Three Phones And A Bag Of Tricks

By Melbourne Mike

I have just returned from Thailand, and once again thoroughly enjoyed our 22 d ays in the Kingdom.

However, there was one particularly amusing/intriguing episode which my wife and I inadvertently stumbled upon.

You are no doubt familiar Stick with the Robin Hood Hotel up near Sukhumvit Soi 33/1. It must be new because it wasn't there when we were in Bangers last year.

Out of curiosity we decided to have a drink at "the Hood" on our second afternoon in Bangkok. In fact I was checking it out to see if it was a suitable venue to watch the NZ All Blacks v the Irish and British Lions on the forthcoming
Saturday.

Having ordered a round of drinks and plonked ourselves down on a nicely padded leather seat I discovered that we were sitting at only arms length from a particularly attractive Thai woman, who seemed immersed in her battery of cell phones.

At first we didn't take much notice of her incessant chatter, preferring instead to enjoy the relative quiet of the Robin Hood at around 3 pm on a hot and humid afternoon.

After a little while, I mentioned to my wife how it appeared that young Thais had undergone a procedure whereby a cell phone was sugically attached to their ears. By that time, I was quite interested in the dexterity that was being displayed
by Ms Bangkok sitting next to us.

It became apparant that one phone was used for personal calls, with the conversation exclusively in Thai. The other two were used intermittently, and often, with the calls always in English.

It soon became apparent that the Ms Bangkok was having some personal problems with various male acquaintances. We became even more immersed in her haranguing of the unfortunate people on the other end of her calls. The conversations usually
went something like this:

Ms Bangkok: "You don't love me any more. No you don't, I can tell. You just use me. Use me and treat me like dirt. You show your love to me properly. I work so hard, you take no notice of me. I need more money, its hard
for me."

This kind of conversation would usually go on for about 5-6 minutes and at its termination, the other phone would then be employed for a similar call to another person, which we assumed was some hapless male.

After eavesdropping Ms Bangkok's conversations for 45 minutes, we left the Robin Hood, and we came to the conclusion that Ms Bangkok had about half a dozen or more males on the end of her various lines.

She was aged about 28, tall for a Thai at around 5 ft 8 in., very well dressed, and she possessed a good command of English. I mentioned to my wife that Ms Bangkok was on the "game" and that she was obviously a master at playing
it.

Well what a surpise when my wife and I fronted up to the Robin Hood on the Saturday afternoon to watch the great match between the All Blacks and Lions. Guess who was there? Yep, Ms Bangkok, replete with her three cell phones and going
flat out on all three of them.

On the previous Tuesday she had nursed a solitary drink during our 45 minutes there, and she appeared to be in the same phase of drinking in a much more crowded bar on the Saturday afternoon.

We were soon immersed in the game, however, at its conclusion, I looked around in Ms Bankok's direction, and lo and behold, she had struck gold again. She was in a deep conversation with a young Kiwi, and she was using all of her
considerable charm and guile to entice him into her net.

I felt like grabbing the young Kiwi's arm and taking him away for a quiet warning, however, I think he was too far in her clutches for any advice from a stranger.

Now, I just wonder whether he will also be on her haraguing list in say three months time.

The Robin Hood is what I would describe as a proper pub, but even it is not off limits to the "professional" types of Ms Bangkok's who hang out for the big day when they really strike pay dirt!

I thought you might be interested in the foregoing. Maybe it is something you are used to Stick, but for me and wife we found it intrguing, and I might say, depressing.