Saturday 1 December 2007

Trip 4 - Day 114

December 1st

What’s that noise? It’s my phone going, so I grab it out of my trouser pocket and don’t recognise the number. I answer anyhow and it’s Nam. “You call me straight back”. I do so and she says that she cannot find ‘home me’. I don’t know the name of the side Soi that I live in, so cannot give instructions to her taxi driver. I pull on my jeans and a top and go out to Khao Noi. As I leave the bedroom, I realise that it’s only 06:15

I get one of the taxi drivers from my local stand to talk with the other rider and 30 seconds later Nam is getting off the scooter and paying the driver. She’s still wearing the same clothes as last night, so it’s obvious she hasn’t been home. She tells me that she went short time with someone called John but "him no good", however he has given her 1000 baht. I have no idea why she then decided to come round to see me, as she knows I have no spare money. I’m still half asleep and my head cannot fathom out why I let myself get into this particular scenario, but it is quite exciting and a complete leap of faith into the unknown.

We spend a couple of hours messing about until at 08:30, Nam decides that she has to sleep and she just wraps herself up into a cocoon of bedding and hardly moves for the next five hours. She then wakes and decides she’s hungry, so we walk out on the Soi and she buys a whole raft of stuff which we take back to the house to eat.

She’s still tired so she just heads off back to bed and says that she needs to leave at 16:00, as she has to take food home to Mama and to change her clothes ready for another night working in the bar.

As she gathers up her stuff, she says again that she is sorry about the other night and that I had wasted my money.

In the evening, I finish off the food that she bought earlier and whilst it is spicier than anything A tends to eat or prepare, it’s very enjoyable.

I have been trying to speak with A today to find out what is going on, but after ringing a couple of times her phone then comes up as ‘busy’. I send her a text and then call again 30 minutes later. No real surprise in that she’s not coming back tonight and says that she doesn’t know if she’ll be back tomorrow either.

Due to the early start this morning and the recent run of late nights, I decide to get an early night for a change and at around midnight, I call it a day and hit the sack.

It's been an extremely strange day, however it hasn't cost anything and has been most enjoybale.

Expenditure :

0 baht

Friday 30 November 2007

Trip 4 - Day 113

November 30th

I’m being woken up and rolling over I see the stranger in my bed and it takes me a few minutes to remember the events of last night. I look at the clock to discover it’s just after 08:00. The little girl gets up and dresses and I think about managing a ‘quickie’ before she leaves, but I really don’t have the energy or desire, besides I think there was an element of beer goggles last night as she’s not as good looking as I thought she’d been last night. (To be fair, the picture doesn’t really do her justice.)

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After she leaves, I go back to bed for a few more hours as tonight is to be another late one at Cherry Bar with an Addicts meet up.

I finally rise in the afternoon and cook myself a decent English Breakfast of Bacon, Eggs, Sausages, Fried Tomatoes and a Fried Slice. It may not be the best meal for the arteries, but it’s bloody tasty all the same.

Once I’ve eaten I feel a lot better and I watch a couple of DVD’s before deciding to go out early and see if I can meet up with Nam for a drink and a chat tonight.

By 18:00, I’m heading out and I’m welcomed by many of the staff at the bar. The Mamasan comes over to chat and check that everything is okay. Then I am aware of someone standing behind me; I turn around and it’s Nam. She sits down and we start talking. She says that she’s a bad girl and asks if I am angry with her about the other night. I say that I had been angry yesterday, but now that has passed. There is nothing I can do about, so there is little point in worrying. I say that I have to leave at 19:55 as I have to be at my friends bar for 20:00. I’m asked what I do there and I try to explain that I just talk to the farang that come to drink and try to answer any questions that they may have. She doesn’t really understand, however hard I try to explain.

She then goes on to tell me that she is trouble with ‘big boss’ because the other night when I left her, she hadn’t gone home, but returned to the bar instead. She then had a fight with the girl that I’d kissed, and the result was that she’s on a final warning and had to apologise to the other girl.

