Stickman Readers' Submissions December 18th, 2006

Metamorphosis Part 1

Of the gladdest moments in human life, me thinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of habit, the leaden weight of routine, the cloak of many cares and the slavery of home, one feels once more happy. The blood flows with the fast circulation of childhood. A journey, in fact, appeals to imagination, to memory, to hope, the three sister graces of our moral being…

– Sir Richard Francis Burton, 1856

He Clinic Bangkok

I am back. Back home that is, after having roamed Bangkok and Malaysia for a total of ten days in late November, early December. Not a long time you may think, particularly given the fact that I found myself crammed into an uncomfortable
plane seat in cattle class for close to twelve hours twice within less than two weeks. Sadly the times of being offered free business class upgrades for air traffic controllers on long-haul flights came to an abrupt end with the aviation industry
crisis that ensued after the events of 9/11. Yet another good reason to hate Osama bin Laden I suppose.

So has it been worth it? Oh yes, it most definitely has. I decided to run this submission under the title "Metamorphosis", and if you opt to bear with me over the next pages you will soon find out why I think it is appropriate.
I believe it is fair to say that I returned from this trip as a changed man, at least judging from my own perspective. Changed in a way I would not have thought easily possible. Changed in a way I would have not anticipated just one month ago.
I've been gone for roughly ten days but experienced more in that short period of time than I ever have back home over the course of many months. At this time, when I look back at the events of the past two weeks, they almost feel to me like
vague memories of a surreal dream I have just awoken from.

In late spring, at the time when I made up my mind where to go for my annual short break in late November, I had originally planned to travel to the Maldives and spend a lazy week of beach bumming, scuba diving and relaxing there. I have
never been there, and given the stress I had been having in my job at that time, combined with the emotional turmoil of my fallen to pieces relationship with my Thai femme fatale Nok I thought it might be a good idea to go somewhere completely
new. Despite my best intentions, I still ended up booking a flight to Bangkok though, as no seats were available anymore on any of the flights to the Maldives at the time I wanted to go. So I simply changed my plans and opted for yet another visit
of my friend Mike in Bangkok, followed by a short hop down to Malaysia. Friends of mine had told me lots of good about their recent trip to Penang and Langkawi, so I thought I'd just go and see for myself. Anyway, Penang had been on my "places
I want to go" list for some years already, as I had to give it a miss the first time I'd been to Malaysia in 2003. So in no time all the flights were booked, and many plans were made how to make most of the short time I would have at
my disposal in the region.

CBD bangkok

Yet another trip to Asia it was to be, albeit a rather short one. My colleagues at work didn't fail to learn about this shortly after I had secured the tickets, consequently passing me either envious or ridiculing comments. The latter
of the sorts of: "They are cheaper over there, aren't they?", rather obviously pointing at the availability of cheap sex in many parts of SEA. I've developed a thick skin over time with regard to such side blows. They don't
really bother me anymore, and nowadays I'm either laughing along with their jokes at my expense, or I'm simply ignoring them. Among my colleagues I've already earned the reputation of being a bit of a weirdo for my frequent trips
to Asia. Many of them just don't seem to know what they should make of them, especially those who have never been to the region themselves, even though they have the same easy options of getting discounted air tickets as I do. Sometimes I
pity them. They just don't know what they are missing. Well, each to their own I guess.

As mentioned in my last submission, I spent quite a lot of thought about whether or not I should let Nok know about my upcoming visit to Bangkok. Most of the people I spoke to about the subject strongly advised me against contacting her,
as no good would come of it. I could see their point quite clearly.

However, I did finally decide to send a text to Nok's mobile phone, two days before departing to Bangkok. It read: "Nok…would you care for dinner with me some time next week, maybe Sunday?" I wanted to learn her reaction.
It must have come as quite a big surprise to her that I would return in Bangkok so soon again. I guess the sadistic part of my character, albeit not very strongly developed, felt pleasure at the thought of her being shocked by my announcement.
Before I cut ties with her, I had told her I wouldn't be back for a long time, and now all of the sudden I announced my sudden return again. Back then I had told her that I would eventually contact her again once my romantic feelings for
her would have subsided, and I won't be at risk of gutting myself again emotionally when being around her. Until the day of my departure she never replied, which surprised me.

