On The Plane Again Part 1

My wife died in July 2004. It was an agonizing 3 years for both her and me. We knew it was going to happen, but believe it or not, I never thought she'd not make it. Even when I can see new tumors coming up on her leg practically everyday. The ego
works in mysterious ways, trying to protect the psyche it makes up these lies and makes every other part of your mind believe them. I had a first-hand experience of this phenomenon – lying to yourself and believing in your own lies even though
you know deep down that they are lies.

I laid on my couch for weeks, "seeing" the TV. Not watching; that'd have required concentration. Not because of laziness, but because of a weird state of paralysis from a cocktail of emotions: fear, grief, depression, shock,
you name it, it was in that cocktail. For 6 weeks I came up with a million different ways to kill myself. I fantasized about it. I dreamt about it. I cherished the moment when I'd cease to be – and hopefully – meet my wife "on the other
side". And then one day, I said to myself: "It is either that or I go somewhere and start making some new memories". I didn't need the "old memories", they were about to take me to my grave.

That's how I came up with Thailand. I had been to Malaysia and Japan before, both trips had been quite a blast (both with my wife of course) and I wanted to see more of Asia. Talked to a close friend of mine who suggested Vietnam, but
I had heard about the elephants in Thailand and I stood my ground as I was having that elephant ride no matter what. In the end he agreed to come with me. Weeks went by, during this time tickets were bought, suitcases were packed, exams were passed
and on that very fateful day in November a Singapore Airlines plane whisked us away from gloomy Melbourne to an adventure in a faraway land that is still continuing today.

Well, I can't really say that our first impressions of Thailand were mind-blowing with Don Muang airport lacking the flare and meticulousness of KL or Changi airports. It even looked worn-down and slightly grotty to us, but hey, what-the-heck,
we were in an alien land and were in a party mood already. A pre-arranged Mercedes taxi whisked us away to our hotel, Siam City (I can't recommend it highly enough as at the time I wasn't aware that hotels differed wildly in Thailand
when it came to established standards).

I was out and about two hours later as I was dying to see the sights but my friend decided to stay behind saying that he was too tired. Undeterred, I jumped into a taxi and the first thing he asked me was if I wanted a lady. Whoooaaa!! I
had heard of the red light districts in Thailand but I had never thought that it'd be openly talked about and here I was being offered a lady by the taxi driver. With the little knowledge I had, I asked the driver if it was OK that we went
to Soi Cowboy, but alas, no, apparently it was 2 o'clock and everywhere was closed. I said "OK, no problem, then take me around to see the sights", which I really meant, and he said OK but instead we were parked in front of a place
called the Embassy hotel which turned out to be a… a… I really don't know what category it fell under as far as red light houses go, but let me try to explain by saying that you met the girls here and then they took you to a short-time
hotel. Anyways, here I met Lek (of course not her real name). I was just amazed at how nice she treated me. I had had several serious relationships before getting married and was happily married for 7 years, but I had never been treated like this
by a female before, especially with one that I met 10 minutes ago.

To cut a long story short she took me a short time hotel with mirrors everywhere. One interesting point was there were curtains around the entrances of rooms (the hotel consisted of a single story) and the curtains were drawn around the cars
whenever one parked in front of an entrance (privacy? guilt? I don't know). Sex was OK, but I was rather feeling guilty as I was thinking of my wife all the time. I had paid for sex before so that didn't really bother me as I had always
viewed male-female relationships being based on financial gains, sometimes in a very subtle manner, and at times most overtly like this one. Maybe my non-Australian background made me think this way but I can see the point of money playing an
important role in Farang-Thai relationships, unlike many other farangs. I am not in a position to judge anyone, I am just stating a fact the way I see it. Just like Dennis Miller used to say: "This is my opinion only and I might be wrong".

Over the course of the next few days my friend returned to the land of the living and we visited Patpong and Nana Plaza. We didn't get into any mischief at Patpong and never stepped through the doors of a bar, except a rather solemn
looking Irish one which we found expensive and slightly pathetic. Nana Plaza was a different story though. After drinking a couple of Heinekens at an entrance bar and walking around outside the Plaza to get our bearings, we ended up at a 2nd floor
"chrome pole" bar and were accosted by two absolute stunners with whom we agreed to go long-time. Unfortunately, they didn't turn out to be much fun at the hotel so we had to let them go and I ended up at the Embassy Hotel after
2 hours of a taxi drive. The driver might have scammed me or he might have really gotten lost but I didn't mind as the fare came around to 200 baht which converted to 6.66 Australian dollars. One would pay that much in Australia for a 5 minute
ride. Heck, you'd almost pay that much just stepping into the taxi.

