Thread: My Story

Originally Posted by Clockwork Orange

Okay, Memock, I was wrong

such a cop out ya big girls blouse.

taking responsibility from time to time isn't such a bad thing.

Now - get on with the bloody thread will ya!

I apologised to Memock, but then DrAndy remembered something I had said to him sometime & I had to apologise to him, too. I stopped for breakfast & contemplated who else I should apologise to next. I didn't have long to wait, as I remebered something I said to some bloke in the pub sometime & decided to hunt him down & apologise. With that apology out of the way, I made my way home. Unfortunatly I stepped on a lady's toe, so had to apologise. I got on the bus. I didn't have the right money, so I apologised to the bus driver. He kindly accepted my apology & I thought that was the end of that. As the bus headed down the main road, I lost track of where I was & missed my stop. I asked the driver to let me off at the traffic lights he was stopped at & he said he couldn't, as it was against the rules, then apologised. Eventually I made it home. I switched on the internet & apologised to a load of people I have never met, as is custom, apparently.

After apologising to everyone I had upset, ever, I got on with the thread.

We got the bus to Bangkok. We wasn't meeting her parents until tomorrow, so we took a look around. We used every form of transport you can imagine to get about & we spent the day shopping. I liked the Skytrain, it is a good way to see a fair bit of Bangkok.

We went to a lot of different pubs. I forget the names but you may recognise some from the photo's. We talked about getting married & meeting her folks the next day, but still she said nothing about Sin Sot. After we left the last pub, we were walking by Ekamai bus station, trying to find a taxi, I think. I was drunk.

This was when I got myself arrested.

I didn't see the cops coming over until it was too late. I had noticed them out of the corner of my eye, but had no idea that they were heading for me. Five or six of them surrounded me & one snatched my smoke from out of my mouth, proceeding to pick it apart, looking for something inside it.

I was relaxed in the knowledge that there was nothing illegal in the smoke. What I had in my pocket was another matter. I said nothing as they searched me & my girlfriend looked nothing short of scared to death. As their hands rooted through my pockets, one of them could feel a bag of smoke, but because it was in a special, hidden pocket, he couldn't get it out.

He told me to pull out whatever it was.

I knew that if I did - I was fucked.

I pulled out my cashcard & held it up, hoping he would accept that was what he had felt in my pocket. He run his hand over me again & noticed the stuff was still there. He demanded I get it out, angrily this time.

Resigned to my fate, I pulled out a bag of weed. One of those wagons they drive, with a cage on the back, was parked a few yards away & I guessed I would be in the back of it any moment. To my surprise, they walked me to some kind of seating area, a long bench, where there were more cops.

The girlfriend followed, not saying a word.

We sat there for a while, saying nothing. I didn't know what to say. A few more cops came over to have a look what was going on. There must have been ten of them altogether. Some were saying things like 'You go police station' & laughing, others were saying stuff I didn't understand.

After about ten minutes, one of the cops sat next to me & asked, 'You want me help you?'

I knew what he was getting at & asked him, 'how much?' He wanted 40,000 Baht. I only had 75,000 to my name & just under three weeks before I had to fly home, so I offered 20,000. He asked for 40 again. I repeated 20, quite prepared to stump up 40 if they should attempt to throw me in the wagon. He turned to his mates & they spoke amongst themselves. Eventually he turned back to me & told me to send my girlfriend to the cash machine for the money.

No fucking way was I sending a bargirl off into the night, with every penny I had, while I sat at the mercy of Bangkok police on a drugs racket, hoping she would come back. I pleaded with him that I should go, leaving the girlfriend as a kind of deposit & he seemed okay with this - I think he knew what was on my mind.

The girlfriend didn't look too happy, but the last thing on my mind - at that moment - was her feelings. From all the scare-stories I'd heard I could have been facing the thick end of a few years in nick, for all I knew.

He gave me a newspaper & explained I was to put the money in it before handing it back to him. They had my girl & my passport as I went to the machine & withdrew two lots of 10,000 Baht. It took a short while & as I glanced around I could see a bloke who looked like he had been sent to watch me. I paid him little attention as I put the money in the newspaper & made my way back to the cops.

I handed over the money. He took a glance at the contents & smiled to his mates. One of the cops threw my bag at me & told me to go. I grabbed my girl's hand & we went.

We walked for a while. I was a bit shaken & by now had sobred-up comletely. Luckily, the cops hadn't found a second bag of smoke I had in my tobacco pouch, so I made a joint & lit it, as we walked.

I nearly died when I looked around & saw five or six cops on motorbikes, bearing down on us.

It was the same cops as before - the ones who had surrounded me at the bus station.

I started to panic, but I had nothing to fear, as when they reached us, the one who I had handed the money to gave us a big smile & a cheery wave, then disappeared into the night, looking well pleased with himself.

That night we stayed at the Nana hotel. I think it was the Nana, anyway. You can probably tell which hotel it is by the view from the window. The episode with the police had spoiled the evening & for the first time since we had been together, we didn't really get on. She didn't want to talk & was moody & unresponsive when we went to bed.





When we woke in the morning it seemed, for some reason, things between us had changed. I don't know why. We didn't speak over breakfast & she was unusually quiet. I started to have second thoughts about meeting her parents to discuss getting married, but kept my mouth shut, for fear of upsetting her more.

Originally Posted by DrAndy

you are making it up, aren't you?

Yes.

I was trying to be sarcastic, but I guess it's not one of my strong points

^

No.

It was time to go & meet Mama & Papa. We got a taxi to some part of town near the Democracy monument. It might have been the Victory monument, I'm not sure. It wasn't far from a shopping centre.

We made our way upstairs, to the very top of the building. There were around five rooms on each floor & people milling about everywhere. We reached her parent's room & knocked on the door.

After the introductons, her mother spread a blanket on the floor outside the room & laid out some nuts, crisps & orange juice. Her father pulled out his stash of beer - it was that cheap stuff, I forget the name but you can see the bottle in the photo's. We were even joined by her 'brother' when we sat down & they all talked, while I just listened. Despite knowing a little bit of Thai I could not understand a word they were saying.

They were very nice to me & I decided I would get a decent bottle of beer to share with the lads. The girlfriend & I went to a shop, where I bought a bottle of Remy, thinking her father would be well impressed with it (he was, too) & we went back to join the family.

There was a heated exchange between them all. I had no idea if they were talking about me. I figured the conversation was about us getting married & I tried to gauge what was being said from their body-language & manner but couldn't.

The father & 'brother' were good company. We talked about Manchester United... Well, the father kept repeating 'Rooney' now & again, while I talked about Utd, I should say. We were enjoying the brandy & not too bothered about what each-other was actually saying.

We were getting along, which was good enough for me.

Soon, the father, 'brother' & I were well pissed. We had sunk the brandy & was back on his stuff, which wasn't very good. My girlfriend told me that her parents had fell out lately, because the mother was sick of the father's drinking & that he kept losing his job. I guessed that bringing a bottle wasn't a good idea. Still, the father wasn't complaining.

The neighbour came home - a big, burly bitch, who was none too happy at the sight of us sitting there. I don't know why.