Stickman Readers' Submissions November 28th, 2005

A Dance With Daeng

Date : The Not So Distant Past
Location : Sukhumvit Soi 33, Bangkok

Darkness had already fallen on the metropolis as I stood at the entrance to Soi 33. The Sukhumvit traffic behind me thundered past, relentless as ever. To my left was the 7 Eleven. I made a mental note to pop back for essential supplies if
required but right now there was no time. To my right were the steps leading to the Londoner. Ahead on both sides of the road were the motosai taxi drivers lounging around on their steel ponies like some abandoned suburban cavalry unit. I looked
down the soi at the starburst of neon signs that already seemed to be luring me towards them. Their unspoken promise of eastern delights held within. I was alone, mainly because most of my friends claimed not to have the financial wherewithal
to accompany me on my incursions into 33. Boring sods!

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Now, where was I going to start?

Wall Street. That was as good a place as any to get relieved of your hard earned. I decided to drop in there for a couple. The big lady greeted me with her usual exuberance followed by a request for a vodka and Red Bull. I put her request
for vodka on hold temporarily.

Usually, I’m comfortable sitting at the bar but on this particular evening there were a few guys hogging the bar area so I settled at one of the tables near the opposite wall. I ordered a beer and after a few minutes a tall, attractive
girl helped herself to my hospitality and sat opposite me. She introduced herself as Daeng and spoke halfway decent English. In truth she was an attractive lady of about twenty six and easy to talk to. The main reason I didn’t object to
her presence and bought her a drink without hesitation was that she had a truly magnificent set of jugs. These were beautifully showcased by the low-cut black dress she was wearing. Low down on one of these ecstasy mounds was a very small tattoo
of a swallow. I remember thinking that I hoped she only had one tattoo because shagging women who have more tattoos than me I find a little off-putting.

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So, we had a few drinks and Daeng and I chatted away for a while. I recall she told me that she used to work at the Ministry of Sound on Soi 8 and she had only recently started work at Wall Street. Yeah, yeah…but in fairness, I hadn’t
seen her before and she did seem to be a cut above your run of the mill bar girl.

After a polite period of time, I broached the subject of taking her out for the evening. She didn’t seem to be bothered one way or the other but asked me where I intended to take her. I wanted to say ‘how about the Peep Inn’
which is a short time hotel practically across the road but I sensed that she might really be expecting to be taken somewhere to eat or dance or something so I held my impulses in check.

“We could pop down to Rivas, if you like” I heard myself blurt. What was I thinking??!

For the benefit of those who don’t know, Rivas is a bar in the Sheraton Hotel on Sukhumvit. They usually have good live bands in there most nights but it is a bit up-market, I suppose.

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Daeng suddenly got enthusiastic about this idea and scampered off to get the bill. Damn, I forgot to ask how much the bar fine was. She duly returned and I settled up. So far this evening I had just blown almost three thousand baht in about
thirty minutes and I was heading for the Sheraton. Maybe my friends weren’t as daft as they look.

It’s only a short hop from 33 to Rivas and we were there in no time. The band was good, although the music may have been a little loud making meaningful conversation a little difficult. Then again, I always look on that as generally
a good thing when you are with a woman you don’t know very well. Actually, it’s a pretty good thing when you are with a woman you do know well, too.

The evening wore on and we had a good time. We had a few drinks, danced a bit and enjoyed the band. Around midnight, I thought it was high time we sorted out the sleeping arrangements and so I took the bull by the balls and asked Daeng if
she was up for a continuance until the morning.

Daeng replied with an expression that I had not heard before. She said sweetly “Do you need something from me?”

Well of course I bloody well needed something from her. How could there have been any doubt about that! Even if she had only been a bar girl for a few days, somebody must have explained to her what the basics of the job entailed for godsakes.

For a moment I could not decide if she was having me on or not. I looked at her intently. Her face gave no indication that she was anything but genuinely surprised that I had just asked her for sex. This was a big surprise, not to mention
disappointment to me too.

What was I supposed to do now? Take her back to Wall Street and complain that this one doesn’t work?

Hmmm. This was a bit of a first. I decided to give Daeng the benefit of my take on the concept of bar girls, bar fines et al and which responsibilities are normally shouldered by which parties in circumstances such as these. She listened
to my point of view but maintained that bar fines notwithstanding, in a nutshell I was not getting any.

I must admit that in years of seeking out the best in Thai nocturnal entertainment, I had not come across this one before.

I decided that I would handle this in my usual magnanimous style and after putting Daeng in a taxi home, chalked the evening up to another new experience in Thailand.

That, however is not quite the end of this little tale. A few days later, I went back to Wall Street. The big lady there is quite friendly to me, well to everyone actually but I just needed to clear up the Daeng experience for my own benefit.

I asked the big lady about Daeng’s refusal at the last fence so to speak and it turned out that in fact, Daeng had done this to a few other punters as well. Most did not take it quite as gracefully as me and had let Wall Street know
that this was not how things are expected to work. Daeng refused to change her style and as a girl not best suited to being a bar girl she moved on after a few weeks. I have no idea what happened to her after that but I wish her well and admire
her in certain ways.

Still, would have liked to have shagged her though.

Union Hill

Stickman's thoughts:

You've got to chuckle when a "sure thing" turns out like that.


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