After an uneventful flight I arrived at Suvarnabhumi in the early afternoon hours of Sunday, 26th of November. After having had read quite a few horror stories about the chaos and inefficiencies masses of passengers have supposedly been confronted
with at the new airport, I was very pleasantly surprised with the plain sailing proceedings of immigration, baggage claim, and customs. There were lots of immigration desks open, and queues were not too long despite the large number of passengers
arriving at that time. It took me less than five minutes to clear immigration and at the time when I reached the designated conveyer belt to pick up my luggage it was already there waiting for me. Overall a very good experience, only many of the
terminal structures could use a bit more paint in my opinion.

wonderland clinic

While lining up at immigration I had switched on my mobile and promptly received a message from Nok: "When will you be here?"

I replied truthfully "I'm here already, will be until Tuesday, and then again from Sunday next week". Again, there was no reply from her side anymore. I decided I would give her a call once I got to my hotel.

I had made an online booking for the Siam Beverly at Rachadapisek Soi 12, as my buddy Mike recommended it to me as being situated very closely to his apartment building. After I had made the booking Mike found himself a new, larger apartment,
and spontaneously decided to move there on the particular weekend that I arrived. It is located a few Sois up Rachadapisek, so the Siam Beverly was still a good choice with regard to Mike's home, even though I couldn't just as easily
stroll over to his new place anymore as I could have done if he still had lived in his old apartment. I would need a taxi for going back and forth.

After unpacking my bag I sat down on the bed and dialled Nok's number. I admit to the fact that I was nervous. I had roughly thought of what to say to her, but of course had no idea what direction our conversation would eventually take.
She didn't pick up. I was sure she didn't avoid talking to me on purpose, as I was using a newly bought "Happy" SimCard I had just bought at the airport an hour ago. So couldn't have known the number I was calling from.

I decided I would give it another go later in the evening, and headed straight over to Mike's new apartment to see him and his girlfriend. His new place is not the easiest to find, so he picked me up half way down the Soi. Even though
we usually talk to each other on the phone several times a week, or chat on MSN or Skype, we had lots of things to discuss and talk about. I updated him on my attempts of trying to contact Nok, and helped him unloading the pickup truck that was
still full of stuff he hadn't had time to carry into his new home yet. A bit later I tried phoning Nok again, and that time she did pick up. She didn't recognize my voice at first, and when she finally did she let out a moaning "ooiii,
Lucas" that I wasn't exactly sure how to interpret. She cut me short by telling me that she was just teaching class (I never found out what and why), and couldn't talk to me at this time. She said she would call me back the following
day. That was the end of our first telephone conversation since over six months ago. It didn't last more than a minute.

As Mike's work week at the law firm would start the next day again, I discussed with him what I could do the following day. It's not as if I easily get bored, especially not in such a constantly vibrant place as Bangkok. I just
wanted to make most of the time I had. And this was where the metamorphosis was slowly about to begin. I dialled Vee's telephone number, and arranged a meeting for the following day. Who the hell is Vee you might ask now, and rightfully so.
To answer this question, I have to take you back through history on a short interlude…

Last summer I decided to register on Thailandfriends.com, and set up a simple profile. I had known about the website much earlier already, but never really bothered to look at it in detail, as I thought it would be just a waste of time basically.
Generally I'm not much into chatting. Occasionally I use the gmail messenger application, the MSN messenger or Skype, but almost exclusively to convey information to my friends, or for having a friendly chat with them next to surfing the
web. I was honestly not looking to hook up with anybody through TF, and really didn't expect too much of it at all. I had just spontaneously decided to invest five minutes of my time for putting a profile online to find out what would happen.

