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October 26th
2005
I had finished my email duties
and had given my Australian friend, Tony, a call to
see if he would join me for a late breakfast. His
being almost always ready to get away from his
computer he was up for it. I picked him up at his
Condo in central Jomtiem about 10.30a.m. and we took
the Beach Road along Jomthien. The sky was overcast
but it didn’t look much like serious rain at that
time. Up from Beach Road we climbed the hill between
Jomthien and Pattaya, past the enormous Buddha, no
doubt complaining about the Thai driving antics as
usual; certainly nothing strange about that. The Thai
people ride the chicken chasers (small motorcycles)
like they have a death wish, most foreigners believing
that Buddha takes care of them because they sure don’t
take any care themselves.
These small motor bikes are
becoming more and more popular these days with many
large, very posh, motor-cycle outlets springing up all
over Thailand not to speak of just in the Pattaya
area. The reason I have figured out is the finance
requirements are so very cheap for the time being and
that a Thai person in employment can get finance and
ride one away for a deposit of as little as 990Baht,
about $24.75USD. The driving test in order to get a
license is a breeze, as you can see if you read my
story about the Thai Driving license – if, indeed,
they bother to go through that process at all. You see
very young children driving these things now who I am
sure are well under the required driving age for a
license. Kids make a 125cc Honda chicken chaser look
like a Bonneville 750cc under them. What do they get
up too you may well ask? Well that is not the
question. The appropriate question would be what do
they consider dangerous and the answer is, sadly, very
little.
Turning left (we drive on the
left here) out of a side street without the slightest
regard for what may be coming is a favorite trick.
They seem to believe that this is fine so long as they
keep well in to the left. This is despite the fact
that just about anything can be coming along these
small dusty side roads that only a few years ago were
merely farmers tracks with most of them little more
than that today, often with scant (mainly broken up)
tarmac laid down. My belief is that if Buddha didn’t
take care of them, there would be little piles of
bones every few yards where they had been killed in
one accident after another and the authorities
couldn’t be bothered to clear them away.
Our destination as usual that
day was The Sportsman in Soi 6 run by an Englishman,
Ron, who in a former life was a ‘sparks’ (electrician)
back in the UK. So down the hill on the Pattaya side
past all the new very nice looking shop-houses, under
the seldom used flyover, into the Arab area. The smell
is always foul in this area, no doubt due to drains
that are well not what you would expect in the west.
Then along Pratumnak Road and into Second Road over
the traffic lights, which they seem to have switched
off more often than not these days. There are a lot of
new traffic lights going up but a lot of the original
ones seem to be disregarded, hmmmm. Most likely
someone in the local council has a seat on the board
of directors of a traffic light manufacturing company?
Second Road, named because it’s the next road up from
the beach, is a wide road one-way heading north, more
often than not near blocked with copious, empty Baht
Buses. A Baht Bus is a pick-up truck with bench seats
in the back. Far too many of them in Pattaya, with
many surly drivers.
There have been a few attempts
to put on a real bus service in the past but all have
come to nothing having been burned and even a driver
killed on the last attempt. There is supposed to be a
new bus service now with even real bus stops but I
have never actually seen a bus yet. Perhaps they can’t
find even Thai drives that are willing to take the
risk. The other problem with the Baht Buses is the
drivers, there is a set price you pay no matter where
you get on or off but these drives like to charge
non-Thais twice or three times that price, so much so
that a Thai will complain because they wouldn’t stop
for them. Answer: get your own chicken chaser and
learn to ride it.
Second Road at the south is
full of shopping malls, even one that is made to look
like an aircraft of WW2 vintage has crashed into it.
Maybe he was watching the Thai drivers?? There are
many new buildings in this area as well lots of very
nice jewelers and a like. Over Pattaya Klang or
Central Road, are the big hotels and Soi 6, our
destination. This runs from Second Road to Beach Road
and The Sportsman is halfway down on the left and is
located in one of the notorious Pattaya red light
areas, frequented before lunch, by mainly kateoys or
lady-boys. I have to say they get up early and seem to
work very hard at their trade. Tony reckons it should
be legal to shoot them. Yeah, I’m OK with it all so
long as they don’t try and touch. There are so many of
them they must get trade at some time or they would
all starve. They are much more accepted in this part
of the world by the straight population, apart from,
perhaps, the upper class Thai population but tolerated
by the peasant classes, something like 95 percent of
Thailand’s population. You see them portrayed in most
Thai soap operas and comedy programs on the Thai TV.
