Travel in the Time of Omicron – A Saga

[CurtisD]

7 hours ago, spoon said:

I sincerely hope he will recover well,

Thank you. I was quite concerned. He has recovered well, no lasting symptoms. 

[CurtisD]

Passing the Time

As originally conceived this trip had a significant business component, using Bangkok as a hub to visit other cities in the region or people coming to Bangkok to meet me, and re-establish face contact after two years. The removal of Test-and-Go shut the door on this.

However, my presence in Thailand and this time zone makes me useful to others whose plans have also been disrupted and I receive requests for all manner of help from meeting potential investors to conducting a Zoom-forum and even interviewing a candidate.

With my days free I am happy to oblige and the days before Bangkok Guy joins me become a pleasant routine of swimming, working, dining by the river and becoming a regular at the Bamboo Bar where the captain now automatically orders me a Sazerac.

Not wanting to risk crowds on the Metro or Sky Train I hire a car and driver from TheLimoPattaya whenever I need to get around and re-experience what we all know – Bangkok is not a city in which driving makes much sense as a transport option. I have the same lady driver with the very nice car, the weather is mild enough that cracking the windows open does not cause discomfort, and as the traffic is taken into account in planning, everything goes smoothly. For those into shopping, Jim Thompson is making a great N95-design mask in a fun selection of fabrics. Much more comfortable than the regular ones as the straps are adjustable.

Hovering in the background is a nagging concern over the true state of Bangkok Guy’s health. It is not a concern that can be addressed through Line exchanges for language reasons and also because he is both a Stoic and believes in looking good. I will only find out when we meet as, in person, when it is just the two of us face-to-face, communication is much easier and it is always the plain truth, politely expressed.

 

Things Begin to Fall into Place, Finally

The morning of the day prior to Bangkok Guy’s emancipation from home-isolation begins with an apology he sent late the night before, after I had turned in. ‘Sorry I didn’t answer you. I take medicine and sleepy all day’. That explains his total radio silence yesterday. I tell him no problem, rest and get better.

After swimming laps I have an early lunch by the pool and doze in the shade of the cabana, enjoying the soft breeze off the river. A ping from my iphone breaks my reverie, a sticker of a rabbit and a chick popping out from behind a wall. Bangkok Guy signaling he would like to talk. I ask if I can call him – our established etiquette to give him time to make himself presentable before a live audience – and the next thing he is calling me, voice only. He clearly doesn’t want to make a live appearance.

He sounds tired but says he feels better and his sense of mischief is alive and well.

I tell him the next few days are what he wants, I follow him. We have established ‘I follow you’ as our code for who is in charge of the task at hand for everything from choosing a restaurant to finding a temple or deciding on the main activity for the day. What I mean to convey is that he is recovering, so we go at his pace. His response is a mischievous giggle while he repeats ‘you follow me’ in a very satisfied tone of voice. We will see where this leads. 

We agree he will come to the hotel at 5pm the next day. His choice of timing. My guess is that he has a lot of errands to run after being quarantined for so long, some of which will involve restoring his grooming to its usual high standard.

I slip back into my cabana reverie only to be pulled out of it by another ping, this time from my tailor. I have an appointment in the afternoon but he is at the hotel for another client, so if it suits me we can have a fitting now. I am very happy with what he has made and, seeing my satisfaction, he suggests that now I will of course want ten of everything. I do get a few extra, including an additional pair of linen trousers in terracotta-with-orange-highlights which I like but which I know Bangkok Guy will view with considerable skepticism. If he is going to pull my chain, I am going to pull his.

For a change I lunch outside the hotel on the terrace at D’ARK in IconSiam. It is 1.45pm and the waiter (extremely cute) tells me alcohol sales stop at 2pm, so rather than a glass I order a carafe of the Sancerre with fanciful thoughts of acquiring a monopoly on alcohol between 2-5pm, and selling glasses from my stock at outrageous prices to parched Falang. It is an excellent Sancerre and I happily consume my cache, parched Falang be damned.

[vinapu]

6 hours ago, CurtisD said:

..... fanciful thoughts of acquiring a monopoly on alcohol between 2-5pm, and selling glasses from my stock at outrageous prices to parched Falang. It is an excellent Sancerre and I happily consume my cache, parched Falang be damned.

some of them are far-sighted and acquire their own cache just to avid that parchment

[CurtisD]

Enter Bangkok Guy

Complete radio silence from Bangkok Guy, which is not a surprise as he only communicates if there is something to communicate and, unlike me, feels no need to reconfirm what is already agreed.

