It all began as a mistake. I was in Cambodia and my visa was about to expire. I had to do something about it. It was the first situation of the kind, since I planned to come back right away in Cambodia for some volunteering in a village near Battambang. At the time I didn’t know much and was unaware of the fact that I could’ve solved this problem by simply going to an agency that would deal with the visa and not leave the country at all. However, this would’ve meant that this story that I’m about to tell would’ve never happened and who knew when I would’ve had the next chance to discover Bangkok at all.
I wasn’t really keen on going there in the first place. Bangkok to me was this ultra commercial concrete jungle with a few cool temples and a bunch of sex debauchery spots meant to attract tourists. It didn’t really sound like my kind of place to visit.
I was actually planning to go to Saigon. But long story short, I couldn’t get a visa extension on the terrestrial border. Right when I found a good price for a bus going from Phnom Penh, I got a call from this dude from my company in Hanoi telling me I had to fly. Absolute shit show. There were many cool things in Vietnam but the immigration department in particular was not one of them.
So I decided to go the other way. Bangkok it was then! I made a booking for two nights. Since I would pay 60$ for the damn visa anyway, why not check the island of Phuket as well? As I mentioned earlier, I couldn’t care less about Bangkok.
Off I went to Siem Reap where I booked a bus for Bangkok. 26$ for the fair. Bargain.
I hopped on the bus and we reached the border in maybe 3 hours. Things got funny there. My Cambodian visa had already expired for one day. Apparently if you get a one-month visa on the 4th of June, it wouldn’t include the 4th of July and that was the exact day I did this trip. WELL, SHIT!
The guy from the border check took me to some secluded office through some back doors with restricted access where some other dude was chilling. I paid 10$ for the extra day and then he was carefully analyzing my passport. He started frowning and that’s never a good sign when you’re at a border crossing and some guy in uniform is staring at your passport.
He asked me where my visa was. He couldn’t see any visa on my passport. I told him that my passport was eligible for visa on arrival and that I would get it on the Thai side. The bastard didn’t believe me.
“You expect me to believe that your Romanian passport can get a Thai visa on arrival?” He laughed.
“It’s written right here, sir.” And I showed him a print screen with the exact information from the Thai embassy website.
“Don’t bother!”
The stupid idiot had trust issues apparently. He made a few calls to ask about this protocol and a thorough list of passports eligible for the visa on arrival.
Now, I could understand that it wasn’t that likely to see Romanian citizens crossing the terrestrial Khmer-Thai border and it was probably the first time this dude had ever seen my kind of passport. But this guy didn’t even know what he was doing. The fucker couldn’t even look up some document in that office or make 2 clicks on his computer to check this information. He had to call around like in the old times. Such professionalism was often found in that part of the world so at the end of the day I was laughing about it.
~◆◆◆~
Eventually, after all the protocols, I found myself on the other side of the border. I was surprised to see that the bus was still waiting for me at the other side. I genuinely saw a 50/50 chance of that happening after all the hassle on both sides. The Thai people from the border asked me tons of things and pondered a lot before putting that stamp on the passport.
But alas, I was finally there. I set foot at last in the magic realm of Thailand. The bus took off right away. After maybe 2 hours we stopped at a gas station which was next to a 7Eleven and a market. I walked into the 7Eleven and there was no beer. The one and only 7Eleven that for some reason didn’t have beer was right there. I wish I could’ve noted the exact coordinates of that 7Eleven in particular just to document the existence of the only 7Eleven I’ve ever seen until now that didn’t serve alcoholic beverages. Unreal, I swear.
I walked out of the store disappointed and checked the market. To my delight, I saw a place with fridges filled with various beers. There was a little girl there with her mother and they were both in charge of the joint. The little girl was a beauty queen of only 18 who served me a bottle of Chang with a wide genuine smile. She spoke good English too.
I told the little girl that she was the first Thai person I’d ever met in my first trip to Thailand and that she proved to be a very nice introduction to the Thai people. Her wide smile got even wider and told me I was sweet. I still remember that charming figure. I once again wish I could note the whereabouts of that place so I would see the very same smile again when buying a bottle of Chang beer. And next time it wouldn’t be just one bottle.