We finally come to an agreement that I’ll call in at the bar once I finish at Cherry Bar. I say that if the bar is busy, it will be about 04:00, but if it is quietr, then I may get away between 02:00 and 03:00. I think that everything is clear and settle my checkbin and make my way to Cherry Bar.

A few guys from the Addicts board arrive at the bar and Dudebrah has a girl with him who I recognise. He tells me that she’s one of the dancers in Oasis GoGo and he’d barfined her on the crawl last night.

The night is fairly quiet with long spells of their being no customers at the bar. The same situation can be seen in many of the surrounding bars, so high season for the bar owners still hasn’t ‘kicked in’

I suddenly see out of the corner of my eye a customer that I didn’t want to see. Nam is entering the bar; this is not good, so I quickly go over to chat with her and she says that she wants to go out and buy a new top to look sexy, so can I pay barfine for her. I do not want any sort of scene here, so just give her 300 baht and tell her that I’ll see her at her bar when I finish. She heads off and I get a few quizzical looks from the girls, but nothing is said.

Later in the night at just after midnight, I am chatting with one of the customers about West Ham United and listening to his stories of having a minicab firm that used to run a lot of the players around back in the late 1960’s, when Nam turns up again. She has a new top and she does indeed look very sexy, however I am busy and cannot spend any time with her. The guy I’m talking with buys her a drink though and she has a whiskey. It’s pretty obvious that she is fairly well pissed now and I am worried that she’ll start shouting like she did the other night. She tells me that she came to the bar to see if I had been telling her the truth and then she says “If you do this, then I think you not have much money”. I tell her that she is right and I don’t have much money. She then starts crying saying that I should have told her and that she is a bad girl because she made me spend money the other day for nothing and I’d paid barfine for today for no reason.

All I can do is tell her not to worry about it and I’ll see her when I finish. I reckon the bamboo telegraph is in full swing now, so I’ll just have to see who hears what about this episode.

At 02:00, business picks up a little and there’s a fairly busy hour where I talk with another boardie about what he’d done during the day. He’d had a good time in Sri Racha at the Assumpta schoold watching a football game and then having dinner and drinks with some of the teachers. By 03:00 though, there’s only two customers and they are both more interested in talking with their partners than me, so I say my goodbyes to the girls and make my way down the Soi.

When I get to Amazing Paradise, Joan informs me that Nam was mau and had gone home, which I could fully believe. She asks me if I want to take a different lady home and I decline the offer.

I get indoors and sit for a few minutes trying to make sense of everything that is happening, but it makes little sense, so I just switch the lights off and make my way to bed.


Expenditure :

Tip and scooter for LT – 1100 baht
Scooter Taxis – 150 baht
Drinks at Amazing Paradise – 400 baht
Barfine – 300 baht

Thursday 29 November 2007

Trip 4 - Day 112

November 29th

I wake up and feel absolutely wretched. I obviously ‘screwed up’ big time last night and I really didn’t understand why it was such a big deal, but obviously it was.

Classic newbie mistakes made include paying for a ‘service’ in advance and not being able to get a refund. And having paid for a room that wasn’t then used also galls me somewhat, but for some reason, I still want to see this girl again. Maybe it’s something about a feisty girl that makes it different to the usual supplicant girls that are encountered on a daily basis.

I have a lazy day reflecting on what is going on at the moment. I try to call A, but she’s not even answering her phone now, so I guess that another relationship is now dead in the water. As it’s Thursday, tonight is FLB Bar Crawl night. I think about not bothering as I don’t feel in a particularly good mood, but in the end, I decide “What the hell?”

I walk to Klang and get the bus into town which takes me 30 minutes all told. Jump off at the lights by Topps and head down Soi 7 to Amazing Paradise. I don’t know if Nam will be working tonight and if she is, whether she’ll even talk to me. I sit up at the corner of the bar and have just a single bottle of Singha which I nurse for nearly an hour. I’m watching the football channels on the big screens and listening to the music whilst watching the girls arrive for the start of another night in Pattaya. By 19:30, Nam has not arrived, so I simply pay checkbin and leave.

