He emailed me a photograph of Noi. She was a typical bargirl, dyed red hair, low cut black T-shirt, tight blue jeans, too much make up. I was almost ashamed to take his money, but business is business and three days later the funds had come through by bank transfer.
I left it until Friday evening before wandering down to Soi Cowboy with some of Pete’s money in my wallet. I went in fairly early to make sure I’d catch her. There was only one other customer when I walked in, a guy in his fifties who was slumped over the bar with half a dozen girls all over him like vultures feeding on a dead buffalo. I sat in a dark corner and ordered a double Jack Daniels.
The waitress was cute and when she came back with my drink I told her to get one for herself. Then I played a game that usually stood me in good stead. I bet her that I could guess what province she was from before she could guess what country I came from. I could normally tell if a girl was from Isaan or not, and most bargirls were from Korat, Udon or Khonkaen, or they’d be Khamen style which meant Buriram, Sisaket or Surin. I got the waitress in three guesses-Surin-by which time she’d guessed Germany, England and America for me. I don’t think most Thais even know that New Zealand exists.
Anyway, I bought her another drink and another double Jack Daniels and started talking about provinces and steered the conversation around to Buriram. I nodded at a girl behind the bar and said that she looked as if she was from Buriram but the cute waitress said no, she was from Udon Thani. She pointed at three girls sitting together at the far end of the bar and said that they were all from Buriram. I was playing the slightly drunk farang, so I waved my arm around and said I’d by drinks for all the girls from Buriram. The waitress rushed around the bar and within minutes there were half a dozen girls at my table. At least one was an impostor-she had the pale skin and round face of a northern girl-but I wasn’t worried because one of the six was the lovely Noi.
I waved for Noi to sit on my left, and another of the Buriram girls sat on my right. Their drinks arrived and there was much clinking of glasses and laughing and I ordered another round. I asked all their names. The girl on my right was Lek. I laughed at that because Noi and Lek both mean little. ‘My two little girls,’ I said and everyone laughed uproariously. You have to be careful in bars, you start to believe your own publicity. They weren’t laughing because I was a funny guy, they weren’t laughing because they liked me, they were laughing because I was buying them drinks and every drink I bought them earned them thirty baht. It was all about money. Everything that happened in a go-go bar was driven by cash. I knew that, the girls knew that, it was only the tourists like Pete who thought there was anything else going on.
Noi and Lek were stroking my thighs and giggling. They’d told me that they were sisters-‘Same Mother, Same Father’-but I doubted that they were even related. It was a common ploy among the bargirls, to pretend to be related, because they knew that was a turn-on for farangs.
I asked them if they had boyfriends, and Noi was quite happy to tell me that she had a farang in Sydney who was sending her money and that one day she was going to marry him. ‘I love him too much,’ she said, as fingers moved gently up my thigh. ‘But he far away.’
I bought another round of drinks and Noi and Lek exchanged a look. I was playing the role of drunken farang to the hilt. ‘I’ve always wanted to sleep with sisters,’ I said.
‘You can,’ said Noi. She nodded at Lek. ‘Two thousand baht for her, same for me.’
‘And you have to pay bar,’ said Lek, playing with the zip of my jeans.
I was tempted. Really tempted, but I was a professional so I told them that I was still jet-lagged and that I had to sleep. I promised to return the next night and asked Noi for her mobile phone number so that I could check that she was working.
She happily gave me the number, I bought another round of drinks, and then paid my bill and headed to an Internet cafA© where I emailed Pete with a report of what had happened. I sent him the mobile phone number as proof that I’d spoken to her.
The next day I received a reply from Pete. He’d phoned Noi and asked her what she’d been doing that night. Noi had said she’d been bought drinks by a farang but that she wouldn’t let him pay her bar fine. And she’d promised him that she didn’t go with customers any more. It was clear from the tone of the email that Pete believed her. That’s one thing I could never understand. The client pays for information and then believes the word of a lying bargirl who is taking him for every penny she can rather than trusting the professional he’s paying.
I emailed him back, assuring him that Noi would have happily gone with me. Pete phoned me a few hours later. He said he trusted Noi, but to be absolutely sure he wanted me to go back and see her, and this time he wanted me to pay her bar fine and take her to a hotel. Once she was in the room, he wanted me to text him. He’d phone her and that would be that. I agreed, but told him that he’d have to come up with another 10,000 baht, plus the money for the bar fine, plus any other expenses. He promised to send me 12,000 baht by bank transfer. So far as I was concerned he was throwing good money after bad, but the client is always right. Even when he’s wrong.
Once the money was safely in the bank I went back to Noi’s bar. The staff greeted me like a long-lost friend and the bartender was pouring a double Jack Daniels before I’d even sat down. Noi and Lek appeared within seconds and as the waitress went off to get them two lady drinks their hands were already stroking my thighs.
A couple of drinks later and I paid bar for the two girls and we walked to a nearby short-time hotel. Four hundred baht bought us a room for ninety minutes. I was planning to text Pete while the girls were in the shower, but as soon as the door closed they pushed me on to the bed and ripped off their clothes, and mine. I tried to put up a fight, honest I did, but they were consummate professionals, and besides I figured it was Pete’s fault, putting temptation in my way like he did. They were both as cute as hell and had clearly worked together before. Even taught me a few tricks. Twenty minutes later I was flat on my back, drained, while the two girls were giggling in the shower.
I sent a text to Pete, giving him the name of the hotel and the fact that she was there with Lek. I dressed quickly. As I headed out of the door, I heard Noi’s mobile phone start to ring. I hurried down the stairs and out onto the street. I didn’t want to be around when she tried to explain where she was and what she’d been doing.