It mus have been in 1995 that I was traveling for 6 weeks in Thailand and I was in Lampang, a town forgotten by time. After 4 weeks my permission to stay in Thailand would expire. So I needed a new entry stamp to be able to stay another 2 weeks in Thailand. I was staying at The Riverside Guesthouse and last night I was sitting at the veranda with John, he was smoking cigars from Cuba and listing to old music from the USA. He suggested me to go to Chiang Khong and take the slow boat over the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. The boat would take two days, and it's would be not a luxury cruise boat. But it would be a beautiful trip and full of excitement. And on my way return back to Thailand I would get a new visa valid for another 30 days. A great idea, I loved it! I love the Mekong River and I always wanted to return to Luang Prabang.
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| Overlooking the Yom River in Lampang |
That morning I did wake-up and walked to the veranda to have breakfast in the morning sun looking over the Yom River. This would be a great day, I pulled up the chair and … oops that changed not only my day but my all next 3 weeks. I do not know how I slept that night. Ok, I did drink too much Mekong whisky in the Side Car cafe and I had been dreaming about that lovely girl at the cafe, but why did I have some much pain in my back? I had breakfast in the sun and took a little rest on my bed. But after 15 minutes I could not get up anymore, I had to scream for help. The musician from the River Side Restaurant was at home and he called the owner of the guesthouse, Lorenzo. John sometimes calls her Doctor Lorenzo and now I know why. She had the right drugs for my back.
The first day with the pain in my back I could hardly walk, the second day I could walk a little bit. But not with a backpack on my back and two day's of traveling on the Mekong. So I decide that there must be another way to get a new visa for Thailand. I would just go to Chiang Mai to the immigration checkpoint at the airport to ask for an extension of stay?
But because as I had never been in Chiang Rai, I decided that I would go to Chiang Rai first and from there to Chiang Mai. So the next day I took the bus from Lampang to Chiang Rai. It was a beautiful trip trough the country site of North Thailand. And luckily I met in the bus a Thai women who did speak a bit of English. And when driving at the busstation of Chiang Rai she told me to get off as I did not have the slightest idea where I was. She continued her bus-ride to a town north of Chiang Rai. In hindsight .... that was Mae Sai where I would be back later. Late in the evening I checked in at a guesthouse and early next morning (as 5 o'clock) I did realize that my room was right next to the temple bell of the temple next door. Well I stayed 3 days in Chiang Rai but did not like it and took the bus to Chiang Mai.
A crazy border-run
In Chiang Mai I did stay at Cap's Antique guesthouse. That evening I decide to go to the night bazaar, with a lot tourists and tourists-traps. Walking along the bars, I took a drink at the Heaven Bar, where I did meet Bee. And she would change my next weeks of traveling in Thailand. We went to a discotheque and I arrived at my guesthouse at 3 o'clock in the morning. The gate was closed and the guard and his dog were sleeping. I climbed over the gate took my key from the desk and watched the sleeping guard in front of the TV. I woke up at 9 o'clock, had breakfast, rented a motorbike and went to the immigration office to get a new visa. To get there is not as easy as you think; all the roads in Chiang Mai are one-way roads. So you really have to think before you go on your way. At the immigration office there were really nice people, but they could only give me a visa extension for 10 day's. Which would be 8 day's to short for me. The man at the immigration office told me the only way to be able to stay longer as 10 days would be to go to Burma, return to Thailand and get a new 30-days visa free entry-stamp.
Go where? Burma? It was 9:30 in the morning and at 20:00 in the evening I had a date with beautiful Bee and Burma was 300 km's away. Worse, the border closes at 18:00. But if I would leave right now, I could make it. So here started my crazy quest for my holy visa.
