by Lilburne,Guy
“Hey man!” said the driver. I realized that he wasn’t just a handsome young man; he was very polite and friendly too. Some people in life are just born to be nice people and this man was obviously one of them.
“Hey” I replied and I held my hand out for him to slap it, because I had seen young people do that years ago on the TV. But he didn’t respond. Maybe it wasn’t in fashion anymore.
“Where are you going, dude?”
“Bangkok. I have to go and find my girlfriend before she marries her boyfriend. Her name is Pom. She’s very beautiful.”
“I live in Bangkok man. I can take you there.”
“Really! Do you know Pom?”
“Yeh, man. I know the chick. Jump in. Do you drive?”
“No. I rented a motorbike once and I drove that OK, but I have never driven a car.”
“Get in dude. I’ll teach you on the way.”
My new friend was really nice. He wasn’t just going to take me to Bangkok. He was going to teach me to drive. It was also a lucky coincidence that he knew Pom. That meant that he would probably know her other boyfriend and where his family lived. Even though I wasn’t a monk anymore I really felt as if Buddha was still keeping an eye on me. I sat in the car next to my new friend.
“My name is Steven West.” I put my hand out to shake hands, but my friend was too busy driving.
“Cool man. Have you got somebody taking care of you in Thailand, Steven West?”
“No. I take care of myself. What is your name please?”
“Jack. My name is Jack Sparrow.”
“Wow! That’s amazing Mr. Sparrow. I was just thinking that you looked like an actor called Johnny Depp. He was in a film and his name was Jack Sparrow in the film.”
“I’ve never heard of Johnny Depp and I think that the name Jack Sparrow is quite a common name really. Same as Steven West. You don’t think that you are the only person called Steven West in the whole world do you?”
“No. I think that there are a few of us. There is a man called John West and he puts fish in tins.”
“Well, there you go dude.”
“Thank you for taking me to Bangkok.”
“No problem man. I have to drop something off and pick up something else in Chiang Mai first.”
“Is Chiang Mai on the way to Bangkok?”
“More or less.”
“How long will it take us to get to Bangkok?”
“How long do you think Steven West?”
“I have no idea.”
“OK. It’ll take a couple of days.”
“Oh! Bangkok is a long way away.”
“Yes, it is.”
I had seen my father driving our Morris Minor many times over the years from the time I was a little boy, but I never dreamt that one day I could drive a car. I had never thought that I would ride a motorbike, but I did it in Phuket. I think it must be the same feeling that people have when they see an airline pilot walking through the airport or sitting in the cockpit. Everyone just thinks that I’d never be able to do that. These people must be really clever! Well, Mr. Sparrow taught me how to drive his car in less than five minutes on an empty car park. It was sort of easy. The steering wheel steers it and basically there were two pedals on the floor. One made it go faster and the other one slowed it down and stopped it if you pressed all the way down. There were some other controls and I wasn’t sure what they did, but I had mastered the basics. I was a car driver and I felt very proud of myself. I drove the car off the car park and back onto the road heading towards Chiang Mai. It was mostly a long straight dual carriageway so I didn’t get to practice steering around bends very much, but I knew that I could do it when the time came. Jack Sparrow was a really nice man. He was very interested in me. He asked me a lot of questions. He wanted to know if I had any family or friends and what I did to get money. I told him all about the temple and about Pom and her grandmother, Porn. I told him all about the Flower Girl, back in Phuket and how I ended up in prison, but when I looked at him I saw that he had fallen asleep. I just carried on driving until he woke up again. That was six hours later!
“Hey man.”
“Hi, Mr. Sparrow.”
“Call me Jack.”
“Hi, Jack.”
“You did good Steven West. We’re only 130 km from Chiang Mai. We should be there in another two or three hours. Pull over man and we’ll get some food and then I’ll drive the rest of the way.”
I felt very lucky that I had found such a good friend. We stopped at one of the open air roadside restaurants that seemed the line every road in Thailand. We had some spicy minced pork, rice and a bottle of coke each. Jack Sparrow drove the rest of the way to Chiang Mai. It had been dark for two hours already when we finally arrived in Chiang Mai at about 8:30pm.
Jack seemed to know his way around the city and drove us right into the city centre. I thought that the city looked beautiful. It looked very clean and in the city centre they still had some of the ancient city walls. They were really well preserved and all lit up in the darkness of the night, they looked beautiful.
“Dude, I’m going to drop you off at a bar. Have a drink and wait for me. I have to go and meet a friend. I have to collect something, but I’ll come and get you from the bar. Whatever you do, don’t leave the bar. You have to wait there for me or I won’t be able to take you to Bangkok. Do you understand?”
“Yes. No problem. I’ll wait in the bar.”
I was getting excited about the thought of going to Bangkok and seeing Pom again. I had butterflies in my stomach every time I thought about her. I knew that once I explained to her and her boyfriend that I was in love with her, they would call off the wedding and she would marry me. That was my plan and I was happy. My father always used to say ‘If you fail to plan then you are planning to fail.”