Within the first week I received roughly 50 messages, exclusively from Thai girls living in Thailand, requesting me to add them as their friends or chat with them. Many of them were very pretty, some of them exceptionally beautiful. However,
the content of their profiles (apart from the photos) was more often than not rather poor. Either because their proficiency at English was just not very good, or they seemed to have few interests apart from chatting and shopping. Now, none of
these findings really surprised me, but I wouldn't even know what to talk about with those girls. And yes, I got some rather sleazy messages too to which I didn't react. I wasn't in the mood for fooling around.

Over summer I used to chat occasionally with a 22 year old Chula student of political sciences. Judging from her photos she is very pretty. Furthermore, she used to live and attend high school in Switzerland some years ago. She also speaks
fluent English and French. A few months ago I agreed to meeting up and having coffee with her next time I'd be around. However, usually when I chatted with her I noticed how she took a lot of time to reply to my messages. To me it was pretty
clear she was chatting to lots of people simultaneously, which I found a bit off putting. She also didn't seem to remember anything I told her from one time to the next. I guess the inflow of information from all the guys she was chatting
with was just too much for her to handle. I also found it strange that she showed off photos of herself in lingerie, laying on her bed, on her Thailandfriends and MSN profiles. Of course, I too found them very pleasant to look at, but I asked
myself what kind of girl would do such a thing, particularly in Thailand.

After the initial influx of messages reacting to my newly established profile on Thailandfriends had abated, I didn't spend much time looking at that website anymore. Occasionally some girl dropped me a message, but it usually was just
more of the same old crap, so I simply ignored most of them.

Then, one day in early November, I received a note through Thailandfriends from a girl called Vee, 25 years old, from Nakhon Pathom. Her message was refreshingly normal. She simply wrote "Hello, you have a very nice profile, I'd
be happy to chat with you if you find the time"! That made a friendly enough impression on me, so without much further ado I simply added her to my MSN contacts. A few days later we chatted for the first time. I had some work to do at home
and simply opened the chat window on my second computer screen, so I could drop her messages and make some progress with my work at the same time. She appeared to be friendly enough, but as it happens so often with Thai girls on chat our talk
got stuck rather soon for want of fruitful discussion topics. Why is it always that these girls never ask anything about the person they chat to? I always end up asking questions and trying to keep the conversation alive, while they never seem
to be interested much about anything in the other person except maybe basics like age, profession, and eventually hobbies in the broadest sense. It seems as if when they get answers to those questions, they don't know what else to say or
ask anymore, but then complain when you decide to stall the chat with them and ask you to talk to them again soon.

Anyway, we chatted with each other a few times over the next weeks, never longer than maybe 30 minutes at a time, me always surfing the web or working on the computer simultaneously. We definitely never talked about meeting in real life,
even though I had told her repeatedly I would be in Thailand at the end of November. Even if she had asked, I would have probably told her I wouldn't be able to afford the time as I would only be in Bangkok for a few days altogether, and
was planning to spend that time with my friend Mike.

The weeks flew by, and finally the day when I was to depart to the LOS had arrived. I finished work at 4pm that day, and had six hours to kill before going to the airport to catch my night flight to Bangkok. My bag was almost completely packed,
and I was positively oscillating with the prospect of finally going. I decided to pass the time checking out some websites about Langkawi and Penang I hadn't found the time to look at previously. After a few minutes of browsing, a MSN chat
window popped up on my desktop. It was Vee, saying hello. I wasn't exactly busy doing anything so I started chatting with her, and funnily enough that proved to be the first occasion we actually managed to get a half-decent conversation going.
I mentioned to her that it was only a few hours until I would go to the airport, which she acknowledged, but didn't comment on initially. Only a bit later she suddenly asked me: "Where are you flying to?"