I jump on a baht bus and head off to the FLB. Walking down Walking Street, I make a conscious effort to look at the people out and about. As many have commented before, there are a lot of Eastern European couples about, but they don’t seem to be in the bars which are all looking very quiet.

A couple of beers to start with and then we are off in 3 baht buses to Buffalo Bar. They are a bit overwhelmed by the number of guys suddenly turning up, but there are plenty of girls on hand to make the wait an enjoyable experience. As I was getting sat down, I’d seen a real cutie on the other side of the bar, and whilst I’m waiting for my drink, she’s suddenly at my side gently massaging my thigh. She is an extremely pretty little thing called Arun and I find out that she’s 22 years old and has only been in Pattaya for 8 days. Her English is extremely limited, but she gets the other girls to help her in translation.

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All too soon, Hammer is shepherding us all up to move on to the next venue which is Oasis GoGo. We walk down Soi Lenkhee and glance at the bars along the way. Captains Bar is still looking a good venue with several good looking girls sitting around the tables outside. We have no time to stop though and it’s in to the GoGo. Kev has decided to start the crawl here and he’s actually been here for 30 minutes already. He’s got two little darlings sitting with him and he’s on one of his ‘mission’ nights I fear. He’s already at 2200 checkbin and the drinks are being ordered at a cracking pace. A couple more bottles for me and I realise that I haven’t eaten today, so I guess I’m going to be in a pretty bad way by the end of the night.

Next stop is a drink where you want hour in Soi LK Metro. LordFlash says that the last few times he’d been out thi sway, Storm Bar on the corner had a few pretty girls working, so that’s where we head, but the pickings are meagre this evening so we decide not to bother. So a decision has to made, Beer Bar, GoGo Bar or BJ Bar? GoGo bar it is, so three of us enter Gorkles (what is a gorkle?).

We sit up at the bar and whilst there aren’t many girls in the place, #14 does look particularly fine. Whilst drinking my beer, the Mamasan turns up at my side and thrusts a girl towards me. I am not happy with this approach, so decline the offer without having even looked at the girl. She’s huddled up in a baggy sweatshirt and doesn’t seem too interested anyhow.

The record finishes and a new girl appears on stage. It’s a little waif of a thing and now there’s no sweatshirt, just bra and panties and I am smitten. I guess I should have paid more attention earlier and taken the Mamasans advice.

After a few tracks, she finishes and when she comes off stage, I’m unsure whether she’s going to come my way, or having spurned her before, maybe she’ll go over to the couple of guys sitting on the other side of the stage who have also shown some keen interest.

I’m the lucky one and I have been granted a second chance, so I buy her a drink straight away and we take it from there.

Our hour is already up and we should be off to the bar complex in Soi Dianna, however we have made a decision to return at the end of the crawl. To ensure that we are going to commit to this plan, Kevin decides that he’s going to pay barfine for me for the little darling in payment for the IT work I’ve done for him he says. I don’t complain but for some reason I am a little hesitant.

We do the rounds of the bar complex and then a flying ‘in one door and out the other’ visit to Papagayo’s and we return to Gorkles. The little darling comes to join me and #14 who is dancing comes over to the stage and announces “Little sister me” and points to the girl I’m with. She then says “I 18, seeter me 16”. All sorts of alarm bells are going off in my head now and my mates are also suddenly paying attention. When she sees the look of shock on our faces, out comes the “I joking. I 20, sister 18”. I am still not sure though and I am unwilling to even be in this girls company until I know for sure that she’s of legal age. She goes off and gets her ID card which shows a birth date of 2532, and the picture does look similar to the girl I’m looking at. The Mamasan has also become involved by this stage and she also says that the girl is definitely 18, so we head off into the night on a scooter taxi and I’m at it again just taking a girl straight back to my home. I wonder whether I have some inner desire to be caught out by A or I am just too much of a thrill seeker hellbent on some trail of self destruction?

