The Thai Dragon

by Lilburne, Guy

  “Okay, handsome man. We go now.”

  Danny had worked in the Vice Squad years ago and prostitution in England was very different from here. Here, it just seemed so much more open and accepted. There was no coyness about it. It was not secret or dirty. The girls were not heroin addicts like they were back in the UK. Here they were young, beautiful, sexy girls who smiled a lot. It was all done with a lot more humour and personality, although, at the end of the day, Danny realised it was still exchanging cash for sex. They walked out of the bar and Nok put her arm through Danny’s, but that made him uncomfortable and he moved his arm.

  “Where do you want to go, Nok? I’d like somewhere quiet where we can chat. I want to ask you some stuff.”

  “We go eat. Good places on Beach Road. Good food. Expensive.”

  “Okay. Let’s go there.”

  Nok clapped her hands with excitement, but then looked down at her clothes.

  “Not good like this. Okay for me, but you too nice man to be with bar girl in expensive restaurant. I take tuk-tuk home and change first. I take you wait in quiet bar. You no go with another lady, wait for me 20 minutes. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Nok took Danny’s hand and led him down Bangla Road and turned right onto Beach Road. They walked past the bar where Danny had interviewed Brad. Then Nok stopped at a quiet little bar where she spoke in Thai to the girls there and Danny sat at a table. Danny guessed that she must have warned them off, because they didn’t try to approach him.

  “You wait 20 minutes. Okay?” She waved and smiled at him as she walked away and Danny had a couple of brandies and cigarettes while he waited for her. As he waited he started to really hope that she would turn up again and he realised that he would be sad if she didn’t. Twenty minutes later a tuk-tuk pulled up. Nok leaned over to pay the driver and got out of the tuk-tuk transformed. Now, with a longer elegant dress on and her hair and make-up redone, she looked different. She was a beautiful woman. She could see that Danny was impressed with her looks and she spun around on the pavement with her arms out.

  “What you think now, Danny?”

  “Wow! I’m amazed. You look so different.”

  Chapter 20 The Third Sex.

  They picked one of the more expensive open air beach front restaurants. A solo guitarist played on the stage at the far end. Thin clear water hoses snaked their way up to the overhead fans and constantly sprayed a fine water mist, cooling the hot, sticky night air.

  Nok played the role of a sophisticated woman very well and Danny could tell that she was no stranger to fine dining. She looked younger than her twenty three years, but her life experience made her seem older somehow. They both drank Jack Daniels and Coke while they browsed the leather bound menu, considered and then ordered the lobster. The restaurant was a strange mix of Spanish music, Thai food and French chic, but it felt right and they both relaxed and chatted easily over the candles, which flickered and floated in the glass bowl on their table.

  “Tell me about your brother” said Danny, between mouthfuls of food.

  “What you want to know? Brother two years younger than me. Katoey sure. Now monk.”

  “He’s now a monk? Has he got boobs?”

  Nok laughed before she could cover her mouth with her delicate hand, and shook her head.

  “No. He has man body. But in his heart, he lady. When not monk he dress like lady. I say you already, many levels of Katoey, like the sea. But family all know from when brother young that he Katoey. Very normal in Thailand.”

  “Why is it so normal here? We have fellas back home who dress up in frocks, but they are figures of fun and not accepted the way they are here. Why is Thailand so different?”

  “Because here we understand better. We all have many previous life and everyone takes turn to be Katoey, the Third Sex.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “When human very first created, God made from earth and water, make clay, make three beings; man, woman and Katoey. Hermaphrodite. God bake them in fire and breathe life into them with air. They grow up and live happy together. Have three children. Both woman and Katoey have babies, but, when Katoey die, man and woman tell children that Katoey very bad person and that they never really love her. They don’t tend to grave, but when man and woman die, the children bury them all together. The children same same as parents and grow up, man woman and Katoey, and live happily and love each other. This time they have three children, but only woman has the children and man and Katoey both father the babies. When Katoey die, man and woman tell children that they never really like Katoey at all. Now you understand?”

  “No.”

  “We all come back to earth in many lives; sometimes man, sometimes woman, sometimes Katoey. Life is just about suffering, how we do good with suffering and help other people to make life better. Man suffers to work hard and support family. Woman suffers child birth and loss. Katoey suffers because they never find true love. We all suffer, but really we all same same.” Nok held both her hands out, her open palms facing up. She shrugged her shoulders.

  “Now you understand, sure?”

  “Okay, I understand” laughed Danny.

  He didn’t really know what Nok was trying to tell him, and maybe she had mixed up her myths and legends, but she sounded as if she believed it. She looked so cute expelling her wisdom to a man more than twice her age.

  “What do your parents think about your brother being a Katoey, Nok?”

  “Parents die when I was four and brother two. Car crash. Grandpa raise us.”

  “What does Grandpa think?”

  “Grandpa very good man. Good heart. Very poor farmer, but still take in two children and feed us, ask monks to teach us. Now my brother very good monk. Teach many children for free.”

  “Does your grandpa know what you do for money, or have you told him you have a job or something?”