At first I thought she was joking. I had told her at least thrice in the past month that I was going to Bangkok at the end of November, and now she pretended she didn't know? Clearly she must be kidding I thought…

She was not kidding, and was totally surprised and suddenly all excited when I told her again that I would be in Bangkok in approximately 16 hours. She apologized about confusing the dates, as she thought I was not arriving until the end
of December. Either way, after having talked for about an hour, also using the webcams, she told me that she would really like to meet me for coffee, if I only found time for her. I told her that I couldn't tell her for certain if I would
find the time, but suggested she should give me her phone number so I could let her know whether or not I would the following day. Actually in that moment I thought of my offer as no more than an act of courtesy, as I really didn't think
I would have the time to meet her. Anyway, no sooner said than done, I got her phone number and we ended our chat with me promising her I would send her a text the next evening, letting her know if there was a chance to meet up or not. And as
you already know from a few pages above, I ended up meeting her…

There she was, standing in front of McDonald's in the small shopping mall at the Easterly corner of Victory Monument, her hands in the air waving, trying to get my attention. She had spotted me first, which is not surprising given the
fact that I was the only farang around at that time. I remember how when I first caught a glimpse at her I was less than impressed. To me, she looked considerably different than on the webcam the day before. She had looked prettier then. I could
still without any doubt recognize it was her, yet couldn't put my finger on what exactly it was that was different about her. In any case, I didn't have much time to ponder over this as in the next moment we were facing each other already.

Vee isn't tall. When we were facing each other her eyes were about level with my shoulders, myself being close to 6,2 ft, or 189cm, in height. I estimated her height at slightly below 160cm. She later confirmed it was actually 158cm,
so I wasn't far off with my guess. I noticed her feminine figure, rather curvy with a very slender waistline, not too small hips and a rather prominent chest of the sorts you probably find less frequently amongst Thai maidens than amongst
their Farang sisters. She has long, black hair that reaches down to her lower back when she is standing.

Her clothes were casual, blue jeans, a nicely patterned blouse, and to my astonishment a light yet long-sleeved vest that she wouldn't even take off while being out in the open at 30+ degrees. She later explained to me that her mum wants
her to dress modestly in public, so she tries to conform to her wishes out of respect for her.

At the second glimpse she did actually look quite sexy, and that in a refreshingly natural and unpretentious manner. I'm not sure if she would have turned my head walking past me on the street, at least not in Thailand. I think it would
be fair to say that she pales a bit compared to some of the often glamorously dressed beauties you can spot on the skytrain and pretty much anywhere else around the city.

Vee's face is not exactly slim, with puffy cheeks and the slight hint of a double chin. Later she kept on complaining how her face looked fat on photos, which I honestly have to dispute though. Actually it goes well with the rest of
her body. She wore a bit of make-up, yet obviously hadn't had too much practice with the use of mascara in the past, as some of her eyelashes seemed to glue together to pairs. Her slightly crooked teeth explain her hesitancy to smile at the
webcam at my request the day before. She must be aware of her less than perfect smile, and I pity her for her parents failure to have her teeth set straight in due time. They would have produced a truly wonderful smile.

Yet despite all these slight shortcomings Vee has something very appealing about her, even if only at the second or third look. I am sure she would draw a lot of attention from men back in Farangland, mainly due to her feminine curves, slim
waste and voluminous chest.

To my ears, Vee's got a somewhat funny way to speak English. She has a perceptible, while of course not very distinct, Australian accent. It doesn't sound fake, yet not very authentic either. She must have picked it up while she
was living, studying, and working in Australia a couple of years back. Furthermore, she pronounces all the "r's" in any words as "l's", which gives her language a pretty stereotypical Asian imprint. Overall, her spoken
English is not too bad, and actually much better than I had expected from chatting to her and her very own modest appraisal.

