The sun glinted from the golden towers on the Thai side of the river as it made its way to the horizon. Sunset was not far off. Saechao maneuvered the boat to a large dock.
“Is this it?” Johnny asked “Huey Xai?”
“No,” Saechao gestured down the river. “Huey Xai…one more hour.” He smiled hugely. “We stop for night. Sleep. Tomorrow Huey Xai.” He pulled the boat to the dock and began to secure it. “You find guesthouse now.” He stepped from the boat and walked to a table on the dock where three Lao men sat playing cards. He pulled up a chair and sat down.
“Wait a minute,” I said from the front of the boat where I still sat. “Is this guy ripping us off just taking us halfway and then stopping?” It was unbelievable. I got out of the boat and walked up to the four men. “No. You take us now. We pay you to take us. Go now.”
“Tomorrow” the pirate laughed in my face. “You wait til tomorrow.” He pulled his cap down over his eyes.
Johnny stood up from the boat now. “Listen…Mate,” he laid his big hands on Saechao’s shoulder, “You’re going to take us now… understand?”
I figured a fight was coming…soon.
“How much you pay him?” a man in a blue baseball cap asked.
“Five hundred thousand,” Johnny said. “He said he would get us to Huey Xai…today. This is going to be a problem.”
“Wait..” the man said, “Just wait a moment.”
He started to speak Lao rapidly to the pirate and his two companions. The pirate answered and laughed loudly looking at us. His three companions looked unhappy. They kept gesturing back and forth between the boats. It seemed the other three were not too pleased with the pirate’s methods. A problem was coming soon. I decided to lighten the mood a little.
I stepped back into the cigar boat and sat in Saechao’s seat. I made as if I would start the engine. “Hey,” I yelled at the men on the dock “No problem, I’ll drive.” I took a look at how I could start the engine hoping they wouldn’t kill me.
The guy in the cap laughed and motioned me out of the seat. “No, you load bags in this boat. I take you to Huey Xai. Him,” he motioned to Saechao, “No good. I take you. No cost.”
Saechao laughed and pulled his cap over his eyes sitting back on two legs of his chair. Johnny navigated himself back to the boat and began transferring our soaked bags to the new guys boat.
“What’s your name?” Johnny asked him.
“Sok,” he said. ”Let’s go.”
The rest of the journey was tame compared with the earlier speed and frequency of obstacles. The sun got lower and lower until finally he brought the boat into a small dock in a village where a young boy tied us off and Sok told us to wait for him.
“Here we go again,” I said.
“No, I think Sok is a good guy,” Johnny said. “Let’s wait.”
A few minutes later Sok came back and motioned for us to get our bags. ”Too dark for river. I pay for taxi to Huey Xai for you. You take.”
He led us to the large transport truck with the tarps rolled up the sides. He put our bags inside, paid the driver, and turned to walk away.
“Hey…Sok…” I called out to him. “ Kop jai lai lai.” Thank you.
“No problem, “ Sok called back over his shoulder. “Lao people good people, not like Pirate Saechao. Him no good.” He walked back to the river and sat down with the boy sitting on the dock. The sun glinted on the Mekong as the truck pulled away down the bumpy dirt road.
Bar Girls in Ko Samui
The three girls got up from their bar stools as I stumbled past the Macho Lounge.
“Hey, you… come have drink.”
“Handsome man, come inside, say hello.”
“Hello, handsome man, have drink inside.”
They were three variations on the same theme. The young plump bar girl The slightly older and skinnier bar girl And the worn down, missing a tooth, speaks better English but doesn’t look any good at all anymore bar girl.
The three muses turned to Thai prostitutes. Sirens beckoning the old and the drunk into a bar that must have been named in the 80’s but probably was only a year or two old.
Thailand was the sex change capital of the world and had more transvestites and transsexuals than anywhere. It was also the capitol of AIDS in Asia.Anybody foolish enough to sleep with a prostitute in Thailand deserved what he got…and there was no telling what he was going to get…boy, girl, lady boy, or a cornucopia of venereal diseases which could debilitate or kill you.
Star, a Thai woman I’d met in Laos had explained to me how parents sold their daughters to pimps in Bangkok and the young innocent girls from the villages were thrown into a life of sordid sex and exploitation. She knew the story from experience.
Since then I’d met dozens of young men who either wanted to or already had invested in the sex stock exchange. I’d heard the stories about the beautiful girl who pulled a big dick out of her pants, broken condoms in a Bangkok brothel, and of course all the stories about the sex bars in Puttaya.
All the backpackers went to Puttaya whether they were men or women…just to see it, was the way they put it. To see the snakes, coins, bananas, and who knew what else emerging from the vaginae of Thai women. To see hundreds of prostitutes strutting their stuff in the sex capitol of the sex capitol of the world. I’d turned down at least 10 offers to join different groups who were going to Puttaya…just to check it out. I had no desire to see exploitation and degrading use of the female body first hand. The second and third hand accounts were enough. I’d passed a wide circle around Puttaya.
It was why I was here, in Ko Samui. I’d heard so many people complain about the ‘tameness’ and the ‘family atmosphere’ that had taken over on Samui in the past few years. It sounded like a cleaner, safer, less tempting version of Thailand to me. But now that I was here, I couldn’t really understand how anyone had found it tame or suitable for a family.
Walking down the main street I passed dozens of small bars where three, four, or five girls sat calling out to men as they walked by. The bars all had huge speakers and no walls resulting in a contest of decibels as each place attempted to prove it was the best spot. Thai people apparently measure fun with volume so unless you had a guesthouse a decent distance from the beach, you got to listen to throbbing techno beat all night long.
It was like a carnival here with bungee jumping, tailoring, food stalls, and prostitutes side by side and huge white people walking down the center of the streets ignoring the cars which honked at them while trying to drive from point A to point B.
It was overwhelming. I’d looked for nearly an hour before I found a bar I could sip a whiskey in without being propositioned. I didn’t want to stay there either but ended up meeting an Englishman who bought me a few rounds while explaining how the Chinese owned the whole island and simply rented it to the Thais who actually lived and worked here.
Four whiskeys on an empty stomach and here I was. Stumbling past the Macho Bar.
“Hello, handsome man, you come in, please.”
Why not? I could get to know the girls, find out why they were here, what made them tick. I stepped into the bar and only then noticed it was empty except for the three bar girls and the bartender.