A Farang
For All Seasons -- Part 4
A Farang For All Seasons -- Part 4
Somehow we made it to breakfast just before they closed the
buffet. Good thing too, as we hired a minibus to take us to Pattaya
today.
We packed in a panic. Seeing that we had about 30 minutes to
spare, we crashed on the big bed for some much-needed shut-eye.
It's amazing how much better one can feel after only 30 minutes of
rest. It wasn't a lot of sleep, but it really hit the spot.
When it was time, we grabbed our bags and dragged them down to the lobby.
Considering his behavior at Don Muang, I wasn't surprised to see Antman
was bringing Wifey to Pattaya. And MikeM was still enamored with
Lady, so it would be six for the ride to Pattaya.
I was the last to check-out so all the good seats in the minibus were
taken. The only seat available was one that faced backwards, and I
thought it would be a problem for me considering the lack of sleep and all
the booze we were drinking. Instead, I took a seat up front with the
driver.
We pulled out of the Nana parking lot, and right into a traffic
jam. At least the air conditioner was working well. Not having
much else to do while stopped in traffic, the driver handed me his card.
Hmmm… Mr. Lucky. Maybe his name is a good omen…
It took a long time to get on the expressway but once we did, we flew
like the wind.
About three-quarters of the way there, the driver stopped at a gas
station with a mini-mart. We fell out of the bus and entered the
store to grab some cold water and snacks. I was horrified to see
Antman and Sip head straight for the dried fish.
"Oh no you don't! No dried fish on the bus!!"
I learned my lesson last time.
"Fish stinky like poot-poot."
Sip thought it was funny when I told her the dried fish was too stinky
for the bus, but Antman was heartbroken. I tried to comfort him by
saying we would be in Pattaya in 30 minutes, and he could have all the
dried fish he wanted once he got there. I don't know if that made
him feel any better, but at least he moved on to the chocolate
aisle. Whew…
We bought different kinds of candies, chocolate covered crackers, and
potato chips, and everyone shared with each other when we got back on the
bus.
Before we knew it, the bus was turning into the grounds of the Hard
Rock Hotel. Wifey was nose-to-nose with Antman as usual so didn't
know what was going on, and Sip had stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel before
and takes everything in stride. But this was Lady's first trip to
the beach. With her eyes as big as saucers, it was easy to see she
was tickled pink.
It must have been after 2PM and the hotel wasn't sold out, but still
our rooms weren't ready. The girl behind the Reception desk gave us
coupons for a free drink in the bar, so headed off to relax a little while
waiting for our room.
MikeM and I found a big table and brought over chairs for everyone, but
Antman and Wifey sat at their own table nose-to-nose and giggling at each
other. I was glad they didn't join us; a little of that giggling
goes a long way… Actually, I'm surprised that they can
stand it.
As we enjoyed our free drinks, Sip asked questions about moving to the
United States. I was willing to help with a Visitor's Visa or the
Visa Lottery, but I really didn't want to go anywhere near the Fiancé
Visa; I'm too close to an early retirement to risk things on a piece of
trim.
I was also surprised to hear that Sip owned a beauty shop. I know
she had a little money saved up, but she went from a beauty student to
proprietor pretty quickly.
The girls listened intently as MikeM and I shared what we knew.
Every so often Sip and Lady would break off into their own
conversation. Maybe Sip spoke English a little better than Lady and
was explaining things to her. Who knows? MikeM and I had done
a little research on Visas after last trip, because Pim really wanted to
go to the U.S. and take care of MikeM. Unfortunately, that fell
through…
There were some flip-menus on the tables, so I grabbed one to see what
kind of snacks the Hard Rock lobby bar offered. I wasn't impressed
with anything until I saw the plate of sushi. I asked the girls if
they wanted some sushi but they since they didn't know what it was, didn't
want any part of it. Cool! More for me!!