So we said our hellos to each other, her shyly beaming up at me, and me trying to reduce her anxiety in the face of the unknown farang by putting up my friendliest face. Surprisingly to me, inside McDonald's her 22 year old sister and
her "not yet but soon might be" boyfriend were already waiting for their turn to get a glimpse at the farang, so off we were to have me introduced to them. As Vee told me later, they had insisted to be allowed to come along to the meeting
point so they could also get to know me. Boy, I felt a bit like being the main attraction in a zoo, but anyway it was fine with me.

Her sister looks a whole lot different to Vee. She is very slim, far less curvy, and also her facial features do not really resemble Vee's. I later referred to her as the walking pencil. Without learning they are sisters I would have
never guessed they are. She wears heavy braces that make her bright smile look rather awkward. Obviously their parents have not made the same mistake twice and invested in their second child's smile more than they did in Vee's. She told
me she studies English and something else I have already forgotten at university, yet I found her proficiency at speaking English far less developed than Vee's. Her male "best friend" didn't speak too much, but mostly stared
at me from head to toe for the few minutes we were sharing the table. In that moment, in my mind I was already contemplating ways of how I could politely excuse myself from this somewhat uncomfortable situation.

I was saved by my buddy Mike who just then sent a text to my mobile, cheekily asking me how the meeting was going, and how I liked the girl. I used his message as an excuse to take myself out of the "conversation" for a moment,
and slowly typed in my reply on the phone while the rest of the party continued their chat, not without having at least one of them at a time glancing at me every other second and sometimes giggling along in the process. To be honest, I did feel
a bit weird. I wrote back to Mike: "Not too spectacular" and pushed the "send" button on my phone. Really, I didn't know what else I should tell him at that point.

Finally, I decided to loosen up the whole situation a bit and started to chat away in my very basic Thai to them. That did have the desired effect, and to our mutual entertainment soon the three of them were trying to teach me new words and
practice pronunciation with me.

Soon thereafter Vee's sister and her friend excused themselves as they had to be on time for class, and Vee and I were faced with the question of what to do next. She asked me what I felt like doing, and given the fact that I hadn't
had breakfast that morning I proposed to just go and get early lunch together somewhere where we could have a laid-back chat and get to know each other a bit more. As she didn't have any particular suggestion for a place I proposed to just
take the skytrain to Sukhumvit and find a place there. No sooner said than done we were headed to Siam station and finally wound up in a restaurant at MBK.

During lunch Vee shared her story with me. From the few occasions of briefly chatting to her I didn't know a whole lot about her, so I was curious to find out more. Also, talking about each others lives was the most obvious and probably
also the easiest topic to address, as I didn't exactly have the feeling as if she wanted to discuss the latest developments in world affairs with me. So we soon found ourselves engaged in some lightweight conversation.

Vee graduated from the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce in Bangkok in 2002 at the age of 22. After having graduated she got a job working as Customer Care Officer for the AIS phone company in her home town Nakhon Pathom, which is
located an approximate 60 kilometres West of Bangkok. She worked there for two years, but finally quit the job because her boss was constantly picking on her. Subsequently she and her best university friend Lek signed up for an English language
course in Melbourne, where they stayed for seven months.

According to her she hardly spoke any English when she arrived to Australia, so pretty much all of the English she speaks today she acquired during her stay down under. While she was there, she took classes on weekdays from 9am to 3pm, and
worked in a Thai restaurant from 4pm to midnight every day of the week. Additionally, on weekends she got up at 6am and worked in a mini-mart at the cash register from 7am until 3pm. Her homework and studying for English class she did when the
business at the restaurant or at the mini-mart was slow. Working this much she could save quite a bit of money. Money she still lives of today. I later noticed her having 150 Australian Dollars in her purse. She explained to me they were for good
luck.

She told me that she enjoyed her stay in Australia, and eventually wants to go back to improve her English even further. Yet she is uncertain because she had so much trouble understanding the Australian accent, especially when people were
talking fast to her. According to her, she was only directly exposed to Australians while she was serving them at the Thai restaurant or at the cash register at the 24-hour mini-mart, but otherwise spent the little free time she had at her disposal
together with her friend Lek and the other foreign language students from her class.

