It’s His Affair

Hi this Noi, na kha. You may have heard of me before in this submission http://www.stickmanbangkok.comReadersSubmissions2011/reader6836.htm

And again here. http://www.stickmanbangkok.comReadersSubmissions2011/reader6969.htm

I found out what BKR had written about me when I hacked his computer. He left it open one day and I had a quick browse while he was out. Yes, we Thai girls know how to use computers nowadays so don’t be surprised if your girlfriend
has had a look through your folders. I was totally shocked by what he had to say about me. Don’t believe a word he says. Khorthoot, but he is a complete bullshitter. Please allow me to put the story straight, na kha.

I quit my factory job and came to Bangkok to be with him. I was already assistant supervisor and my boss has sent me to Ramkhamhaeng for night classes so I could make the next step up to shift supervisor. It was a good job. With OT I could
make 20,000 baht working a 7-day week. Well I took one day a week off, and lost income as a result, in order to see him. Mai pen rai, kha. But then he started to bitch about travelling up to Ayhuddya to see me, saying it was a long trek
out of town, so I said never mind, I would find a job and move to Bangkok to be near you. And when I did it, he started bitching twice as much. That hurt, kha. I give up my job, my friends, my home, my family and all he could say was why didn’t
you ask me first. Of course, I did. But as usual, he wasn’t listening.

It was difficult, because I don’t have a university degree, to find a job in Bangkok, but after pounding the pavement, knocking on doors, making hundreds of telephone calls, I managed to get a position as a life insurance agent. It
wasn’t going to pay a salary but I could make good commission on every sale. Sometimes up to 40% of the premium. I figured if I made half-a-dozen good sales per month it would provide me with a good income. Well, I’d been working
in a big factory and that meant 4,000 potential customers. It looked a good prospect. I was excited. Even better, my office was in the same complex as BKR. Now I could see my boyfriend every day. But first I needed to find somewhere to live, kha.
Renting a room was expensive, and everything in Bangkok was twice as costly as Ayhuddhya, but then I had another good piece of fortune. My new office friend was a mia noi for a rich engineering surveyor and she persuaded him to allow
me to stay in their shared room. He paid for the rent and all of the costs of our room and in return stayed over for a few hours each evening.

So now I had somewhere to live rent-free. Dee maak kha! It got better again. The boyfriend came to pick up his mia noi from work every evening, and as we worked together, so I got to ride to our room in a BMW every day. My life was
a hundred times better than the factory job. Before, I woke each day at 5 AM to get the works bus, now I was being chauffeured to and from the office. And in the evenings we stopped off in Rangsit for dinner. Rich man spending 500 baht per head
every day. So now I could eat belly-full for free..eieiei! Good food too, not just the twenty baht fare from the factory canteen, Oh yes, there’s something else I want to tell you. Doesn’t mean much for you guys but very important
for us girls. You see, the factory was a sterile environment and we wore ugly, protective clothing and face-masks. Not sexy at all! Now, I was out in the big city. I could wear mini-skirts and make-up. I could put on my high heels, and of course
there were a lot more good-looking guys around in the city. I didn’t have to work weekends either. On Saturdays Richman took us out with his buddies to play golf, and of course they flirted with us like mad and we congratulated them on
their prowess. Richman paid for everything, kha. Money was no object. He had political connections or something. I don’t really know. In Thailand we don’t need to know, hahaha. As long as they keep spending, we’ll keep smiling.
Most nights we ended up back at our room, Richman, mia noi and tua eng, usually slightly drunk but happy. Richman and mia noi made love while I pretended to sleep on the floor and then around 11 PM he would dress and
head back to his wife and kids. It was our routine. I told BangkokReal about this.

‘Don’t you find it strange being in the same room while they have sex?’ he asked.

‘They do it quietly, tiilak’. In truth it made me horny.