  “Grandpa know. He not happy for me, but he love me very much and now I can send him money to help him. But we have good plan.”

  “What’s your plan?”

  “I not work in bar forever. After I pay food and rent for room and send Grandpa some money, I save 1000 baht (£20) every month in bank. When have 60,000 baht (£1,200), I go back to my village and we buy shop. Live happy life.”

  “Saving at that rate, it will take you another five years. Can you do this for another five years?”

  “No. Only another four. I do one year already. Now save 12,000 baht already.”

  “Oh Nok! It makes me sad. You are a really nice girl. You are too nice to be doing this.”

  “No problem. I not do forever and then buy shop. Live with Grandpa and have happy life. Shop make good money in my village. No problem. Real for sure.”

  “Do you want another drink?” asked Danny, changing the subject.

  “No. Not here. We go to hotel now, buy drink in Seven Eleven shop. Drink in room.”

  “I told you we don’t have to do that. I’m delighted to just be chatting to you.”

  “Yes, I know, but we still have lot of talk to do. We have to talk about your girlfriend and find out what’s in your heart. We go to nice hotel, not short time hotel. We talk, relax, no sex. I go home in morning. No problem.”

  Danny looked at her face. It was an open and honest face. She tilted her head to one side.

  “What you think?” she asked.

  “Holy Jesus! Okay! What the hell!”

  Chapter 21 The Dragons Breath.

  The tuk-tuk dropped them off in Nanai Road, right outside a Seven Eleven shop. These shops seemed to be everywhere, some streets having three or four of them. A few doors away from the Seven Eleven shops were the bigger Family Mart mini markets. They were all open 24 hrs a day and, whatever time of day it was, there were always people shopping in them. It seemed to Danny t
hat Patong never slept.

  Danny paid the tuk-tuk driver 100 baht and followed Nok into the shop. She had already picked up two toothbrushes and a mini tube of Colgate toothpaste by the time he caught up with her. Then she picked up two packets of Durex condoms, a bottle of Jack Daniels and a bottle of Coke. Danny followed her to the shop counter. She was not shy at all. She didn’t even think about trying to hide the fact that she was going to stay the night with Danny, but Danny did feel slightly embarrassed. Nok dropped the items onto the counter, said something in Thai to the girl behind the counter and then said to Danny.

  “Wait one minute.” She walked back up and down some of the isles as the shop girl started tilling through the items, putting them in the orange and green Seven Eleven shop bags. She glanced up at Danny and he forced a smile. The girl smiled back and said something in Thai to which Nok shouted a reply. She came back to the counter with her arms full of snack food, biscuits and a bottle of fresh orange juice. Danny also asked for a packet of cigarettes.

  “L&M blue, please.” He winced, as he always did, at the shocking photo of a throat cancer victim on the front of the packet.

  “Can I have the one with the photo of the man smoking while he is holding his baby please?”

  The shop girl and Nok laughed and the girl swapped the packet for him. Danny paid and they walked along Nanai Road to a very smart looking hotel; the Nanai Grand Villas Hotel. It was small, but it was bright, clean and modern and only cost 400 baht (£8) for the two of them for the night. Nok booked them in and had to hand over a photo ID card, which she later told Danny was her registration to work as a bar girl. This was required by all hotels to allow the girls to stay with their customers. It also meant that they had to have monthly checks for AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, in order to keep their cards and so keep their bar jobs.

  Danny paid the 400 baht and again was slightly embarrassed about being there with Nok. Neither Nok nor the hotel receptionist seemed concerned in the slightest. Danny guessed that Nok had been here many times before.

  The room was clean and bigger then Danny had expected. Not quite sure what to do, he sat on the bed and looked at Nok. She could see that he had become shy and knew this must be his first time with a working bar girl.

  “The girl in Seven Eleven shop say you handsome man. Jing jing.”

  “Jing jing?”

  “Jing jing mean ‘really.’ You really very handsome man. I think same.”

  “Right so”said Danny, with a nervous smile that made his mouth twitch. Nok started to pull her dress up over her head.

  “Come on. We shower. Better. Relax.”

  Danny just watched as she unclipped her bra and dropped it onto the same chair where she had just draped her dress. Danny was amazed at how perfect her body was. Her breasts were bigger than most of the Thai girls he had seen. Danny felt a sexual buzz that he hadn’t felt for a long time.

  “Come on. Shower in suit no good” laughed Nok. She walked over to Danny in just her thong and helped him undress, before she took off her thong and they walked into the bathroom naked. As soon as Nok started to soap his body in the warm water of the shower he became erect. It just felt so good to him to be touched and he made an involuntary groaning sound.

  “Jesus! Sorry about that. It’s just been such a long time since I’ve been touched by a woman. Well, touched down there, anyway. I‘ve shaken hands and stuff. Obviously.”

  “How long?”

  “Let’s just say a long time.”

  “How long? You can say me.”

  “Just over ten years. Not since my wife died.” Danny forced an awkward smile.

  “Wow! Really! You no have woman for 10 years?”

  “No. I’ve never bothered, really.”

  “You handsome man. Why you no woman? Very bad.”

  “I just had a drink instead, I guess.”

