Chapter 48

....Never Mind:

So here I am back in Bangtao still a bit jet-lagged but feeling almost human again.

I sit in khun Aor’s bar and relax with a cold beer.

In walks khun Nok, shall we call her, a lady with whom I have a passing acquaintance. And no that is not a euphemism.

“Hi” says I, “long time no see. Who is the latest boyfriend?”

This started a conversation which showed me how little I have learned about women generally and Thai culture in particular.
I am still a little shell shocked from it.

Now khun Nok is twenty years old, tall for a Thai girl, pretty and very bright. Here is the story she told me.

Yesterday she accompanied her farang boyfriend to the airport for his trip back to England. He has asked her to marry him and she has accepted him.

As his plane left she was met at the airport by her new boyfriend, an Australian gentleman. He gave her a beautiful necklace which she was proudly wearing when we met.

She tells me that he is the man who really matters in her life. When I suggested then that she should have told the departing Englishman that she did not want to marry him, she replied that “no she couldn’t do that at the moment. That would be very inconvenient”.

I guess, though of course I could be very much mistaken, that what she means is that there would be some financial repercussions.

Whilst I was digesting this information khun Peter walked into the bar.

Now I had heard through the grapevine that he and Nok had been seeing each other very recently.

This was clearly going to be interesting.

Peter lives in Phuket and is a good looking thirty plus year old.

The next few hours were amazing.

Nok and Peter sat intimately close to each other and she told him that, of course, she loved him but that she was leaving him to consort with her new Australian friend.

This conversation lasted for several hours and was held in front of a wrapt and steadily drunkening audience.

In fact at one particularly tense moment a distinguished elder statesman fell backwards off his chair.
He allowed himself to be re-seated and ordered another round of beers. One simply could not make this up.

As she left, for an assignation with the Australian, Nok came over to say goodbye to me. I solemnly and perhaps drunkenly suggested to her that the most important rule in life is not to upset people.

She smiled and drifted off.

Khun Aor said to me that I should not presume to give advice since the lady is very young and will best find out for herself.

As usual khun Aor is right.

So here I am back in the land of smiles, where one must not let anyone lose face and yet a girl can, very much in public, at great length, tell a man that she is ditching him for someone else.

Ouch!

I spent the next couple of hours telling Peter, who it should be noted has another girlfriend anyway, that the best thing to do is to walk away.

He agreed, of course, but he won't.

It is the sort of advice which perhaps even khun Aor would not mind me imparting.