Stickman Readers' Submissions July 18th, 2012

Bosley

"Bosley" is the name I will use for a friend of mine I met back in 2005 in Jomtien. This guy was 66 then but looked very strong and fit. Met at the view Talay 2b swimming pool. At the time I was just moving here to escape a crazed Rock Hard A gogo girl from Patong. He had some great stories to tell as he has been in SE Asia since he was a 22 year old in the US Navy on an aircraft carrier serving in his mid twenties on deck for the Vietnam War. He stayed in the Philippines his entire Naval career and retired in his mid forties moving from Subic Bay 45 minutes south to Angeles City while Clark was in full swing and a hundred thousand beautiful girls worked on and around Fields Avenue. He told of weddings happening nearly daily in those days and the girls were the loveliest one could imagine.


So he stayed there as long as he could take the brownouts and fear of the Steely boys, Filipino guys who made knives from old automobile springs. I can vouch for their hand quickness as that is the only place on earth my pocket has ever been picked. They are indeed very different from the Thai men I see here. As time went on, Bosley decided he wanted to be someplace where the air-conditioning worked most of the time and you could get a hot shower as well. So he moved to Thailand.

He Clinic Bangkok


I doubt anyone can dispute that Thailand is considerably more user friendly than the Philippines, the food, lack of typhoons and safety is much more evident. So the guy settles in Pattaya nearly thirty years ago. He recalls when the Navy parked right in Pattaya Bay until some local organization charged too much for the nightly return boat trips and the US decided to never return to park in Pattaya Bay, but Laem Chabang instead. But he speaks of glory days and 200 – 300 baht for a dreamy beauty. He said he did a clue early on when girl said to him, "You are already old (45?), why not just give me your money – you don't need it!"


So in those early years he just got on trains or buses and explored Thailand, saying people were very friendly and life was quite relaxed. He described a Patpong unlike the place I have seen. And he talks of the lovely white-skinned Bangkok Nana girls. Uh, I have been here ten years and have seen a few beauties but would not describe most as lovely. In fact two weeks ago I was in Rainbow 4 and saw some chubby girls in that place where once my head would be spinning. Things change. Fast food?


Bosley said it was amusing watching several girls putting their heads together around phone booths dreaming up what to say to the lovesick foreigner on the other end of the call. He was here before cellphones, and some readers may not be able to imagine a life without mobile phones. Second road was a dirt road as were many in town.

CBD bangkok


But when I met him he had done ok, had survived several affairs and had a 14th floor double condo of 82 sq. meters on the shady side looking to Pattaya, a nice place he had bought for 1 million baht five years earlier. He would walk to Jomtien in the evenings to the small gigs there and see a large created lady he liked and couple walk back home safely. He had a big 1000 CC Yamaha, a beautiful Fazer style motorcycle he would tour up to Foodland for farang breakfast on Klang in Pattaya then to the gym above Royal Garden. I would chat with him in the pool and he helped me a great deal in understanding this game here.


When his gogo girl got pregnant he decided, aw what the heck, I am old and lonely, may as well raise another kid, having had a few in the Philippines he enjoyed that idea and considered an unusually sweet girl. So, off he goes, sells that Greg condo for 3.1, his motorbike for 100,000 and moves to a village north of Korat to have a little rice plot and raise a kid. Once there he buys the farm and her family starts in on him like leeches with threats and tricks. Man, the guy finally sold the farm after a year there and bought a nice new home in Korat for 1.2 as I recall. Now the fun begins.


He is suddenly in an urban neighborhood and a rich farang lives a few doors down who spends most of his time in Holland with his yellow-haired, heavily-tattooed Nana girl. But, her mother enjoys the status as the queen bee and teaches Bosley's simple 35-year old wife how to play cards. After all, she is a farang's wife and can afford it for sure. Bosley marries his girl and the beautiful boy arrives on earth and is someone for him to love. The card parties start at his house and the house changes into more or less a big card room. Finally, my intimidated friend puts his foot down and evicts all the players. But, his wife is already on that losing streak, the depth of which he does not know.


Driving around Korat she tells him that she just read on a telephone pole that money can be borrowed and a phone number. As he explains it to me now, those signs are abundant and are usually put up by the wife of a government retiree. They can retire at 50 with a nice pension and no medical expenses to cope with, so many lend money.

wonderland clinic


Now, Bosley loves the little boy and is quite happy with him. But the only thing he is happy about is the little boy. Recently, he learned that his wife owes 2 million baht to the sharks. She came back to Pattaya and, as an old pro, quickly found a foreigner since she speaks English so well and knows how to treat Farangs. She spent a month with a Danish fellow and he invited her to Copenhagen to stay the summer. She flew up three weeks ago. The man will be wanting to see her children in Korat and Bosley told me she has just gotten a divorce because Bosley cannot support her. He went through the inheritance his family left him and the money from selling his Pattaya condo and refinancing the home he paid for in Korat.


This from a guy who guided me safely through all those early criminal girls.


And this is a absolutely true story that I wish was not.


Stickman's thoughts:

Unfortunately there are many such stories like there. Bosley was far from the first and he will not be anywhere near the last…

nana plaza