The Kiss of the Dragon

by Lilburne, Guy

  “I sorry Danny. Not mean to make you angry.”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Why make you angry?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “It funny. You not think Suzie is ladyboy. You look funny face when you see. Why you angry?”

  “Jesus, forget it will yer? It doesn’t fecking matter.”

  Ling could see he was still angry with something.

  “I sorry Danny.” She squeezed his hand.

  Chapter 15: Time to leave Phuket

  Despite the room being so hot they all slept surprisingly well. Danny was awoken in the morning by Ling kissing him gently on his cheek. The doors at the back and the front of the apartment were wide open and fresh air was blowing through. The sun was already blazing in a clear blue sky; it was a beautiful morning. Ling and Suzie ate the remainder of the chicken feet and rice for breakfast. Danny made do with some coffee.

  “Danny, we very sorry about last night.”

  “Yes,” agreed Suzie. “we did not mean to upset you.”

  “Don’t worry about it. It’s grand.”

  Ling considered her words and thought about the best way to say it before she spoke.

  “Danny, I have to go to work in bar tonight. You know this?”

  Danny was also considered with his words and took his time before he answered.

  “I don’t want you to work in the bar anymore Ling. I don’t know what is happening between us, or if it is going to lead anywhere, but I do know that nothing can ever happen if you ever go back to work in a bar.”

  “Yes I understand, but I need to earn money. I have to pay to school sisters, and get money for Mama. I have to work. I no want, but I have to.”

  “I have money Ling. What if I pay you instead of working in the bar?”

  Ling just shrugged her shoulders. Suzie was smiling, excited with anticipation.

  “How much do you need each week Ling? Give me a number.”

  “I need Five thousand baht(£100) a week,……. Sorry.”

  Danny expected a figure five or six times more than this amount. Five thousand baht was about £100. The big ugly Aussie had offered her £120 for one night, so five thousand baht did not seem too bad at all. It would be worth every penny to save Ling from having to sell herself in the bar.

  “Okay, I can do that. I don’t want you to work anymore.”

  “How long can you pay this Danny?”

  “I don’t know. We will just have to see what happens.”

  Suzie and Ling discussed the offer in Thai and, as Suzie pointed out; if it all goes wrong then she could always go back to the bar.

  “Okay, Danny. I no work bar anymore. We see what happen.”

  Danny smiled and shrugged his shoulders. Suzie clapped her hands and then kissed Ling and Danny.

  “I will have to go back to my hotel and get showered and changed. Then we can do something nice today, if you want to Ling.”

  “Okay, I take you on my motor bike. First we have to go into Patong internet café.”

  Danny waited and chatted to Suzie while Ling got showered and dressed. Even in jeans and a tee shirt she looked stunning and her smile went straight to Danny’s heart.

  They drove into Patong and Ling went straight to a small internet café along one of the side streets. Danny just tagged along and, once inside the café, Ling spoke to a little chubby Thai man called Chanarong. They spoke for a few minutes and Ling then handed him 500 baht. They then left the internet café.

  “We go for coffee now” said Ling cheerfully.

  They went into a nearby café and Ling ordered rice and fish, coffee and orange juice for the two of them.

  “Ling, who was that man in the internet café?”

  “That’s Chanarong. He good write letters.”

  “Why did you give him 500 baht?”

  “I told you, he good write letters.”

  “I don’t understand. What letters are you talking about?”

  “Okay, I tell you. Many farang want bar girl to be girlfriend for only them and stop working bar, but then they go back to own country. They write email to girl every week and send money so girl not have to work in bar. Girl too busy working in bar at night and sleep in day to write email, so Chanarong write all email for every girl. He very good, tell many story to farang about working new job in hotel or bank or shop. Sometimes family sick or motor bike broke, get farang to send more money. Girl pay Chanarong 500 baht each week for write email for them. Very good business.”

  “Jesus Mother of God! Ling that’s shocking.”

  “No shocking. Good business.”

  “So all those poor bastards are writing love letters to their Thai girlfriends, thinking that they are not working in a bar anymore, because they are sending them money not to. And the girls don’t even see the letters. Some chubby Thai bloke answers them all to keep them sending more money?”

  “Yes. Good business. Farang no good anyway. If farang really love girl he stay, not go back to wife.”

  “And you do this too?”

  “Not now. I just tell Chanarong that I finish with bar now and to close down email. I pay him for this week. Now no more money from other farang.”

  Ling looked into Danny’s eyes. She could see the doubt.

  “I speak true, Danny. I not lie.”

  “Yes, I think I believe you. But then again, I think I‘m an eejit.”

  “Only bad girl keep taking money from farang when she have boyfriend. I not bad girl. You trust me. I real.”

  “Okay.”

  They ate their food in near silence. Danny knew what Ling did for a living and this was just part of it. He decided that he would just have to forget it. He realised that there were many victims on many levels in this business.

  “I need to get showered and changed Ling. Can we go back to my hotel next?”

  “Yes, but I think we telephone first, to make sure police not waiting there for you.”

