Thailand No Way Part 1

Hi Stickman and readers,

I have been reading articles on this site for about 2 years after a friend put me on to it. I have a Thai girlfriend and we have been together for 3 years now.

My Thai experience started back in 2011 as I was going through a western divorce at the age of 51. This divorce went on for 5 years so here I was, 3 years in to it and feeling stressed and down and out. My friends at work said I needed a trip away.

I’m a Kiwi working in Oz so I didn’t really want to go back to NZ as that was where all my troubles were.

My workmates told me they were arranging a trip to Phuket, Thailand and I should come. My first reaction and thought’s was, no way, and I could see myself waking up in some back alley with body parts missing or end up in the Bangkok Hilton for no fault of mine.

Then they told me stories of their own experiences and I checked out Thailand on the internet. I decided to go but was nervous as hell. I said I didn’t want to spend all day at bars and wanted to ride an elephant.

So here I was at Perth Airport dressed like I was going on a South African safari trip to check out butterflies. Shoes with long socks, long shorts and an outdated shirt. Carrying a briefcase. Of course I was the joke of the trip amongst my younger peers.

The plane trip was awesome and as for Phuket Airport, overwhelming with people everywhere. Found our hotel van and off we headed to Patong. First stop buy beer. Unbeknown to me, at that time this is what the rest of my trip would be about. Drinking beer.

The next day my mates made me have a makeover with a fish spa, foot massage, haircut and a complete change of clothes. Wow, this was great. And drinking beer at 9 in the morning while getting my makeover. Thailand was starting to look good, well, to me anyway.

So for the rest of my trip I spent sightseeing during the day and drinking in the bars at night. And I got to ride an elephant.

My 1st encounter with Thai ladies was interesting to say the least. And very easy to become engulfed in all the excitement on what is going on, mainly down Bangla Road. I see now why I read about some of these young ones getting into trouble. And older men as well.

Although Bangla Road was a lot of fun, it wasn’t for me. All the full on in ya face stuff and scams. Of course as a first timer in Thailand I knew I would get scammed in some way, and I did. But when you work it out it was only 20 bucks. No big deal.

So I then started drinking in a bar at the markets. I never thought I would ever see the day I would be playing simple kids games {connect 4, board games etc.} with the bar girls, ringing the bell and having so much fun.

I hadn’t gone to find a lady. I just wanted some de-stressing time. But as most stories I read about here on this site, meeting someone just happens. And as it turns out, a lady in the markets did catch my eye.

It was real strange. I felt like a school boy when I asked her out.

It had been 25 odd years since I had last asked a lady out for a date so I was very much out of touch.

When she said yes, I was a little shocked. Maybe she was blind.

She was younger than me but only by 11 years. Same as my ex but way better looking. I could cope with that.

We kept seeing each other for the rest of the trip and upon my return to Oz stayed in contact. I decided a month later to fly back to see if the warm fuzzy feeling of our first meetings were just me looking though rose-tinted glasses or there were real sparks. I guess now after 3 years there must be something happening there.

I’ll sign off at this stage and write again soon how things progressed.

Signed,

A lost but a happy soul