and pure, unlike Pattaya. There were no crowds, just some families and kids. You don't get many pesky street vendors. It was unspoilt. Who could ask for more?

We went to the reception area for our room key. Our designated beachfront bungalow was already occupied. We were given another one further inland. It has 1 bed, no fan, no hot water. The sole light bulb in the middle of the room served as the light source for the room. I won't even call it a bungalow. It was a shack! Behind the shack, there was a mobile DJ (I don't know how else to describe it) blaring out loud music from the morning till the 11 at night. We had already paid for the room, we couldn't get a better room, so it had to be this. We grabbed some food and rested a little before we went to the beach later in the evening.

We walked down the beach in the evening to look for dinner. Koh Samet had a few beaches. Down where we walked, we could reach Ao Wong Duan. Along the way, we saw better looking, and perhaps better equipped, shacks. We made some enquiries. They offered lower prices than what we paid. We were also informed that we did not have to book the bungalows before we arrived on the island. We had seafood for dinner, spent the rest of the night at some pub near our bungalow watching UBC and playing Connect 4. It was nice not having to do anything and just bum the time away. We both agreed we could live this like forever.

It was time to go home the next day. We went to another pier on the other side of the island and got a ferry back to mainland. The driver was there waiting for us to take us back to Krungthep. On our way back, he insisted that we had to stop for petrol. No problem, paid Baht 400 for petrol to fill up the tank. When we reached our apartment, we paid the driver for the rental, and deducted money for the petrol. According to my girlfriend, paying for petrol was never part of the agreement. That's the way to go, smart girl!! The driver agreed and went his way. Later that day, she got a call from the rental agency, asking why she deducted the money for petrol. She replied, saying there was never any mention about paying for petrol. They told her that it is normal for petrol to be included and guess what, since she had a foreigner for a boyfriend, paying it was not a problem. The nerve of some people! My girlfriend told them to screw themselves in a nice polite way and hung up. The following day, there was more phone calls. They actually threatened her, saying that for Baht 500, they could buy a bullet and put it into her head and that they would send someone to where we were staying to get the money. She was shaking and in tears when she called me at work. I called up management and security at my apartment and told them about the troublemakers. I also got my colleague to pull some strings and sent some of his police friends over. I told my colleague we didn't want any trouble, that we will pay the Baht 400. In the end, I never knew if the money was paid because from what I understood, the police went over, said something to the money collectors and they left. I didn't pay any money, neither did my friend or my colleague. If you asked me, it was the most absurd thing that I ever knew.

During the 2 months, she also started taking up some English lessons. I didn't know where she went, but she brought home some brochures from EMPOWER. Each day, she came home with homework. She would be writing all these words in English and Japanese and practising conversational English and Japanese. She would also ask me for the correct pronounciation to some of the English words and got me to give her spelling tests. She knew that it would make me happy that she was doing something productive. I was. I was never prouder of her. She went to these classes for about two months before she stopped. She said that the people in the classes were never serious about their lessons and were there to make a nuisance of themselves. The teachers were not committed either, skipping lessons sometimes. She made some new friends. One of them was Jean.

Jean lived near Rangsit. She was already 35 years old, had a son, her husband left her for some younger woman. Jean was not a real looker, small frame. She had visited us at the apartment quite often, practising conversational English and Japanese with my girl. She got lost a few times trying to find our place. The problem was that she didn't know her way around in Bangkok and she had no sense of direction. We once went to Mah Boon Krong together for some shopping. Jean could have taken a bus from the bus stop at Mah Boon Krong to go home. Instead, she insisted on taking the same bus from our place so that she would not get lost. Jean had gone to the classes hoping to learn some English and Japanese so that she could start working in bars in Patpong and hopefully meet her knight in shining armour. At 35, no one would hire her as a dancer or an escort. She had previously worked as a cashier and stopped because it wasn't paying enough. Jean was not really outgoing. Each time Jean had a job interview, my girl had to go with her to convince the prospective employer to employ Jean. Inevitably, my girl was offered the job, even though she did not apply. Jean was, well, let's just say Jean didn't meet the minimum requirement. It took a while before Jean could get a job. It was in some karaoke bar. Jean didn't last too long. After 2 weeks, she was out. Her employer didn't think Jean made the cut. In the end, Jean went back to being a cashier at one of the hypermarts. Paid slightly better than her last cashier job, but significantly less than what she would earn at the karaoke bar. And almost no possibility of meeting a foreigner who would be her meal ticket for the rest of her life.