I took the bus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai (hello again), from there I took the bus to Mae Sai (the border town), there I took a taxi to the border. The border is like "telegraph road town", but then only with Thai and Burmese people, and some farangs who want a new entry-stamp. First you go to the Thai immigration to get you pass stamped for leaving Thailand, then you go to the Burmese immigration to get a one-day Burmese "visa" (for 250 bath). Then you walk across the famous Thai-Burmese friendship bridge and you are in Burma. What could I do? I walked around in Burma for 10 minutes and walked back to Thailand. And at the Thai immigration I did get a new visa free entry-stamp valid for 30 days!
Now getting back to Chiang Mai for my appointment with Bee. I took a taxi from the border to Mae Sai busstation and took the bus back to Chiang Rai as I just had missed the last bus to Chiang Mai. So bloody hell, now at 19:15 I was in Chiang Rai and my room and my date were in Chiang Mai. No time to think, I took a taxi to the airport, bought a flight ticket, walked over the platform and jumped in the last airplane to Chiang Mai. OK I was a bit late, but This Is Thailand so who cares? At 21:00 I had diner with Bee at the Riverside Restaurant in Chiang Mai. And I enjoyed being with her. Yes, I enjoyed it too much.
My unsuspected new friend.
It promised to become a beautiful evening. I had diner at the Riversside Restaurant and my table companion was the most beautiful Thai girl I had ever met. Her name is Bee and she works in a bar in Chiang Mai. In the next 7 day's I would learn to know her. Or at least I thought I would learn to know her. Sometimes I loved her sometimes I hated her. Now I'm thinking "Is this what Thailand is, everything in balance? So there must be sweet and there must be bitter? Like the food, sweet and sour? Is it this, what we western people will never understand?" I had seen this before by other people and I did laugh. Was this now happening to me?Now you think this is gonna be a story of a farang on sex holiday with a Thai girl. Well in a way you could be right but in a way you could also be wrong. Yes, I'm a farang. Yes, Bee is a Thai girl. But that is where the comparison ends. I know you might not believe me, but as one says here "Up to you".
In short I will tell you her story of her live as she told it to me. True or not? Her parents are divorced, her brother is divorced and another brother of her died in a car accident (which is not so strange if you look how Thai people are driving). She is 20 years and the only thing she thinks she can do is working in a bar. She had her first boyfriend when she was 15; she was almost rapped when she was 16. The only thing she is missing from her first boyfriend is fighting with him. She lives in a two room's house with her mother, brother and the child of her brother. They have no telephone, no television, no radio, no air-condition, no hot water, no washing machine, no government who takes care of them. No government to pay the education. She thinks she will never be married and that nobody can live with her because she thinks she is like a snake. I think she is a butterfly that's why I call her Butterfly. But maybe she was right.
She told me she had never seen the sea, she had been in Bangkok once and that was all she had ever seen of Thailand. I still wanted to go to Koh Samui so I asked her if she wanted to travel with me." Why?" She asked, "Because when you are happy, I'm happy" I answered. Was I telling the truth or was I falling in love and just wanted her in my bed? I still do not know the answer as the latter never happend. The next day we bought (that means I paid) train tickets Chiang Mai - Bangkok and Bangkok - Surat Thani. After that she took me on her motorbike to the snake farm, just outside Chiang Mai. I was surprised, it was a long way on the highway and we where not wearing a helmet. In Bangkok she would be surprised when she asked me "Why is everybody wearing a helmet?". I think she still does not understand. She loves the snakes; she tells me she thinks she is a snake, beautiful and dangerous. At that time I did not understand, now I do. Yes she was right.
In the evening we took the night train to Bangkok. You have your own bed with sheets and all you need. It is clean and good, and the best thing is that drinks and food are sold all time. There is even a restaurant in the train, where Bee made a reservation for us. The food was good & hot. At 9 o'clock everyone starts preparing to go to sleep, as Bee and I also did. In the early morning we arrived in Bangkok. As we would leave Bangkok in evening we could look around in Bangkok. We took the bus to the Wat Po and for the first time Bee did show that she is Thai. For me it was the first time that I saw the respect that Thai women pay to monks. Like to stop walking when a monk is approaching.
