You will experience everything in Thailand: An unforgettable journey of discovery and from naivety to adventure in Asia

In 1980, I don't think I had even heard of Thailand! But that can also be an illusion. I do remember that I knew very little about Asia at the time (I was 22 years young). For me, there was only one country in Southeast Asia that I knew a little from books and that was of course Indonesia.

I had a pen pal in South Korea and had saved for three years to visit her. But I also wanted to get to know Indonesia. I booked a flight through a travel agency with Singapore Airlines and then flew to Singapore via Rome, Bangkok. A guy I had a brief conversation with said he was flying to Kuala Lumpur from Bangkok. Well, I thought, that must be very far away, because I had never heard of that before.

I knew so little that I am almost ashamed to write that I thought Singapore was a city in Indonesia. The intention was that I would travel for two months. A month in Indonesia and a month in South Korea. That's what I did. In Indonesia on Sumatra, the island of Samosir in Lake Toba, I met other young people who had been on the road for much longer. We were talking and a Frenchman who had just come from Thailand started talking about his adventures in Thailand. Particularly…of course, the opposite sex.

The girls there, he said, are so fun and wild that if they like you, they will pay for you! I couldn't believe that. It was just the beginning of my trip and I already wanted to go to Thailand! Anyway, two months. I stayed on the island in Lake Toba for those four weeks. I tried to get out of there, waited all day for a bus and had to return in the evening.

Then I stayed longer and met my pen pal after four weeks in South Korea. Thailand with its willing women continued to fascinate me. In South Korea, I went to the Singapore Airlines office and asked if I could extend the ticket for another month. That was no problem and it paved the way for me to experience Thailand for another month.

In the meantime, everything turned out to be so cheap that I even had the ticket extended to six months. Anyway… at one point I arrived in Thailand by train from Butterworth. On the train I met a Swiss man who was also traveling on a budget and who wanted to share a room with me. No problem.

No sooner said than done. The first day I walked through the streets of Bangkok…. I was about twenty minutes into the ride and a young woman stopped next to me with her bike and after a short conversation she invited me to join her. She wanted to take a shower and it was so hot and she liked me. After a moment's hesitation, I did so and accompanied her to her home.

When we got there… things got exciting. My first time! We were in the shower and a little later I heard someone coming in. It was her friend. And a little later the three of us were in bed…. When it was time to go back to the hotel, we agreed to continue in the evening. But I was disappointed… they didn't show up anymore. I didn't know much. No worries.

The Grace Hotel was the place I really needed to be. I could go there on foot. When I got there I didn't know what I saw... Soon a young woman joined me and I took her to my room. AIDS was not yet known or current at all.

The next morning (I wasn't very pleased after all) I wanted to pay her. I took my photo suitcase, which contained all my money. The same suitcase I had on my shoulder when I had fun with the other two ladies….empty. Two hundred guilders in Thai Baht were gone. I still have my passport, plane ticket and envelope for my travellers' cheques. She was angry that I didn't pay her and threatened to go to the police. The Swiss gave me the necessary money and I never saw that lady again. So it turned out that those two friends had robbed me while I was in the shower in seventh heaven. They were kind enough to leave important documents in the suitcase and, because my checks were insured, I was able to get new checks (had to wait a week) and the old ones were immediately blocked.

Still, I couldn't resist… I now had a taste for it and walked back to the Grace Hotel the next evening. There I met an older Thai lady (she was already 25!!). She was very nice. And she stayed with me for the next two weeks. She never asked for money, the occasional small gift, and she had no intention of leaving Thailand or marrying a Farang. She just wanted a good time and we had it together. And I can't forget what she did for me. She really initiated me into the amorous game. So the Frenchman had been partly right.

It happened to me a few times later, when I was a steward, that I met a Thai person who only stayed with me for a night and didn't want anything in return. And that was only because they took the initiative.