The bus took off once again and the bottle of Chang got emptied quickly. The bus stopped all of a sudden somewhere in Bangkok and the driver told me to get out. I asked why weren’t the others getting out (I was the only foreigner in that whole bus). The guy had poor English though and we couldn’t reach a common ground. Dull-witted human. All he could do was wave his hands in such a way that would convey the idea that I had to get the hell out of that bus. It’s not in my nature to argue with this level so I went out.
I checked this pub nearby where they had wifi. While I sipped my beer I managed to find my hostel on Google Maps. It was already past 10pm and the guys from the hostel were not answering my messages from the Booking.com chat box. I had to improvise.
I randomly found a guy with a tuktuk and explained to the best of my ability where I had to go. He seemed to be fine with the destination. The tuktuk started and it was that moment when I realized how fast such a little thing could be. It had some blue and yellow disco lights and funky purple cushions too. I’d never expected a tuktuk to have so much personality.
The tuktuk ride must’ve been half an hour but nonetheless I got a small glimpse of Bangkok. It felt different. It had more class than any other Asian city I’d ever seen at the time. The immaculate temples lit at night, the wide roads, the majestic royal architecture and other such sites were fine to see from a speeding tuktuk with disco lights and created a special sensation that only someone put in such circumstances could feel.
I arrived at the hostel, checked in and went straight to bed. There was nothing much going on. All I could notice was that the staff was Indian and that before I fell a sleep a whole hurricane took the city by surprise and all the trees were grooving to the rhythm dictated by the blizzard. My bed was right next to a window so I could witness a bit of that show. It all faded off soon.
~◆◆◆~
I woke up the next morning and went straight downstairs to have the breakfast which was included. The breakfast consisted of bread, margarine and coffee or tea. For a 3$ per night hostel it was pretty cool to have that included. We could take however much we wanted. There were packs of bread on a table and a whole bucket of margarine on another one.
I took my stash and sat down. The atmosphere was pretty wholesome. I saw two guys talking Japanese to each other and a girl who cursed in Russian on the phone. She seemed pretty upset. I had a little chat with one of the Japanese guys who told me how cool was the weed in Thailand (it was the year when the Thai government had just legalized zaza and weed cafés were popping out like mushrooms after rain). A Thai girl joined our breakfast spot and soon enough a guy in his 40s joined us too. He claimed to be French but he didn’t have any French accent when he spoke English, which was an achievement that few French people can claim to have.
The Japanese guy left us to get some zaza and the rest of us took a walk around the neighborhood. We wandered around some canals and talked about all sorts of things, including lady boys, communism, the pandemic and Asia in general. The French traveler, Leroy was his name, was particularly into lady boys apparently. We grabbed some beers from 7Eleven and sat down at a street food place to have some pad thai. This whole experience was beguiling me a smile. There was something about Bangkok that got me going. I can’t explain in particular but you feel it when it’s something in the air. I guess we can all relate to such an experience. The Thai girl went to grab a drink and I turned to Leroy:
“I got some cool vibes in this city already, man.” I said.
“I like that while you’re saying that you’re looking at the girl’s ass as she goes.” Leroy laughed.
She had a nice bottom. What could I do?
“I can’t help it sometimes, man.”
The girl came back, we finished our food and went back to the hostel. It was really hot outside and not much was going on in that part of the day. We agreed that we would all hang out again later on after some sleep.
The air conditioning wasn’t working in the hostel between 11am and 6pm so the cheap bastards could save some energy money. This was completely unprecedented in all my travelling experience. Anyway, I was lucky to be next to a window which would provide some breeze from the outside once opened. How lucky could one guy be.
~◆◆◆~
I woke up after a few hours and went outside to check what was going on. I saw these guys on a bench right outside the hostel laughing and sharing a fat joint. One of them was the Russian girl who was cursing that morning. She didn’t seem to be upset anymore. There was also a distinguished middle-aged hippie.
“I like what you’re doing there!” I said to them smiling.
“And what is it that we’re doing?” This middle-aged hippie asked me.
“Living!”
“Well, you might as well join us, brother!”
So there it happened. The middle-aged hippie was an Italian dude who went to a bunch of places since the 80s. There was this chilled out British guy who was shagging the Russian girl and some Pakistani guy who always had a story to tell. Soon enough he started telling one.
