How Quickly The Mind Changes

This last September, I made plans to meet a couple co-workers in Thailand. They had been planning the trip for months, one of them having visited about 6 times or so over the last 4 years. He suggested I meet them there and I, more or less last minute,
bought a ticket as I needed a getaway from work and things. I am 36, and work as a senior systems administrator for a large company in the San Francisco area, just to give you my perspective. I had never been east of Western Europe and most recently,
have vacationed in Latin-American countries.

My co-worker had mentioned a few vague accounts of the women in LOS and, I have to admit, I had always been a bit skeptical about these stories. Prostitution seemed questionable to me and despite being tempted a few times last year by some aggressive
Cuban women during a week’s vacation in Havana, I had never succumbed to this particular vice. Moreover, I found it incredulous when my friend would describe how Thai women would actually like having sex and get physically aroused. This
I could just not fathom. The idea of a young, attractive woman actually enjoying sex with an older foreigner just didn’t seem plausible. I always imagined interactions with a prostitute as being dour and businesslike. Just talking about
the subject made me feel a little strange.

Please don’t get me wrong, I am not a pious individual by any stretch of the word, usually enjoying a “massage-with-release” in my city of San Francisco about once a month or so. But a little extra on the massage table was one thing.
On the other hand, to actually have sex with a woman and pay for it was foreign to me and seemed, well, just not right. Moreover, I had my doubts about how enjoyable it would be.

Well, after a short time my views were, shall we say, adjusted.

My fall from grace happened somewhat quickly. My friends and I arrived at the same time to BKK although we flew different airlines. They had made room reservations at 4-star hotel off of Sukumvit on Soi 15. I didn’t have a chance to make any reservations
before I left, but fortunately, there was a room for me at the same hotel. Just an aside, for $45 a night the room was palatial. Especially considering I usually stay at dives when traveling alone in foreign lands. At any rate, the hotel reception
told me that the room wouldn’t be ready for an hour – it was around 2pm at the time. So I just decided to hang out at my friend’s room. After about 30 minutes, I started to get restless and told him I was going to check on
my room as I was in need of a shower and a short nap.

When I got into the elevator with my backpack to descend the 6 floors to my room there was an attractive young Thai woman riding. I thought perhaps she was staying at the hotel as she was dressed casually in jeans and a tight top (as many young women
dress in the US.) As the elevator door closed, I said hello to her to which she replied with a hello and “where are you from?” I answered and asked her where she was from (as if I would know the location she would answer.) She said
a place I didn’t know (as expected) and the elevator dinged – we were at my floor. Then a peculiar thing happened. The girl said something to me that I didn’t understand. It sounded like “goodbye, have a nice time”
or the like. I just mumbled “yes, thanks.” Next thing I know, she grabs my hand.

Well, I wish I could say that I was casual about this, but this would be far from the truth. It was my first few hours in LOS and a pretty young woman is grabbing my hand and going with me wherever I am going. I was a little flustered. I became even more
anxious when I saw from the elevator, that my room was still occupied by housekeeping, the door being open and two barefoot maids bustling around the room. I stuttered a “no, no thanks” to the girl who quickly backed into the elevator.
“Sheesh! What the…” I said to myself. What would I have done if the maids hadn’t been there? It is hard to say.

Then it happened. My two friends and I met up after having rested and unpacked. We were walking around and decided to duck down a small side street off of Sukumvit into a bar to grab a beer. It was probably about 4pm or so. As we walked down the dead-end
street, some girls came at us with flyers advertising of Thai and oil massage. Then, immediately next door, some different girls gave us some their flyers also displaying different types of massages and their prices. “Strange,” I
thought, “Why so many massage places here?” We then stepped into a bar, which I found out, ended up being a “special bar” with girls to provide, um, services. I don’t think it was any accident that we were there
as I noticed my friend, the experienced one, perusing a menu and talking to the bartender in Thai.

After a few beers, my two friends said they were feeling a little out of sorts from the flight and wanted a massage. I remarked that sounded great to me also. But which place? My friend asked the bartender about the two massage places next door. Evidently,
one did “special” massages and the other did not. We stepped into the place immediately adjacent to the bar and were escorted upstairs to a large room with what looked like hospital curtains and small beds and were instructed to
put on pajama-type garments. I asked my friend what the story was, and he said that this was typical for Thai traditional massage. I wasn’t game for putting on pajamas and, as I had mentioned, being a fan of the “happy ending massage”
I couldn’t fathom being in Thailand and just getting a “plain old massage” (although this attitude changed once I found out how wonderful the traditional and foot massages were.) So, despite being a little worried about hurting
the feelings of the girls working at the first place, I walked downstairs and next door to their competitor.

The women next door was pleased to see me and instead of having facilities right there like the other place (never found out what the business was that they were standing in front of,) a woman took me across the street to a 2-star hotel. I was escorted
up to the third floor and what did I see, but an almost identical setup as the first place – multiple beds and curtains in a single room. I think the woman who brought me to the room saw the look on my face because she immediately said
“you like private room?” “Ah, yes, private room,” I replied nervously. She disappears for a minute and arrives back with 7 girls and exclaims “pick!” I am thinking “Um, ok” (this was a first
for me.) I guiltily looked at each smiling girl and my eyes came to rest more than once on a particularly attractive and young girl of the group. Once again, the manager-woman sensed my intentions and instructed the girl to take me to the private
room without my having to actually point at her and say “that one.”

I won’t get into the specifics as to what happened during the massage, but I will say, that in the end, I compromised my moral character forever thereafter – basically upgrading my massage from the most minor of stimulation to the most major
after being offered these options. As I had mentioned, the girl was young and attractive and, although I sensed a little nervousness, she either was a great actor or was actually enjoying it. I know that I enjoyed it. I met my friends two hours
later with a Cheshire cat’s grin.

This was my first 5 hours in Bangkok. And I had absolutely no idea what was to come in the next 10 days. Some wonderful things and some not-so-wonderful…

Stickman's thoughts:

Compromising one's moral character…you're not the first to have that happen to you!