The need to keep multiple balls in the air in business has habituated me to rigorous management of time and process which I unwisely carry over into my personal life. Unwisely, as it gets in the way of relaxation and spontaneity. In Bangkok Guy’s words ‘So much organize’.

Bangkok Guy has three approaches to managing this potentially irritating part of my personality. Amused indulgence while he watches me attempt to bend the universe to my will, when a wise person would realize you can only organize so much and then play the rest by ear; persistent but gentle suggestions that I need to relax more; and simply ignoring me and doing what he thinks is necessary at the pace he considers suitable.

Today he is ignoring me.

A little after 5pm he Line’s me that he has finished his errands and is on his way, followed by a Thai-language screenshot of the hotel with the question “This your hotel?” Odd question as he has already spoken to the hotel about his vaccination status, so I guess that his taxi driver knows of other hotels with similar names and wants confirmation of the address. I later discover that he went into the website to get the address and got such a shock at the room rate (full board, not my heavily discounted rate) that he felt he needed to confirm.

It is great to see him. He looks good and his eyes have their usual sense of mischief. After two years apart we are both happy, hopeful, but slightly hesitant. Is this going to click and pick up from where we left off?

I reassure him that as he has been sick, we go at his pace. I follow him. He wants to rest, we rest. He wants to go to Bamboo Bar, we go, but if he does not feel up to it, we do not go.

His face, mirroring his thoughts as always, is a picture of great satisfaction mixed with thought. He snuggles close and smiles “I follow you”. “You have been sick, I want to be sure you are ok”. “I not tired any more, can go anywhere. You want to go Ayutthaya? Can go.”  

I touch the gold ring on his ring-finger.

“You give money for (he uses a Thai word meaning dragon charm) but I buy ring”. We have had this discussion on Line, but now that I am seeing the ring in person for the first time, he is watching my reaction.

“So you wear my ring?” “Yes”, with a mischievous smile. “So you are mine?” “Yes”, with the mischief heading off the scale. I trace his eyebrows with my finger “These mine?” “Yes.” Stroking his nose “This mine?” “Yes.” Comprehensive exploration reveals that all of him is mine.

Ah, but apparently a rule of reciprocity applies here. “If ring make you mine, then ring makes me yours?” “Yes.”  “All of me?” “Yes” with a great grin.

This is clearly a powerful ring, but alas for Sir Peter Jackson there is no material here for a further trilogy. Unlike Sauron, Bangkok Guy is likely to use the power of the ring gently and reasonably, mischief and grinning included.

It does not take much empathy to understand that while Bangkok Guy needs and likes the financial support I provide, he also needs love. He has a romantic heart but beyond that, sane and well-balanced as he is, I sense a need for emotional support. I don’t know his full family background, but there is a deficit there that needs to be filled.

After a couple of hours slowly reintroducing ourselves, we shower before heading to Bamboo Bar. We are again very comfortable with each other.

Things are not back to where we left off. Somehow they have moved beyond that.

 

[bucky13]

9 hours ago, CurtisD said:

It does not take much empathy to understand that while Bangkok Guy needs and likes the financial support I provide, he also needs love. He has a romantic heart but beyond that, sane and well-balanced as he is, I sense a need for emotional support. I don’t know his full family background, but there is a deficit there that needs to be filled.

 

Hmmmmm.....Whose needs and deficits are we fulfilling here?  😉

[CurtisD]

Shopping and Business

In the morning we follow Bangkok Guy’s habit of sleeping in if there is no specific reason to get up. I enjoy drifting along next to him. We leave the room in time for lunch and Shopping at IconSiam.

First stop is for me, Jim Thompson where I buy additional masks as gifts and get one in yellow with an elephant pattern for Bangkok Guy. Then I follow Bangkok Guy to his usual go-to’s, H&M and Uniqlo where, to my surprise, he buys nothing. Too expensive as no Sale today. His frugality extends to my money. In Muji he finds underwear and hoodies he likes, and my views are sought on hoodie selection. He gets an attractive lemon yellow one with dove grey lining.  