When Richman eventually left for home, mia noi and I would whip out our laptops and see who was chatting on Facebook. I’d find one of my factory mates online.

‘
Pi Noi sabai dee r u plaaw?’

‘Sabai dee. Maow laow’

‘Lor? Krungthep sanook mai, kha?’

‘Sanook, kha. Phuuchay ruay, kha’

Then Bangkokreal came online.

‘Hi’

‘Hi’

‘I thought you were coming to see me in the office. I sent the staff home early so we’d be alone’

‘Sorry kha, but mia noi and Richman were waiting for me go to dinner together’

‘You don’t have time for me any more’

‘Sorry kha. But we eat dinner with customer buy insurance. Don’t worry I not go alone’

Richman had a friend. Married with kids, but he liked me. I called him Piggy because he was round as a barrel. Piggy often made up a foursome with us for dinner. Like Richman he was generous with his money and when Richman was away on business
then Piggy would do the chauffeuring. Life was almost perfect. We hit the karaoke scene in Rachadapisek most nights. We cruised around Rangsit and Laksii looking for new and exciting places to eat. At weekends there was golf and the gun clubs.
Money, guys, sexy clothes, what more could a girl ask for, kha? And it wasn’t costing me one satang. It was a world away from the factory.

There was one problem. I wasn’t making any money. Selling life insurance was proving more difficult than I’d imagined. Ok, I’d made a couple of 30k premium sales to my family of which I netted 20k which was a good first
month. But when I started hustling my old mates from Ayhuddyha, everybody shunned me. I went back to my old haunts but my friends melted away. They claimed that life insurance was a luxury they couldn’t afford. Hey, is 30k a year too much
for peace of mind? I don’t think so. The second month in and I hadn’t sold a button. Out of 4,000 staff I made just one 30k baht sale to my former boss. And then the next day he called me up to cancel it! I turned to BKR for help
but he was in one of his moods about being neglected. It wasn’t fair. Mia noi was getting Richman to spend a couple of million baht on a savings scheme. Her cut was 50k in commission. My boyfriend was doing zilch for me. I was
making nothing. I had to fill a quota for the quarter in order to make a bonus so the third month in and every night I was out with clients. Daytime I was cold-calling; night time, visiting. And when the clients were men they wanted only one thing.
They wanted sex with me before they would even consider buying my policies. I hadn’t left Ayhuddhya to become a prostitute. Yet my principles were costing me in lost sales and I was becoming more dependent on the goodwill of Richman and
Mia noi to survive.

Well BKR and I had been having this on again-off again relationship for some months now. He couldn’t handle the fact that I was out with customers at night. He was hueng maak pai. I’d have to call him to reassure him
that I was sitting in a restaurant and not in some short-time hotel room. It hadn’t helped that he found through hacking my Facebook chat about a couple of quick affairs I’d had, but that was all behind me as far as I was concerned.
He was my official boyfriend.

It was just after 5 PM on the Tuesday when BKR called me. I was packing up my stuff as Richman had phoned to say he was on the way over to the office to take us out to dinner. BKR’s voice was stuttering and he was upset about something.
He kept talking about his job. He wanted me to come over. I told mia noi to wait for me, whatever the problem was I didn’t want to miss out on a free dinner. When I arrived in the lobby of his office tower BKR was visibly shaking.

‘They’ve just sacked me! The CEO came over from Sydney and said they’re not winning enough business in Thailand and they’re shutting down over here.’

‘But he told you a couple of months ago that your job was safe.’

‘Well he obviously lied. And I’m totally stuffed.’

BKR was deeply upset. I didn’t know what to do. There were throngs of people about leaving their offices. BKR looked as though he was going to burst into tears. A little embarrassing. So I bundled him into a taxi and sent him home
to his wife. Thor! What was I going to do now?