For the past 4 months, we spent so much time together doing other things that we hardly visited the joint where we first met. During this period, we would visited it less than 5 times. Some of the hotel employees there I knew had left. The manager jokingly lamented to us that as a result of us getting together, he had lost 2 of his frequent customers.

The first fight then came. I was the casualty. Today, I still have the scars to show. She whipped me with some metal clothes hangers. I was tied up in the office doing some major deal. It had to be completed urgently and spent a lot of time negotiating. I returned home after the first day at about 5 in the morning. She thought I was out with some woman. She didn't believe that I was in the office at all. I was too tired to retaliate and just sat there taking all her blows. All I could do was tell her that I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't sleep at all that day. At 7 in the morning, I got changed and went to the office again, driven on by adrenaline. The pain managed to keep me awake. She cried when I got home that day, seeing all the bruises and lesions.

She always had 2 faces - one that she puts on when she is at home, the one without any makeup, any pretenses, just a simple girl who enjoys simple things, had sympathy and feelings, with that innocent smile that brightens up your day and making you wish that you could spend the rest of your life with this woman. With this face, there is also tremendous fear and jealousy that you might run out on her one day, such fear and jealousy gripping her so much that at times, she could not think or make logical and rational decisions.

The other face is the one when she is outdoors. One that is full of vanity, with makeup, one that makes her attractive, devoid of any feelings, with the sole purpose of letting everyone know that she is attractive and with that, she can do anything at the right price, get her way and leave you in the dust. This was the mercenary in her.

I would have preferred the first face, although it was the second face that I was attracted to initially. The second face will always be there. It had become an inherent part of her. It is her only asset against the world out there. It will be something that she will cling onto until the day she dies.

(To be continued)

Part 10

Invariably, whenever we went back to the old meeting place, she would meet some of her friends. Like a peacock, she would flaunt her new clothes, her perfume (she carries her bottles with her whenever she goes out) and her makeup. All of them would express their happiness for her, but deep in their eyes, you can detect some envy, some jealousy and some bitterness. Some had tried spreading rumours to break us up. There was one occasion when she confronted me, saying that one of her friends saw me with another lady drinking at the bar counter. I quickly reminded her that on that particular evening we were both out for a movie together and was never ever near any bar counter or lady!! It is scary what people would do to make life miserable for others.

Mam was one of these regulars that hung out at the old meeting place. Mam hangs out with Tuk. Tuk was a student at one of the universities in the North East. Tuk gets an Baht 80,000 allowance from an old farang. This allowance was to support her education. But really, Tuk didn't need Baht 80,000 for her education. She believed she had the best deal in town - Baht 80,000 on a monthly basis with no questions asked, and the old farang wasn't even in town. He visits Thailand once in every 2 to 3 months, each visit not lasting more than 10 days. He was so old that he could hardly get a boner to bonk her, so she says. So, with 80k assured, she rented an apartment in Krungthep, flies to Krungthep every weekend, paints the town red on Fridays and Saturdays, opens bottles of Black Label, buys some Ecstasy, gets high on amphetamines and throws baht around like nobody's business, and flies back to the North East on Sunday night. Hell, my entertainment expense account does not even exceed Baht 50,000 a month!! In her tow, she would have these young men following her - farang, Asian, Thai, parties with her and bonks her for free. Mam and others like Mam would hang around, drinking and partying at Tuk's expense.

My girl didn't hang out with them. She made it a point to distinguish herself from them. She thinks they are bad for her image. She used to say that these "dek dek, kid arai mai rou (These youngsters, don't know what they think)", taking drugs and not thinking about their future, spending money like there is no tomorrow, having no self-respect. However, she maintains a smiling face whenever she sees them, sometimes, taking a drink or two that was offered, afterall, even the "dek dek" like to talk to "puying kon suay (pretty women)".