We are heading for the escalator when I see Polo Ralph Lauren. “Expensive”. Yes, but they are having a sale, 50% off. Bangkok Guy needs ‘underwear for swim’ and these are on sale. My opinion is sought between pale pink and mid blue. I am surprised he likes the pink, but maybe it is only brighter shades to which he has an aversion. In the end price is the deciding factor, pink is 50% off while blue is only reduced 30%.

To my surprise, we have to return to Jim Thompson where Bangkok Guy buys himself a black facemask. He has decided it will match his outfit better, which it does. He is frugal, but he is gay.

All this activity requires a rest, so we return to the hotel and after a shower climb into bed for a nap which later becomes a ‘nap’.

After dinner on the hotel terrace, we have a business discussion.

I have updated the spreadsheet showing his monthly budget: his expenses, the money he makes from the market and his allowance from me. The last two years his market income has been erratic to put it mildly and I have provided additional funds to fill the gap.  For the coming two years I have increased his allowance so that it fully covers his expenses: the additional money is funded from a new long term contract I recently landed. Whatever happens with covid, his basics are covered.

The discussion then turns to his business. His experience with the market stalls is a textbook case of the need for differentiation and defensibility in a business model, without which you can’t maintain steady volume and reasonable margins. For example, he got into selling masks and sanitizer early and for around two months he was doing great business, until everyone else did the same thing. If he is going to move beyond hand-to-mouth he needs to find something which is both differentiated and defensible.

I explain these ideas, using his experience as the example and sketching out pictures in my business notebook. Bangkok Guy becomes animated – he gets this – and takes over the conversation to explain to me how markets are organized, sketching pictures for me.

He has a plan, which I think is a good one, that achieves a somewhat defensible business model by using access to goods from his hometown and the organizational structure of the markets. By employing his mother and sister the model also follows his understanding of the purpose of a small business, which is to support the family unit.

Bangkok Guy and I have discussed business often enough that there is a mutual understanding that my suggestions are very welcome (“you are businessman” in a very approving tone), but that he will decide whether-or-not my ideas are workable for small business.

Early in our friendship he had an idea for creating a laundry service to cater to the new middle-class tower blocks. I thought it was a good idea and a scalable one if he developed an app with a tie-in to courier services. From my perspective, the purpose of a small business is to scale enough to achieve a trade-sale or an IPO. As I waxed lyrical, I noticed I was on the receiving-end of the constipated look.

“What think?”  What he thought was that I did not understand the purpose of small business which is, as everyone knows, to support and provide employment for the family unit. So now I offer my insights from ‘big business’ which he then considers through the lens of his framing of small business.

Capital is needed to make this new idea work, which is my role. He understands that anything beyond the allowance depends upon me generating additional income. I now know the goal for the additional income I need to make this year if the modest percentage I share with Bangkok Guy is going to meet his capital needs. I am keen to help him with this, partly as I think he has a good idea and partly because I want to move him away from hand-to-mouth and become financially independent. And of course, I like him and enjoy his enthusiasm.

We do not go to Bamboo Bar tonight as Bangkok Guy points out that we have an early(ish) start in the morning.

[CurtisD]

13 hours ago, bucky13 said:

Hmmmmm.....Whose needs and deficits are we fulfilling here?  😉

Am I projecting my needs onto Bangkok Guy?

I don't think so. I hope not.

Relationships work better the more you understand the other person, so I am interested in understanding him.

Given the language and cultural barriers, there is a large opportunity for mis-interpretation.

Given Bangkok Guy's very factual nature and lack of a poker face, there is some hope I may get enough right.

[vinapu]

1 hour ago, CurtisD said:

 

In the morning we follow Bangkok Guy’s habit of sleeping in if there is no specific reason to get up. I enjoy drifting along next to him. We leave the room in time for lunch and Shopping at IconSiam.

........

We do not go to Bamboo Bar tonight as Bangkok Guy points out that we have an early(ish) start in the morning.

no doubt, no doubt

[GWMinUS]

17 hours ago, CurtisD said:

The discussion then turns to his business. His experience with the market stalls is a textbook case of the need for differentiation and defensibility in a business model, without which you can’t maintain steady volume and reasonable margins.