“So a few nights ago I went to this club and hooked up with this Thai girl. It was really good and we went to this shabby room where she was staying. I started to undress her and guess what? A DICK POPPED OUT. I freaked out and left as fast as I could. No way I was going for it. She forgot to tell me she was a ladyboy! In this city you always gotta be careful, man. And those damn ladyboys are so damn good at looking like girls. They should tell us what they really are before this kind of stuff happens. It’s pretty insane. There’s no way I’m fucking a ladyboy! I respect them and I have nothing against them, but I’m not doing it with them, man!” The Pakistani guy said.
The sky got darker, the joint got shorter and the group got bigger. Soon enough I saw Leroy walking out of the hostel and talking to this lady on the street. I went straight to them.
“Yo man, what’s going on?” I said.
“Hey dude, good to see you”. Leroy said. He turned to his companion. “Mia, meet my Romanian, friend, Danny. Danny, this is my ladyboy date!”
“Good to see you, Mia.”
“Say, Danny, you like girls with dicks??” She started laughing. That was the first sentence she spoke to me. The first ever words put together by Mia and addressed to me took the form of that sentence.
“Not really my thing. Maybe in the future, who knows?”
Another girl showed up to the group. She had some nice features.
“This is my friend, Lammy.” Mia said. She is also a ladyboy but with a pussy. You can fuck her if you want, haha.”
We were all laughing. This Indian guy from the big group came to me and suggested we should all go to Khao San road.
“I’ve never been to Khao San road.” I told him.
“Really? Crap, dude. Now we really gotta go to Khao San road.” The British guy said. “There is no way you come to Bangkok without checking that one.”
My schedule for that night was thus settled. For those of you wondering what Khao San road is, well, it’s that one street in Bangkok where every single sin from the holy Bible is committed every single night. And nobody could care less. As a matter of fact, Khao San road was the sole reason some people bothered to travel to Bangkok at all. It was that one place where greasy old and obese Westerners would show up doing their best to get a piece of ass. It was also the place where the exact same people would get mugged or lured into some fancy trap that would make them rethink the entirety of their lives. You know what they say. Sometimes you eat the bar. Sometimes the bar eats you.
So yeah, I couldn’t miss that spot. We soon formed a gang and went there. It was like that meme with “me and the boys”. It felt right and we were all for each other. Leroy and the 2 ladyboys agreed to join too.
We soon got to our destination and the partying there was a sight to behold. Everyone was up to something and the characters found there had such diverse looks that I would need a whole book to properly describe each and every single one of them that could be seen within a 100m radius. People from every possible background, shape, size, social status, sexual orientation, culture and subculture were all blended in into the most interesting social smoothy one could possibly imagine. We were all united in diversity through the instinctual debauchery that is found deep down within every single one of us.
Every damn place had its own music blasting and all these grooves were blending into one another to the point of utter madness. There were random vendors trying to sell all sort of things, from joints to fried scorpions and from noodles to bracelets with very inspiring writings such as “I LOVE BLACK COCK”, “SPERM DUMPSTER”, “I SMOKE 2 JOINTS BEFORE I SMOKE 2 JOINTS” and others of the same sort.
As I was mesmerized by all the madness and the neon lights, Lammy started holding my hand. It seemed that she was up to something. I didn’t mind. I put my hand around her shoulders and started kissing her. She didn’t seem to mind either.
Soon enough we all sat down at this place outside. We ordered a bucket of Vodka Red Bull and a hole patch of laughing gas balloons. A few hours went on like that. We agreed to split everything evenly amongst ourselves. For some reason Lammy didn’t have cash and she indirectly suggested that I should pay for her. (Now, let me make a note here. I hardly ever pay for someone else on such occasions, unless I really like the person and we really knew each other for a while. And I never pay on first dates, so there was no way I was gonna pay for the drugs and drinks consumed by a ladyboy I’d only just met in Bangkok.) I suggested her to find a cash machine and get some Baht but that didn’t really appeal to her. The others started bitching and told Lammy to either pay for her shit or get the fuck out, to which I silently agreed. Eventually, Mimi got mad and paid for Lammy. What a shit show.