I had phoned Lek earlier on, and she was ready to go out with me, however this time she seemed slightly offish for some reason. Sex had dropped down a notch in intensity and satisfaction, so I said goodbye to her and took a bus with my friend
down to Pattaya the next day.

After a 2-something hour ride, we ended up at Soi 6 with our suitcases. I was just soooo totally amazed at the ladies' behavior as we were pretty much sexually molested while walking to our hotel. I asked him how he came up with this
drop-off area and he said that he read it from the meek Lonely Planet book (wake up LP guys, Soi 6 doesn't really fit in with your "no naughty stuff" policy). Anyways, we got to this mid-budget hotel where I stayed on, but my friend
chose a cheaper hostel type of place. Off I was out and about, delighted to be at such an interesting place and dying to have a look around.

Just across from Big C I saw this stunningly beautiful lady (let's call her Joy) and without boring everyone with the details, we spent a great 3 days together. I had to let her go as she was too insistent on just visiting her bar every
night which was really a lame one and I wanted to see more of Pattaya. My friend had a bitter experience with one of Joy's BG GF and he almost woved celibacy (in Pattaya? lol). Anyways, I was having the time of my life, and I met Noi one
night. She was a very plain looking lady and was older than me (I'm 34), so I am still not sure why I chose her that night. It was amazing how she took care of me though, to the point that I was very frightened of falling for her and had
to let her go after 3 days as well.

Pattaya was great, but there wasn't really much sightseeing and action left after the butterfly farm (no pun intended, it actually exists up north somewhere), the usual elephant trekking (what a rush it was the first time), bungee-jumping, pistol-shooting
and the island trip. So we decided to fly over to Koh Samui to check it out. Following a short wait at the weird U-Tapao and a comfortable one hour flight we landed at Koh Samui. I was bored out of my mind and kept thinking of Noi and felt guilty
that I left her behind. We did the usual tourist things, Chaweng beach, jungle safari ride, playing pool etc. etc. I didn't barfine a girl and felt quite lonely. Funny thing is that, Koh Samui did not with a fizzle but rather with an atomic
explosion. On our last day, we decided to go motorbiking, which was both dangerous and stunningly beautiful. After it was over, we walked around trying to have a non-eventful night as we were going back to Pattaya. We walked over to the bar area
at Chaweng beach and proceeded to play pool and drink Chang beer. I spotted 3 absolutely gorgeous ladies walking towards somewhere. The reason why I noticed them was that every head around the bar area had turned and was looking at them. I thought
nothing of it as there were girls everywhere and I had only seen them from the back. We finished playing pool and were taking a last walk form the bar area to our hotel room when I spotted the same girls standing in front of a bar with loud music
coming out. I was kinda surprised as it was almost closing time, but I elbowed my friend and showed him the ladies. One of them, Pon, was probably the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my life. Guess which one my friend wanted to go for?
Pon of course. We went in, had an absolute ball of a time with Pon pole dancing together with a drunk Brit's farang GF (God, I still remember, he was soooo drunk he was hurling abuse at his lass in a playful manner). I settled in with Tam,
Pon's almost equally stunning GF (one of the original 3 I had seen). Pon got herself a lady drink from a lesbian farang lady (quite a place, eh?), danced provocatively around the chrome pole and finally decided to accept my friend's
offer of spending the night with him.

Oh, my God!! What a night!! It was in Top 5 of the best nights I ever had in my life. Pon was a chatterbox with very good English (not a good sign I know). Tam was quite the opposite, silent but with a smile to kill for. We drank, talked,
listened to my friend's music from his Ipod and then had more fun. Next morning when we went to the hotel's cafeteria, all heads again turned to look at us, men with envy and women with scorn. We didn't mind, had the most rushed
breakfast ever and said our goodbyes to Tam and Pon. We had a plane to catch and if we didn't we knew that there was great fun and heartache to be had.

Now, the experience of that particular night changed both of our lives forever. It broke down whatever mental barriers we had about Thailand, BGs and the whole scene. There is so much to tell and the real story begins after we touched down
at U-Tapao, but that night was when we gave in to Thailand, mentally, physically, totally, absolutely, forever… Nothing was to be the same for us from now on.

(To be continued…)

Stickman's thoughts:

So, let me guess…..you fall in love soon!?