WOW, Curtis, I did not realize you are a SHARK!!! HAHAHAHA

[CurtisD]

Ayutthaya and Birthdays

The same lady driver from LimoPattaya is on time in her very nice car to drive us to Ayutthaya. As usual, Bangkok Guy curls up on the back seat and rests his head in my lap. My role as human pillow is secure.

After the first temple, one with tortoises, we are hungry. Bangkok Guy finds a place online and a ten minute stroll finds us at a charming old wooden Thai structure nestled in a garden. No one in sight, and we are concerned that it is closed until we find the proprietors seated around a table at the back having lunch. We are the only customers, and they are delighted to see us. Bangkok Guy selects what turns out to be a very good lunch.

Over lunch we continue an earlier discussion of future travel plans. We have been looking at all the places that Thais can go without visas and some of these correspond to my bucket list, including the Maldives and the Serengeti (Tanzania and Kenya are e-visa, failing which South Africa and Kruger National Park is no visa). He does not know the Serengeti, so I type it on his phone and he explores the pictures on the web, his grin widening. He holds up a picture of one of the lodges with eco-style architecture: “This where we stay?”. “Can”. “I want!!”

He is however a frugal realist: “But expensive?” Yes, compared to Tokyo which had been the next on our list, but as I want to go anyway and it will be more fun with Bangkok Guy than by myself, I assure him we can do it. Our post-covid travel plan is now the Maldives and Africa. Tokyo is banished: “It only shopping”.

However, who knows when covid will end. For the second half of this year we agree that he will plan a trip for us in Thailand. Bangkok Guy is enthusiastic and shows me pics of himself on holiday in various spots of natural beauty around Thailand. He really likes scenic beauty, partly for the beauty and partly for the absence of people, and traces out a possible route on a map, all nature spots except Chang Mai which, as I have not been there, he thinks I should see.

We will hire a car, he can drive, he is in fact very enthusiastic to drive me. To avoid circumnavigating Thailand by car, which I think would be tiring, I point out that he has a credit with Bangkok Airways for the cancelled Koh Samui ticket, so when we reach the far North we can fly South and hire another car. Given the logic of a free flight, he agrees, although left to himself he would drive the entire way.

Lunch over, he calls the driver (they exchanged numbers and he is now in charge of driver relations) and we visit more temples including the Buddha-head-in-tree, the one with a big fishpond and the reclining Buddha. Our last stop is a floating market which Bangkok Guy is very keen to re-visit as he enjoyed it on a previous occasion. From his photos I thought it was a local market, but it is clearly built-for-tourists, albeit strongly appealing to Thai tourists.

Unfortunately many of the shops and the ladies selling from boats in the small lake are no more, victims of the economy. Bangkok Guy is disappointed but unfazed and once he finds a clothing store I see why he likes this place – very attractive casual clothing at very cheap prices. He gets a stylish tie-died shirt and loose pants in white with a red-brown Thai-patten print for 100Bt each. H&M and Uniqlo, eat your hearts out.

It is now a little past the hour at which we need to depart if I am going to be back at the hotel in time to receive the completed clothes from my tailor. Bangkok Guy speaks with our driver, and we are on the road home for all of four minutes when we suddenly pull over and circle around for a parking spot.

To my questioning face Bangkok Guy says ‘Two minute’ with his ‘Trust Me’ expression. I assume he needs to go to the toilet. Ten minutes later I am beginning to wonder. Fifteen minutes later I line him “?” and get a quick response “Five minutes” and a sticker indicating ‘please’. My “Ok. What you doing?” gets a sticker of a figure biting its fingernails. “Not to worry, but only because it is you” to which he responds with a kiss sticker.

Whatever he is doing, it means something to him, and I will find out eventually. I text my tailor that I am running late and can he please come thirty minutes later than scheduled, a request with which he is fine. I look back in the direction in which Bangkok Guy went to see if there is any sign of him and spot an advertising sign for a jeweler. Our driver is watching me. “Did he go to the jeweler?” “Yes”, she smiles. She is in on whatever he is up to.    

I decide to visit the jewelry shop. As I approach the shopgirls see me and by the time I enter they and Bangkok Guy are doubled-over in guilty laughter. A gold dragon on a red cord is just about to be placed in its gift box. Instead, Bangkok Guy places it around my wrist “Happy Birthday!” Everyone in the shop is beaming.