Mam had her supporter as well. She has an Asian boyfriend who had helped her open up a clothing shop in a major shopping mall, not a big shop, about 30 sq. metres, but nevertheless, still a viable running business. The boyfriend had also bought her a condo unit at Ratchadapisek. The rental every month is about Baht 20,000. Mam manages the business alone. The boyfriend visits her every month or every two months, brings money up sometimes. Mam, however, does not seem to give two hoots about the business. She's out partying every night, returns home at about 4 in the morning, does not wake up until 2 p.m., does not open her shop until 4 p.m. and closes the shop at 8 p.m. when everyone else closes for the day. She is not great at marketing her clothes either. She does nothing to make the shop front attractive in any way. Everything seemed to be in a mess. You have a problem locating the different sizes of the same product, and the same item has different price tags. Mam finds this business tremendously tiring and draining and couldn't wait to hire someone to help her. Well, obviously Mam had not tried operating a minimart. The way we saw it, Mam was a waste of money. So was Tuk. At that point in time, I was hoping that I wasn't wasting my money on my girl. But somehow, I saw some kind of trend running, something I still could not put my finger to.

We visited Mam quite often at her shop. Most of the time, it was closed or not attended to. She usually left the shop open and wandered around the shopping mall whenever she got bored. We could have taken away a few items of clothing without her knowing. She just couldn't care less. We couldn't either. It wasn't our business and we didn't want to make it our business.

I had to make another business trip. This time, it was to Singapore. It was a risk that we had to take sooner or later. And since this was a trip that was covered under business expenses and after much discussion with her, we decided to take our chances with Singapore immigration. I called up some people I knew from Singapore and got them to check with their immigration friends on the requirements of Thais entering Singapore, especially young single Thai women. They all came back with the same answer: sufficient funds, proof of return trip and hotel booking and of course, the discretion of the immigration officer attending to you. We went through our Q&A rehearsal again, made sure that we didn't screw up big time like we did for the Hong Kong trip and hoped that Singapore immigration did not have records barring her from entering the country.

Everything went smooth at Don Muang immigration. No, we did not forget the departure cards, yes, we filled up everything in English. Yes, we prepared enough Thai baht (Baht 20,000 for 3 days) to show that we had sufficient funds, plus return trip confirmation and hotel bookings in Singapore. Better yet, no endorsement in her passport to say that she was travelling wth me. The flight to Singapore was the longest I ever took. The 2 hours seemed like eternity. I think she felt the same. There was a nagging fear that she would be deported. However, I kept my fingers crossed and she, her palms clasped tightly in prayer to the Lord Buddha, hoping that all will be well. When we landed, I told her to walk confidently with me to the immigration counter and let me handle any enquiries that immigration may have. She approached the immigration officer, gave her passport, air ticket and hotel booking slip. He took her passport, swiped it through the machine reader, looked through the pages, tore the immigration card, and stamped her passport. It was all over in less than 30 seconds! She had made it pass immigration! They didn't even ask her if she had sufficient funds. The 14 day tourist visa in her passport was the answer to all our doubts and prayers.

Frankly anyone could have stepped into Singapore and think they had landed in some Western civilization. All the road signs were in English, everyone spoke English, lots of TV programmes were in English, and what you see in malls and shops were in English. You can find Starbucks, McDonalds, Borders, HMV, Tower Records. She was a little taken aback that an Asian country like Singapore could be so, well, westernized. Although she had some difficulty dealing with the language problem, she was rather impressed at the huge amount of trees, low level of pollution in the city, cleanliness and the safe and orderly way that pedestrians could cross the road. She could walk for miles and miles on Orchard Road in the humid weather without getting tired. Not the same as Bangkok, she said, "mai mi kuan rot (no smoke from cars - no pollution)". She did complain that food was expensive, so was taxi. She could get use to the Asian food, but once in a while, she need her fix of Thai food. But she enjoyed the Mass Rapid Transit train system, hoping that when the Bangkok system started in December, it would be just as good, if not better.

