They Started As Strangers
-- Part 7
They Started As Strangers -- Part 7
Sleeping on things didn't move me one inch closer to a solution.
The alarm sounded alerting me that it was time to meet the guys for
breakfast. But I didn't want to leave Kui.
I watched the clock helplessly as the minutes ticked by like seconds.
Finally I realized that not making a decision was making a decision
too, and I wanted to do my best making the right one; accepting the
default decision just isn't good enough. I knew what I should do,
and I knew what I could do. But I just couldn't leave Kui to work in
beer bars.
"What do you do in Bangkok?"
"I go my job."
"You work in bar?"
"I neber work bar. I work Chanel."
"Do you want to go back to Bangkok?"
'Yes, I want go back my life."
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh, fuck.
"Can you get your things and be back in one hour?"
"Yes."
"It's 10:30 now. In one hour our car goes to airport. You
must be here in one hour and I take you to Bangkok, okay?"
"Yes."
We bounded out of bed and rushed to get ready. .
I gave Kui a generous amount of baht and told her to take a taxi
because time was very short. As I walked her out the door, I told
her again that she must be back at 11:30 if she wanted to go with me.
As I looked into her eyes, I wanted to think that she wanted to go
home. I wanted to think that Kui would be back in time. I
wanted to think that she indeed did have a real life to get back to.
But I just didn't know… Who does? Maybe the smart thing to do
would have been to go with her. After all, I had no idea where the
mamasan lived, or even if she would let Kui go. Maybe Kui owed the
mamasan more room and board money. Any problems that popped up that
money could solve, I could easily handle. But either way, it was
time to fish or cut bait
Closing the door behind Kui, I felt deflated. Why hadn't I
thought of this before? It all seems simple enough to me now.
I was packed in no time. As I was admiring what a find job I had
done and how light and tight my carry-on had become, I realized it was
because all of my clothes were at the laundry. Damn, damn,
damn... I dialed Reeb's room so we could run down and get our
stuff. Reeb was just stepping into the shower, and said to come down
and he'd be out by the time I got there.
As Reeb got dressed, I filled him in on the story so far.
"So what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to take her to Bangkok."
"And then what?"
"And then nothing. All I can do is get her out of the mess
she's in and take her back home. Kui is a real nice girl, but I'm
too young to get married."
We talked about it some more on our way to the laundry. Reeb
wondered if I was doing the right thing, but I couldn't understand how I
could not be doing the right thing. It's only money, and a one-way
ticket to Bangkok really isn't that much anyway…
Horror upon horrors! When we got to the laundry shop, it was
closed. They should have been open hours ago… Did we screw
up by not being there when we said we would? Damn…
Reeb remembered there was a telephone number on the ticket, and stopped
a passing BG to use her mobile phone. You gotta love this country…
He wasn't really sure what they said, but Reeb thinks someone is on
their way to open the shop. In only a minute or two, a girl pulled
up on a motor scooter with a basket full of packaged laundry.
Breathing a sigh of relief, we joked as the girl unlocked the shop and
opened it up for us.
I gave her my ticket, and she gave me a neatly folded package of
laundry. It was even mine! I counted the items just to make
sure everything was there, and they were.
Reeb, on the other hand, wasn't quite so lucky; his stuff was not in
the shop. The girl placed a couple calls and told us the laundry
would be here soon. Every time we asked how long we would have to
wait, she would just say, "Wait."
I waited with Reeb another five minutes, and then said that I should be
in my room in case Kui comes back. Promising the limo wouldn't leave
without him, I double-timed it back to the room and finished packing.
Packing was finished around 11:20, and I lay down on the bed to relax
and watch a little TV.
11:30 and there was no sign of Kui. I opened the door and looked
up and down the hallway to see if she could be lost, but she wasn't there.
At 11:40 I was sitting broken hearted, alone in my room. Maybe
she owed the mamasan more money and the mamasan wouldn't let her go.
Maybe I should have gone with her. Maybe I should have done this, or
maybe I should have done that. Who knows… I did what I did…
I gathered my belongings, made one last check of the room to see if
anything was left behind.
Sadly, I wheeled my carry-on to the door, and took the key out of the
room's power switch. I stopped just for a moment to check the time
once more to be sure I was leaving at the last possible moment, and then
turned to open the door.
There, standing on the other side was Kui with her suitcase in one hand
and the other hand raised and poised to knock. She couldn't have cut
it much closer.