It is the same type of dragon that I gave him the money to buy two years ago, instead of which he bought the ring. I had said I would like one and we had planned to take a boat to Chinatown tomorrow to get one for each of us. Bangkok Guy had drawn me into a thorough discussion of what size dragon I wanted compared to the size he wanted, and in the car on the drive here had played around comparing his hand and wrist with mine, I now realize to size the red cord correctly. I offer to buy him one but no, he has the ring, the whole point of the discussion was to find out what size of dragon I wanted.  

I am quite blown away and grinning from ear to ear. This is a nicest gift I have had in a long time, and the best planned.

As an aside, our lady driver passed Bangkok Guy’s number on to LimoPattaya, and for the remainder of the trip LimoPattaya call Bangkok Guy, not me.

[CurtisD]

7 hours ago, GWMinUS said:

WOW, Curtis, I did not realize you are a SHARK!!! HAHAHAHA

We prefer Lamniformes enabled. 

[GWMinUS]

10 hours ago, CurtisD said:

18 hours ago, GWMinUS said:

WOW, Curtis, I did not realize you are a SHARK!!! HAHAHAHA

We prefer Lamniformes enabled. 

Then you must not watch the US TV Show "Sharks"?? Check it out and see if you are a future Shark. Helping a young entrepreneur get a start in business!! ☺️

[spoon]

4 hours ago, GWMinUS said:

Helping a young entrepreneur get a start in business!!

I actually view the sharks as those waiting to take advantage of those poor young entrepreneur haha. 

[GWMinUS]

OH not on the popular TV Series SHARKS here in the USA. There is a panel six sucessful business people. Usually 2 women and 3 men plus a guest. Entrepreneurs appear to pitch their business to the Sharks and if there is interest, one or more sharks will invest in the business and offer their advice and support hopping the business will make money!!

But what Curtis says about a sucessful business needing differentiation and defensibility in a business to be successful is often repeated by the Sharks. That is why I made the comment. I have also preached this to my friends in the Philippines. But I feel they do not GET IT!!

SAD!!!

[orson]

2 hours ago, GWMinUS said:

 

But what Curtis says about a sucessful business needing differentiation and defensibility in a business to be successful is often repeated by the Sharks. That is why I made the comment. I have also preached this to my friends in the Philippines. But I feel they do not GET IT!!

SAD!!!

Like any third world country, it is indeed difficult to create a d & d business without a large capital outlay in the Philippines. IP is often ignored, so creativity does not mean that you got the edge. 

I would be very much interested in your sage advice on how to create such business. 

[CurtisD]

10 hours ago, GWMinUS said:

Then you must not watch the US TV Show "Sharks"?? Check it out and see if you are a future Shark. Helping a young entrepreneur get a start in business!! ☺️

You are right, I did not get the reference. The only other time I have been called a shark it was intended as a complement by a friend who I helped when he had trouble with his bank, "It's great to be friends with a shark", but it was one of those complements that are, well, possibly best left unspoken, such as "I really like the way you use a knife in a fight". 

 

2 hours ago, orson said:

I would be very much interested in your sage advice on how to create such business.

Many ways to do it - IP, a more efficient business model which gives a cost advantage, better product design or quality, better sourcing or logistics, branding, greater scale etc - but it is not simple, easy or static (i.e. what is differentiated or defensible now will cease to be so in the future).

The concepts are also relative to the competition, not an absolute universal standard. In Bangkok Guy's case he needs to find something which is differentiated and defensible relative to other market traders, not relative to Amazon. 

[CurtisD]

Tipsy Talk

Back at the hotel Bangkok Guy heads to IconSiam to get a shirt for tonight while I shower before the tailor arrives.

I am very pleased with the clothes and by the time Bangkok Guy returns I am wearing some of my new wardrobe, a pair of high-waisted caramel linen trousers held up with woven silk braces in light blue with a tropical fish design and a white Chinese-collared shirt, the collar and placket lined in deep navy.

Bangkok Guy both likes and is amused by the braces “They cute”. He explains his amusement by showing me a picture of little children wearing outfits with braces – he associates braces with children’s clothing. He has bought a white Chinese collared shirt which matches mine.

His phone rings. It is our driver from today saying that she will not be driving us tonight, one of her colleagues will collect us. We are disappointed as she is a co-conspirator and we like her car, a black Honda Accord, which Bangkok Guy tells me in Thailand is a “Boss car”. Her colleague arrives in an SUV, apparently “Not Boss car”, so we arrive at Baan Suriyasai as our humble selves.