Shopping was a better experience for her than it was in Hong Kong. Here she could find what she would have found in Hong Kong, or Pratunam, at the same or lower price if the store had a sale. On the designer end, she found prices lower than Bangkok, although she was not too keen on them. She loved the variety of cosmetics at the various departmental stores. I thought they all looked the same. I introduced her to the brand called "Mac" (cosmetics, not hamburgers), something my ex used. She liked it very much since it suited her skin tone very well. We later found out that Mac was available at the Emporium in Sukhumvit, but again, more expensive. She sampled virtually all the perfumes and cosmetics. I suppose it wasn't difficult for her. All the ladies at the cosmetic counters could not wait to try cosmetics on this beautiful Asian lady and hope that she buys some. With me paying, of course. I did indicate to her that prices at the airport duty free would be lower and if she would to take a note of what she liked, we could buy it at a lower price when we leave Singapore.

When we finally left to return to Bangkok, she hit the airport duty free shops on a last major shopping spree for cosmetics and perfumes. She returned to Bangkok a happy, contented person. A suitcase full of new clothes, cosmetics and perfume and more important, a stamp from Singapore immigration. Her friends envied her. Mam was clearly jealous. Mam said that she would squeeze her boyfriend for a trip to Hong Kong when he visits her the next time. It certainly looked like I had upped the ante.

After our Singapore trip, she started looking for something to occupy her time. The Singapore trip had made me realised something. She had to brush up on her English if she were to come home with me when my stint in Bangkok was over. She had to learn how to read all the road signs and directions and instructions, instead of merely recognising "SALE" or "LESS 50%" or "FREE GIFT". She also had to sharpen her English conversational skills and increase her vocabulary. She also had to change her dietary patterns and get use to eating other types of food, other than Thai food. I did try to persuade her to go for English classes. She would rather go learn something else. I figured if she were to learn something else, it had to be a skill that she could use if she were to leave Thailand, a skill she could depend on to make a living. I suggested traditional Thai massage, or making Thai desserts. She said she would to learn something related to cosmetics so that she could work in a beauty salon. In any case, she was always interested in cosmetics and fashion. It made sense for her to engage in something she was interested in, given her restless nature. I saw this as a positive step forward. I helped her search high and low for an international accredited school for cosmetics. It was not an easy task. We never quite found one. The ones we found wouldn't award a certificate after the completion of the course. They were more interested in selling you the cosmetics that they were marketing. Course fees were not cheap either. We decided to put this aside for a while.

2 months had passed. 1 more month and she would have gotten the money that I had promised. I dreaded to think what would happen after that. However, things were looking positive, so I kept my fingers crossed. The year was also coming to an end soon. There was much hype about the Millenium Bug and how Thailand wasn't exactly prepared for it. But really, would I be facing bigger problems than the Millenium Bug in the new year?

(To be continued)

Part 11

At the beginning of December, she found this makeup school that would give her a certificate upon completion. It was an international franchise of some sort. She had to attend the course daily, either in the mornings or afternoons. The full course will take 4 weeks if she attended it everyday, if not she had up to 8 weeks to complete the course. It was something for her to do, something that she was interested in, something she could hopefully use. Course fees were Baht 19,000, including the makeup set. The set came in a nice nifty black kit like what the professionals use. As part of encouraging her, I bought her a book on the different styles and ways of doing makeup. Although the book was in English (intentionally did that so that she might force herself to start learning to read), there were plenty of diagrams and photos for her to follow. I took time to sit down each evening to go through the book with her, explaining what was being used for each style (where to apply to foundation, where to apply the rouge for what effect). She experimented with these styles on her own. Part of her class also required her to do sketches in a sketch book of the different makeup styles. We bought some colour pencils and a nice sketch book for this. Inevitably, I became a guinea pig for her experimentation. For the first time in my life, I looked pretty, well, pretty pretty with makeup. With the right emphasis, darkened eyebrows, fire engine red lipstick on pouted lips, rouge and blusher on the high cheekbones, a limp wrist and some training walking with high heels, I could give the Alcazar performers a good run for their money, so she said. She even suggested that I put on a sexy dress and a blonde wig, and with the right appendages in the right places, and go clubbing with her and pass off as one of her friends. Honestly, not for a million baht and not in my wildest dreams. Frankly, I'll keep my day job and write stories on the side. But we had a good time nursing our aching sides after too much laughter over my lip synching performance of some of Madonna's and Whitney Houston's songs.

It made me happy to see her happy. Maybe this was turning out alright after all. Maybe finally, I had found the right formula. This could be my best Christmas ever. What a way to start the new millenium - one step closer to a dream come true.

