Stickman Readers' Submissions April 5th, 2013

Two Faces From Thailand


Firehouse



Jina:


She stands about 163 centimetres tall, slim and shapely. The thing I notice mostly is her pretty face – long black hair tied back in a pony-tail, expressive dark brown eyes – large and inquiring – a classic Central – Thai face, delicately sculpted but, most of all, her dress – black one-piece tights over which she is wearing a brown mini-skirt and top. She looks like a super-model. I want her so badly.

He Clinic Bangkok


“Sawat di-krup – khun cheu-arai krup?”


“Sawat di-ka – my name is Jina – and your’s?”


“I am Paul – pleased to meet you Jina. You are suay maak-maak.”

CBD bangkok


“Korp khun-ka Khun Paul.”


She wai’s to me with her hands pressed together and I wai back to her with my hands pressed together near my forehead as I marvel at her beauty.


The place is Brisbane on a Thursday morning about 10.30 some time in late April and the year is not important. What is important is the attraction I feel for this lovely lady who stands before me.


It is starting to feel cold in the mornings as winter comes on and we stand facing each other in this large room – carpeted and well-furnished, looking like a four-star hotel suite.

wonderland clinic


Jina smiles and begins to speak.


“Khun Paul, are you staying for 1-hour or 2-hour massage?”


I smile back at her, beaming the warmth I feel toward her and I can tell she acknowledges it.


“Two hours, please if that is OK.”


“Mai-bpen-rai – you please take this towel and we shower now, yes?”


She shows me to the bathroom and the water is lovely and warm as I take my time to wash away the morning’s grime and sweat – even though it is approaching winter.


When I leave the shower she is waiting with the towel spread out to wrap around me. Then she begins to pat my body dry and, when she is finished, she hands me a bathrobe.


“Khun Paul, you make yourself comfortable please – I will be just a moment.”


Lying on my back on this king-size bed I am looking up at the ceiling as my mind reflects on where I am. What is it that brings men to the door of a lady like Jina? I don’t mean that to sound derogatory because I have the utmost respect for this lady and, in my heart, she is the woman that I could be happy to be with for much longer than what we have today. Yet, fantasy must be tempered with reality and one must not lose sight of how things really are.


This place is a sanctuary where heaven can be yours – even if it is only for two hours. You can be in this haven where your needs to feel the touch of another human being – a beautiful female – are met with no pretences. The rules of engagement are clearly laid out and we each adhere to those rules and respect the person with whom we are with.


Jina joins me after showering.


“Khun Paul, would you like massage first or after?”


“Massage first, please Jina.”


“Please to turn over so I can work on your back, Khun Paul.”


She begins to work away the aches and pains with a skill that is truly amazing. Thai massage can be painful. It is often described as “brutally effective” yet that is not the case with Jina. After 15 minutes I can tell that this lady really knows what she is doing.


“Jina, how long have you been in Australia?”


“I only be here for 1 month already and before that I come from Perth, in Western Australia.”


“Do you like to be in Australia?”


“Yes, it is not as cold as where I come from in New Zealand. It is very cold there and living in a cold climate after coming from Thailand is very hard.”


“Do you have family, Jina?”


“All I have in New Zealand is my Mother and I go back there soon to look after her.”


“What about you, Khun Paul – do you have family?”


“I have a Son and a Daughter from my first marriage but my first wife and I are divorced now and I have nobody. I finished work now and I like to go to Thailand and maybe find a lady to settle down with and marry.”


“You go to Thailand before?”


“No, this will be my first time but I don’t know what to expect or when I will go.”


Jina is sitting astride my back with her back toward my head and is bouncing her Gon gently along my back. I can feel her soft warmth as she moves along my back and I can feel the arousal in my groin at her sensuality.


Jina asks me to turn over and then she begins on my front.


The front massage does not take as long as the back, before she asks me to take off my robe and we make love. No, it wasn't just sex – it was more than that.


Lying there with her head resting on my right shoulder and her leg lying across me I savour the soft warmth of her body pressed in close to me.


“Khun Paul, you are a strong man and I like to be with you.”


“Thank you, Love – I like to be with you too.”


“Jina, do you ever get time off for yourself? I mean, would you be interested in going somewhere together if you have a day off some time?”


“Yes, that would be nice to go to the beach one time. But I will go to New Zealand soon and I don’t know when I will have time off before I go. Thank you for asking.”


I snuggle my face up close to her hair and I can smell the sweetness of her against me. It feels good.


“Mai-bpen-rai – you are a suay poo-ying and I like you.”


She looks up at me with those beautiful brown eyes.


“Khun Paul, you like to make love again, yes?”


We do that but the time goes all too quickly and it is time to shower and leave.


I give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek as she sees me out the door and I walk down the hallway and into the late morning sun to where my car is parked.


Not long after, in an afternoon in May, I visit Jina again but that was the last time I was to see her – and the strange thing is that I still think of her and wish that I had made more effort to stay in touch with her. New Zealand is not that far away and I often wonder if something lasting may have come out of those two short meetings – but I will never know.


I would have to acknowledge that Jina was the person who fired my addiction for Thai women and, once you are hooked, it is an addiction from which you will never be free – and the truth is, as any Farang with feelings will tell you, it is something from which you never want to be free.