Whatever it may be, things are not particularly good or exciting as the girl is just that; a slightly nervous, timid little thing. And it doesn’t help matters that I’m pissed into the bargain.

Expenditure :

Scooter Taxi – 100 baht
Baht Bus – 40 baht
Bar Crawl – 955 baht

Wednesday 28 November 2007

Trip 4 - Day 111

November 28th

I get up and am feeling pretty lethargic. A light hangover doesn’t help matters either.

I have to go round to Kevs to investigate some problems he’s been having with his ‘net connection. When I get there, nothing can be done as he is in the middle of a power cut. After 10 minutes, the power returns and he tries to demonstrate the problem, but of course everything is working fine now. Unfortunately the quality of service for broadband connections doesn’t seem to be all it should be around Pattaya. Bandwidth is frequently throttled and connectivity to the DNS servers is often lost.

Whilst I am there, I install the soundcard drivers for the old Averatec laptop and start a new torrent download of McVicar which is Kev’s favourite movie.

Joy has gone out to get her hair done, so I have to wait for my lift home. We’re both checking out the boards for a while until Joy returns and gives me a lift home on the scooter.

I decide to start the night early at Amazing Paradise as I cannot get Nam out of my head and just want to see her again. I sit at the bar and at 19:00, Nam arrives and looks good in a black top and a long flowing skirt. We move over to the sofas next to the fishtank and in no time, she has me ‘hooked’. I say that I have to go to see my friends at Cherry Bar, but I can come back later if she wants. She tells me that she has been with “Man Hong Kong” for the past few days and she doesn’t know if he’ll be back again tonight. Our conversations are a little difficult at times as the language barrier stops us making things clear. Nam takes my telephone number and says that she will call me later to let me know, but if she does “go with man”, she says that he leaves early in the mornings, so she can come to see me at 08:00 in the morning.

At 20:30, I pay checkbin and make the short walk to the Cherry Bar. The Party is a fairly low key affair as a couple of the hosts have been partying hard since their arrival and another has had a few problems with his TGF. There has also been a run of 4 parties in the in the past week at the bar, so the girls aren’t really ‘into’ things. It’s still an enjoyable do though and I get bought a few drinks and have a laugh with both the girls and the customers.

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It has to be said that the views in the bar beat anything that I could witness in Stansted in November.

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TheFiend found a solution to getting over his girl problem and he seemed very happy with a ‘sprig’ of Mint.

Pun has managed to commandeer TalbotMan’s headwear

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Gunshy has a message for all the hawkers that come by and hassle him

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But for SparkyDave, tonight is his last in town for this trip, still he has the next two or three trips already lined up, so don’t feel too sorry for him.

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I then find that I’ve had 3 missed calls from an unrecognised Thai number, so I assume that it’s Nam trying to get in touch. I call the number but simply get a voicemail announcement, so I am unsure what to do. I’m a bit pissed by now and come up with the bright idea that I’ll take Nam to the Penthouse Hotel and ‘sod the expense’.

I borrow 2000 baht from Kevin and after thanking the party hosts, I leave the party and go back to Amazing Paradise. Nam isn’t there so I just sit at the bar and talk with one of the other girls. When Nam arrives, I kiss the girl on the cheek and I leave her so that I can be with Nam.

We leave the bar and get a scooter taxi down to Soi Pattayaland and they have a room, so after paying we wait whilst the key is collected for us. As I’ve got my wallet out, I commit a typical newbie mistake and give ‘tip’ in advance. The key is given to me and we head up to our room and I’m feeling like a cat that’s got the cream.

Now as we all know, when everything is going well, Pattaya has a knack simply ‘sticking the boot in’ and tonight is no exception. Nam goes ‘into one’ and starts screaming at me “Why you kiss other lady in my bar? You want to fuck her like you fuck me? Well fuck you, you full of bullshit”. I try to calm her down and this has the opposite effect and she becomes angrier. This is a situation that I haven’t encountered before and I don’t know how to handle it at all. It’s now obvious that nothing good is going to happen tonight, so I simply cut my losses and we leave the unused room and checkout.

