French Amsterdam in Pattaya (part 2)

Half way through this first evening I woke up. There was a message from Nuk, that's what I call her. How darling was doing. She asks that about 365 times a year, and sometimes I can't come up with anything for a while, but now I could surprise her.

“Tuk-Tuk (my alter alias) in Pattaya now!”
There was silence for a moment, until there was a loud tap.
A whole story, I go Korat soon, can't take care of you, so sorry, so sad, blah blah blah, and all in barely understandable English.
'When you go Korat', I asked, 'Tomorrow?'
'No. Tomollow tomollow.'
"You work tomorrow?"
'No.'
"You want to go with me tonight?"
"Please darling!"
"Okay, see you 11 PM Wonderful 2 Bar."

Well, I couldn't let him go home unseen. After all, I've known her for several years now. First she worked in the Tim Bar Agogo, later in various shops in Mike's Shopping Mall. She's quite stubborn and has her quirks, which sooner or later gets her into trouble with the manager everywhere, while it's never her fault. She is now twenty-eight, a daughter of about eight years old, mom and dad just barely manage to drown in the rice and her somewhat older sister sits 24/7 with her boyfriend at the Yaba.

A few months ago, the latter two had gotten into a fight and Nuk had taken her sister to Pattaya to see if there was any work for her here. Partly in that context, I was introduced to her, but I kindly declined the honor. It looked nice, but I have rarely encountered such a lump of total disinterest and apathetic laziness. Two days later, she went to make amends with her boyfriend.

Of the 10.000 Baht Nuk earns monthly as a saleswoman, 4000 go on room rent, 1000 on water and electricity. Then you have to eat and drink and make calls. Not much can be sent home. Freelancing next to a 6 day job of 10 hours a week is also not realistic, so when I'm in the country the one day off is well spent every week. I do have to adjust my schedule to hers and that is taken for granted. A lady with instructions for use, but so endearing that it is impossible to stay angry for more than five minutes.

And now the bad luck that my planning doesn't work out. She only goes home once a year for a month. Then she can celebrate her daughter's birthday, and this year she is also expected to act as a kind of witness in a trial against her sister over an allegedly unpaid loan of 35.000 baht. Or something. I can't tie a lot of rope to it. In any case, doom and gloom. Nevertheless, we had a nice evening. Around noon we had breakfast together at The Sportsman. On the way there, when leaving the hotel, I do have to remind her to pick up her ID card from the front desk. Reluctantly she does so, although she still sputters: “We don't go back to your room?” “No darling, sorry. Tuk Tuk too busy.” Sometimes you have to be hard, that hurts, but otherwise she really can't be beaten away.

After breakfast a farewell drink, water, in the Wonderful 2 Bar. I gave her 1600 Baht. She was doing the math, and she said, "I saved 8000, so now I have 9600. Almost 10.000." I took the hint, asked for 600 Baht back and exchanged it for a 1000 note. It's not easy for her. I sometimes have a hard time with that too. A small tear, a hug, and off she went again, on into an uncertain future.

Next up was a lady from Chayapoon. She had already announced in the morning that she was going to take the bus, more than 400 kilometers. I made it even more clear that Tuk-Tuk is butterfly, that she can really only stay one night and that it might not make sense to come to Pattaya just for me. She understood that, at 5 PM in the Wonderful 2 Bar. Well, go ahead again. I met this lady last time through Thaifriendly. Very faithful to sending messages via Facebook, including photos of real farm life. Not pretty, but always cheerful and her favorite thing to do is watch TV and give a massage at the same time. It works very well and it doesn't bother me. She was already there at four o'clock and I barely got a chance to finish my first beer. There must be something on the TV…

After an hour and a half of Thai soap, she announced that she was hungry. Me too, we went to the Sportsman Pub for convenience. In terms of ambiance, this restaurant is just as much Thai as De Hut van Ome Henne, but the kitchen is Western and Asian, so that's handy.

In this case she opted for Italian, a Spaghetti Carbonara. I was tempted by a salmon steak with boiled potatoes and spinach. The salmon was good, the sauce too, only the spinach was barely lukewarm and the potato slices you could build a tunnel with and they were pretty much cold. Too bad, usually it's better here. I didn't say anything about it, it's already too late for that, and I wasn't asked anything either. As you can learn from the TV chefs: A chef has to taste everything that goes through. That clearly did not happen in this case. Moreover, I did not see the owner, but I will meet him today or tomorrow. The Thai staff, that is of no use to you anyway. I had already tried to inform them that the website only showed blank pages. The result: They stare sheepishly at you, nothing else. More or less demonstratively I had put my knife upright in one of the uneaten potato slices, but this too was not understood. It's still his turn!

Now my little farmer's wife is resting for a while while I gratefully took the opportunity to share with you the vicissitudes here again. If there is enough interest, soon part 3, ice cream and serving again.