At least with myself, I have to be honest. This big city, bright lights stuff is really an illusion. The reality is somewhat harsher. Here, it’s all about making money because everything costs so much if you want to have a good time.
Back home you don’t need money, instead you have friendships and family. City people are not so friendly as country folk. But I’d turned my back on all my good mates because I’d wanted adventure. I’d come to Bangkok
looking for excitement and a rich man to take care of me. But it wasn’t working out that way. Yes, the excitement and good times were there but a girl was expected to pay in kind if she couldn’t pay in cash. And I didn’t have
the cash.

Bangkok Real always promised he would take of me, but he is still with his wife. Piggy is the same. He wants me to be his mia noi. I told him look, it was mia luang or forget it. Richman spends a fortune on his mia noi yet she is seeing a younger guy behind his back. It’s a dangerous game. If he ever finds out and ends their relationship, well that ends my freebies, too, doesn’t it? And now I know why Richman likes me to be around. I am his mia noi guarddog.

So what am I to do? I’m not making any money and now neither is my boyfriend. I can’t risk everything on Richman and yet going back to the factory is out of the question. I’d lose too much face. My old staff would laugh
at me and besides, I would be back on the bottom rung of the ladder. My savings is down to 20k and without any income from the job the idea of heading to Phuket crosses my mind. It worked for my friend Tukta. She’s now in Australia on farang
husband number 4.

BKR calls me. He’s surprisingly upbeat. He’s spoken to a man of influence. They’re going to put the heat on his former company to screw a big redundancy out of them. He has an idea for starting a business. He wants to
rent a room and live with me.

‘
Diaw kon. How can you rent a room? You have no job. You need to save your money.’

‘Don’t worry about it’, he says. ‘A room will cost us around 5,000 baht a month. It’s not much and I have savings’

‘Have you told your wife?’

‘Yes. I said I need to rent an office for my new business venture and I want to stay there’

‘Did you tell her about me?’

‘No, of course not. She thinks I will stay there alone. Look, Noi. I am deeply in love with you. I want to get this business idea working so I can take care of you.’

‘Kha’.

‘So will you do it?’

‘Up to you’

Well, I’ve little to lose. He’s paying the rent so I have somewhere to live for free. I think losing his job has made him bhaa, but mai pen rai. As he says it’s what I always wanted. So next day I find
us a room. Richman is upset I’m leaving. There’s no one to keep an eye on mia noi for him. With me out of the way she can play the field. Piggy is upset too. He phones me constantly, trying to persuade me to change my mind
and be his mia noi. But no, it’s the farang for me.

BKR had already moved in by the time I arrived. He has a lot of stuff. Furniture, cookware, cutlery, utensils. He seems to be in for the long haul. So far, so good.

‘How did you get all this over here? You didn’t get your wife to send you, did you? She doesn’t know where we’re living, does she?’

‘Erm, no, I came by taxi’. He shifted uncomfortably on the big bed that practically filled the room. I know when BKR is lying. If his wife knows I am here she will kill me.

We settle down to married life together. It’s strange. I’ve been used to doing my own thing for so long that having to fit in with another is not that easy. It’s like jigsaw pieces that don’t quite fit. You know
forcing it just doesn’t work. We have to be careful with money. He has no job, I have no income. We’ve got to do something fast if we’re going to make this work. I’m out at the office, on the phone, cold calling prospectives.
It’s ironic because I hated getting these calls myself, and here I am doing just that to earn a living. The things we do to survive, hey? Yes, I’m dreading having to do night visits. My boyfriend is not going to handle it well.

We’ve bought a fridge, and extra stuff that he didn’t have. It’s costly setting up home together. He’s back at the room, working on his ideas while I am out for the day. I lent him my laptop for his website development.
Oh, that was a big mistake on my part, na kha. He calls me up in the afternoon, he’s going wild over the phone, screaming at the top of his voice. I hope the neighbours are out.

‘I’ve just seen your pics of your trip to Laos. There’s a folder on your laptop. You told me you were going with Richman and Mia Noi. But there’s photos of Piggy here too, Noi. You lied to me. You cheated
on me’

Oh shit, I thought I had deleted them all.