I realized that I didn’t really like Lammy anymore and didn’t show the same interest in her. She was the kind of bitch one should avoid at any cost while in Bangkok. She was the type that would take advantage of dumb foreigners or simply suck them dry out of their pockets for the sake of her own objectification. What sucked was that she was still in our group and we had to be civil, for a while at least.
We went to a club and had some more drinks. And then to another one. And then to another. We got tired at some point and went to 7Eleven to grab some cold ones and then chill somewhere with less decibels. Leroy and Mimi were long time elsewhere, minding their own business probably. Lammy kept sticking around even though we were not really interested in having her around anymore. We hoped that she would eventually fade away but it never really happened. This ladyboy was determined to get something out of me.
“Why are you doing this?” She told me with an irritated look.
“Do what?” I said, with a casual mien.
“You don’t care about me. You just go with those guys.”
“Why would you say that? We are all together in this, aren’t we?”
“Yes, but you don’t you want to stay with me?”
“I want to stay with everyone.”
“I think you ignore me.”
“Come on. We all left together and we’re supposed to stick to each other, right? If you don’t like this, feel free to go somewhere else. I’m not leaving the group for your sake.”
She didn’t say anything after that. We went inside 7Eleven to get our stuff. For some reason the Pakistani guy started to curse and insult Lammy, saying that he didn’t want to fuck any ladyboys. We didn’t know what happened with this guy but it escalated quickly. The next thing we saw was Lammy trying to choke the guy with her bare hands. It was a sight to behold for the 7Eleven staff. We did our best to de-escalate this feud and we separated them. We talked this out and eventually the staff wasn’t looking anymore. What a show.
We had a couple of beers in a random spot and later on I decided to go back to the hostel. I had a flight to Phuket scheduled in a few hours and had to get my backpack ready. I parted from that epic group but Lammy followed me.
“Can I go to Phuket with you?” She asked.
“What? You don’t even have a ticket.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“So what you’re saying is that you want to buy one at the airport?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re gonna pay for accommodation too?”
“Yes yes. I’ll buy food and drinks too.”
“Do you really expect me to believe that shit?”
“Yes yes yes. Come on. We’ll have great time together!”
“Nah. I think I’ll pass. I’ll do this one alone.”
I walked straight into the hostel and I was glad she didn’t walk in chasing me. I shouldn’t have gotten involved with that human. What a foul creature.
~◆◆◆~
I slept maybe 3 hours and proceeded to get a cab for the airport. The boys from the night before were still outside chilling. We rejoiced when we met once again.
“Bro, that ladyboy from last night was fucked up.” The Pakistani guy said.
“I know, man. It happens.”
“So you’re going to Phuket now?” Asked the British guy.
“I think so. I’m really craving for some beach time. It’s been too long.”
“Ok man, enjoy yourself. Hope to see again. Last night was really awesome.”
“I know, man. Cheers!”
I went straight to the airport thereafter. The flight was pretty quick. My accommodation was on a street that was right by the beach. What I didn’t know at the time was that the monsoon was kicking hard in that time of the air in that part of Thailand. There was a strong wind and a little drizzle could be felt. The beach was deserted and there were “No swimming” signs all over.
But none of that mattered. I went to the beach and got my feet in the water. The water level was below my knees so technically I wasn’t doing anything wrong.
Soon enough a lifeguard appeared and told me to go out of the water. The guy looked pretty pissed. He looked like that middle-aged man with a failed marriage, 2 teenage kids out of control and a mild alcohol addiction.
He pointed to the “No swimming” sign. I explained him that I wasn’t really swimming. He kept saying “No swimming”. I mimicked with my hands the act of swimming and that I wasn’t doing any of that and it was perfectly safe and fine. He got angry and told me to stay out of water no matter what. The fucking douchebag didn’t really seem to understand my point. I gave up and walked away disgusted. The only one thing I wanted to do was taken away by that asshole lifeguard. I wish I could crack his head open. I had to reconcile with the idea that it wasn’t really the best thing to do and I wasn’t to keen to acquaint myself with a Thai prison.
I kept walking on the beach and I couldn’t really climax. The only thing that solved my problem was a pizza I got at a nearby restaurant. I was supposed to spend 3 nights there. I changed my mind and bought another flight ticket for the next day in the afternoon.
