Hello, darling. Whats going on? Are you OK?
Sure, telak, but there is a good-looking café on the grounds outside the room. I dont want to cook, so will you come down here and we can eat in there or outside in the sunshine? They have Thai and falang food. The coffee looks good too.
OK, dont cook. Ill have a quick shower and see you there. Where is it?
Go onto the balcony, look down to the left and you see me. I stand outside the café.
Craig did as he was told and saw Lek waving up at him enthusiastically.
All right, go inside. Ill be down in ten or fifteen minutes.
He didnt rush. He fancied a coffee, but he didnt usually eat soon after getting up. Lek, on the other hand, liked to eat within minutes of getting out of bed, unless she had to go outside when it would be minutes after her shower. She was one of those people who start to feel ill, if they dont eat regularly. Lek grazed throughout the day, whereas Craig liked one or two large meals.
When Craig caught up with Lek, she was eating a bowl of rice soup the Thai equivalent of porridge. She had learned to drink tea and coffee because of the company she had kept, but left to her own devices, she preferred ice-cold water.
Although a lot of the apartments were owned or occupied by foreigners, farang or falang in Thai, the staff in the café could not understand his English, so Lek ordered him an English breakfast and a coffee. It was meant to be a treat, but Craig wasnt really hungry. It was a poor imitation of an English breakfast too, but he pretended to enjoy it so as not to disappoint anyone.
It was a glorious day and the sun glinted off the small pool nearby. There was also a big pool just under their balcony and Craig decided to go swimming every day to loose some weight. He hoped that Lek would join him, but doubted it somehow.
Telak, what you want to do today? I love this compound and I love our room. What shall we do?
He could almost hear her think: Say, go down to Daddys Hobby, go on say it.
I dont know. We need to discuss where we are going to live and how we are going to make a living, but I suppose we dont have to start doing that right away...
We can stay here! And you can swim and work on the computer. Same as before; and I will take care of you and maybe find a small job, although that is not easy. You want me work in a shop or a hotel make bed or in a bar?
We are booked in here for two months, but after that, I think we need something permanent. And yes, I will try to do something on the Internet, but no, I dont really want you to do any of those jobs. That can wait for now anyway, unless something comes your way that you would like to do.
OK, good idea. You want to swim after breakfast. I go get towels and costumes and book for you, and she was gone. Craig suspected that she had a plan of some kind. Thai women, and a lot of Thai city men, do their best to stay out of the sun because they want to keep their skin white, so why would she volunteer to sit at the poolside with him?
Lek came down with a duffel bag with his things in and a towel around her waist, which made him think that he must have misjudged her. While he went to get changed in the toilet, Lek rearranged two of the sun loungers to be as much in the small amount of shade as possible. She also put a couple of parasols up.
The pool was deserted and looked very inviting even though it was eleven a.m.
Craig swam for an hour and Lek watched and pretended to try to sleep. When he got out, Lek handed him a towel and began pulling on her jeans.
I cannot sit here, darling, it is too hot and the sun move and give me black skin. I want to go to Beous house and eat lunch with her. You stay here, swim and read your book. It is boring for you to sit listen to me and my cousin speak in Thai, I think. No?
I want to know everything what happen here when I stay in Wales. Too boring for you, eh? I want to speak Thai and eat real Thai food from north Thailand. Beou phone to me and ask me come for lunch. She ask you too, but I say I think you not want. You want to come, telak?
Craig knew that he had been outmanoeuvred, but he didnt really care. Lek was right, he would find it boring and this way, he could slip out to a bar and see who was about.
No, thats OK, dont worry about me, Lek. Ill see you later.
OK, thank you so much, telak. Dont drink too much and I phone you later. Maybe see you in Daddys Hobby bar at four oclock. Good idea, neh? OK, good idea. Bye-bye.
She looked around furtively and then gave him a quick peck on the cheek. She was back in Thailand now and kissing in public was frowned upon even in Pattaya. He watched her walk away and could not help thinking how beautiful she was yet again. It was still too early to go out, so he took Leks advice, rummaged in the bag for his book and started to read.
