My Early Years in Bangkok Part 2
Part 2
I have now been living in Bangkok for about a year full-time. It is 2012 if I remember correctly and I have a weekend GF, Jip and a weekday GF, Nam the massage girl. Jip used to live with me full-time but now sees me only on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. She managed to buy a beauty salon on the outskirts of Bangkok with her sister-in-law. The sister-in-law used to work with Jip in Soi Cowboy and was gifted 500K baht from a Japanese customer that took a liking to her over the years and who was moving back to Japan.
The sister-in-law is (duh) married to Jip’s brother. The brother works at a hard-drive factory just outside Bangkok. The sister-in-law, as well as Jip, also used to work in a clean room at the factory. The sister-in-law decided she could make better money at Cowboy and left the factory with the blessing of her husband who preferred the extra income over fidelity in their marriage. I still find it difficult to understand Thai men dropping their wife or GF off at Nana or Cowboy, only to pick them up after the evening is done.
Jip was making 15K a month in the factory and had managed to save 100K and used the money as a down-payment to buy a pickup truck for her parents to use on the family farm back in Issan. After 6 months of making payments, Jip decided that she would follow in her sister-in-law’s footsteps and went to work at Cowboy. The secondary reason was arriving at her apartment early one day to find her live-in BF in bed with a co-worker, also her room mate, at the factory. She had been working for about 3 weeks when I stumbled upon Cowboy and subsequently Jip. It was about 2011 on one of my weekend excursions to Bangkok from Kuala Lumpur.
My principal friend was busy when I arrived at the Westin in Bangkok one weekend, so I thought I would go for a walk on the elevated platform that crosses Asoke. As I walked, I saw the Cowboy neon sign and decided to take a look. I entered, not knowing what to expect, and was a bit intimidated to make eye contact. However, a greeter at Sheba’s by the name of Sa grabbed me by the arm and said, ‘Where you go?’ I said nowhere, just walking and she said ‘Why not sit hear and talk to a pretty girl?’ At this point, she guided me over to where Jip was sitting and said, ‘This is Jip, buy her a beer?’, and that is how I met Jip. Now 9 years later, Sa, the greeter, has a food cart and serves up noodle soup to the working girls before their shift starts. Every time I see her, I order a Heineken from Fanny’s as that is her beer of choice. Each time I do, she chews me out for not going to 7-11 and buying 3 Heinekens for the same price.
Jip was a terrible bar girl. She just was not good at it and never had the small talk down and the little play touches. However, for me, at this stage on ‘My Walk on the Wild Side’, it was what I needed. That night I bar fined her and took her back to the Westin for long term. I eventually bought her out of the bar and the mamasan opened a bottled of Tequila and passed it round to the girls to celebrate Jip getting bought out. That mamasan now works at Suzie Wongs and we chat still.
Jip was not a keeper, but at that time I was happy to have a physical relationship in my life. Sex has good but GF2, Nam took sex to a new level. I guess that was why she was popular with the customers. For me, my relationship with Nam was ‘friends with benefits’. We were truly friends and enjoyed going to a movie or having lunch together. Nam was surprised when I visited her in a Thai hospital after a customer with a rather large dick bruised her insides, causing bleeding. Nam was in a ward with about 20 other patients and I was the only farang in the whole hospital. I think Nam liked our relationship because I treated her like a GF, not a working girl.
Nam had a card to enter my building and a key to access my room. I was usually asleep when she arrived about 2:30 and she would wake me up. She usually visited me twice a week and I guessed it was on slow days. I never did around to asking her why.
My life at that time was rather good as I had 2 GFs, supporting Jip to the tune of 10K baht a month and shopping for clothes for Nam and buying her breakfast or lunch from time to time. However, it was clear to me that Jip was planning her exit strategy and had perhaps already met her soon to be Thai husband. Jip was never keen on a farang relationship and I noticed I never appeared on her Facebook page. When asked, she said marry me and I will place some pics. My divorce would be years coming and Jip was 35 and running out of time. Thai women consider themselves to be an old lady when they hit 30 years of age. Nam was 34 but did not seem worried. Nam is now 40 and still working. She is still doing well as she recently bought a Honda Civic. Nam and I still bump into each other at Hillary 2 and it never ends well as she is still bitter after arriving at my apartment one night to find a young Thai lady in my bed. I mentioned, in my defence, that the new lady still had all her clothes on, and she was just sleeping off the alcohol she had consumed.
Nam was having none of my explanation about my platonic relationship and was quite angry and hurt. I quickly put the new lady in a taxis and sent her off to her apartment and tried to talk with Nam. That talk went nowhere, and I suggested to Nam she go home and we talk later. I have always said when you are really angry you should invoke the 24 hour rule before engaging in any discussion. With Thais, I would suggest 48 hours or more.
I had bumped into the new lady about 2 weeks before. My dad had some good advice. One pearl was ‘never go grocery shopping when you are hungry’ and another was ‘never buy a car when you need one’. I have come up with another. Never get serious with a girl when you are single and / or horny. I met up with GF3 when I was quite content with my life. It is strange that I was attracted to her smile. Not so strange as she is the year of the Tiger as am I, and born on September 24th and I am born on September 23rd. When we are in Thailand we celebrate our birthdays at Hillary 2 at midnight. Despite having 30 years difference in age, we are so alike, it is scary. However, I had a rule, if the girl does not speak passable English then pass on her as many girls do speak good English. The new girl spoke absolutely zero English. She had just arrived in Bangkok, had no cell phone, no English, and did not know what ‘boom boom’ meant. A breath of fresh air, too good to be true?
How we met and how GF3 became GF1 and then my wife of 8 years is yet another story.
To be continued in part 3….
