Staying All Night

Anne and I got to Gullivers at about half past eight and it wasn’t so busy so we got a table near the door which Anne said was the best place to sit because you could see everyone who came in. I kept smiling at the farangs that I thought were tourists but after a while Anne said I was smiling too much and that I should just smile a little bit. She said that if you smile too much the men think you are desperate. It was best to be casual, she said, so I smiled casually. I had on a short denim skirt and a black jacket and under it a white top and I think I looked sexy, but not as sexy as Anne because she had on a short black dress that was just straps at the back. Everyone looked at her when she came in. I was so surprised because I usually see her when she has been working at the bank and then she does not look sexy at all.

At about half past nine it started raining and for a while hardly anyone came into the bar because it was so wet outside. Anne introduced me to two of her friends, a girl called Ning and a call called Apple. They were both really nice. They work in a beauty parlor near the Emporium and they both had really nice make up. They said that they would teach me how to do make up sometime, which was nice of them. We talked about Manchester City. The Thai All-Stars beat them 3-1 and Anne said maybe all the English team had been with Thai girls the night before so they had no power! We all laughed. Really though it is a big problem for Mr Thaksin because it means he has lost face and face is very important for Thai people. If it was a Thai team I think maybe he would try to punish them but he can not because Manchester City is an English team. You know the Thai papers said that Mr Thaksin told the Manchester City players that they had to wai him at the start of every match and they all said no. In Thailand, not many people say no to Mr Thaksin.

After eleven o’clock the rain stopped and more people started coming in. A farang came over to talk to Anne. His name was Tim and he was from England, on holiday with some friends who were playing pool. After about ten minutes Anne said that she would go with him to his hotel for three thousand baht and he said two thousand and she said two thousand five hundred and he said okay. Anne asked me if I was okay on my own and I said I was because by now I am used to being in Gullivers. A lot of the waitresses know me and smile at me when they see me. Also there were a lot of farangs there and while Anne was talking to Tim I saw quite a few men looking at me. As soon as Anne went with Tim, one of the men who had been looking at me came over. He was nicely dressed in long pants and a long-sleeved shirt which did worry me a bit because that’s what English teachers wear but he wasn’t a teacher, he works for a firm of lawyers in Hong Kong and he was not a Cheap Charlie. He bought me three drinks and really he was very nice to talk to. His name was David and he was quite funny and he made me laugh but he didn’t know much about Thailand and he couldn’t speak Thai, which was good. We have a saying in Thailand – Farang Roo Mark Mai Dee – which means that the farang who knows too much isn’t a good thing. David said he had come to Gullivers to meet his friend but his friend had not turned up so he didn’t know what to do and I said that for three thousand baht we could go to his hotel and he said that sounded like a good idea.

His hotel was the Conrad, which is quite far from Gullivers, but it was really nice and the room was the best hotel room I have ever been in. I tried really hard not to be a starfish with David and I think I made him happy. When I got up to go he asked me if I could stay all night and I said that my mum was sick and I had to take care of her and he said that if I did stay he would pay me another two thousand baht so I said okay. He made love to me again in the morning so we had sex twice for five thousand baht which is two thousand five hundred baht each time which is quite good money. And he gave me one hundred baht for my taxi back to On Nut so I was happy. He gave me his card and I gave him my telephone number because really I would be quite happy to see him again.