One of the effects of living in Bangkok for a few years is that I find it hard to turn off the girl-radar. What I mean is that I typically look at every adult woman I pass as a potential sex partner, no matter how appropriate or inappropriate that may be.
Walking out of the train station tonight I passed the bus stop. There were three girls standing together in their university uniforms among a dozen or more other waiting passengers. The girl in the middle was tiny… maybe 152 cm and 40 kilos. She was wearing a university uniform so I’m pretty sure she was over the age of consent, but she looked very young. Probably only 18 or 19, though being Thai she could have been 22 or 23.
She had very full lips that were shiny with lip gloss. I looked at her out of the corner of my eye as I approached, and seeing that she was a pretty girl, I took another peek at her as I was passing the bus stop.
She caught me.
There I was, looking at her pretty face and thinking about just how pretty it was, when she looked straight back into my eyes. She knew exactly what I was thinking. I was busted.
I’m 48 years old, walking on a public sidewalk, leering at a pretty university girl less than half my age.
Now here’s what I like about living in Bangkok.
She smiled at me. A genuine, broad, happy smile.
I didn’t stop and try to chat her up, but normally I probably would have. Tonight I simply smiled back, and walked the four blocks home feeling pretty pleased.
Thai girls are completely unlike their western cousins. They enjoy being feminine, they appreciate compliments and they don’t get offended if you look at them, talk to them or ask for their phone number as long as you do it politely.
Bangkok’s a different world — a world that’s custom-made for dirty old men like me.
July 25, 2008 at 6:24 am |
It’s good to be a man in Thailand!
You hit the nail on the head here, so to speak. A daily diet of sweet, sweet “eye candy!”
And, it’s admirable that you share this good fortune with your insightful and spicy writing. Poor schmucks stuck in places like northern Finland, the Aussie outback, Buttf*ck, Montana, etc., are living vicariously through you (albeit with their right palms in fast motion).
I. too, like to share my good Bangkok fortune, but in my case with pictures…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fon_tok_mak_mak/2696952833/
July 25, 2008 at 10:18 am |
From one dirty old man to another – the girl radar is just a symptom of chronic DOMS [dirty old man syndrome]. The symptom is likely to be experienced anywhere I’m afraid.
July 25, 2008 at 5:16 pm |
@andyxyzb: Spot on
July 25, 2008 at 5:46 pm |
@andyxyzb +1. In fact – that radar has gotten me more in trouble here in Singapore then I deserve. There is a set of Malay (I think) twins in my condo and I got busted when I got busted one day staring and daydreaming about them in their PE uniforms (the shorts they give most of these girsl to wear are just not modest…).
Man, 2 years on and I still get the evil eye from both of them and man, do not even get me started about their bizarre boyfriends.
July 25, 2008 at 8:25 pm |
dude, you totally misinterpreted her smile! Inside she was probably thinking exactly the same as a Western woman would be thinking in the same situation as she scowled at you.
August 13, 2008 at 11:35 am |
Spending time in Thailand makes that symptom worse. I have passed the point of no return (I don’t own blinders or where a neck brace anymore) and if woman back here in the W think I’m a womanizer, DOM, or otherwise, I don’t care any more because I know how it should be, as it is in the Land.