The King's 72nd birthday came and with that, the Bangkok Skytrain started operations. We avoided the trains for the first 5 days. As it turned out, the BTS was not ready to face the masses. Nevertheless, when things finally settled down, it became one of our major ways of getting around. No more being stuck in taxis caught in traffic jams, no more arguing and fighting with taxi drivers on wrong directions, no more taxi drivers telling us with the straightest of their faces that they had no change for our Baht 100 note for a Baht 73 fare when you see a stack of Baht 5 or Baht 10 coins lying near the gearbox area. Our transportation trend became tuk tuk to the "pak soi" (beginning of the soi) where the BTS station is, climb up the long stairs, insert the store valued card, climb up more long stairs, wait no more than 3 minutes, hope onto the train to wherever we fancied exploring - Mor Chit for Chatuchak or Central Lad Prao, the "Buffalo Bridge" (Saphan Kwai), Victory Monument for shopping, Rajthevee for Panthip Plaza, Phrom Phong for the Emporium, Ekkamai for bowling at the Major, Saladaeng for Patpong or the Sanam Kila Hangchad (National Stadium) for Mah Boon Krong and movies at the SF Cinema City. Sometimes, we got a peek of race day whenever the train stopped at the Ratchadamri station over the Royal Bangkok Sports Club.

The further away we went, we met more of her friends. I have no idea where she met these people, but I am not about to question. Min was formerly in the Royal Thai Army. From what I understand, she was not an officer. She was from Lopburi (where I understand, have a lot of army camps). She had an affair with an officer in the camp and resigned from the army when things didn't quite turn out right. Her last boyfriend (or sponsor) was an ex-Senator (could have been a Member of Parliament), treated her well, gave her enough money to buy her own land and build her own house in Lopburi. I am not sure if they were still in contact with each other. Anyway, we met Min at Thonglor at Baila Baila, a nice Latino place. My girl and Min would meet frequently thereafter, looking for business opportunities. Apparently, Min had a few million baht to burn, thanks to her sponsor. She could either sit back and do nothing, or put the money to work. I went with them to explore these business opportunities during the weekend. They would go down to Siam Square to see if there are any businesses to take over or shop space to rent. These encounters were purely enquiries and sometimes end up as charades. They would talk to the landlords or shopowners about the business, how nice the shop looks and how succcessful it appears, with some many young customers walking around. Sometimes, I would be roped into the charade. I would be the foreigner investor who is interested in setting up a business in Thailand and looking for opportunities. The landlords or shopowners will sometimes gauge whether we are just fooling around or serious about the whole thing. We were asked whether we had any other businesses, how long have we been doing our respective businesses etc. Sometimes, to gauge our credit level, they would ask where we parked our car. Min will at this point whip out this Benz keychain (I had no idea where she got that one from) and point to some direction away from the shop. It was all about face and facade. You have to appear rich to do something, otherwise, you're a nobody and no one wants to deal with you.

I struck the lottery again, and this time, we rented a car to visit the new Jolosit Dam. We could have gone by train, but I wanted to see more of the country instead of being stuck in some train cabin. On our way there, we passed by the sunflower farms. With the cool December weather, and the sunflowers in full bloom, it felt just like spring. The dam was, well, a dam. I suppose they wanted it to look like some park, but the trees were still young saplings supported by wires. There was hardly any shade in the wide open space. There was not too much to see. The tram ride across the dam had a long waiting list. We had to wait 4 hours before we could get onto the ride. We decided to give that a miss. There were lots of families there with kids running around in the open space. What was refreshing was the sparkling water, the clear blue sky, the bright warm sun, the cool weather, the fresh air and the lack of manmade structures in the surroundings. It is good to be in the countryside when you have spent too much time in the city.

Christmas, New Year came and went. No millenium bug, no power shutdowns, no crashing flights. Everyone were too prepared for Y2K, or was it just another one of the greatest hoax? I paid her the last instalment as promised to her. I told her in all honesty that there was no more money coming and I had delivered what I had promised to do. There was no more reason for her to stay with me, unless she really loved me. She stayed on, for a variety of reasons. She had seen that I was committed, and my actions spoke. For some reason, she felt some sense of security and consistency that was lacking in her life previously. She needed someone whom she can trust and at that point in time, I was the one. Finally, everything was falling into place and settling down.