Mark Twain said at some point that it doesn’t kill you what you didn’t know, but what you knew for sure but it simply wasn’t so. When I embarked on this Thai little adventure, I was so convinced that Bangkok wouldn’t really suit me at all and that Phuket would be the real deal. I was rooting for Phuket. Bangkok would be just a quick stopover, I thought. Oh boy, how wrong I was.
I came to Bangkok to meet one of the most wholesome groups of people at that hostel and explore with them the charms of the city. We related in many ways and should I go back in time, I would’ve expanded my stay there even further. When I came to Phuket though, I found a boring ass deserted place with barely any people and some of the worst possible weather caused by the monsoon. Screw that. I needed Bangkok back. I needed that hostel and the boys. We had a nice thing going on.
~◆◆◆~
The following day I bid farewell to Phuket and was back to my dear hostel in the almighty and naughty Thai capital. The same people were there and we were all glad to reunite. One of the Indian guys was grinding weed on his passport. We were all just having a special dynamic together. I can’t explain really explain it. We were all up to random things. It didn’t matter what it was, as long as we were together.
When I came back, among other things, we decided to take a public bus that was going around the city. It was a really old bus, probably from the 70s, that rode with all its windows open and had a couple of fans inside it. It was a bit shabby but it had a lot of drip. Our hostel group sat in the back and admired the view. We went on that trip just for the sake of doing it.
Late on, I met that funny Russian girl again. She wasn’t shagging with the British guy anymore. She switched to the middle-aged Italian hippie instead. There was a lot of peculiar subject matter concerning that Russian girl. She said that she had ended up in Bangkok because she’d been kicked out of Vietnam where she’d used to teach English. She also told me that she’d spent a while in a mental institute in Russia. On top of that, she also mentioned that with all the ongoing worldwide housing crisis, the best thing to do was to kill your parents, do your jail time for a few years and then you’d have a whole house for yourself. At that point I started to understand why that special girl had been institutionalized in the first place.
Later on me and the boys went to 7Eleven to get beers. The crazy Russian girl followed us and once again the staff of a 7Eleven had to witness something funny. She started taking random products from different shelves and simply throw them on the ground while laughing like someone with mental issues. It turned out that the mental institution where this girl had spent some time didn’t really do much for her. Probably there was no cure for her at all, so society would have to eventually just accept her for what she was. The rest of us pretended we didn’t know that human being and proceeded to pay for our drinks.
The first part of the night was quite relaxed. It was all about beers, joints, stories and what would come next after Bangkok in everyone’s agenda. It’s hard to explain the sense of belonging we all had while at that hostel. Some guy from Nepal joined us too and he had a guitar as well. Some African people started chatting with us randomly and asked us about all sort of things related to Thailand and travelling in general. It was all so natural and beautiful. Such moments made you wonder why countries were still at war with each other when such human interactions were so normal there.
After a while I went inside the hostel reception to text a friend of mine from back home. At the next table there was a girl with hippie pink glasses. She was Thai but looked rather Indian. She was wearing only black and had really long raven dark hair. She had a KFC box and a small bag with cans of Smirnoff Pink Lemonade. There was something about this girl. I couldn’t stop looking at her. We made eye contact and she smiled. It was a warm genuine smile.
“How are you doing?” She asked.
“Not much. What about you?” I told her.
“I’m waiting for a friend but he doesn’t seem to show up.”
“That’s sad. You can make some new friends then.”
“I think so. Would you like some KFC? I can’t finish all this.”
“Nah. I had some bites from 7Eleven so it’s all good.”
“Would you like a drink then?” She pointed at the bag of Smirnoff cans with pink color.
“Sure. I might try one of those.”
I opened a can and had a big gulp. I almost felt like spitting the whole thing. It was terrible. It tasted like cheap candy syrup mixed with soda and vodka.
“OH MY GOD. This thing is terrible! It’s too damn sweet. How can you drink this?”
“Because it gets you drunk easier, haha!”
“That’s not my way of getting drunk, I swear.”
“What do you like then? You like beer?”
“I usually go for beer, yeah.”
And the next thing I saw was this girl grabbing a big Chang bottle from the reception fridge and paying one of the staff members for it. She came back to me and handed me the beer.
