Gay Boy Thailand

I had been to Bangkok Bank on Silom road in the afternoon and was walking up the street. I passed soi 3 and the Pilot pen shop on the corner. I saw one beggar person sitting on the left side of the pavement, and a woman and a child selling lottery tickets on the right side.

As I walked past the beggar I saw him wave his arms and say something. I was looking and walking straight ahead and didn’t turn or look at him. But I followed him from the corner of my eye and saw that he was on his feet, talking and waving and walking in my direction.

I didn’t think this had anything to do with me. First I thought he was addressing the woman and the child who sold lottery tickets. But when he had passed them I slipped out into the street. A wall of pedestrians separated me from the man on the pavement. I thought I would wait a few seconds till the mad man had walked by.

To my surprise he turned and came straight at me. He had an object in his hand. He held this and pointed at me with one finger, his arm outstretched.

My first thought was that it was a metal bar that he could use as a weapon. Later I have figured maybe the object he clutched in his hand was a pipe, for playing music. But I didn’t know that when he was coming at me.

I kept walking, hoping he would give up. He didn’t. He kept talking in a loud and accusing tone.

When I came to the Union Building, where Au Bon Pain is, I saw a security guard stand outside. I went behind him.

Thai security guards don’t have the same function as security guards abroad. You can’t expect Thai security guards to maintain security. Instead they are an early warning system. When the security guard runs away you know something is amiss.

My security guard ran away. The mad man caught up with me, and again he faced me with his pointing and his outstretched arm. I didn’t understand what he accused me of.

Thais have a particular routine when there is trouble. They spread out in a ring. It is like a drop of oil falling on water – suddenly a ring forms and widens. They did this around mad man and I, and then they stood there, staring.

I had hoped that maybe someone would say in Thai to the mad man that he should leave the foreigner alone. But nobody did. Staring was their first priority, but only after keeping a safe distance.

I walked up the steps to the Union Building. The man stopped and remained standing in the middle of the small square outside of the building. He was still pointing and lecturing or blaming me. By now he had dozens of spectators, including some tourists. They looked at the mad man and they looked at me.

He didn’t come up the steps but he didn’t leave or stop either. I entered the Union Building.

I waited inside for a couple of minutes. When I came out again the locals had regained their speech: - He is gone now, they said in Thai and gave me apologetic smiles.
- He is crazy, said a woman who sold orange juice.

Bangkok is changing. Threatening scenes like this didn’t use to happen on the streets.