I gotta admit I was pretty happy to see her. I took her bag and
strapped it to mine, and we made our way to the lobby.
I had forgotten all about Reeb; it was nice to see him waiting in the
lobby. He said that another girl on a motor scooter pulled up just
minutes after I left, and delivered his clothes.
None of the other guys new Kui was coming along for the ride, so I had
some explaining to do. But they all welcomed her to our little
group. There was more than enough room in the minibus for Kui, but I
wasn't so sure about the flight. All of the Coach seats were sold
out for that day, and a few flights of Orchid Class too. I was
hoping that there would be at least one open Orchid Class seat on our
flight so there wouldn't be any problems.
I didn't like the idea of leaving the guys to fly back on their own,
but I didn't want to leave Kui alone either. We'll have to see how
the ticket situation plays out…
When we got to the Phuket airport, all the guys went to check-in and
Kui and I went to the Thai Air counter to get her a ticket. The airport was
packed, and I was worried that there wouldn't be any seats available on
our flight. Luckily there were just a few seats left, and I was able
to book one for Kui.
It didn't take long to sort out the ticket, and we were soon on our way
to check-in. It was kinda funny that Kui kept wanting to go to the
Coach lines, and I had to keep her pointed toward the Orchid Class
counter. But other than that little mix up, everything went
smoothly. We were able to get seats next to each other, and I was
looking forward to a pleasant flight.
I don't recall if the Phuket airport has an Orchid Lounge, but we
decided to go to the gate so we could be with the rest of the guys.
The guys all joked and had fun, and Kui and Wifey exchanged pleasantries
but Kui was another girl to add to the list that didn't like Wifey.
I wonder what the problem with Wifey really is? A trip or two
ago, Sip said Wifey was not a good lady because she took Antman away from
his friends. It's a little hard to believe that's Wifey's fault
because as soon as Antman gets his clutches on a girl, he usually drags
her Preying Mantis like back to his room. And I didn't think Kui
spoke long enough with Wifey to pick up on that, but Kui was another girl
that didn't like Wifey; that was for sure.
Bubbles, Doozy, and Rama ran off to Burger King for a quick fix of some
fast food nourishment while we held our spot at the gate.
Kui, Reeb, and I had missed breakfast this morning, and I, for one, was
starting to feel a powerful hunger. Just next to our gate was a
little coffee shop that sold croissants and sandwiches. I took
everyone's order and Kui and I went over to gather some food and a few
coffee drinks. Like most airport eateries I've been to, things were
a bit over priced. But unlike most airport eateries I've been to,
the food and drinks were quite good. In fact, a few of us went back
for seconds. Kui didn't want anything the first time around but when
we went back, she took the opportunity to get something.
I again noticed a few cracks in Wifey's normal behavior. My
experience is that many of the girls will try to be what ever they think
their patron wants; why not, it makes good business sense. Wifey
might have thought that Antman wanted a quiet girl, so Wifey was a quiet
girl. But with a group as large as ours, Wifey was forced to
interact with more people and was beginning to open up a little. In
fact, it was easy to see that she was taking a shining to Doozy. Of
course, it didn't help that a few of the younger, and less mature guys
grabbed her ass when Antman wasn't looking.
Hmmm… Now that I think about it, maybe Wifey wasn't being
"forced" to interact more. Maybe she was opening up on her
own. It was obvious to some that she had taken a shining to Doozy,
so maybe she was thinking that there was more to life than staying with
Antman and sleeping and watching TV all the time. It's hard to
say. But one thing was for certain; Wifey was playing to the group
more than she ever did before.
And Antman is bit of a control freak; he must have 100% of the girl's
attention or he's just not happy. If he's starting to notice that
Wifey is interacting more with the group, he could get bent. This
should be interesting…
While we're on the subject of Antman and Wifey; there was a story going
around that Wifey worked in a bank. Bubbles asked my opinion on the
story, and I said I thought it was bullshit. I figured there was no
way a bank was going to let one of its employees off for 3 weeks twice a
year while she spent time with her farang boyfriend. Say what you
will, but I'm just not buying it.