He decided to wait until twelve-thirty to start his first tour. At midday, a fat, old man made a huge splash in the pool. It took Craig by surprise because he had been engrossed in his book, but he looked up to see if a greeting of some kind was in order. The man was not looking at him, but he caught sight of a small, young woman hiding from him behind a bush not five metres away.
She was looking at him, then at the man in the water and giggling. The old man shouted at her: Spring ins Wasser German for jump into the water. The woman was obviously shy of Craig, so he looked down at his book, until she ran past him, dropped her towel at the last moment and slipped into the water.
Craig watched her for the last few seconds and she knew it and wasnt too happy about it either. They were probably used to having the pool to themselves, he thought. Ten minutes later, an old couple came down, also German, as it turned out. They were both as brown and as wrinkled as walnuts. He was twenty kilos overweight and she was about twenty kilos underweight. They were lappers swimming up and down the pool, obviously counting out a predetermined number of laps before they could go for lunch.
The first German was quite adept at keeping out of the way of these serious swimmers, but his girlfriend, just hung onto the side as if an undertow would suck her away if she let go. Each group, the man and his girlfriend, the couple, and Craig studiously ignored one another, although Craig had not started it.
Very friendly, he thought, very friendly indeed.
Meanwhile, Lek had got on a Baht Bus outside the compound, gone right to Pattaya Klang and then had to change bus to turn right again as the one she was on turned left towards the beach. She was in her cousins house fifteen minutes later. Beous daughters were in school, so they had the place to themselves.
How did you get on in Craigs town, Barry, isnt it? Did you like his friends and family?
Oh, yes, replied Lek, I wasnt joking yesterday when I said that I loved everything about it except being away from my daughter and a few others in the family. I want to go and live there, but that will take some work too, because Craig has his heart set on living here. With me, of course. Still, I can work on that one. There is time enough.
They both laughed and hugged. It was great to be in cahoots with each other again. They really got on well, more like sisters than cousins. Lek had worked for Beou in the bar for ten years but even then Lek had had a special position that none of the other girls could ever have achieved.
Well, look at it this way, telak, Soom is still only young and cannot speak English anyway well, not fluently, eh? So, maybe it is better to get Craig to teach her before you all go over there anyway. That will take a couple of years and by then he may want to go home again. Dont worry. As you say, you have plenty of time. Lets see what fate has in store for you all.
Well, look at it this way, telak, Soom is still only young and cannot speak English anyway well, not fluently, eh? So, maybe it is better to get Craig to teach her before you all go over there anyway. That will take a couple of years and by then he may want to go home again. Dont worry. As you say, you have plenty of time. Lets see what fate has in store for you all.
Lek had told a white lie to Craig, she hadnt been invited to lunch, well, not a prepared lunch anyway. The two friends wanted to cook lunch together as they might have done if they were back in the village, where it is normal for visitors to help prepare the food. There, if you are not asked or allowed to help, you know that you are not being considered a close friend.
So, the first job was to call another old friend from the village, Noi, who also worked at Daddys Hobby but as night watch woman. She had arranged to get off early to be with her oldest friends. They met up in the market and when Noi and Lek saw each other they ran at each other and hugged.
Oh, Noi, I have missed our chats together. I tried to wait for you to come on shift at the bar last night, but we were so tired and the taxi came early. Still, here we are together again, all three of us. Like The Three Sisters, three peas in a pod, eh? and they walked off arm-in-arm to shop for their favourite foods.
They spent an hour shopping, an hour washing, chopping, preparing and cooking the food and an hour eating it, although, in proper Thai country style, they prepared three or four dishes and started eating them first, but cooked other courses at the same time, so that there were always half-eaten and totally fresh, different courses on the table at the same time
By the time they had finished they were truly stuffed and there were still kilos of food both cooked and unprepared. After an hour dozing, chatting and watching TV, Beou, put the left-overs into cartons and put the cartons into three carrier bags so that they were shared equally.
Noi would take hers home, because she had to meet her daughter after school, but Lek and Beou werent finished yet. They would take theirs to Daddys Hobby and start the party up again, but with a lot more people this time.
Craig thought that he had got away with a free pass as he nodded to the security guard on his way out of the hotel compound, but in fact he had been granted one, so that Lek could do what she wanted. He thought he would stroll quietly down Soi Buakhao, the same way Lek had gone, but turn off before the end and make his way down to one of his favourite places the Pig and Whistle on Soi Seven, which was not far from Beous bar.
