
sure there were warning signs but goddamnit she was a looker.
obviously when a Thai bird sits down at a table with the only two farangs in the dining car on the night train from Chiang Mai and orders a big bottle of Singha, and can speak fluent English with confidence, then it's obvious she hasn't been necessarily been doing a 'cooking course' in Chiang Mai for the past three months like she tried to make out.
it turned out she was from Kanchanaburi and was planning to start up a restrauant there, or so she said. The beers flowed. The music started to blast. We started to dance. My new mate switched to Sangsom about 8 pm and played himself out as far as she was concerned. He was almost unconsious by the time I'd passed her a piece of paper with the number of my lower bunk on it and asked her to join me there in a few minutes so as not to attract the attention of the ever vigilant Thai railway police. She understood. And ten minutes later, she turned up.
I didn't shag her but I decided to change my plans and head off to Kanch with her in the morning so it was taxi to Thonburi, bus and tuktuk to the guesthouse. After I checked in she pissed off for a few hours to see her family which suited me because I'd hardly slept and welcomed the rest. Then she came back for a bit of afternoon nookie but she was, I noticed, already drunk, even though it was only 4 pm.
while she slept, her phone, which was on the bedside table, went. I looked over at the screen and it said 'PaulCMai'. Which meant that she knew more than guy called Paul, presumably. She went into the bathroom to speak with him but it was all over in twenty seconds. She then made another call in Thai this time, in the room itself, knowing I can hardly speak a word, and then afterwards started to get dressed.
10 minutes later there was knock on the door. She answered it and apparently it was her mother, who had two young children with her. The kids came bounding into the room, though I was a bit embarrassed as I was sitting there with just a pair of boxer shorts on. The mother acted like seeing her daughter in an obviously post - coital state with a farang guy was a daily event not worthy of a half raised eyebrow.
the girl turned to me and said, 'we go now. We have party. It's children's day'.
Indeed it was. We set off on one of those motorcycle sidecar things after stopping off to buy a bottle of 100 Pipers in a 7 / 11 which obviously I paid for and in due course arrived at this party which had already started, with some entertainers, about 200 people, stalls outside like an ice cream tuk tuk and treats for the kids. There was a catering unit to feed everybody. I was the only farang there.
I got into it a bit. I was introduced to the various brothers, cousins, uncles and aunts at the table, the whisky flowed and the food came in seperate courses which everyone ate with chopsticks apart from the soup. The music got livelier. I got drunker and I started to dance. I gave the elder of the 3 kids in our group 100 baht to buy stuff from outside. I went up out front to dance, though she was, I noticed, disinclined to follow. But this gesture was appreciated. When I returned, everyone was smiling and I got winks and handshakes from the adjacent tables.
then it all began to pack up. She asked for 200 baht for a contribution to the food. Entirely reasonable, I thought, as I'd stuffed myself and also the single bottle of whisky I'd bought hadn't lasted long and I'd been liberally drinking from the various bottles everyone else had contributed. She said she couldn't come back with me as she had to talk 'business', but one of her 'brothers' would give me a lift on his bike back to Maenam Kwai Rd, the strip where most of the tourist guesthouses are. She said she would come and see me 'later'. I told her to call me first as I might be asleep and not hear her knock on the door.
I never thought for a minute she would turn up, but I didn't care. Her 'brother' dropped me off, and I gave him fifty baht for the trouble as the party had been quite a way out of town and he could have just dropped me in Kanch centre and asked me to get a moto to save himself ten minutes' drive. When he'd gone I just headed to a beer bar before I returned to my room and crashed out.
the next day she called. She was obviously completely off her skull, even though it was only midday. She asked me if I'd been with another girl the night before.
'what ?' I said. 'Weren't you supposed to be coming round anyway ? Of course I wasn't with another girl'.
'I think you with other girl. I cannot go last night. We talk business. We drink. I cannot drive motorbike.'
'I not go with other girl. I drunk too. Mai pen rai. Just come round later this afternoon.'
'Ok, I come round later'.
'Call me first,' I said.
surprise surprise no call, no text, no show, no nothing. Finally I call her myself at about 8 pm. She's obviously off her face and in some karaoke bar. I say listen, don't worry, you're obviously seeing your family and friends. You've been away from home for a while. Don't worry about it. I'll be hanging around here for a few days, I like Kanchanaburi anyway. I'll call you tomorrow.
I hang up while she's making these drunken, garbled noises that seem to signify a basic acknowledgement of what I've said.
I go out. Eat. Play pool. Go internet. Drink. Flirt with bargirls. But end up in the guesthouse alone.
when I call her the next day, about noon, she's pissed again. I'm losing patience by now with her and say that if she wants to come round later, then she can but that was really just to bring the conversation to a close. She says yes, but I already know enough by now that there isn't any point in asking to specify a time or anything like that. In fact I'm surprised she managed to catch the train at all in the first place a couple of days before, and if truth be told, I'm starting to regret that she did.
about 7 pm I'm sitting around in my boxers having just had a shower. The door opens and in she strides, obviously well pissed as usual. She has a quick look round and says - 'you go with girl !'
I deny it.
'Look !' she says pointing to a couple of packets of condoms on the bedside table, one of which was open and which we'd used the day before : 'Condom ! You go with bargirl !'
I manage to persuade her after counting the condoms and reminding her that we'd used one the day before, that no, I hadn't in fact been consorting with prostitutes
in my 350 baht aircon room. She seems satisfied and in fact lies down on the bed. Within a few minutes, we're having sex. When we're done, I get up and say I'm going off to get a few beers from the 7 / 11 and does she want anything ?
she sits straight up in the bed and asks for 1000 baht.
'What ? What for ?' I say.
'Boom boom,' she says.
I say no, no way.
then she reaches into a bag and picks out a small penknife, opens it, and threatens to cut my dick off if I don't pay her. By now I realise she's just a raving lunatic, so I quickly get my trousers and t - shirt on and head straight out of the door, on to the mountain bike, and away. I pedal to a beer bar and sit in the back, trying to figure out what to do and how to extricate myself what seemed a pretty bad mess up.
my wallet, phone and everything else of any value is in my trouser pockets and my passport, travellers cheques, 100 dollar bills and so on are in the guesthouse safe, so I'm not worried anything valuable can go missing if she tries pay herself what she obviously appeared to believe she was entitled to.
I reckon that if I just wait for a couple of hours, she'll get bored and piss off, probably to the nearest Thai karaoke bar that serves Sangsom.
and so it proved. When at about 11 pm I gingerly stuck my head round the guesthouse door, there was no sign of her. I packed everything up straight away,resolving to leave town as soon as it got light, and in the morning got my pouch from the desk and pissed off back to Bangkok.
total nutcase. The alarming thing is, I'm sure others have had far worse experiences than that one.