As a final 'stoopid' thing to do, I still end up giving Nam 100 baht for her scooter taxi home. I’ve survived the ordeal unscathed and the only damage inflicted has been to my ego.

I get home and just collapse on to the bed.

Expenditure :

Scooter Taxis – 250
Barfine – 300
Tip & Taxi – 1100
Hotel – 1300
Drinks – 430

Tuesday 27 November 2007

Trip 4 - Day 110

November 27th

I’m up and about by 10:30, but before I can have any breakfast, I have to make a quick trip to 7/11 to get Coke, Butter, Bread & a phone top up. Rather than buying eggs in 7/11, I buy them from one of the local shops where they are 25% cheaper.

Toast & marmalade with a mug of tea and then I decide to tidy the house and do a bit of ironing. After my chores are completed, I check up on my emails.

This afternoon I’m meeting with Kevin at 16:00 as he’s arranged for a few guys to visit Black Pearl 2 and Dao Bar. I speak with him on the phone at 15:30 and he is already at Noi’s, so I hang up and in less than 5 minutes I’m sitting with him at the bar with a cold Chang and shortly afterwards we’re joined by a ‘hot’ Bow.

By 17:00, nobody else has turned up, so just the two of us make the journey out to Black Pearl 2 and it was a big letdown. There were only 2 or 3 girls there and they didn’t seem to be particularly interested, so we made a quick decision to drink up and head back to Dao bar.

When we walked in the door, we instantly recognised a fellow BM (The Assasin) and he came over to join us for a chat and we were later joined by another BM called Bob. I had no intention of getting up to any real mischief today, but one of the older ladies seemed determined that I was going to be her prey. My hands were firmly placed in all the places guaranteed to get me interested and once she was sure that she had my full attention, she made sure that I was going to keep it, as she removed her thong and bra in full view of everyone in the bar.

She won out and I had to relent. I paid bar, but we couldn’t get to a room just yet as they were all ‘in use’, so we ordered up another drink and a few minutes later a room became available.

For an older lady with two children, she had a pretty good figure and after a very nice BBBJ to get me fully aroused we had an energetic romp together in which she managed to get me to ‘finit’ twice, so it was a satisfying enough afternoon in the end, but nothing really memorable.

After showering, we head back to the bar, but everyone has gone, so I take a walk down the Soi to Noi’s bar and after chatting with the guys there I realise that in the space of just twenty minutes I have already forgotten her name.

I have a few more beers before settling up; buying some supper and heading home.

Expenditure :

Barfine & ST – 1000 baht
Drinks – 350 baht
Stall Food – 30 baht

Monday 26 November 2007

Trip 4 - Day 109

November 26th

I don’t sleep very well and am wide awake by 08:00, so I get up and just have a mug of tea as I feel too ‘churned up’ to eat. I’m thinking about A and where we go from here and to be honest, the outlook isn’t particularly bright. I also reflect on my past ‘failures’ in Pattaya and in England. I don’t really understand why it’s not working out with A as we had previously agreed that it was a mutual benefit arrangement that we had. I would pay the rent, an allowance for Mama and food when we ate together. A would pay for utilities and her own food when out to work.

We would both have somewhere to live and we had spent enough time together to know that we liked each other enough to enjoy sharing a bed. I also agreed to do a number of the household chores such as cleaning and laundry, whilst A was to do the ironing.

The reality over the past few weeks has been that A has done very little. We have had very little time together and what private time we have had has been limited to a couple of furtive short time sessions or quickies in the early hours of the morning before going to work. In the longer term, this is just not going to work out and I know A is more than aware of this as well. She told me that it is one of the reasons that she wants to change job “So I can come home and I can take care you every day”, but now I don’t trust her as implicitly as I had in the past. I truly hope that she gets things sorted out and that she will call me to say that she has the money for me, however in my heart I already strongly doubt it.