When the big plate of sushi was delivered, Sip exclaimed, "That
not sushi, that choo-chee!! We like too mut." I had to
laugh as I thought the girls were thinking we tried to pull a fast one on
them by calling it sushi instead of choo-chee. But no problem for
us, we ordered a couple more plates of choo-chee, and the four of us had a
little choo-chee party right there in the lobby of the Hard Rock Hotel.
An hour or so later our rooms were ready. The Reception girl
passed out keys to everyone, and we were off with a promise to meet in the
lobby at 7PM for dinner. It didn't take long for our bags to be
delivered to the room, and Sip and I used the time before we were supposed
to meet the rest of the gang to get some more sleep.
Just a few minutes before it was time to jump into the shower and go
down to meet the gang, Sip told me she "had a plan." I
know Sip well enough to know whenever she actually announces that she has
a plan; it's usually a doozy.
It turns out Sip had a friend, and wanted to open a shop with her to
sell baby clothes. I listened while Sip described how to set up the
shop, and how buy the clothes cheaply, and things about the day-to-day
running of the operation. Again, I gotta admit it sounded like she
had spent some time thinking about it.
"But what about beauty shop? I thought you liked the beauty
shop."
"Yeah, yeah, sure. Beauty shop good. But I want more
business. Baby clothe business good. People need clothe for
babies."
Then she started telling me how much money she thought she
needed. A year or so ago when Sip had asked me to help her go to
beauty school I thought that was a lot of money. But this baby shop
idea was really expensive.
I started asking questions, and it soon became clear that Sip and her
friend wanted to open a string of baby shops. I asked about scaling
down her plans a little but Sip said, "No. Need many shops.
Korat have many baby. Need many clothes."
I felt good about helping Sip through beauty school, and I was proud of
the progress Sip made. But I didn't get the same warm fuzzies about
this baby shop idea. Opening a baby shop could have been the best
idea in the world, but I just couldn't get excited about it.
A quick shower later, and we were with MikeM and Lady in the lobby
waiting for Antman and Wifey. That guy never shows up on time…
MikeM and I didn't care where we ate so left the choice to Antman, who
chose the Lobster Pot on Walking Street.
The nice thing about Lobster Pot is that they have seating over the
water, and the cool breeze from the sea helps to make one a little more
comfortable in the heat.
Antman and I have a weakness for Sangria, and noticed the Sangria signs
on the way to our table. It wasn't the best Sangria we ever had, but
it was indeed Sangria-like and refreshing. The girls didn't know
what Sangria was and didn't want any part of it. Lady and Wifey
ordered a coke, and Sip ordered a glass of wine. That Sip seems to
be developing some expensive tastes…
We had a fun time joking about this or that, and sometimes the
conversation would break in two with the guys speaking English, and the
girls having their own conversation in Thai. After one of these
animated Thai discussions, the girls announced they wanted to go to a
disco.
Antman thought that was the best idea he ever heard, while MikeM and I
just stared at him in disbelief.
"You're in Pattaya. Do you really want to go to a
disco?"
"Yeah! It'll be fun!
"Really? Do you dance?"
"No, but it's a disco. It'll be fun!"
And all the girls chimed in saying how much fun it would be.
Well, it wouldn't be fun for me, so with a wink to MikeM I reached into my
pocket, took out 1,000 baht, handed it to Antman, and told him to take
good care of Sip.
Woo hoo! Antman has 3 ladies.
When Lady figured out that MikeM and I weren't going to the disco, she
said she didn't want to go either. But the idea of a chance for a
little strange had already been planted in MikeM's head, and he didn't
want to give it up. He told Lady she could go back to the room and
he would be there around midnight.
Midnight sounded like a good time. MikeM and I could hit the
town, score a ST someplace, and we should be able to make it back to the
HRH by midnight. Right?
So it was settled; Antman left with Lady and Sip, Wifey went back to
the room, and MikeM and I went in search of adventure or what ever comes
our way.
First stop for us was Living Dolls. I was hoping to find BigNasty
from last trip, and was willing to settle for Fawn and/or Thumper.