And again in the evening we took the train but now to Surat Thani, where we would arrive at 6 o'clock in the morning. From the train station we took a bus to the ferry, a very big old boat that takes you to Koh Samui in about 1 hour. At the ferry terminal at Koh Samui there are all kind of taxi drivers who did love to bring us to a hotel. When we where on the boat to Koh Samui I realized that I'm so spoiled. I have seen island all over the world, I have seen paradise on earth. But simple things like the beauty of Koh Samui can not impress me any more. She on the other hand was like a child looking to the sea. She had not been sleeping in the train but she would not miss a moment. And I was sleeping and bored. On Koh Samui we stayed at Chaweng beach, a lot of tourists but I like it.
At the beach
As Bee is running to the sea, I realize that I'm not impressed by the beauty of the beach, but by Bee who wants to drink the seawater. After I explained to her that this is salt water, she still does not believes me. She tastes the water and had to admit that I'm right "It tastes like salt". Am I the knowing it all falang? That evening we went to the Green Mango, where we did meet a girl who is also from Chiang Mai. Bee loves to talk with her. She is missing home and she wants to talk Chiang Mai Thai. We had a great evening and at 5 o'clock in morning we went to our bed escorted on the beach road by all kind of katoey's who want to offer me a lift. Was I falling in love with that beautiful girl sleeping in the bed next to me?There I was on a romantic island in Thailand with a beautiful girl and there it was that I realized that I was alone. People around me walking hand in hand, having love (fake or not). But I was alone. What was I for her, a walking ATM or a friend? Could a farang ever become her friend? Or would I stay a walking ATM forever? I thought I would be happy, but I was not. After breakfast we walked on the beach and Bee was totally shocked by what she saw. There was a young German girl topless and wearing a string bikini. That Bee was shocked surprised me. How could a bar girl be shocked by a girl on the beach? Yes, the young German girl was a gift of Mother Nature. But shocked? She would like to go swimming, but first I had to buy her a swimming suit. And not the one that I would like her to buy. No, a real Thai swimming suit, so you could not see the slightest part of her beautiful female body.
At the end of the day Bee became homesick, or at least she pretended to be. She wanted to go home directly and wanted me to buy flight tickets. I told her that the flights where all fully booked and that we had to go back by train. When we arrived in Bangkok my lie became truth, all flight where full also to Chiang Mai. This was due to the Asian Games. I brought her to the train station and said goodbye to my Butterfly. I thought I could just turn around and walk into Bangkok. But no, I watched the train leaving and went to my empty hotel room. That night my hotel room was emptier as it could ever be. Having it filled was just a phone call away, but that was not what I needed at that moment. Bloody hell I needed Bee.
In the end we both gained a lot.
When I said goodbye to her she was wearing that beautiful dress I bought for her and the golden bracelet I bought for her. We were drinking tea; she asked "Can you help me? Can you send me money to live?" I said "Yes, I could but I will not". How could I say that to that nice looking girl? In her eyes I'm so rich; in my eyes I think she treats me like a walking ATM.Now I look to her picture and think, "What's going on in your mind? Will I ever understand Thai thinking?" Well at the end we both gained a lot, she in gold and I in experience. An experience I will never forget. I ended up being confused like I had never been before. Confused about what is true and what a lie, confused about my own thinking. Now I'm in Europe and I want to go back to Thailand. Why? I feel I lost something in Thailand and I want it back. But will I find it in Thailand? How to find something you do not know how it looks like? The next week I took my direct flight with China Airline to Amsterdam. Just before I left Bangkok I bought a book called "Hello my big big honey!". It's a book with letters to Thai bargirls; it was good reading in the airplane. I could have been some of that guy's writing letters to Thai bargirls. To tell you the truth I even did write a letter and never got an answer. For every western man (and maybe also women) I can recommend this to read. It's not a real good book or maybe not even a book at all, but it will make you think different. And that's what you will need anywhere in Asia.
Epilog
In the following years I would still randomly have contact with her. She did meet a France boyfriend, lived together, learned English and French, they moved to French and married.
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