‘Tiilak, I didn’t want you to be upset’

‘Noi, that’s a typical Thai response. You lie to cover up your misdeeds and you think it’s ok. You can’t even say sorry’

He wasn’t in the room when I came back from work and I thought he’d gone back to his wife but an hour later he turned up with a couple of bottles of liquor. The first time he’s ever done that. I pray he’s not going
to get drunk and start acting stupidly.

‘I needed some time to think’, was all he said.

We didn’t say much that evening and he forgot about the booze. We had great makeup sex that night. At least I owed him a good one. It wasn’t until the next day he told me he was leaving for good. I took a deep breath and sighed. I wai’d him too, as an apology. We loaded his stuff into a taxi and off he went.

What a fxxk up.

I couldn’t go to work that day. My head was spinning around. Another day’s chance of making money gone. To make it worse, his wife turned up at the condo building later that afternoon, demanding the return of the fridge. My
fridge. The one I paid for, not him. It was all too much. I telephoned Piggy boy to come around and move my stuff back to Ayhuddya, my home town. Piggy was gloating. Me and the farang lasted three days, and Piggy had that ‘I told you so
look on his face’. Piggy wanted me to be his Mia Noi but I chose the farang. I made the wrong choice.

Back home again I moved into my old room, flicked on my laptop and logged into my Facebook account. But I couldn’t log in. The farang had changed my password. I logged into my friend’s account. I had set up the account for her
and she hadn’t changed the password so I had access to Facebook. I called up my profile page. That fxxker had loaded around fifty photos of me into my account. Some of me in my underwear, some of me in different hotel bedrooms, including
a few where we’d gone to short-time hotels when he’d needed a quickie. And then there were the pics he’d copied from my laptop with me and different boyfriends. The album made me out to look like a whore. The bastard. It wasn’t
long before my phone was ringing. It was one of my girlfriends from my old factory.

‘Have you seen Facebook?’ she asked.

‘Yes. I’m going through the pictures now’

‘Some of the guys at work have downloaded them all and they’re circulating around in emails. This is the former assistant supervisor’.

This wasn’t just loss of face for me. This was complete and utter humiliation. Ayhuddya is not a big city, and everybody knows everybody else’s business. These pictures totally shame me.

I spent the next few days at home. I couldn’t go out of the house for the embarrassment. I couldn’t walk down the street anymore. Everybody would know. Everybody would look and stare. I discussed with my best friend what I should
do. She suggested I go to the police. But I didn’t want to make any more trouble for BKR. He is married and it would have been another turn of the screw. I had 12,000 baht left. Bangkok was a failure. I couldn’t go back to my old
job, and then to top it all, the floods began. It took only a couple of days for the smear of water across the soi to become waist deep. That was that. I was getting out.

I packed up a few possessions in an overnight bag and took the train down to Don Muang and caught one of the last flights out before they shutdown the airport. I landed in Udon Thani and then took a long distance bus to my uncle’s
farm in Loei right up against the Laos border. My money was down to 9,000 baht. After 35 years on this planet, that is the sum total of my wealth. I’m writing this submission in the cold mountain air, as far away from Bangkok and Bangkok
Real as I could. I work in the rice fields now. I get no pay. But I eat for free and sleep for free. Just as I used to do with Richman and Mia Noi. I can’t afford a phone so I am completely cut off from the outside world. I don’t
get to wear sexy dresses anymore and there’s no need for makeup. Noi think Noi will end her days here, na kha.

Stickman's thoughts:

Fascinating to hear how things worked out!

It should be noted that logging in to other's online accounts and messing around with them, such as uploading suggestive or naughty photos is not something one should do anywhere, but especially in Thailand, where the law looks very dimly on it – and the penalties can be very harsh. Best to steer clear of that.