He intended to stop at quite a few of the intervening bars along the way though and get to Daddys Hobby between four-thirty and five late, as is normal in Thailand. He knew that Lek wouldnt consider an hour as being late.
As he had hoped, every bar along the way was devoid of customers, because it was still too early for most people, but they were full of bored bar girls and he got come-ons from every bar. They took a standard form, which was usually: Hello, sexy man or /and Come have drink with me. He took more than a few up on their kind offer, but he had no intention of doing any more than drink a few beers.
Most of the girls were beautiful and scantily-clad. Not many of them could speak English well enough to hold a decent conversation, but if the truth be known, they werent really interested in talking either. If you didnt want sex and you wouldnt buy them a drink, you were soon left to your own devices. This was not a problem, because there were literally hundreds of bars on his chosen route and thousands of girls. He could not possibly have even one small beer in even five percent of them.
There were usually some nice surprises too though. You would meet a girl who was willing to just talk for a beer or even for nothing, because it kept you spending money in her empty bar and because she was bored out of her mind. If there were clients then it was only fair to move on. These were the sort of contacts that Craig was hoping for today. Just a few nice chats with young, beautiful, half-naked, female strangers.
He always made a point of telling the girls the truth, although he would never reveal were he was staying. After all, the last thing you need is some drunken, desperate woman knocking on your hotel room when you and your wife are asleep. And that had been known to have happened, or so he had been told. You never knew what to believe in Pattaya, but it sounded plausible enough to make him cautious.
Today he could tell the girls that this was the first day of his holiday. That always caught there attention, because it could mean that you will stay with them for a month (most people go for a months holiday), or at least take them out often or it could mean that you didnt know your arse from your elbow with regard to Thai bar girls, so they would get more money out of you. The second question was usually: How long you stay here and the third, though less important question for most girls was: You have Thai girlfriend already?
Most girls didnt mind ousting another Thai if she didnt know them and some didnt care whether they did or not, but those were rarer much rarer. It was usually the older, desperate pros who fell into that category and the loners and the free-lancers.
As a bar girl had once told him: We bar girls dont cheat on wives, we are just the rope that cheating, husbands hang themselves with.
In time, he got to the Pig and went inside to see who was there. It was four oclock, not the busiest of times, which revolved around meals: midday, five to six and seven to ten, but there were a few faces sitting at the bar that he recognized from his previous visits months before.
Hello, Craig, how are you?, When did you get back?, said a voice from down the bar. It was one of the people who either owned or managed the bar/restaurant-cum-hotel.
Im fine thanks, Rob. How are you? We got back yesterday evening.
Hows that little darling of yours, Lek, isnt it? I thought I saw her walk past here a few minutes ago with another woman arm-in-arm, but I thought, no, that cant be Lek, shes in Wales with that Taff.
It probably was her with her cousin, maybe. She went for lunch at her house and Im supposed to be meeting her at about now. But shes all right, can you ask one of the staff for a pint of Guinness, please? Do you want one?
Nah, not for me, thanks. Ive got an hour off, then Im on till closing. Itll start getting busy soon. Cant be pissed on parade, can I? Well, not every night anyway.
The pint of Guinness duly arrived. The taste of burnt wood or charcoal that characterized Guinness for Craig was always a lot stronger in Asia than in Europe. Probably because of the water supply there he thought.
Whats the news then, Rob? Anything monumental happen while I was away? A few more Scandinavians fell off their balconies pissed, I suppose?
Nothing much has been going on. The season has been quiet and hot. Except for Songkhran, of course. That was busy, but then it always is. Even if there were no falangs the Thais would make up for it. Its always good. A couple of jumpers, yes, if you believe that. I think most of them get pushed. Pissed, robbed and pushed. Not only Scandinavians either. Quite a few Germans too.
Rob left and Craig had another Guinness. Nobody else seemed to recognize him and he couldnt be bothered to start a conversation with any more strangers, so he just sat there and watched the girls walking to work and the falang coming back from the beach, wondering about where all this living in Thailand lark would eventually take him.