The Rich Girl

I thought people may be interested in an experience I had in 2005 when I spent a week with a girl from a wealthy family in Hat Yai.

I decided to give internet dating a go. At the time I was in my late 30s and had just completed a uni degree to master’s level to completely change my career path. This entailed full-time work along with full-time study for nearly 7 years. Over the final couple of years, I had to curtail my work hours considerably which meant a serious drop in income.

At the time I was in pretty good shape physically and my job looked like one where income would be great down the track. Suffice to say I had plenty of offers for dates on my upcoming holiday to Thailand. It wasn’t too hard to weed out a lot of the girls – the ones who suddenly weren’t available for video chatting between sunset and sunrise.

There were still quite a few left so I decided to be brutally honest and said, “I have just finished a master’s degree and I’m quite broke.” That certainly narrowed the field very quickly – two left. Both seemed genuinely impressed with my education level and both had an MBA. Judging from their holiday snaps I was shown – from all over the world – they could have both have bought and sold me 10 times over.

Unfortunately, the one from Bangkok was going to be in Europe when I was on holiday. The other lived in Hat Yai so I organised a week-long stay down there.

Being the typical Aussie, I packed two pairs of shorts, a pair of board shorts, a few t-shirts, and my thongs. I arrive at the airport to be met by a well-dressed, vision of beauty, in her brand new two-door Mercedes. I get in the passenger seat, try to adjust the seating for my comfort and break the seat – off to a great start!

She drives me to the Novotel and waits in the lobby while I get changed. Over the course of the week I learn the lobby is as close as she will ever get to my room.

The week goes by in a flash – everything is planned like clockwork. Visits to family, visits to family factories, dinner with grandma, picnics, dinners, nightclub visits, paddle-boat rides, etc, etc.

Some of the more freaky things that I’d never experienced before:

• We got lost in the southern provinces while looking for a Chinese temple. She constantly pulls over and demands – yes, demands – directions from locals in their full Muslim garb. By this stage I’m thinking kidnap. We finally arrive at a beautiful temple with rooms carved into the rock and in natural cave formations, but it was closed. She takes off to talk with someone and within minutes the head monk gives us a two-hour guided tour of the entire complex.
• Another evening, we arrive at a beautiful restaurant set out over the water. It was full. Within five minutes a table had been cleared for us and we were seated with menu in hand.
• Another time we arrive at a packed nightclub. She gets on the horn – people start running from all directions and clear a parking space for her. Then we get inside, and a table is cleared for us.

I found all this rather embarrassing, to be honest. Unfortunately, the more I spoke to her the less I liked her:

• The was an incident where we had to drop a package off to one of the factories. I stupidly suggested I’d be happy to run it over. No way! She honked the horn to get the security guy to come over, so she could then instruct him to ask some else to come and get it. I asked why not just give it to him in the first place – “Thai people are so stupid you need to keep things simple.”
• We were having a conversation about the price of rubber. I suggested it’s good that poor people can maybe make a decent living off rubber now. Of course, I was wrong yet again – “They only have to work a few hours a day now to make more than we pay them in the factories, how are we supposed to get cheap labour now?” She said it with real venom in her voice too.

Overall, she did seem like a nice girl who went out of her way to please me, but underneath it all, I just couldn’t cop the view that Thai people were viewed as little more than commodities to grow her family’s wealth for as little outlay as possible

I definitely had some great experiences of how the other half live though.

Cheers

Marcus

Stick’s thoughts:

That does not sound like a lady I would like to get involved with.  A lady I get involved with must have a decent education and needs to be financially independent.  Moochers need not apply!  But of equal importance, she must respect others regardless of their position in society.  There is a small percentage of wealthy folks in Thailand who treat those from the lower echelons of society in a way that makes me cringe.

The author of this article cannot be contacted.