French Amsterdam in Pattaya (part 3)

After I caught up with my travel report, I also dozed off. We dropped the plan to go to the Wonderful 2 Bar later in the evening. We slept well and liked it that way. Even before the band stopped in the bar we had left completely only to wake up when the sun came up again.

Time for the next episode of the soap / massage. Yes, this is how a person wants to wake up every day! The difference between the soap and the massage was that the soap ended with a cliffhanger and the massage with a happy ending. That's the way it is supposed to be.

She asked if she could call and order her son to get up and go to school, otherwise he might not be able to resist the temptation to oversleep. Of course that was allowed. A nice little guy, if I'm judging by the pictures, and I kind of regretted not letting him overslept.

Now she began what was inevitable, the whining about not being allowed to stay another night. I was happy to feed her my earlier clear messages on messenger, and I remained unrelenting. She understood, a little taken aback.
Speaking of dishes, breakfast had to be had, of course. At the thought, her face brightened again. Immediately she started to collect her things and before nine o'clock, very early for me, we crossed Soi 13, to the breakfast buffet of the Lek Hotel. I bought a booklet with 10 coupons for 1200 Baht. You can't go wrong with that.

Find what you like and scoop up as much of it as you want. I'm not going to list everything you can get here, but the choice is very extensive, both Thai and Western, and for illustration: In the 'egg' category alone, there are fried eggs, hard and soft boiled eggs, scrambled eggs and omeletted eggs . There are things that don't get me very excited about, but you just don't take them and then there is more than enough left. For € 3.- the price/quality ratio is fine. In general, the Thai ladies are also enjoying themselves here and you are doing them a greater favor than with a served restaurant where you usually have to choose one dish from the menu. The Chayapoonse was no exception, after the first plate a second was scooped up and cleared away, only to let her know that she had to be careful not to get fat. Yes, I would like a few more…

We moved to the Wonderful 2 Bar. Another cup of coffee, and then she headed for the bus station. 7 hours on the road for the second consecutive day. I increased the amount I normally paid her with a generous travel allowance, otherwise she wouldn't have much left. It was apparently enough, because she immediately tried to make another appointment for next week, or for two weeks. I didn't, we'll see about that again, but if I say 'yes' now and I don't keep my promise, you'll be in trouble, and rightly so, and I don't want that. She understood. Just then a message came in from Cat.

'Hi, how are you? I am in Bangkok now, waiting for bus. About 1 PM in Pattaya. OK?'
I had already told the Chayapoonse that I had another date in the afternoon, and was able to show her this message as proof that it wasn't an excuse.
And so I think we could both close this 'flying visit' with a good feeling.

Cat, I sometimes call her Katja, is no stranger to the regular readers here. Perhaps a short reintroduction is in order:
She has worked half her life as a bar girl in Pattaya, but since the birth of her daughter a few years ago, she has mostly stayed in Isaan.

Since my first visit to Pattaya, she has been my support, source of information, guide, interpreter, nurse and so on. We are not brother and sister, but we kind of live like that. Every now and then I stop her. Two years ago I flew her over to Pattaya for a few days and that actually resulted in her picking up her old job again. Her daughter went to school and was taken care of by the family. It was not easy in Pattaya, and she was now regularly at home again. There she sometimes sells clothes in her 'shop', she sometimes sells food in her 'restaurant', she sometimes teaches English in her 'classroom', she helps on the rice fields, in short she does everything, but the revenues always fall short of expectations and that is how she also plows through life. We have regular but not excessive contact via messenger and I will always have a soft spot for her.

At the end of May I was startled by the following message.
'I looking for money now because I want to go work somewhere out of Thailand. For massage.'
I knew those stories.
'Somewhere out of Thailand? Massage means boom boom.'
'No, massage only.'
'People who promise you massage job and good salary all lie. You know! You not stupid!'
'I try to work. No work, no money now.'
'They know you need money. Don't believe them.'
“Yes.”
It was quiet for a week and then pictures followed of working in the fields, of the little one, and of a party with girlfriends and whisky. She hadn't lost her mind yet. At the end of June a message that she had tried it again in Pattaya for a while, had visited her sister in Bangkok and was on her way to Ubon because of a festival.
Some time later the photos of the festival and the question if I had travel plans again, but I had to wait for the tickets to drop in price.
July 16 weather reports.
'Hi! How are you? Very bad life…'.
"What's wrong?"
Don't be angry please. Yesterday I come to Bahrain.'
"Manama?"
'Yes, I want work for money.'
An intermediary 'mamasan' in Ubon had advanced the money for the plane ticket, and she had just been taken to a hotel. She had to ask her roommate what it was called. She had been allowed to keep her passport herself and a visa had also been arranged. That was somewhat reassuring.
“All Arab men here”, she had noticed.
“Yes, of course. Better stay in Thailand with no money than in Bahrain with Arab men…”
But she really needed money now.
'I don't have good feelings about what you are doing now.'
'I know my fault. I just want to have back country.'
"What happened?"
'My dad take money from somebody long time ago and this year my dad have to give money back to him 400,000 baht. Sorry to give u hear bad story about me. '
'I see…'

For the time being, she would stay in Manama for three months. I asked her to speak up every few days, and she solemnly promised.