  “Okay, good thinking.”

  Ling laughed and took the name of the hotel. She got the number from the directory in the café and rang. Danny could tell by her tone and the length of the conversation that something was wrong. He watched and listened. She was calm, but concerned. After several minutes she closed the phone.

  “What is the matter? Are the Police there?” asked Danny.

  “No, not Police. Three men from United States of Australia have been there this morning. They say they are your friend and give reception man at hotel 500 baht to call them when you come back to hotel. I think not your friend Danny, I think friend of big man last night. They pay money and find you.”

  “How the feck did they know I was staying in that hotel?”

  “Easy. In Thailand to find out anything, just pay money.”

  “Ling, it’s not United States of Australia. It’s just Australia.”

  “Oh! Okay. Someone tell me United States of Australia. No problem. I already tell the reception man. He will have all your things waiting for you in reception in twenty minutes and will have bill ready for you to pay. You have to give him 1000 baht for packing your things from room and another 1000 baht for not making telephone to Australian friends. I tell him these are bad men.”

  “Wow! 2000 baht(£40) on top of the bill. That’s a lot of money.”

  “No, it’s good price. Then he won’t steal any of your money or passport from room. Pack everything for you, no problem. We take taxi to hotel, motor bike no good for suitcases.”

  Half an hour later they arrived outside the front of the hotel. They saw three big men leaning against the wall of the bridge next to the hotel.

  “What we do now?” whispered Ling.

  “Tell the driver to carry on, and drop me off furt
her up the road. You will have to go by yourself to pick up my stuff.”

  They parked out of sight to drop Danny off. He gave Ling the money for the hotel. After just five minutes the taxi returned to pick up Danny. Ling was all smiles and excited.

  “Danny you make my heart beat very fast. Feel.” She took his hand and put it on her breast, as she had done last night. Maybe it was the adrenalin or just the nervous energy, but Danny suddenly felt on a real high and he laughed out loud.

  “Holy feck! That’s the best hotel check-out I have ever had. Where are we going now?”

  “I think we have to take some things from my apartment. If they find your hotel then they can find my apartment. Money makes people talk in Thailand. We go and get some things I need.”

  “What about your bike?”

  “No problem. Suzie can get my bike.”

  “Where are we going after your apartment Ling?”

  “Up to you. Life very exciting with you I think” she laughed.

  “We can go and see your family. I’d like to meet them.”

  “Cannot. In Thailand, very different from England. In Thailand, only take boyfriend home to meet family when very serious.”

  “Ling I think this is serious. There are three big Aussie guys who want to kill me.”

  “Really, you think serious?”

  “Yes, I think it is.”

  “Okay, we do. I trust you Danny. ”

  Danny did not know why Ling told him that she trusted him. What neither of them realised was that, when Ling talked about ‘Serious’, she was talking about a serious relationship. Thai girls will only take home a boyfriend if he is going to be their husband. When Danny talked about ‘Serious’, he was talking about the current situation that he found himself in, with three big Aussie’s chasing him, no doubt wanting to do him serious harm. Danny checked in his rucksack and everything was there; his passport and money were all intact. So maybe it was 2000 baht well spent after all.

  Ling did not take very long to collect the things that she wanted from the apartment and her goodbyes with Suzie were short, but with a lot of feeling. They had become good friends. Suzie waved them off as the taxi took them to Phuket airport.

  They took a flight to Bangkok and then another to Udon Thani in Isaan, which is in the north east of Thailand, about 100 kilometres from the border with Laos.

  Chapter 16: Udon Thani

  Ling was very excited travelling back to Udon Thani with Danny. She felt very proud to be seen with him and she enjoyed knowing that everyone who looked at them would know that he was either her husband, or soon to be husband, because tourists don’t go to Udon Thani.

  Danny did not know anything about the area known as Isaan, or the city of Udon Thani to where they were heading. He did not think anything about it. He was just happy to be with Ling. He found her totally captivating. She had an elegance and a charm that just seemed to wrap itself all around him.

  It was late afternoon when the plane landed at Udon Thani airport. It was a small airport, but neat and modern looking. It was not a busy place and it only seemed to be minutes before they were walking out the front of the airport and jumping into a taxi. They drove through the city and Danny’s first impression was that of an ugly city with too many grey concrete buildings. He found it uninspiring. Ling was happy to be back. It was all so familiar to her. It was home and it gave her a warm feeling in her tummy. The taxi crossed the ring road that embraced the city and headed out towards her village. Danny got more and more quiet the nearer they got to her village. He looked out of the taxi window and all he could see was poverty. The houses looked like wooden shacks to him. A lot of them were built on big stilts and underneath the houses was piled high with rusted relics of a by-gone farming age. It looked like junk to him.

