RAWBangkok

This is an anecdote, not an essay.  It’s a true story; a parable if you will, which, while specific in its content, in my opinion, points to a greater general truth.

Today is Wednesday.

I haven’t been on the internet for two full days, which is unusual for me.  The reason is because I’ve been both busy and sick.

Monday night/Tuesday morning I had a full evening of social activities.  I finished work fairly late, and soon after I got home from work I got a call from a friend inviting me to go out and shoot pool.  He and I spoke to a number of friends through the night and before it was all over we’d had 6 or 8 people join us at one time or another, with everyone having a game or two then moving on to whatever was next.

The moving on applied to me and my friend as well.  Around 11 p.m. I hooked up with a girl, and around midnight we left for my place.  She stayed till around noon, and we left together in a taxi because we were heading the same direction.

On Tuesday morning, while I was still at home, I had a bit of a rumbling stomach and mild diarrhea.  It wasn’t very severe and I figured it’d go away soon.  It didn’t.  As the day wore on it got worse, with cramps and a bit of vomiting.

I was supposed to meet a couple of out-of-town friends (and American and an Englishman) for drinks between 7 and 8 on Tuesday.  I took a Chinese version  of Milk of Magnesia around six o’clock and figured I could manage to join them.

The American was ill as well, and like me, he was holding himself together with medication, so it was a low-key night.  I drank a bottle of water and we chatted.  Around 10 p.m. we all headed back to our respective rooms.

By this time I had a fever building.

Now, the girl I’d taken home on Monday night appealed to me, and in an effort to build some brownie points towards the future I had told her that me and my friends might drop by her go go bar on Tuesday night and I would buy her a drink.  Not wanting to lose brownie points for NOT showing up, I sent her an SMS saying that I was sick and had gone home to sleep.

Around 11 p.m. I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing.  It was the girl from the night before; she’d read my message and was calling to get details.  I gave them… stomach cramps, diarrhea, vomiting and fever.

She asked who was taking care of me.  I told her that I was taking care of myself.  She urged me to take some medecine and then hung up and went back to work.

At 3 a.m. my phone rang again.  It was the same girl; she was downstairs in my building and asked me to let her come up.

I did.

She had dinner in a bag for the two of us.  She had me lay on the bed, moistened a towel and used it to cool my body.  She pretty much fed me the dinner she’d brought for me.  She turned on some music and massaged my neck, shoulders and back.  She opened some medecine that she had in her bag and made me take it.

Then she grabbed a quick shower, came back to the bed naked and cuddled with me as we both went to sleep.  She slept close to me all night.

In the morning, while I was in the shower getting ready for work, she made my bed, washed the dirty dishes from the last few days, swept the floor and tidied the room.

We went out the door together this morning.  We hadn’t had sex, she had simply looked after me.

I didn’t tip her… somehow it seemed wrong to offer her money for being friendly and caring, and she didn’t ask.  (I had sex with the same girl a few months ago, and when she thought I’d forgotten to tip her the next day she asked me about it, so if she was expecting a tip I have no doubt she’d have spoken up).

Tonight I went by her go go bar and bought her a drink.  I thanked her again for coming by to take care of me.  She made it clear that she was happy to do it.  She didn’t think that anyone who was sick should be alone with no one there to look after him.

Sweet girl.

It’s a small story, insignificant really.  And unremarkable insofar as it isn’t a very unusual type of story here in Bangkok.

You’ll hear people say it on barstools and read it online — punters trying to explain why Thai girls are special.  We talk about their relaxed attitudes, about the ‘girlfriend experience’ and about the relationship that you can build with the girls.

It’s all true.

I can’t imagine, for example, that I would bother to contact a hooker back home if I didn’t feel well on a night when I’d said that I might stop in to see her.

If I did, I can’t imagine her caring much.

And I absolutely can’t imagine a hooker back home coming by my place in the middle of the night to feed me, give me medicine, cool my fever and give me a massage.

Thai bar girls are special partly because the caring attitudes that you see from them are often very genuine.  Especially if you treat them well, you can expect treatment ‘above and beyond’ in return.

That’s my experience anyway.