Thailand Has Ruined My Soul Part 1

When I first went to Thailand I was just 18 years old, the year 2002. I went there during my gap year before University expecting an adventure, something different, something I could feel proud I had done.

What I got though was a completely different experience all together.

I first arrived in Bangkok alone with a night to wait until my friends got there too, in order to join me in our travels. I was excited with this big new city, so vibrant, so interesting. The first thing I did was get a Thai massage that
I had read and heard so much about in my hotel room. Turned out this massage girl was a whore who enjoyed putting fingers in people’s bums! What the hell?! I came here for an adventure, not to be sodamised – oh well fail to prepare,
prepare to fail.

Next I feel slightly peckish so I wonder outside my hotel room to look for some real Thai food. So I decide going to a street stall behind the Asia Hotel was a good idea. It wasn’t. First of all what I got on my plate was hot enough
to melt steel, and secondly it lead to my first encounter with the infamous Thai ladyboys! There I was sweating my sack off eating this strange mushy red paste with rice and dried fish when suddenly I notice a long slender hand running its self
along my neck and then this big, tall obvious he-she decides that I am a handsome man and he would like me to play with its she-nuts in exchange for 1000 of my hard earned baht! All this at lunch time. I become curious how this place worked at
night time if this is what its like during the daylight hours.

Finally night time fell and I decided to go out and explore. As soon I came out of the front door of my hotel a friendly tuktuk driver came running towards me asking where I wanted to go. After a few minutes of telling him I didn’t
want another massage after my ring had been explored deeply previously that day he said he will take me to a bar with lots of pretty women and good music. Ok I said lets got we settled for 100 baht from the Asia Hotel to the infamous soi 4.

Now before I came here to Thailand I had never even heard of soi 4 but my friendly driver said I would enjoy it very much. OH MY GOD! When I arrived there I couldn’t believe my eyes! It was full of hot sexy women screaming out “Hey
you sexy man come my bar” etc etc etc! WOW I was in heaven, women everywhere, screaming and wanting my bobby!

I decided that the bar Morning to Night Bar was the bar I would get drunk at before I wondered along to the Nana Plaza complex. After a few beers and games of pool and flirting with women from the Northeast I went to a small gogo bar called
Pretty Lady or something like that. WOW I have never been in somewhere like that. It was full of women and one in particular was completely butt naked strutting her stuff gazing down into my eyes! I sat down and ordered a Chang and called the
naked girl over. Her name was Kwan and she was just 18 years old, the same as me. I was in heaven. She explained to me about the whole whoring thing, barfines etc. I found it all so fascinating. It wasn’t just the sexual side it was the
whole scene that seems so appealing to me.

Once I finished a few beers and buying several other girls lady drinks, not to mention getting hand jobs left right and centre, I decided it was time to bar fine and bring this Kwan back to the Asia Hotel for a little fun, and oh my god did
I have fun. She told me her story, how she had a half Thai half Farang baby. She told me how the year previously she lived in Birmingham for 6 months. She even had a picture with her in a winter jacket to try and prove it. This was great. I was
18 and whoring! WHAT THE HELL! I wouldn’t have imagined but this was the beginning of Thailand ruining my soul.

When the fun finally stopped we drifted off to sleep. She hugged me close as if she really wanted me…. I was starting to get hooked on the scene and my friends hadn’t even arrived in Thailand yet. I was meant to be riding on elephants,
going to raves, searching out deserted beaches on tropical islands. Not spending nights in bars and strip clubs with men well over twice my age!

Little did I know but this country had just started to change they way I was. It was beginning to take hold of my body and soul. I was young, I was travelling, I was in heaven, or so I thought.

Stickman's thoughts:

18, wow, that sure is young to throw yourself in the deep end.