Sadly, none of them were in the bar that night. MikeM became close
friends with one of the dancers, and I spent our time there joking with a
server girl. Business seemed a lot slower than it was last November,
and the server girl was very happy to get a few lady drinks.
We hit a couple bars down Soi Diamond that were fun last November, but
noting struck my fancy. It's nice to go out and play with the girls,
but I kept thinking I also have Sip… We kept looking. MikeM wanted
to go back and BF one of the girls he met earlier that evening so we split
up.
I continued on to Super Baby and Super Girl, but I just wasn't 100%
satisfied. Thinking the beer bars that stick out over the water and
Walking Street might be fun for a change I headed in that direction.
But I only got as far as Living Dolls where my favorite server girl of the
night ran out to drag me into her bar. Because I was flying solo, I
told her I was looking for my friend.
Then the thought occurred to me that it prolly wasn't the best idea in
the world to BF anyone farther down the street because I was sure to be
walking down the street with Sip in the future, and I didn't want the
server girl to be telling her I took other ladies. Having fun with
the girls is one thing, but BFing other girls with Sip is quite another…
Anyway… I ended up at some small go-go that was very
crowded. The girl I called over looked like she was
half-black/half-Thai - and it looked good on her. I asked her if she
knew any ST hotels in the area and when she did, the deal was sealed.
As things turned out, the girl was nothing special and I had Sip back
at the hotel.
By the time we untangled ourselves, took a shower, and made it back to
Walking Street, Walking Street was dark and deserted. I turned right
to head down to Beach Road, and then up toward Second Road. A few
paces ahead of me walked a girl that looked like she worked in one of the
restaurants; she certainly didn't look like a go-go girl.
When we turned on to Second Road, the girl darted into the street, gave
a passing baht-bus the finger, and started to climb aboard. Not
wanting to walk the entire way to HRH, I climbed aboard with her.
It didn't take long for the bus to bounce to a stop again, and this
time a very exotic looking girl with see-through pants climbed
aboard. She really was something to look at.
The exotic girl only road with us for a few blocks, and then pressed
the buzzer to leave. When she did leave, the other girl started
giggling about the see-through pants. I just shrugged my shoulders
and said, "Mai phen rai."
As we neared Central Road my bus companion pressed the buzzer, and as I
noticed a few beer bars still serving in the area decided to bail out
too. I beat the girl to the driver and since she was a pleasant
traveling companion, paid her fare. She was more than a little
surprised but returned the favor with a beautiful smile and a solemn wai.
It was a darkened bar beer complex but there was still lots of action
going on. It was around 3AM, and I really didn't want to return to
the room smelling freshly showered. Reeking of alcohol was a much
better idea.
A bar in the back hosted a big screen TV and the small beer bar had a
dozen or so girls watching one of the soccer finals. Watching the
soccer finals was not a spectator sport for these girls; they took
everything personally. When something went good, they all
cheered. But if something went bad for their team, they ran around
the bar screeching like wounded monkeys. Of course the most extreme
screecher was a big, nasty looking katoey. Scary stuff…
I bought beers for the girls within reach and fell in love with the
mamasan - or so I thought. It turns out she was the bar owner.
Really… Could I make magic happen again? I felt
challenged. It was a matter of honor to score the bar owner.
She certainly didn't seem to mind spending time with me, and having me
buy her beers. But I remembered I had Sip back in the room, and I
wouldn't be able to use the Hard Rock as my trump card.
I finished a six-pack and walked back to the Hard Rock Hotel. It
wasn't far, but it was a good way to work up a little sweat even if it was
4 or 5 in the morning.
I returned the guard's salute, and entered the elevator. Do they
move those buttons around or what? I know the button for my floor
was there earlier today…
Finally getting the key in the lock the right way, the door
opened. Sip seemed fast asleep. I considered the benefits of
taking a shower, but decided it could wait until the morning and passed
out instead.
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