The kateoy is not a product of the sex trade in
Thailand and has been around long before this flesh
trade became known to the west at all. Also, not only
in Thailand, but all over south and south east Asia.
Many slanted, so called
documentaries I have seen, produced to make money in
the west, have the sex trade in Thailand all developed
and as a result of visiting foreigners. This includes
statements made by Margaret Thatcher’s daughter after
she visited Bangkok’s notorious Pat Pong red-light
area on a three days visit to Thailand in 1984. Sorry,
girls, it’s just not true. The sex trade in the whole
of south east Asia has been here for as long as there
have been all three sex’s. There are three principal
areas in Bangkok frequented by non-Thai’s and, yes, on
any given night they have many young women in their
tens of thousands who are more than eager to
participate in this trade. They are the aforesaid Pat
Pong, Nana Plaza and Soi Cowboy. I estimate that this
is may be, perhaps, only 10 percent of the total flesh
trade in Bangkok. There are other outlets in the main
only frequented by Thai’s and other Asian men that
cover the other 90 percent, ranging from massage
parlours, karaoke joints and coffee shops. Also in the
non-Thai areas, the girl can reject the man whereas in
the Thai areas it’s much more common that the man will
select a girl and she will have little if no say about
it. The non-Thai is not the cause of this trade nor
are they even the reason for the trade’s continuance.
The flesh trade has merely been westernized for their
consumption in a few small areas.
The documentaries I have seen
portray a young Thai Girl in some grotty hotel room
who is very upset with her lot in life, she doesn’t
want to be there and she certainly doesn’t want to be
with this man. If it’s a non-Thai man, then she chose
him not he chose her. She came to work in the bar; she
could have stayed back in the fields of Isaan working
in the 100 degree heat of the day, bent double
planting rice. No they love going back to their
villages dripping in gold and lord it over all the
other girls who they consider foolish for remaining in
the village. The clever ones buy a bar and become
their own bosses. Unfortunately, this is in the
minority. They are more likely to spend all their cash
supporting the family or, as is very common, their
bone idle Thai husband – usually referred to as her
‘brother’ - who will spend all their cash on drink and
other girls that have remained back in the depths of
Isaan. I see queues of them at the beginning of each
month in the post office sending their cash back
home.
Documentaries have to be sold
to the TV corporations in the west. They have to
portray an image that will get them watched by the
populace. This populace consists of 50% women, so,
therefore they have to portray an image that will be
accepted by the ladies. Whilst I can’t say that they
tell outright lies what I can say is they give a
totally false impression overall. How do you think a
documentary that portrayed a land of happy hookers
would go down in the States? That’s right. There
would be an outrage - the TV channel would be
ostracised if not shut down totally. Sorry, ladies,
you will not be told the truth – well, not by the
documentary makers anyway; not on this subject. Are
these girls happy always? No, not at all. They are
human just like you, but if they are nah beung
(not a happy face) it’s far more likely because they
have not received the amounts of cash they thought
they were going to get than for just about any other
reason. So much of this is factual, I have wondered
many times whether I should write about this subject
or not. Will all the ladies out there think either I
am lying or if they believe me, or will they just
decide not to buy from me because of where I choose to
live. Well I think my friends trust me enough to let
me tell them the truth that is being hidden from them
for many obvious reasons. I believe that they know
enough about my life out here to know I am only the
reporter of life as it is out here.
Breakfast was as good as
always with toast, butter, jam, bacon, beans, fried
tomato, sausages and eggs all for the princely price
of just over two Dollars. Then the rain came down, a
steady downpour. We couldn’t stay all day but waited
about half an hour after the rain started, to see if
it would subside. This was a mistake in retrospect. We
had left it long enough for the floods to build up.
Turning left out of the bottom of Soi 6 on to the
Beach Road over the lights at Second Road and we were
in it. Not quite up to our necks but it was as deep as
I have ever seen flooding here. Having passed through
that with only a few hold ups due to non-diesel
vehicles breaking down because of the water, it was up
to the top and right on to Sukhumvit Highway. The
traffic was being stopped and redirected to the left
through the side streets and foolishly I obeyed the
locals who were directing us away from the massive
very deep flooding between Central Road and South
Pattaya Road. This took us to little Sois that I’ve
never been through before - in the main tarmac but
some still just dirt, to a place where only four wheel
drive vehicles were going to pass alongside the
elevated (at this point) railway. I waded through two
feet of water in places to see what the depth was and
the condition of the ground beneath. In a non-four
wheel drive this was not to be, with the water having
built up on the other higher side of the railway track
and running through gullies under the embankment.
