78 4.2 The Land of A Thousand Smiles (1/2)
Pattaya, Chon Buri, Thailand
14th April 2003
The blue light that had enveloped me while in transition and talking with Max had sent me to a place in the midst of a stifling hot and airless office that was crammed with a lot SLR cameras on the desk and piles and piles of Hi-8 tapes with strange writings at first but dissolved into Romanised English after a while.
Usually, Max would tap his cane and everything would swirl into the black hole beneath his feet but I guess this is way much cooler than before. With the system update, Max would be around for me to seek guidance or be a companion whenever I wished him around me.
Welcome to Thailand, a land of a thousand smiles; where some hunks were a gigolo and pretty ladies were ladyboys... Ouch!
I looked at myself in the reflection of the closed sliding window just beside my desk where I was sitting and I find myself in such a distasteful and pathetic condition. Believe me, I do not expect much in this Leap and I wondered what I would be doing in this series in the first place... Double Ouch...!!
The air conditioning was very bad in my small, tight and crummy office. There were several Hi-8 tapes on my table and the first thing was am I into pornography flicks?There was a handheld Sony video cam as well as a Canon SLR camera with a 200mm zoom lens attached.
Was I secretly involved with a secret agency to probe and uncover some heinous crimes or illegal trade activities like cocaine trafficking and such... Wow...!!! I can't wait for this adventure to unroll itself in the next few days.
While being Sam Mulder, I had been through parts of Thailand as military personnel serving as a perm staff for a tour lasting 6 months each between 1992 to 2002 and had served a total of 3-4 tours and several short military stints.
I've been to Hatyai, Sukhumvit, Kanchanaburi, Petchaburi and Bangkok as a tourist as well as a military staff. Its smack in the middle of South-East Asia with only two seasons, either it is pouring torrents of rain or its as dry as a camel's back. And here I am in Pattaya, Chon Buri which was actually near some beach tourist attractions.
I looked around myself, slightly underweight and I was sweating buckets beneath a slow swirling ceiling fan that neither helps to swat the number of blood-sucking vector insects or to aid in the ageing and noisy window unit air-conditioner.
My shirt was drenched with dampness around the armpits and gawd...!!! I wish I could have transmigrated as a student or at least in a cold shower... I hate the heat!
The damn overhead ceiling fan creaks as it rotates and the window-mounted air conditioner was wheezing and shuddering every few seconds like as if its gonna come loose and drop off its mount and fall off the second storey.
I looked through my wallet that had been placed at the back of my jeans and was slightly damp as well. Took out the contents and found that I am now known as Aroon Chevapratnadumrong or Aroon for short. These Thai seems to have a short name but a really mouthful surname. I had a few pieces of notes amounting to only THB 460 or around USD 15. Shucks... I'm a pretty poor boy right now.
A set of jiggly keys hand at the belt loop of my jeans and I saw a familiar key... A Honda automatic scooter. Guess it's my mode of transport again. And commuting in Thailand was really a sore in the butt... Especially long rides in the heat and stuck on traffic as well as lots of underdeveloped roads or what we used to call; rats' trail...simply a road well travelled meant to be shortcuts to get from one point to another by avoiding the main asphalt roads.
A Thai ID with a boyish look and a clump of unkempt hair on the front indicates my other personal data as well as the last known address behind. I hope this fella didn't hop around Thailand without changing his address as its quite common for a bachelor to rent places near workplaces to avoid travelling for long hours to and from work.
Among the clutter on the desk was a lanyard and showed my work ID. A profession as a cameraman or crew for a film company of some sort. Well, its a start...at least I know where I am and I know approximately where I live. Right now all I need to do is to grab some grub and get out in the open. At least the heat outside is more bearable than being cooped up in this hell-hole.
I stood up and walked out of my office looking for the exit. My fellow colleagues looked at me and one of them hollered, ”Weh... Where are you going...? It is still early to go for the shoot... The host would be here for another hour or so...”
”Out to get something to bite... You wanna come along? I'd be down here for a while bit.” I hollered back. Words that came out in Thai came back to me in English and vice versa. My Thai is rather rusty since I had not spoken it for many years after my tours so I better to stick with English. Unless someone speaks rubbish to me, the answer would be ”Pud kee mak”
I headed to the exit as I knew my invitation was just a formality towards the Thais and walked down the stairs leading to the main glass door of the building.
An elderly armed security guard with a shotgun sat outside while smoking. He smiled at me and showed his tobacco-stained teeth and cracked lips as he drew another long one from his cigarette.
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”Khun pen yangraiii,” he asked me how I am and I answered him ”hot like fuck” in which came out in Thai as usual and he let out a short laugh while he flicked his cigarette ash away.