After her return to Thailand she utilized her newly acquired language skills and started working as a Customer Relations Officer in the Amari Watergate hotel in Bangkok, earning a "staggering" 8000 Baht per month there. She liked
the job, but didn't like commuting between Bangkok and Nakhon Pathom every day, a journey that takes her at least two hours one way, depending on the traffic. Moving to Bangkok wasn't an option for her, so she quit the job last summer
and has stayed home ever since. To my question what she does all day sitting at home she answered: "Take care of my mum, clean house, cook for family". So I guess she is not exactly the most ambitious person I have ever met, but of course
that I had never expected.

Today's she is dreaming of either going abroad again or becoming a flight attendant, but she is worried neither her proficiency in English nor her looks will suffice for the latter. Silently I tend to agree with her analysis, yet I wouldn't
even think of telling her. Who am I to shatter her dreams? And who knows, she might actually have a chance. Vee now thinks of attending a preparatory camp for prospective flight attendants at the beginning of next year.

While she was telling me all this, almost automatically my over many years of reading Stickmanbangkok.com acquired and quite possibly overly sensitive "bullshit alarm" went off. Was this girl trying to take me for a ride? Was she
attempting to manipulate me into doing something, whatever that something may be? How would she want to take advantage of me? I was cautiously suspicious of everything she told me, and while I do believe being careful when meeting new people can
never really be a bad idea, thinking about it now I do feel pretty paranoid about it.

Yet I couldn't help but wonder how she actually managed to get a visa to Australia, and then worked two jobs there too. I'm not familiar with the Australian immigration rules and procedures, but I doubt that a Thai citizen without
any family ties within Australia can easily get a work permit, even if it is just a temporary one. I never asked her about this directly. I simply figured she must have gotten herself a visa based on her language studies there, and worked illegally
at the shop and the restaurant. Really, it would have been easy to ask, and I'm not sure why I didn't now. I guess I just didn't want to be too nosey.

For some time I considered the possibility of her having had a sponsor there. Someone who brought her in and facilitated everything. This theory I largely discarded rather soon though. Judging by her general behaviour and by the curious questions
she often asked me about the "ways of the farang", I arrived at the conclusion that she couldn't have had a lot of farang exposure in the past, even though she used to live in Farangland for more than six months. Either that or
she would have deserved an Oscar for her flawless performance of naivety. Honestly, I didn't think she had the wits to pull off such a show. Not that I thought of her as stupid as such. I just didn't think she was mentally sophisticated
enough to be capable of weaving such an elaborate web of lies. Of course, many before me have believed the same throughout history and were in for a huge surprise…

Sitting there at one of the tables in one of the Thai restaurants on MBK's 5th floor chatting with her and observing her, Vee gave me the initial impression of being just an average, rather simple-minded girl without many interests yet
with a lot of dreams. Not overly intelligent, but clever in her very own way. Very conscious of the person she is, even though, as she told me later, her mum constantly tempers with her feelings of self-worth, chastising her daily for supposedly
being too fat, which she is not at all in my eyes. Yet she radiates dignity.

After lunch the question was again: Where to next? She suggested taking me to see her university friend Lek, who she has been to Australia with, and who works not too far away from MBK in her parents' garments shop. Not having a better
idea I agreed, thinking it might be nice to meet another cute girl that afternoon. So off we went, and after 20 minutes of walking at a leisurely pace we arrived at the place. It was a little shop hidden inside a maze of narrow alleyways close
to the Amari Watergate hotel. Vee asked me to wait outside the shop for a minute so she could go ahead, surprise Lek, and also prepare her for the grand entrance of the farang on stage, me!