This created a torrent of
water not unlike you see in disaster documentaries so
we had to turn about and take another route. Back
through the side Soi’s and down into a far worse
hollow than we would have met on Sukhumvit. The water
now two inches from the top of the hood or Bonnet as
we would say in the UK. The water was coming in
thought the bottoms of the doors, there were gates and
fencing floating away past the front of us with the
way blocked in front by other cars etc. We eventually
got out and opened the doors to let out the worst of
the water, one fear was that I would run out of diesel
while waiting to get back out on Sukhumvit, so we
stopped at the next filling station. Tony decided he
would get a coffee while the truck was filled up, but
he was not amused as this cost more than breakfast.
The weather had turned during the last few weeks with
a few downpours of rain but this was the worst I have
ever encountered here. Yet the reservoirs are still
not nearly full. The thing was how was it going to be
for the next day, the 27th and the kid’s
from Fr, Giovanni’s orphanage trip to Nong Nuch?
October 27th and
Nong Nuch.
I am not going to repeat the
story that I have already written about Nong Nuch you
can read all about the show the elephants there on
this link http://www.jadeisus.com/ebay/TIT8.htm
The day began overcast and I
feared we would have a repeat of the previous day as
far as the rain goes. I had first to do my emails so I
had gone to bed particularly early the night before so
I would wake at dawn. This I did and once done it was
just a matter of waiting for Black and Noi. It was
back to school the following day for Black so this day
we had to pick up his test results from before the
holiday. I was looking forward to more coffee and
fresh croissants from Rudy’s café opposite the school
but that was not to be as I discovered, place was
closed. Later, I found that he had made a visa run to
Malaysia. How inconsiderate!! Anyway it took only
minutes for Noi to see Black’s teacher and collect the
exam results, which where good but not very good.
It’s all in Thai, so I know no more. So now it was
round to collect Tony and his girlfriend, Tukta. I
said I would get there before 10-00 a.m. but now it
was barely past nine as I had not managed breakfast in
Rudy’s so now I was really early. Anyway Tony got his
act together and we had a little breakfast at Yorky’s
Jomthien Beach on the way to Nong Nuch. This venue
didn’t come close to The Sportsman of the day before.
I chose a toasted sandwich which, when Tony asked how
it was, I said it was like Crocodile Dundee’s comments
about the bush tukka. If you don’t know what I mean,
see the film. It had begun to rain a little while I
was waiting for Tony at his condo so I gave Georgina
at the orphanage a ring suggesting that they stop and
buy all the kids a rain coat on their way, if it
looked like continuing. While in Yorky’s she rang to
say that the rain had cleared there and was looking
like it would carry on that way for the rest of the
day so they would take a chance.
We had a little rain on the
short trip to Nong Nuch but it appeared to be passing
from south to north so that would leave us clear for
the day. We were waiting outside the main gate for the
truck loads of kids to arrive and the guards had taken
the deposit slip I had paid earlier the week before
and were very busy stamping tickets they just love to
do that out here. I tried to explain that we were
waiting for the main party to arrive and that I was
uncertain just how many people there would be in total
but stamping away they were. OK let them get on with
it if it made them happy. I had the name card of the
lady I had dealt with in the office with her mobile
number on it if there was going to be a problem.
The children arrived on time
and the teachers should have known how many people
they had on board each truck but it was nearly down to
taking off shoes and socks because there were not
enough fingers on hands. Never mind, this is Thailand
and for the people in charge to know before they set
off how many people they had – well, it doesn’t
matter, Buddha will take care of them. After a little
while it was settled; there where 14 adults and 40
children. Well that was their count and what I was
going to pay for. I called up the lady in the office
and I have to say despite the confusion at the gate
she accepted the figure and asked me to meet her in
the restaurant where we were all to have lunch. The
extra cash was paid and I have to say they were
arranging lunch in the nicest restaurant I have seen
in a while. It was open air, but that is normal in
Thailand, overlooking the very splendid lake with the
flower gardens all around and the beautiful flower
display on the island in the center of the lake. For
the meagre price I was quoted I expected a packed
lunch on the benches in the center of the park.