Our reservation is in Khun Bangkok Guy’s name as the restaurant was having trouble with my name and Bangkok Guy took over. The new shirt matches his status as patron-of-record.

We have our usual room, a private table-for-two overlooking the courtyard. Bangkok Guy orders for us, old favorites like the pork belly with different sizes of egg and a few new dishes. As always the food is wonderful.

No champagne by the glass, only by the bottle. I ask Bangkok Guy if he likes champagne and if he can drink more than a glass. I order a bottle after he affirms both.   

We don’t usually drink this much, certainly not Bangkok Guy, and the alcohol loosens the conversation.

“Why you drink so much?” “All Falang drink”. “I not know Falang, I know you. You like alcohol more strong (than the champagne)”. I later ask for an eau-de-vie, confirming his analysis.

“Your mother knows you are gay?” “Yes”. “Does it bother her?” He looks confused “Why it bother her?” “In the West some parents do not like their sons being gay”. “Oh?” he is not sure what to make of this Falang peculiarity.

“Why you give me everything?” “I don’t give you everything”. “You give a lot”. “I like you”. “How much you like me?” “A lot” and I extend my arms to indicate the entire room and the universe beyond. “Why you like me?” “You are a very nice person. You have a good heart. You are responsible. You have a sense of humor”. “I not so nice”. “Really, why you say that?” “If I no want to talk to someone they can see, my face look like this” (he tries to pull a face of someone turning up their nose, but does not really succeed).

I had wondered how Bangkok Guy’s complete lack of a poker face went down with fellow Thais and this suggests that it can cause problems.

“You like me?” “Yes, you always nice to me, never ‘Ack Ack’ me, and you are funny”. ‘Ack Ack’ is said rolling back the lips to show the teeth in a biting motion. It’s a gesture I have used to indicate that I have had to deal with someone. He sees it as part of my being a Boss, but happily I don’t act as Boss to him.

“Why you stay in such expensive hotel?” in a slightly critical tone. Bangkok Guy likes value-for-money, not expensive things. Now I discover why he called asking for the hotel address. I explain I have a deeply discounted rate, but admit it is still expensive. I am paying about twice as much as I normally would in order to get the space and river access, to keep distant from people because of covid.

He nods, this is of a piece with my using the LimoPattaya rather than public transport and insisting on cracking the windows open despite smells outside. On the way to Ayutthaya, he wound the windows up because of a smell (not much of one to my nose, but he has a much keener sense of smell) and I put them back down. He felt the need to explain my odd behavior to our driver (I caught the word ‘covid’) and she just laughed. After driving me several times she was used to my strange obsession.   

“What do Thai people think when they see your ring?” I ask, indicating the ring-of-power-that-was-supposed-to-be-a-dragon on his ring-finger. “Think I am married”. “How many children do you tell them you have?” I tease him. Bangkok Guy gives me a tolerant ‘You are so Silly’ look and ignores the question.

“In Thailand where you want to live, Bangkok or hometown?” “Bangkok too many people, but is business. Hometown is nice, have trees and nature, but no business. Stay Bangkok for business and live in hometown once business big enough. If could live anywhere, would live in mountains like you, cooler, air clean, not many people”.

In mountains like me?! “I don’t live in mountains”. “Yes, I see many trees”. One time he called me I was in the garden and he has associated the many trees with forest, which he associates with mountains. He really does like nature. I explain the confusion. “Still many trees”, which I can’t deny.

The comment about no business in hometown causes a penny to drop. The allowance I give him enables him to stay in Bangkok and keep alive his aspiration of creating a business. Without it covid would have forced a retreat to the hometown where the living is cheap but the opportunities are zero.

“Outside Thailand, is there anywhere you would like to live?” “With you”. “You can live outside Thailand?” “Yes”. “But no Thai people, who you talk to?” His look implies I am missing something “Who you think run Thai restaurants?” he asks laughing. My local Thai restaurant is indeed run by Thais, and there is a temple twenty minutes away.

I have always thought that Bangkok Guy was wedded to Thailand, so this is news.