Bubbles, being the merry prankster that he is, came up with the idea
that it would be great fun to push the issue with Antman, and ask for a
tour of Wifey's bank. My opinion of that idea was that it might just
get Bubbles a punch in the snout. Neither of them are titans, but
what else could Antman do but punch Bubbles in the snout? Well, I
guess there's always sitting down and crying…
Photo courtesy of Doozy
It was a short flight from Phuket to Bangkok, but that didn't stop the
Thai Air crew from providing top-notch service. They even served a
meal but when the lovely flight attendant arrived with my food, Kui took
the meal from the attendant and set it up for me on my tray. Even
though Kui wasn't exactly my type, she was a really nice girl.
There was a monk on the flight, and he was traveling in Orchid
Class. I wondered about that… Do they have to buy tickets,
or do they travel free like on buses and the Skytrain. I was also
curious how they were going to work the meal service; would he be served a
vegetarian meal, and who would serve it to him as the flight attendants
were all female. When it was time, a male in a Thai Air uniform (it
could have been the co-pilot for all I know) served the monk his
meal. The meal looked the same as mine, so I don't think it was
vegetarian, but I could be wrong.
Photo courtesy of Doozy
Photo courtesy of Doozy
Photo courtesy of Doozy
Photo courtesy of Doozy
On final approach to Don Muang, there was considerable
turbulence. When the wheels hit the ground, we landed pretty
hard. I've flown a lot these past 15 years, and I think it was one
of the hardest landings I have ever experienced.
Kui, MikeM, and Rama checked their bags, so I ran off and hired a
minibus to take us to the Nana Hotel while everyone else sharked the
baggage carousels.
I think we left Don Muang a little after 2 PM. The traffic flowed, but
it was heavy. Still, it didn't take too long until we pulled up to
the hotel.
Photo courtesy of Doozy
Photo courtesy of Doozy
Photo courtesy of Doozy
Photo courtesy of Doozy
Photo courtesy of Rama
Photo courtesy of Doozy
Photo courtesy of Doozy
Photo courtesy of Doozy
Photo courtesy of Rama
Photo courtesy of Doozy
Photo courtesy of Doozy
I said goodbye to Kui in front of the lobby entrance at the Nana
Hotel. She gave me her phone number,
and I promised to call. But I've promised countless girls before her
that I'd call, and I never did. I wonder what will happen this time.
I wouldn't mind staying in touch with Kui. It would be nice to hear
that she went back to her job at Chanel, and stayed out of the bars.
I guess we'll see…
Photo courtesy of Rama
Bubbles and Doozy complained a little that we hadn't taken them to CP2
yet. I asked them which part of the trip they would give up for
something they hadn't done yet, and they didn't have a good answer but
they were right; CP2 should definitely be on the list of things to do.
While we were checking in, a bunch of the guys said they wanted to go
shopping. They knew how to get where they wanted to go, so MikeM and
I volunteered for a recon mission to Chao Phraya 2; we wanted to verify
the opening time. Sure, it's dangerous; someone could slip and fall
on all those bubbles. But we were making the sacrifice for our
friends.
We all agreed to meet back in the Nana lobby, and then head off to
Cabbages and Condoms for dinner. This should be a snap!
We tossed our bags in our rooms, and hit the road. Luckily I had
saved a business card from a previous trip to CP2, and handed it to our
taxi driver. Then we settled in for a relaxing drive through Bangkok
in air-conditioned comfort… And it was indeed nice relaxing in the
back of the taxi, but the traffic was pretty bad and it took forever to
get there.
It's not a bad idea to print this out, and give it to your driver.
When we finally got to CP2, we knew we couldn't stay there long if we
wanted to meet the guys for dinner. We asked the driver to wait, and
ran it to talk to one of the papasans. CP2 was open, but it was
dead; there were no punters in the lobby, and no girls in the
fishbowl. The papasan suggested we come back at 4PM, because all the
girls should be there by then.
Hmmm… That might just work for tomorrow… A soapy at 4,
finish at 5:30, and then double-time it over to Bourbon Street for our
Thanksgiving feast. Not bad; it just might work!
MikeM and I got back in the taxi satisfied that we would have a good
time tomorrow. Unfortunately, the ride back to the Nana took
considerably longer than the ride to CP2 and we completely missed the guys
for dinner.
Photo courtesy of Rama
Photo courtesy of Rama
Photo courtesy of Rama
Photo courtesy of Rama
MikeM and I settled on a quick drink to say hello to our friends at
Morning/Night, and then we would move on to eat at Bully's Pub.