  They soaped and washed and massaged each other under the water. They were relaxed with each other and chatted freely. Other than the fact that they were naked in the shower and Danny had a huge erection, which did not want to go down, they could have been old friends talking about the rainy season in Thailand and filling in the gaps of their past lives. They dried each other off and then went into the bedroom with the damp towels wrapped around them. Nok poured them both a drink and they sat on the bed with their backs propped up against the wooden headboard, which was set in the wall. The grooves were not comfortable on the back, but the pillows made a perfect cushion.

  “You really have no woman for 10 years?”

  “Really.”

  “And you drink for ten years?”

  “Yes.”

  “Drunk every day?”

  “Yes, I guess. But not since I have been in Thailand. Well, just the one night.”

  “One night, when your girlfriend say she is Katoey?”

  “Yes.”

  “I think you drink because you lonely”said Nok, like a Doctor delivering a diagnosis.

  “I can’t remember now. I don’t know if I started drinking because I was lonely or if I started drinking and then became lonely. But you are right, drinking and loneliness share the same glass.”

  “What’s your girlfriend name?”

  “Nok. She is not my girlfriend.”

  “But you have her already in your heart, and she say to you ‘I love you Darling’.”

  “But she is a man. How can I love her now?”

  “No, she not man. She Katoey. Maybe she have sex change operation for you.”

  “She can’t. She is too afraid. A monk told her not to when she was a kid, or she would die.”

  “Oh!” Nok was quiet and it was obvious to Danny that she too was greatly influenced by monks and Buddhism.

  “Danny, what her name?”

  “Ying.”

  “Is she very beautiful?”

  “Yes, she is. Very beautiful and she has a very kind heart, I think. She is gentle.”

  “I know you love Ying already. I think Ying already know. Only person not know is Danny.”

  “Holy Jesus! I don’t know. Have you ever heard of ‘The Thai Dragon’, Nok?”

  “Yes, of course. The Thai Dragon real. Sure.”

  “What do you think it is?”

  “The Thai Dragon is real. It breathe magic on people, make them fall in love with Thailand and Thai people.”

  “Can people resist it, do you think?”

  “No, cannot. When the Thai Dragon breathes on you, it impossible to break spell”

  “It seems that everyone knows about the power of the Thai Dragon. Maybe there should be a warning to people before they come here.”

  Nok laughed and beamed one of her wide smiles. She really liked Danny now. He was not at all like her usual customers.

  “Danny, what you feel inside when you think about Ying. Don’t think, just say good or bad?”

  “When I think about Ying, I think she is a beautiful woman and it makes my heart jump, I get butterflies in my stomach. I want to hold her and then I get scared about the way I feel and I have to force myself to remember that she isn’t a real woman. Well actually, it feels as if she is, but she has a penis and I just can’t love someone like that. I just can’t.”

  “Danny, I think the Thai Dragon has already breathed on you. You won’t be able to leave Thailand now and, if you do, you will have to keep coming back. You won’t be happy until you open your heart and let your feelings inside it. You cannot keep heart cold.”

  “It’s not that easy, Nok.”

  “Yes, easy. Love is like the sea” smiled Nok.

  “I thought that Katoeys were like the sea?”

  “Yes, same same. Everything like the sea. Some deep some not deep.” She held her hand out and flicked it over.
r />   “Shallow” offered Danny.

  “Yes, I forget that word again. Love is like the sea, different level everywhere, but all still good, all love. You have to talk with Ying and say her what you feel. Say her that you love her, but cannot have sex with her, or just find out with her what sex you can enjoy together. Maybe just kissing or holding hands. Maybe just touching. Maybe you like Boom Boom with her, if you try, or just yum yum”

  “Fecking hell! I can guess Boom Boom. What the feck is yum yum?”

  Nok mimed a blow job.

  “Jesus!”

  “No problem. Maybe you just be friends. But you have to talk and say what in your heart. Then Ying understand. No problem sure. Then you have good relationship with Ying, sex or no sex, up to you. But happy together, I think.”

  “I’m not gay, Nok.”

  “Yes, I know.”

  Nok got off the bed, took her towel off and took the condoms out of the Seven Eleven bag. She walked to the bedside, standing naked over Danny. She opened them taking off the outer wrapper, opening the box and tearing open one of the foil packets.

  “Take off towel Danny. Ten years no sex is no good. I do for you free now. I like you and not want money. You good man and I am also the breath of the Thai Dragon.”

  She pulled at Danny’s towel and he lifted his hips to allow it to come off. Nok sat astride him and they kissed. It was a long slow kiss. He could feel the weight and softness of her breasts on his body and the warm wetness of her vagina. She moved down his body and sucked him until he was hard. With the expertise of a professional she unrolled the condom onto him in a second and, guiding him in with her hand, she sat on him. He felt her passion gripping his penis and she rode him until he climaxed. They fucked again and again all through the night, until all the condoms were used.

  Chapter 22 Cracking on with the Case.

  The rain fell heavily on the tuk-tuk and blew in from the open sides, making Danny very wet but, fortunately, the Patong Lofts apartments were not very far from Nanai Road.