Would You Act Differently?
Sawasdee Krup, fellow readers.
I trust this finds you all well wherever you are.
This article is basically to discuss women's (and men's) behavior in the Kingdom of Siam and also a bit in other parts of the world.
It is based mainly on recent posts I have enthusiastically read on this amazing website and naturally on my own experiences. In addition this “Share of thoughts – only”, is because currently I don't have any highly naughty, bizarre or even funny history to share with you guys, once my latest Thai “date” has been arrested in my hotel room by the police for using & selling drugs. Fortunately I was not involved at all as I could prove I was just an unaware customer who landed here for holidays only 3 days ago.
Even though I must admit I feel a bit sad for having lost my highly entertaining & most recent “conquest”, on the other hand this is now giving me time to think about life's certain events and to share some of those thoughts with you while I calmly sip my evening whisky juice. Furthermore, I am a zealous believer that nothing happens without a reason and that we will never know if it happens out of good luck or misfortune.
The current time and place is December 2012 at the touristic area of Phuket.
I am a seafarer. I travel the world as a quite well-paid cruise ship's officer taking guests to the most glamorous and exquisite destinations. When on my breaks lately I have chosen this beautiful Thai island as my personal “home port”. As additional background, I have worked professionally in the hospitality industry in different countries including South America, the USA, Europe and Australia.
I have been here before in other high and low seasons and as an introduction to this paper I can say that I am definitely not happy with what I am seeing nowadays. For my surprise and in my own opinion this “high season” has been the worst in many years… Although apparently there are many tourists around, you simply cannot find them. I walked through the main tourist areas such as the Patong Beach front restaurants, shopping centers, famous gogo bars and discos and they are all nearly empty, if not completely. The consequence of this is a different vibe altogether in the atmosphere and for the first time I have seen most of our outgoing Thais friends not smiling, even for a 40-something well-shaped “prospect” customer who has just arrived in town.
For me this is bad for three reasons: 1- I am on vacations in Thailand therefore I would expect the warm Thai hospitality and obviously the “smiles”. 2 – Where there are no customers there are no stunners and frankly speaking (believe it or not) it has been hard to spot a 7 or above anywhere here therefore my $ 25k holiday expenditure budget remains almost untouched so far. 3 – This leads me to think about how hard life can get for these lovely people.
Conversely, I read on recent postings how a 60+ year old UK, American, Australian, etc overweight buffalo got pissed off when their 22 year old slim uneducated Asian beauty decided to move to the “looom” of a 26 year old Norwegian guy who, by the way, is also giving her more money. Other more than frequent examples here goes around these lines: I find out that while I was back in Farangland she was cheating on me with a Japanese CEO in spite of the 5,000 baht I was sending her monthly; After 4 years of marriage that miserable bargirl decided to leave me to go live with her Thai first boyfriend etc.
I had a very colorful youth in terms of women, most of it spent between Brazil and Italy which included 3 marriages fortunately with no children and I can recall while in my 20s a single lady around her 30s was considered a “Balzac”, with some sort of deep emotional issues and not someone you would go for if there was something more “fresh” on the battle field.
Of course I had my share of Balzacs as well, but they were immediately swapped as soon as someone much suitable turned up. Somehow I trust they all knew what was going on and frankly speaking only once in my whole “career“ I received a reprimand for acting this way.
Now let's get down to business : If you are definitely not completely under the influence of anything that can modify your plain judgment and if you are still able to access your mind records at the time you were in the university, would you go, or even thing about taking to bed an ugly, smelly, fat old woman? Be honest. Please recall all those cheerleaders, those hot girls in your college classroom and even your younger sister's friends who used to spend the weekends in your house.
So why would you expect these extremely simple creatures to have a different behavior towards you? I am definitely not here to change the world which by the way I admit I am certainly also taking advantage of, as I am knowledgeable enough to understand the circumstances behind it, however I would like to put things on the very right perspective.
If you are an old, fat, smelly buffalo have been given the “holy gift” to spend a single hour or five years with one of these beauties you should be grateful, and very grateful if not to say going on your knees to the fairest Buddha temple you can find, and not for any means get pissed off with them.
Another relevant point that must be brought into light is that I have never met Brad Pitt, Donald Trump, Sylvester Stallone or any large company's CEO sitting in any of these venues of Bangla Road or Nana Plaza. I am not saying that everyone around here is a loser but just a “wakeup call” to those uninformed in order to put things on the right perspective and to avoid avoidable mistakes to everybody.
What puzzles me is that if any of the above opportunities such as moving in together with a far much compatible, richer, or nicer person would have happened to the gentleman instead of to the poor girls everything would be fine and they would never write a line of complaint, so the question is: Would you really act differently?
Another thing that really pisses me off is that most of these gentleman come to a place with a very different culture from where they have been raised (if knowing the latest Apple's gadgets, the precise location of all stores inside a massive shopping center or discussing stock prices all day can be considered culture..) don't bother to learn the language, the habits or the religious beliefs of this new people, and this is from my point of view the core reason for the misunderstandings. If they at least knew that the bedrock of Buddhism is the DETACHEMENT of everything and not the attachment (including to old buffalos), everybody certainly would be doing far better.
While I was writing this piece of paper I received a call from my arrested Thai new lover. She says she managed to get out of the situation, but she is sad, sick, and needs a quiet, loving and trouble free environment.
I told her she is welcome to come back and to bring some pieces of clothes so I can take care of her for a few days until she gets better. Even though I hardly believe this rare 8.5 hardcore butterfly will make it through the inviting neon lights and really turn up, perhaps this is the most important message of this writing. Accept people as they are, live the moment as it comes and be grateful for what you have no matter if it lasts for 10 years or for a single encounter.
Sawadee Krupp
The Seaman