“Here you go.”
What the hell had just happened? How?
“Why did you buy me a beer? You don’t even know me. Why do I deserve such generosity?” I started laughing as I still couldn’t believe what was going on.
“It’s because you’re cute!” She said. And then she grabbed my cheek in the same way one would grab a little kid.
We talked some more. We got closer. It felt alright. It felt organic.
A Scottish dude sitting at a nearby table joined us too. He had some interesting stories about how he got married with some Korean lady and how recently he’d been screwed over by his parents who turned out to be major assholes. He even mentioned that his mother was a cunt.
“Don’t talk like that!” The girl said. “She’s your mother!”
“Listen”, the guy said. “I have nothing against her. I wish her good health and good fortune. I really do. But she’s a cunt. And I’ll never forgive her.”
“Ok, but it still doesn’t feel right to say it.”
“After you’ve been through what I’ve been, it will feel nothing but right. Believe me!” And he started laughing.
After a bit more conversation we took a walk around the place. We got beers from 7Eleven and we ended up on Khaosan Road.
“I didn’t really plan to come here.” Said the girl.
“But here we are!” Said the Scotsman
“Ok whatever. Let’s get some balloons somewhere.”
“Fuck the balloons, guys” I said. “Those things are simply stupid. They don’t really do anything.”
“Oh come on! The girl said. They’re fun.”
“Not for me” I said.
In that instant she came very close to me and said to my ear: “Please just this one time. I will suck your dick at the back of the bar or in the toilet. I really like you.” And then she gave me a long open tongue kiss. The balloons didn’t seem such a bad idea anymore.
We went to one of the many places that offered more or less the same things on that cursed street. A bucket of booze came to us almost instantly. The balloons came too. I still don’t know how much time went on like this. The Scotsman made some new friends from the table next to us while I was chatting with the girl.
She didn’t feel good all of a sudden and went to the bathroom. I followed her. I was feeling lucky. The next thing I saw was that she was puking in a trash bin. I guess the vodka, the balloons, some beer and that extra sweet bullshit from Smirnoff didn’t really make a great combination. It was a depressing spectacle. I didn’t get the blowjob that was promised. I hadn’t had a shag in months and it was getting frustrating but I had to accept the situation. It happens to everyone I guess.
We decided to get back to the hostel. Khao San road could be rough sometimes. The Scotsman decided to stay with his new friends. He was doing just fine.
~◆◆◆~
The 2 of us were back in no time and it was almost nobody there. We sat downstairs and did nothing. We said nothing. We were like a homeless couple or a backpacker couple which just ran out of money. Poor girl was holding me and I was doing my best to make her feel better. I got to know her name. Srey. She was a genuinely nice person. Irresponsible, naïve, but a good and warm soul nonetheless. Her presence was affectionate and comforting. A weird sense of tranquility and peace of mind was surrounding us. I wanted to hold on to that feeling as long as I could.
The old hippie showed up out of nowhere. He laid down on one of the benches and murmured a few sentences. What I could distinguish was how fucked up he was and that he needed to rest. Soon enough he was silent.
There was nobody awake in sight anymore. I got sleepy and urged the girl to join me in my dorm. It’s worth noting that the two of us were sleeping in separate parts of the hostel and it was against the rules to bring someone, especially of the opposite sex, in your bed in a shared dorm. Despite all this, stories of hostel shagging were going around almost all the time.
She refused at first but my persuasive skills prevailed. I didn’t always put effort to persuade someone into doing something but that was a special occasion. We eventually came together to my spot in the dorm and everyone was sleeping and every curtain was pulled over. The downside was that she was also a little sick and was coughing a lot during that night. But regardless of those that small aversion, it was a good night.
A few hours later I got woken up by a hand clasped on my shoulder. It was firm and determined. It was one of the reception guys. He didn’t look too happy. He told me to get out of bed right away. I was bamboozled, like I was still in some numb dream. What was going to happen? Get a 20$ fine? Get kicked out of the hostel? I was planning to leave that day anyway so I didn’t really give a damn.
I went downstairs and for some reason I was smiling at the guy who woke me up.
“Ok, man. You got me.” I told him as if nothing happened.