“You would be happy outside Thailand?” The answer here is nuanced. In Thailand getting ahead as a very poor person is difficult. His father went bankrupt a few years ago and now the responsibility for the financial wellbeing of the family unit (his mother and younger sister) rests on his shoulders. It is a lot. He accepts the responsibility, not accepting it is not a consideration, but he would like to be happy while he shoulders the responsibility and somehow this might be easier outside Thailand. My guess is that it comes back to needing emotional support and, possibly, he thinks there is more opportunity outside Thailand.

Bangkok Guy, possessed of the ring of power, wants to join me in my woodland sanctuary.

I wonder if this is how Tolkien got inspired? I’ve never heard that he visited Thailand.

[vaughn]

Loving your report, it is a very nice read.

One question, are you willing to divulge your tailor's shop name? I'm always interested in finding quality tailors.

[CurtisD]

1 hour ago, vaughn said:

Loving your report, it is a very nice read.

One question, are you willing to divulge your tailor's shop name? I'm always interested in finding quality tailors.

I sent you a message.  

[CurtisD]

Farewell, For Now

Our last day, and after getting up early for my pre-departure RT-PCR test I return to bed and spoon with Bangkok Guy. We sleep late and head to the pool just before noon, where we relax in a cabana. I occasionally swim laps while Bangkok Guy is content to relax in the shade.

We return to the room for a final nap and a final ‘nap’.

Before going to dinner, I pack. I hate doing it, going through all the mechanical steps needed for a smooth departure this evening.

We have a final dinner on the terrace by the river and then go to Bamboo Bar where we are greeted warmly and the captain automatically brings us our drinks, a Sazerac for me and a Pina Colada for Bangkok Guy. Since the evening four years ago when the mixologist at Vespers decided that a Pina Colada was a good match for someone who does not like the taste of raw alcohol, it has become Bangkok Guy’s standard jazz bar drink.

The female vocalist tonight is outstanding. I suggest to Bangkok Guy that we should dance if there was more space. Back in the room we do just that, our own versions of the tango and the waltz. Next time, we agree, we need to dance.

Bangkok Guy could stay in the room until late check out tomorrow, but ultimately he decides he will take a cab home when I leave, despite the late hour. By himself the room is “too spooky”.  

The LimoPattaya is on time, not our favorite lady in her ‘Boss car’, but a colleague. I ask Bangkok Guy if I can hug him goodbye – we are in public – “Yes, can” and we briefly hug. He usually gets down the evening I depart and while he has been cheerful up until now, I see this is happening.

Despite all the snafus, the stresses and only spending four days with Bangkok Guy, it has been a great trip.

However, like Bangkok Guy, alone in the car to the airport I am a little down. I really want more time with him. I stroke the gold dragon on the red cord around my wrist. This connection has become deeper than anything in the past. A little deeper, and it will push against the practicalities of my life, and I really have no idea where to take it then.

I smile. I like Bangkok Guy. I like him a lot. We will connect again some time after June for the trip around Thailand and that will give us time together to figure this thing out.  

[Guest]

Boss car = Honda Accord

Which some of us still think of as a Ford Cortina competitor.

[vinapu]

9 hours ago, CurtisD said:

 

However, like Bangkok Guy, alone in the car to the airport I am a little down.

we too because it looks that this great report is about to end

[CurtisD]

5 hours ago, vinapu said:

we too because it looks that this great report is about to end

Thank you, I am glad you have enjoyed it.  

I can't wait to see what Bangkok Guy organizes in the second half of the year.

[Boy69]

20 hours ago, CurtisD said:

I like Bangkok Guy. I like him a lot. We will connect again some time after June for the trip around Thailand and that will give us time together to figure this thing out

Lovely report so poetic enjoyed it so much.

If you take my word be very cautious if you decide to move him to your country I heard too many sad stories of couples broke up because the Wester culture is a bit of a shock to Thai's whom could not addopt and returned to their country it's better to take things slowly and if you decide to move him to your home it's better to give him a period of experience before you two make any serious commitment to each other.

May I ask how Iong you know Bangkok Guy  ? How old is he ?

[reader]

Thank you, Curtis, for a tender--and at times poignant--account of your trip. You took us many places, including the storied Bamboo Bar at the Mandarin Oriental. I first learned about it in John Burdett's first Bangkok novel, "Bangkok Eight," in 2003.

Very much looking forward to what plans Bangkok Guy has in store for you going forward!