***


Puu:


One hot Bangkok evening I wandered into Sukhumvit Soi 7/1, soaking up sounds and memories from the past. It is a busy little soi with pedestrians and taxis, where both sides of the soi are lined with small boutique hotels and bars where many girls sit out the front and try to make conversation with passing tourists. I guess it is not that much different to a hundred other sois scattered throughout Bangkok but this place feels comfortable and homely to me.


The girls mostly use the same greeting.


“Welcome – come and have a drink inside?”


But I am looking for a bar I once knew as “Paul’s Bar” on the right-hand side of the Soi heading north toward Klong San-Saep. The faces of the girls are different yet, strangely, the same and the bar doesn’t look a lot different to what I remember – except for the fact that there is a larger outdoor sitting area where you can have a drink and pleasant conversation.


I go inside and make my way to the small bar in the corner, passing a couple of Farang men who are lounging in chairs near the wall – one with a girl sitting on his lap and the other with a girl standing by his side stroking his hair as he strokes her lovely Gon.


The time is around 8 pm and I sit down on a bar stool and order a Bia Singha while striking up a conversation with the bar lady. She smiles at me as she serves the drink and begins my “slate”.


“Welcome – my name is Bia.”


“Sawat di-krup, Bia – my name is Paul – pleased to meet you.”


She is older than the other girls and is obviously in charge of the proceedings here – the Mamasan.


“I know this bar, Bia – I come here a few years ago when it was run by another man named Paul. How long have you been here?”


She sits down on the stool next to me and I buy her a drink.


“I buy this bar about a year and a half ago. Before that I have a bar on Sukhumvit Soi 4 but is not very good. This place is better.”


“Do you come from Bangkok, Bia?”


“No, I am from Surin but I live in Bangkok for quite a while.”


“I know Surin, Bia and I have spent a little time in Prasart, just south of Surin town.”


“So, Khun Paul, how long do you stay in Thailand?”


“I have a visa for one year but this is not my first time in Thailand – I was married to a lady from Surin and she lives in Australia now with her two children. We are divorced but still good friends. I love Thailand and I would like to stay here.”


The stereo is cranked up now and is pumping out tunes I remember that seem to be evergreens to the bar scene, no matter where you go – “Sutter’s Mill”, “Country Roads”, “When You Say Nothing At All”, “Heart Of Gold” – etc. Bia has been called back behind the bar and I join the few who are attempting to dance to the music with some of the girls. Perhaps it is the effects of a few drinks or maybe the attention is focussed more on the groin than on the dance because things don’t seem to be as smooth as one would like the dancing to be. What the hell – we are here to have fun.


I have been looking at one girl since I got here. She has long black hair, is tall, slim, has on a mini-skirt that reveals the most wonderful legs and an absolutely fabulous Gon. She looks too young for me but I cannot take my eyes off her. We talk and I offer to buy her a drink – which she accepts. We talk for a short time and she tells me she is from Ubon Ratchathani and that her name is Puu – a Thai nickname meaning “crab”. I guess we don’t have a lot in common for conversation and the night is running away – and she has drifted off to socialise with a couple of other people.


Bia is free and we are talking once again.


“Bia, that girl is so lovely.”


She smiles at me.


“You like her?”


“Oh, I would love to spend some time with her.”


“I can arrange that for you.”


All it takes is settlement of the “slate” and payment of a 500 Baht bar fine and Puu and I are walking down Soi 7/1 toward one of the boutique hotels looking for a room for some time together. Her hand is in mine as we walk into the foyer and sign in for a room. With the keys in hand we ride the elevator 4 floors up and there is the room – quite large and comfortable, with its own en-suite.


The obligatory shower routine is attended to by both of us – but the intimate details are not important. Let us not pretend we are here to make love – we are here to have sex and we both know the rules of engagement.


I am lying on my back on this king-size bed with Puu lying on top of me. Looking up at the mirrored ceiling I can see myself underneath this beautiful woman – her tall, brown body almost covering me and making me wish I could have her with me for a long, long time. Her shapely hips and Gon reflect down to me and oh – those legs. Feeling her soft warmth over me, my mind begins to fantasise and I imagine I am in a cut from “Hotel California” by The Eagles – “Mirrors on the ceiling – pink champagne on ice – we are all just prisoners here of our own device …” There is no pink champagne on ice but it could never equal the experience of lying with this lovely girl. I am loving being under her spell and would be happy to be her "prisoner of love" forever.


Around 1 am Puu and I leave the “Hotel California”, turn right and walk up Soi 7/1 hand-in-hand to find Bia waiting outside the bar in the outdoor tables area. I sit with both of them for a short while, talking with them, before giving Puu and Bia a kiss on the cheek and heading back to my small hotel for what’s left of the night.


Walking back down Ploenchit, I am thinking – "where in the world, except Bangkok, could a man of my age have sex with a girl who could be no more than 20 or 21 years of age and nobody makes a big deal of it?" This is a magic place and I hope it never changes. And yet, one needs to be aware and sensitive to the circumstances of how these girls come to be in this position and one definitely needs to give them the respect they deserve while saying a prayer for their welfare.


I love them all.


nana plaza