“I told you before that you were not supposed to do that.” He said.
“I’m sorry. We got pretty fucked up last night.”
“I got a call from someone in that dorm. Honestly, I don’t really give a shit but some of the people coming here don’t like this kind of stuff.”
So apparently one of those pricks from the dorm ratted on me. It appeared that someone had never heard that snitches get stitches. Ever since primary school I had a problem with snitches that ratted on people just for the sake of doing it. These people were the lowest scumbags I could possibly think of. Just dull-witted humans who snitched others out of envy or spite instead of working on themselves. It was beyond me how someone could stoop so low.
“What do I have to do now?” I asked the reception guy.
“Just get that girl out right now and don’t bring her there ever again.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah. Do it now.”
I complied right away. I was surprised I didn’t get any penalty. It turned out it wasn’t as bad as I expected.
~◆◆◆~
I went back to Srey and woke her up. I told her the situation and happily complied. It was 8am and felt a bit hammered. I needed to change some Thai currency back to USD. We walked around the place and the exchange places were either closed or they didn’t have enough USD for the Thai money. It felt really shabby.
The heat was getting higher and my patience was running thin. We must’ve walked like that for maybe 2 hours. In the meantime, Srey and I got to know each other a little bit better. Or at least I got to know her a little better. She told me stories about her family and all sort of whacky details and events, such as her having a miscarriage while being a teenager or her mother insisting that she would give her a baby and that she wouldn’t have to worry raising it since her mother was willing to do all that stuff.
Srey was the youngest sibling in her family and apparently her mother kept on saying that since her daughter was giving her pussy to so many men, she might as well get a baby and simply give it to her mommy to feel the blessing of raising a kid once again. Honestly, I didn’t know what opinion to make out of all this so I just approved whatever perspective Srey was giving.
We eventually found an exchange place where I could change all the money I had left to USD. We went back to the hostel where I checked out and got back my deposit.
It was about time I had to say goodbye to Bangkok. It had been a blast for that first time and never before had I really expected to have this kind of fun there. But as George Harrison said, all things must pass. I was on my way to Cambodia to spend one month in a village volunteering for a school. It was around that time when I realized that a bit over 1000$ were not enough for a whole summer in South East Asia. That volunteering would eventually save me from this dire situation.
Now that I think about it, I might’ve enjoyed 2 or 3 more days in Bangkok with Srey but fate decided otherwise.
I packed everything and went to Srey to say goodbye. She came to me and we didn’t say a word for maybe one minute. We just stared at each other. There is no way I can properly describe the way she was looking at me. Those sweet big brown eyes expressed a sorrow of such proportions that one doesn’t get to see often. I was genuinely feeling bad for her. I wished I could’ve simply pack her in my suitcase. There wasn’t much I could do about it, though.
I realized at that moment how much it sucks to not have the money to make the life you really crave for. I don’t care what others say, but money is magic. Had I had more of the greens, I would’ve made Srey and myself very happy and could’ve bought myself some more Thai delights. It was a place that I had barely got the touch of but was keen on checking it again.
We said goodbye in a simple, yet authentic affectionate fashion. One final glance and I went around the corner to the bus station. Those eyes still followed me a good while after that day.
When I was close to the bus station I saw Leroy coming to me. One of the coolest guys ever. Not all heroes wear capes. I couldn’t find him at the hostel to say goodbye but there he was, out of the blue. We took a few pictures as I was waiting for the bus. Why did I have to leave? Oh yeah, money. Fuck. Back in university there was a big quote scribbled with a marker on the rickety kitchen door of our modest student junkie house: “NO MONEY, NO PROBLEM. MORE MONEY, MORE PROBLEMS.” It’s true that money can get you hella problems. But it can also solve them. Like the problem of spending more time in Bangkok at one of the coolest hostels with some of the nicest most genuine people I happened to meet by chance.
What could’ve been? Nobody can tell and there’s no point in making alternate scenarios. It’s been done. As for this first trip to Bangkok, expectations were surpassed beyond what I had imagined. I thought about all this while I was in the bus which got me to the Bangkok train station. I waited in a line which wasn’t as big as one might expect and got my ticket for the Cambodian border. The ticket cost me 1.5$. A story was coming to an end, making space for a new one.