Oh, no, this was to be real
posh, where the more well off would be normally be
seen. Fifty four people for lunch plus the park
admission, the shows, the lot at the best restaurant
for only 170 bucks I call that a real treat and I have
to compliment the management of Nong Nuch for
providing us with such a good deal. The cash paid over
and the kids were away to see the elephants, the
ponies, the ostrich and everything else there is to
see before our one o’clock lunch appointment. We had
about five minutes of light rain before lunch, as
myself and Tony had seen the gardens before, we had
installed ourselves in one of the nicer cafés for a
drink of soda. Lunchtime arrived and so did all the
kids at our café. The rain stopped when it was time
to leave for the short walk down the hill to lunch. It
rained for a while over lunch but cleared for the rest
of the afternoon. I told you Buddha takes care. Lunch
was splendid with pork ball soup, chicken legs, a
sausage salad, squid salad, and some crab dish,
naturally with rice. Followed by fruit. I expected the
kids to be somewhat more raucous but, no, they were
happy, well feed - there was little left and they were
all very well behaved.
There was time for more
strolling before the shows began and they all took
full advantage of coming up to us and telling us of
this and that which they had seen. I had asked them to
all meet me at the entrance to the show hall 15
minutes before the show began and within five minutes
of that time every- body was there to my great
surprise. There was also no nonsense by the ladies on
guard on the gate she just accepted there were a lot
of us and just tore off the tickets without wishing to
count them and make sure that every body had one. This
would have taken some time and I doubt that she and
the other ladies there would have had enough fingers
and toes between them anyway. Was this common sense I
wondered? I doubt it, not because it’s Thailand but
because I think instructions had been given from on
high, no I don’t mean Buddha I mean my lady friend in
the office had most likely had a word with them.
Anyway whatever it was, it was very well done and
everybody had good seats to see the show.
As I said I am not going to
tell you all about the shows etc., again for that you
can read in one of my previous stories. I am going to
tell you as best I can about the faces on the kids as
they watched the show. I was right at the front with
them and they were quiet and as we would say in
Liverpool Gob- smacked. Sitting there still and quiet
watching every bit of it, clapping their appreciation
between the various parts of the show. To say that you
would have been proud of them, both in the restaurant
over lunch and at the shows would be an understatement
to say the least. There were other adults there, not
with us but who were much less well behaved. One
shaggy headed old ‘farang’ biddy that pushed the kids
in front of me to one side having arrived late but
determined to soak up as much Thai culture as she
could before she went home without giving a damn about
people who had arrived on time. Having pushed the
children up she was beckoning to others of her party
to join her. At this point I was ready to give her a
piece of my mind but, fortunately, her other friends
did not appear so I kept quiet. She didn’t know it
unfortunately, but she had a let-off there.
At the end of the cultural
show there was the usual mad dash for the elephant
show seats. The children ended up on the other side of
the arena but I could see that they all very much
enjoyed the antics of the show. Again adults in front
of me in the front row decided that the normal
behavior was not for them but they were bringing their
very young children to a position of possible danger.
When it came to the time for the elephants to walk
across people, the fathers of this group were right
there, I have in the past not only seen this but taken
part. On this occasion I couldn’t help thinking that
if the elephant were to make a slight mistake I would
not be too sorry.
On the way out of that show I
was taken to task for my bad thoughts by nearly being
trampled on by a 15 foot bull elephant on its way to
the second cultural show of the afternoon. I was fine
just patting its side as he passed until Noi, who I
didn’t realise was behind me, tapped me on the
shoulder warning me to get out of the way and in
tuning around I nearly fell over her and right in the
way of the beast. Just a quick stumble. We had lost
the kids at that time when Tony and myself decided
that for our small party it was time for another soda.
We had settled in the same café and Tony had just got
to the table with the drinks for us when Georgina rang
my mobile. They wished to say ‘thank you and goodbye’.
This, as I understood from the conversation was to be
by the main gate. A long walk but they insisted and I
was not going to make them all come back inside so we
had a traipse down there; hell we both need the
exercise. I got the message wrong and they were not 30
yards from where we had been sitting enjoying the late
afternoon sun but in the shade, looking out naturally.
Anyway as I say we both needed if not wanted the
exercise. The song was sung and the thank you’s said
and the children were off for home, having, hopefully,
had a day they can talk about for a while.
While visiting the orphanage
on the 29th of December to pick up all the wonderful
photo's that you see on the left I was told that the
big boss from Noung Nuch had visited them over
Christmas. At which time they said that anybody from
the orphanage who wished to visit the park could do so
at any time free of charge.
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On our way down
the hill for lunch. To see a full sized image just
click on any of the photo's. |