When she finally waved me into the shop Lek was nowhere to be seen. When I asked Vee where she had gone, she put up a huge smile and whispered: "Put up make-up for you!" I had to laugh when I heard that. I thought that was cute,
but in a funny way. Lek finally appeared and we exchanged friendly smiles and the usual acts of courtesy. We ended up me showing them my travel photo blog online on Lek's laptop, and them showing me their profiles on "Hi 5". That's
when I saw a lot of photos from their time together in Australia, and also of Vee's family's house in Nakhon Pathom, which looked like a really nice and rather big place with a huge garden. Vee's mum had told me both her parents
work as butchers on a night market, 6 days a week from 9 pm to 9 am. I was a bit surprised they could afford such a place. But then again, Vee had also mentioned that her mum wanted to go to Bali some time soon for Spa treatment, so if she wasn't
lying about that I guess their business must really be going quite well. Furthermore, they have also managed to afford sending Vee on language training to Australia, and her young sister had been to New Zealand before for university summer camp.

And that was the point when this whole situation developed into a different direction. A direction I can honestly say I did neither actively pursue nor expect to happen…

In the midst of our friendly chat I received yet another text message from my buddy Mike, asking me cheekily if I made any "progress" with Vee. I wrote him back, telling him where we were, and that I was having a good time.

To that he replied provocatively: "Well then, take her to your hotel!"

I wrote back: "You are such an idiot!"

To which he replied: "No Akulka, you are! You are f…… blind! Just go for it! Take her!"

I had to chuckle at my buddy Mike for being so cheeky, as he is absolutely not the kind of guy who would usually attempt doing what he just suggested me to try, and he knows that neither am I. Truth to be told, I have always considered myself
to be a guy who feels most comfortable in a relationship. I've never been a friend of one night stands, and I'm not ashamed to say that I've never had one in my life. There have been a few opportunities in the past when I could
have had one, but it just never felt right to me in those situations. I just never felt comfortable with sleeping with someone I was not at all emotionally involved with. But as I should learn just a short time later, in the past it must have
been the women and not the situations I never felt comfortable with. For one reason or the other, my buddy Mike's messages to me suddenly made me feel adventurous.

After some more friendly chit chat in the garments shop Vee asked Lek to take some photos of us two with my camera, so she did. Thereafter we said our goodbyes to Lek and navigated our way through the alleyways back out onto the street. On
the way out Vee looked at and commented on the photos on the screen of my camera, and mentioned to me how she actually likes to pose cute and sexy for photos once in a while. Somewhat emboldened by Mike's messages that sure did get my attention,
so I pursued this matter, asking her teasingly why she hadn't posed cute or sexy when we had taken the photos in the shop a few minutes earlier. She smiled at that and told me she would have been too embarrassed there, and anyway she usually
does that only with her sister, and definitely only in the privacy of her house or room.

When we were out on the street again, she asked where to go next. I decided to take this "experiment" a step further, still very incredulous that this would actually lead to anything like Mike had implied in his texts to me, and
asked her if she wanted to go to Rachadapisek Road. She answered that she had never been there, so I told her I would show her around. Now, it's not as if there is really anything exciting to see on Rachadapisek road, at least I don't
think around Soi 12 where my hotel was located, but I didn't even have to explain why I thought that going there would be a good idea, as Vee didn't have any objections anyway. So off we were in a taxi, and as none of us knew of any
landmark on Rachadapisek that would be worth going to, we agreed we would just head to my hotel.

Twenty minutes later we arrived, and went straight up to my room. She asked me if it was okay if she took a shower. Of course I had no objections. I was waiting for her to finish, rather amazed how I got myself this Thai girl into my hotel
room after knowing her for less than five hours. I'm a relationship minded kind of guy, rather shy, not in the habit of having sexual liaisons with strangers. Or so I thought. I remember mumbling out loud to myself: "What a cliché!
This happens to everybody else, but not to me!" It was a first, and it felt pleasantly exciting. Yet I wasn't sure what to make of it. It all felt so easy, relaxed, and playful. What was this wondrous country called Thailand doing to
me?

Part 2 to follow soon…

Stickman's thoughts:

Great stuff. Looking forward to reading part 2!


nana plaza