Lady and Nit were at Morning/Night, and did a good job keeping us
entertained. Lady is MikeM's current GFE, so he BFed her to join
us. Nit hit me up to BF her, but I just repeated my old story that I
don't BF because I am in love with GoodGirl…
Bully's Pub doesn't have the deepest menu, but we found a few things we
liked and they turned out not being too bad. The buffalo wings need
work, though. Shortstuff was there and came over to say hello, but added
that she could not stay with us today. It seems the bar has a new
Thai manager, and he didn't like Shortstuff spending time with the
customers. WTF?!?! It's a fookin' bar for the heaven's
sake. We bought her a drink anyway, and said we would say goodbye on
our way out.
That was sad; Shortstuff was a fun girl and we enjoyed having her at
our table. And if the guv is reading this; I'm sure we would have
stayed there a lot longer and bought more food and drinks if Shortstuff
and joined us…
Shotover and I had talked about some non-bar activities. We were
thinking it might be nice to visit the Lumpini Night Bazaar, or take a few
girls out to karaoke or something. Tonight seemed like a nice night
so we would do it. The plan was that we would go to Morning/Night,
BF a half-dozen girls, and hit the town.
The only problem was that my back was starting to act up. Just
sitting in the booths at Bully's was starting to kill me.
MikeM agreed to send Lady out on a mission, so we sent her back to
Morning/Night to BF Nit. Because of my back spasms, I didn't think I
could manage 6 girls but I did think Nit would take care of me.
While we were waiting for the girls to join us, MikeM ran over to the
pharmacy next door and picked up some muscle relaxers for me.
Nit was happy to be barfined, and very happy to be joining us.
When she asked why we didn't go to Morning/Night, I kidded her that they
always pad our bill. Nit ordered a Jack soda, and didn't stop
drinking them the rest of the night. That surprised me; I've known
her for a couple years, but I don't think I've ever seen her drink so
much.
Shortstuff was a little surprised to see girls at our table and came
over to see what was going on. I introduced Nit as my old friend,
bought another drink for Shortstuff, and everyone was happy.
We stayed a little longer than usual that night, and had a fun
time. ZZTop showed up, and so did Burnout and his buddy Lon, and
even Farangman stopped by for a drink or two.
But my back was really starting to get to me, and I was quickly coming
to the conclusion that there was no way I could go out for a night on the
town. The best I could hope for was getting back to my room, taking
a couple muscle relaxers, and having Nit give me a massage. It might
have been nice to have her walk on my back, but she was too drunk by now.
Sadly, I said goodbye to the guys and retreated to my room. The
short walk back to the Nana was so painful, I didn't even think about
escorting a girl back to the hotel past GoodGirl. Too bad for her;
I'm in self-preservation mode now.
Photo courtesy of Doozy
After I got my key, Nit said she wanted to go to the disco.
"Up to you," I replied. "I'm going to my
room." I turned and headed to the elevator lobby, and Nit ran
up next to me and grabbed my hand.
As we waited for the next car, the guards looked like they might be
interested in Nit's ID but I just waved them off. I felt a little
bad about doing that because the guards had served me well before, but I
really didn't think I could stand for one minute longer.
Getting into the elevator for the ride to my floor, Nit asked me why I
didn't want to go to the disco. When I told her my back hurt, she
reached up to give me a massage. YIKES! I didn't know if my
knees were going to buckle or my spine was going to come shooting out
through my skull, but I did know the massage had to stop for now…
We got to the room, and got comfortable on the couches. Without
asking, Nit called room service and ordered a Jack soda for her and a gin
and tonic for me. At first I was a little surprised at that, and
then I thought the alcohol-induced multiplicative effect of the muscle
relaxers would be a good thing.
Nit is a drinker. As soon as she would down her Jack soda, she
would order another round.
Somewhere around midnight, Nit stripped down to her underwear, and
decided it was time to start singing love songs to me. Actually,
"love song" is more like it; Nit only knew one. I'm sure I
like the love song from Titanic as much as the next guy, but Nit was
singing it over, and over, and over… Every once in a while she
would stop and ask if I wanted her to sing it again, but a "Please
God, no!" wouldn't stop her. Nit would only take a break to
order another round.
I was standing in the raised dining area, looking out at the Nana
parking lot below as Nit hugged my waist and sang that song again and
again. Finally, I said it was time for a shower. But the
torrent of water didn't stop her; Nit kept singing that song.
And Nit was still singing that song as she massaged me to sleep.
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