Whilst thinking about the ladies and the girls of Pattaya, I cannot help but reflect on my recent couple of nights with Nam. There is no denying that she was wild and that I had a great time, but I also know that there is no way that I could ever see myself just sitting and chatting with her as a girlfriend. I do find that I can actually recollect many snippets of the conversations that we had even though I don’t remember a lot of talking taking place.

One thing she did say is that she wanted to have sex in front of a big mirror, so I log onto the boards and make a posting asking for any recommendations as to where to go, as my curiosity has got the better of me and I want to see if she can be even wilder than before. I also remember her talking in Italian at times as well as French and a bit of German. I then remember a little more about the “I not know word English, but same horny” conversation. She said “amore” and I replied “love”. She said “Not ti amo; amore. Is different”. My Italian is non existent, so I try and get a meaning by searching the ‘net and I think the meaning for amore is ‘with love’ and ti amo being I love you. (I’d appreciate if anyone is able to shed any further light on this for me)

By 15:00, I’m feeling quite hungry, so I head out to get a simple dish of chicken and rice with a bag of ‘soup’ as it’s both easier and cheaper buying as required from the stalls than it is to buy in ingredients and cook at home (unless cooking farang food).

I decide to take a few photos of the condition of the road to show how crazy the traffic conditions are out here. They started excavating at the end of last week and the road is technically 'closed'




And looking at the road surface it's possible to see why...




But that doesn’t deter anyone from carrying on as normal




The excavation has moved on from when I last checked on Saturday night




And by with these additional 'hazards', watching the traffic drive by whilst having a beer at Noi’s will be much more interesting










The Soi is a complete mess and there is no way that it would be used for traffic in the West.




I get a call from Kevin asking if I’m going to attend the party at FLB tonight, but I decline the offer as I’m not feeling particularly happy today and I would only end up drinking too much; spending too much and either end up doing something stupid or just feeling sorry for myself, so I decide that I am going to stay in and have a quiet, sensible, cheap night.

Finally I get a call from A and she says that she has spoken to ‘boss new’ about the money she says is due to her and she tells me that it will be in the bank on Number 28. I ask her if she is sure that it will be there and I get a “I not lie. Why you think I lie to you?” I say that I am scared she will not pay and that the other money that she is due to repay in six weeks will also not be paid. (Her savings account requires 90 days notice she told me). We finish the call and I know that it will take a lot to recover from here; we will just have to take it one step at a time, but I shall leave the decision to her.

Just me, the TV and a single bottle of Chang and I go to bed just after midnight.

Expenditure :

Stall Food – 50 baht

Sunday 25 November 2007

Trip 4 - Day 108

November 25th

I don’t surface until lunchtime and feel much refreshed. I get up and make myself a cup of tea and as I start to drink it, A arrives home. There’s a smile on her face, so that pleases me as it’s something that hasn’t been there for far too long.

She comes and sits next to me and I check with her that Phil is okay. She says that he is now staying with ‘seeter’ as it is easier for school.

A tells me that she wants to change job from shop as “have new boss” and “I no like”. This is also one of the reasons that Phil has moved out I discover. ‘New boss’ told A that she couldn’t have a break in the afternoon to collect Phil from school. I then get a ‘story’ about going for a new job selling in shop, but “need to have guarantee”.

I don’t really understand what is being said until the request for money is made. (I have deliberately kept our financial transactions out of the TR as it is no business except ours) I tell her that I cannot help out and indeed she is due to return a loan to me tomorrow ( “Number 26” ). She asks again if I can help her and I tell her I cannot. At this point the smile disappears and we are both now annoyed with the other. A gets on the phone to ‘the family’ and then we sit in stony silence whilst she watches TV.

She receives several calls and by 19:00 she says that she has to go as she needs to see family to get money. I remind her about ‘Number 26’ and she says she will call me tomorrow.

After she leaves, I head out and buy Pork Panang from the nearest stall and return to eat alone with a single bottle of beer. Getting to sleep takes a long time as there is much to think about.


Expenditure :
Stall food – 25 baht