You experience everything in Thailand (14)

Another episode of a series of stories, telling how Thailand enthusiasts have experienced something special, funny, curious, moving, strange or ordinary in Thailand.

Today a nice story from blog reader Rob van Iren about a sweet young lady from Cambodia. The old-fashioned beautiful word "bakvis", (who still uses that?) comes from the writer himself.

From a teenage fish and an old goat

Yaya is her name, she is from Cambodia and works as a guest worker in the service of the Long Beach Resort on Koh Chang, where I stay every year. I am in love with her. No, there is no sex involved, a hand at parting, fascinated looks back and forth, that's it. It will be my personality that attracts her and with me her youthful, pure, but tropical appearance.

Yaya is not a striking beauty, there are millions of them walking around in SE Asia, a 24-year-old doll, you really have to see her up close. Her glance, a searching look, which suggests more than average intelligence. As I learn more about her, my fascination grows.

She has four children in Cambodia, whom she cannot see for six months. The father does not look at them and her parents are long dead, they may have been murdered by the Khmer shortly after Yaya was born. .

Look, here she comes, across the empty terrace (I'm sometimes the only guest), with the tray of my food. The kitchen crew has long known how the wind blows, so it is she who serves me. When she is 5 meters away from me I look into those dark eyes and melt with emotion again. I don't get it, it's like a movie. Not being able to exchange a word, the language gap, but how can looks speak. Riddles, yes.

Until the last goodbye: she throws herself right into my arms! (which I will never forget). But last year she wasn't there. The Cambodian government asks its citizens $ 600 for a work permit.

But thanks to Facebook, I know she works in a factory in Phnom Penh. In a 20 minute video I see her on the assembly line, relaxed work it looks like, fun with her colleagues, girls her age, that reassures me, she has fun and friends.

And how does she look at me now? Once she uses the word daddy, and that's a good find. I've always wanted to be a daddy, and it gives the friendship a place. It will bleed to death in the long run, the quality of google translate gives too much cause for misunderstandings. I'll never see her again, and why should I?

A nice memory of my holiday, and a glimpse into the life of a SE-Asian, because being a bit more than a tourist is what I expect from a holiday.

I do have a hard time with her last side job: promoting cosmetics, read skin bleachers. Horrible, but hey, it's her life. I'm going to tell her that I like brown.