  Dogs and chickens and small kids ran around underneath the wooden houses. Motorbikes were standing idle everywhere. Old people were sleeping on low level tables or swinging in hammocks tied between the scrap metal. Paper and other rubbish seemed to be lying on the ground around the houses. There were little rubber dustbins made from old tyres outside the front of each house, each bin overflowing with uncollected waste. His heart was sinking fast. He felt like he was going back in time to some forgotten place. He could hardly believe that such a beautiful person as Ling could have come from here. He glanced over at her and she was absolutely beaming. There was no doubt that she was thrilled to be back here. As they got nearer her village she waved out of the window to people who were selling cooked food at the side of the road. Danny was suffering from a bit of culture shock. He did not know that Thailand was like this. It felt like a world away from the beaches and bars and modern shopping complexes that he had seen around Phuket and Bangkok. If he could have turned around there and then and headed back to Phuket without offending Ling, then he would have done it. But, of course, he could not. He tried to keep his mood in check, but he was not very happy. He did not want to be there. The only good thing he could see about Udon Thani was Ling.

  Twenty five minutes after leaving the airport, and after being given directions by Ling, the taxi was pulling up outside a house overlooking green rice fields on the edge of a village. The house looked like the other wooden shacks Danny had seen built on stilts, but this one had been filled in between the stilts with breeze blocks and faced off with grey cement. There were some window frames with wooden shutters, but no glass in them. The front of the house had metal rolled shutter doors, and there was what looked like a nearly new green corrugated tin roof.

  “It’s a feckin garage” Danny whispered to himself under his breath. Ling could hardly contain her excitement. She told Danny to give the taxi driver 50 baht. The driver was already taking their suitcases out of the boot and putting them on the hot dusty brown earth. Danny paid the driver but, before he could pick up the cases,

  Ling called him over to a water buffalo that was chained up near to the house. She ran over to the beast and embraced it around the neck with a hug. As Danny approached she said “Danny, this is Bu.”

  Danny could not help but laugh. She looked so serious and it was sort of cute.

  “Ling, you can’t seriously be introducing me to a water buffalo, like he’s your old friend.”

  “Yes, is my old friend. When I little girl I ride on his back, play all the time and he work very hard. Now very old. Old good friend, yes.”

  “I don’t even speak Thai, let alone speak buffalo. What do I say?”

  “You say hello.” Ling’s smile was wide and happy.

  ‘People in the west can feel like this about their cats and dogs, so why not a water buffalo’ Danny thought to himself.

  “Hello there” he said and, right on cue, the beast made a loud ‘Moooooo’. Even Danny had to laugh. It lifted his mood.

  “See. Bu say hello to you, too.”

  Just then a pretty dark haired lady came from around the side of the house.

  “Mama !” Ling ran to her and they hugged. Danny had assumed that ‘Mama’ would be old and grey, but this lady was probably only in her mid-forties and younger than Danny. She looked pretty, not like he had imagined a farmer’s wife to look like. As Ling was talking excitedly in Thai, Mama smiled sweetly at Danny and wai’d to him very gracefully. Danny could see where Ling got it from. She had the same disarming easy charm as her daughter.

  Danny wai’d back to her. He had not had much practice and he was not very good at it, but Mama appreciated the effort.

  “Hello Mama” said Danny. Mama said something that he could not understand in Thai, but she had a nice face and she smiled a lot, just like her daughter. Danny found that he liked her instantly.

  Danny picked up the luggage and followed Ling and Mama around the side of the house and through a door which took them inside the building. Danny’s heart sank even lower. Inside it was just a bi
g square room with green floor tiles and unpainted grey cement walls. There was a little cabinet with an old TV set perched on top of it. Against one of the walls leaned an old bicycle and there was a set of wooden stairs leading up to an attic room. Danny looked up and could see the green tin roof through the gaps in the floorboards. There was just one other door to the right, which led to a small bedroom at the rear of the house where Mama and Ling’s sisters slept. Outside the rear of the house was a lean-to with a green corrugated roof, under which was a portable gas cooker and a long tiled sideboard. An electric cable dangled through the glassless window and supplied the electric for the free standing fridge. Danny was shocked when Ling told him that this was the kitchen. He was even more shocked when he saw that the little tin shed a few feet away was the bathroom, which consisted of a squatter toilet in the ground and a big plastic barrel of water with a wooden ladle, which doubled as a shower and a toilet flushing device.

  “Ling, I think I need a beer and a cigarette” said Danny, trying desperately to sound more cheerful then he really was. Ling said something to Mama and then produced a bottle of cold beer from the fridge. Danny lit a cigarette and took a swig from the bottle.

  “Are we going to go and find a hotel after this?” he asked hopefully.

  “No. We stay Mama’s house.”

  “Where can we sleep Ling? There are no rooms here.”

  “Yes, plenty room. No problem.” Ling beamed a huge happy smile and Danny could not help but smile back.

  Just as Danny was thinking that it could not get any worse, two small boys came walking across the fields towards the house. As they got closer Danny could see that they had three big fat rats that were dead and tied to a stick by their tails. The dead rats swung from side to side from the stick, which one of the boys had over his shoulder. They put the stick down in front of Mama and wai’d the three adults. Mama examined the rats, just like someone might examine a joint of meat in a butcher’s shop. Then, after some bargaining with the boys, she paid 30 baht for all three rats.