I never really knew what he meant, but he said it a lot so it must have been true. I think it means things work out better if you have a plan.
Jack dropped me off at a little bar called the ‘Sweet Pussy’ bar. Just like the bars that I had seen in Phuket there were some really pretty girls in the bar. I had noticed two things about Thailand. One was that the ladies liked to spend a lot of time hanging out with their other lady friends and play pool in bars. The second thing that I had noticed was that they like to dress in a really sexy way and they are always very friendly to foreign men who want to sit and have a drink in the bar. I had heard that French women are very sexy too, but I can’t really comment on that because I’ve never seen one. I would guess that they must dress the same way that Thai ladies do, but maybe without all the tattoos.
In the Sweet Pussy Bar there was an older fat Thai lady behind the bar, who I guessed must have been the owner. There were another six girls sitting around the bar who all looked very sexy. Two of the girls were sitting with two older foreign men who must have been really funny and really nice because the two Thai girls were laughing a lot and kept kissing the two men. There are so many really friendly people in Thailand and I had almost forgotten that one of the best places to meet lovely genuine people is in a bar. I didn’t ask Jack how long he was going to be, but I knew that I was going to enjoy myself in the Sweet Pussy Bar. I think that it has always been in my nature to support the underdog - help the weakest link, take care of the poorest, pity the sick. That was just the person who I was. So I immediately noticed the beautiful girl with cancer who was sitting at the bar. She had no hair left and I know that Chemotherapy treatment can do that. I thought how brave she was. She looked stunningly beautiful. Her make-up was perfect and she had one of the most attractive smiles that I had ever seen. She was wearing a short skirt with fishnet stockings, high heels and a leather jacket with nothing else underneath it, except a black bra. She looked very sexy. I didn’t know how long she had left to live, but I thought tha
t it was very brave of her to come out and socialize with her friends. She watched Jack drop me off in front of the bar and she watched me walk into the bar. I smiled a quick nervous smile and nodded. She beamed me a huge smile and she had perfect white teeth. If she wasn’t so ill I’m sure that she could have been a model. There was something very special in her eyes. She looked as if she knew a secret about life. I wondered how long do you have to live or how quickly death must be approaching to know such secrets?
Now that I wasn’t a monk anymore I was very happy to look at pretty ladies again and not feel guilty. The girl with the cancer looked me up and down. She patted the stool next to her, so I went and sat down at the bar. She smelled wonderful. Her perfume was heavy, but sweet, and I liked it.
“Are you OK?” she smiled.
Sometimes people can just melt your heart and that is what she did when she asked me that question. Even though she was clearly very ill, her first thoughts were about the welfare of somebody else. In this case it was me.
“I’m fine thanks. I used to be a monk in Khanchanaburi, but my girlfriend is going to marry somebody else, so I have to get to Bangkok to tell her that I love her and that I will marry her before she marries her other boyfriend. I have the address of his family. I’ve just met a friend called Jack Sparrow. He picked me up in his car and taught me to drive and I drove here. It’s on the way to Bangkok.”
“It’s not really!”
“Well, he has to collect something from a friend and then we are going onto Bangkok.”
“Do you want a drink?”
I hadn’t had a proper drink for years, but now I was sitting in a bar and I suddenly remembered how good beer used to taste. I looked at the glass fronted fridge behind the bar. The beers all looked good cooling in the fridge.
“I’ll have a Chang beer, please.”
I was served with the cold bottle. The old lady behind the bar pushed it into a rubber insulation sleeve to keep it cool and the condensation beads formed and dribbled down the outside of the cold bottle, filling the rubber sleeve with water, which dripped on me every time I took a swig of beer. I expected them to place a little wooden cup in front of me with my bar bill in it, but it never arrived. I worried about little things like that and, after a few minutes of sitting in silence and waiting for the bill, I decided to ask my new friend.
“Excuse me miss. The lady didn’t give me my bill.”
“You not have bill. I buy you beer. Do you want some food?”
“Do they sell cheese & onion crisps here?”
“No, but have soup!”
“Soup flavoured crisps?”
“No. Just soup.”
“No, I’m fine thank you. My name is Steven West. I’m from England and my mum and dad are both dead. My dad died when I was in Thailand, but I didn’t go back for the funeral. What’s your name?”
“My name Angel.”
“Angel?”
“Yes. This my name.”
“Nice to meet you, Miss Angel.”
“Nice to meet you, Sa-teven West.”
“You seem like a very nice lady.”
“Thank you very much. When you go to Bangkok?”
“I don’t really know. Maybe tomorrow. My friend has gone to collect something from his friend and then he is coming back to meet me in this bar. I think that we might go to Bangkok tomorrow.”
“I go to Bangkok too. If you can take me in car I can give you money for oil.”