She had this nose implant done some 3 years ago. Nose implants seemed like an in thing for a lot of Thai women. Hardly anyone ever walks around without one. According to her, she had consulted a plastic surgeon and was advised that she should remove the implant and do a new one. She asked me whether I was agreeable to her having a new implant. I told her frankly that I would still love her with or without the implant. However, if she felt that the implant was important, she should look for a proper surgeon to do it and not some fly by night butcher in the backstreet alley. I also informed her that I will pay for the procedure and I will accompany her to the clinic. 2 weeks later, she informed me that she had arranged for an appointment and that the surgeon was recommended by someone whom she knew.

We went down to the clinic on the appointed date. For someone who is accustomed to full medical facilities in a hospital, I was a little taken aback when I entered the clinic. It didn't look like it had ample facilities. Everything looked primitive and unsophisticated. I pulled her aside and asked her if it was safe because I felt uncomfortable about it. She assured me it was. I paid the doctor Baht 15,000. After 2 hours, she emerged, her nose was swelling and bleeding, there were stitches under the eyes. Apparently, she had also requested the surgeon to remove crows' feet. The bandaging looked tremendously unprofessional. She didn't know what hit her since she was placed under general anaethesia. I took her back home. Somehow, something told me that this was a botched up job. The swelling did not subside for 2 weeks. Finally, the bandage was removed. Her nose looked worse than before. The implant was not straight and it was too high, making it so obvious that it was an implant. The stitches under the eyes were too tight, thus pulling a little of the lower eyelid downwards, exposing part of her eyes. This allowed dust to enter her eyes, causing irritation. It was Baht 15,000 wasted. There was no way we will ever be getting our money back. We went back to the clinic, the surgeon offered to redo the procedure. I was not prepared to let him experiment a second time.

I immediately told her that she should have gotten someone reputable and instead of saving the money for charlatan. I told her to look for another surgeon to remedy the defect immediately, sparing no cost. She finally found another one near Chatuchak. This surgeon asked for Baht 27,000. The premises and equipment looked professional, so were the staff. There were pictures of movie stars who had various jobs done there. The new surgeon removed the old implant and inserted a new one. The swelling was less this time. She was to return everyday to the clinic to rinse the nose and have it rebandaged. The swelling subsided in about a week. The implant made her look slightly better. However, she was of the view that it was still too high. The surgeon offered to redo it. I objected strongly and asked her to remove the implant. To me, it was absurd. The amount of pain and agony, not to mention the possibility of losing the sense of smell in the event something went wrong, did not justify the pursuit for the perfect looking nose. She relented. That was Baht 42,000 down the drain. But it was not going to be my last experience with bad plastic surgeons in Thaild)and)(To be continued)

[thai3]

Great to see the thread back, one of the best ever IMO, part 12 will be something to look foward to, just hope nobody gets killed!-peter

 

quote:

---

Originally posted by jingrupao:

With the closure of the Delphi board, I am shifting the thread to his board. I have reposted Parts 1 to 11 for the benefit of those who have not read it.

Part 12 is in the making, so hang in there.

---

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

Great to see your story here again. It would have been a real waste if it had gone down with Delphi.

Anxiously awaiting part 12.

Sanuk!

[boemba]

Is it possible to summarize this story in about 30 lines? It is kind of difficult for me to read novels on a computer screen.

[Guest]

Hi Boemba,

I also dislike having to read long stories on a computer screen. But I do want to read stories like 'My Relationship with a Freelancer'. So, what I do is copy the text from the computer screen, and paste it in an ASCII text editor (like Notepad or Notetab). This will remove any CR/LF control codes. I the copy the text from this editor, and paste it into a new MS Word document. Then I format the Word document to have 2 columns (line in the middle), set the page margins to 1/2 inch on all sides (get more text on the page), and set the font of the text to Times New Roman 8 pt. (you can adjust this to the strenght of your own eyes). I then print out this document on a laser print. It's much easier on the eyes to read, much like a newspaper or magazine.

JG

[Guest]

Where have you been all this time???

This report deserves a nanaplaza oscar award.

Excellent stuff, superbly written and look forward to installment 12.

[ May 25, 2001: Message edited by: ozbod ]