“I’ll have to ask my friend Jack. It’s his car, but he seems very nice so it shouldn’t be a problem.”
Miss Angel spoke in Thai to the chubby old lady behind the bar and she handed her a pencil and some paper. Miss Angel scribbled down her name and a phone number and gave it to me.
“You ring me please if you can take me. If not I take bus.”
I really liked Angel, because she smiled a lot and she was very attractive. In spite of her obvious illness she had a strong quiet confidence about herself. I had always prided myself on being a good judge of character and I knew that Miss Angel was a good lady. She definitely had a hard, tough side, but she had a good heart underneath that. I truly was one of life’s blessed people. I had made two new good friends in one single day. I took another swig from my beer.
“Chok dee khrap” I said in Thai and both Angel and the chunky old lady smiled and said ‘Cheers’ back to me.
I played a game of pool with my sexy new friend Angel. There was something quite arousing about a bald Asian lady with red lip gloss and black eye shadow, wearing black leather and fishnet stockings. It made me realize that giving up my past as a monk was the right decision - especially when she bent over the pool table! Unfortunately we didn’t get to finish the game and I didn’t get to buy Angel a drink, because my friend Jack stopped outside the bar in his car and started sounding the horn. I promised Angel that I would ring her after I had spoken to Jack and let her know if we could take her to Bangkok. Angel blew me a kiss as I got into Jack’s battered old car. He didn’t drive very far when he stopped outside a very old and run down hotel called Nit’s. Suddenly my scalp started itching and I had a good scratch.
“There has been a slight change of plan Steve. Something has come up and I have to see somebody else tomorrow and make my own way back to Bangkok. I know I promised you a ride and I want to stick to my word, so I have an idea. I have written down my address and phone number on this paper. You take my car and drive to this address in Bangkok. I’ll go by train tomorrow and meet you there. I’ve booked you into this room for tonight. It’s best if you set out at 9:30am. This is my old mobile phone. You can use it to ring me, but don’t use it to ring anyone else. Have you got all that Steve?” He handed me the phone and the piece of paper with his address and phone number written on it
“Yes, I think so. You have booked me into this hotel and you want me to drive your car to Bangkok tomorrow and you’ll meet me at your house.”
“Yes. And you leave here at 9:30am. Your room has already been paid for. OK dude?”
“You are a very nice man Jack Sparrow. You must let me pay you for the room and for the fuel for the car.”
“That’s OK man. Just fill the car up as you go along.”
Jack got out of the car and handed me the keys.
“Where are you staying Jack?”
“Oh, I have to stay somewhere else. I’ve got a business meeting.” He waved a hand at me with a roll-up cigarette clutched between his nicotine stained fingers. It just shows you that you cannot judge a book by its cover. Jack Sparrow didn’t look like a typical businessman, but here he was going to his second business meeting of the evening and all that after such a long drive. I decided that I might ask him for a job after I have married Pom. I was also slightly overwhelmed by his kindness and thoughtfulness. I mean, how many other people would trust somebody with their car just because they had already promised them a lift? I realized that I didn’t have a chance to ask him if we could give Angel a lift to Bangkok. Now that I was going to be the only person in the car I had to make the decision and I decided that I would give Angel a lift. I left the car parked up outside Nit’s hotel and walked back to the bar to see Angel. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to find it in the car and having to go around the one way system, but on foot I knew the way. Angel was sitting at the bar again. She looked very happy to see me. I could see it in her smile. It was a genuine, warm smile.
“You back quickly time Sa-teve”
“I came to tell you that my friend is making his own way to Bangkok and he wants me to take his car, so I can give you a lift tomorrow.”
Angel threw her arms around me and kissed me on the cheek. Her body felt nice against mine. She was warm and soft and I breathed in a huge lungful of her sweet perfume.
“Tomorrow? Where you stay tonight, Sa-teve?”
“I’m in a little old hotel called Nit’s. It’s not far from here. Maybe you can meet me there in the morning?”
“No, better I come with you now.”
Angel gave some money to the chubby lady behind the bar and then put her arm through mine. She sort of dragged me out of the bar really.
“We go my room first so I collect my things. I have 1000 baht left. I can give you for fuel.”
“No. That’s OK, Angel. You can keep the money. I have some money and I have a card for the ATM. How far is your room?”
“Not far too much. We can walk.”
Angel walked me to her room, which as it happened was ‘Not far too much’. Her room was just one room in an old building. As far as I could see there were about eight rooms and two shared bathrooms. I guessed from all the ladies shoes, bras, knickers and dresses that seemed to be absolutely everywhere, including on every step on the stairs, that the house was shared with a lot of ladies. Angel told me that she shared her one small room with four other girls. Property must be expensive in Chiang Mai because Angel told me that all the girls in the house were working and this was the only thing that they could afford. I didn’t ask what jobs they all did, but Angel said that they all worked very hard and were always very busy.
