Gay Boy Thailand

1. Chalerm came running soooo happy and told me he had fixed the computer. I could not believe it. Farang S and I have spent maybe 7-8 evenings sweating over the cursed PC and we could not get it online. And here comes the boy and says he repaired it! And sure enough, it was up and running. He had installed a fax driver which somehow corrected whatever was wrong with the computer and viola! the PC was on broadband again. Just wait till Farang S hears this.

2. I bought the Minolta 5D for 28 000 baht. It paid to shop around. In other places they wanted up to 34 500. As usual I insisted on getting a new one out of the box and didn’t accept the demo camera they had in the shop. Shop owners like to give people the camera other customers have handled for weeks and months without even asking, but I want a discount if it isn’t brand new.

3. Slightly paranoid I watched the staff as they packed the camera and cleared the papers. I don’t want the Hong Kong trick of switching the box behind the counter and giving the customer something else. They do that sometimes in Nathan Road, I heard. But they were OK in this shop. One of the assistant boys was gay. He was around 20-22 and good looking. He never made eye contact but I could tell he liked to be admired.

4. I tested the camera in the shop. In Farangland I go home with the box unopenend, but in Thailand it is common to test everything. This has to do with how hard it can be to return things here, in particular in small shops. The typical Chinese shopkeeper seems to believe that his responsibility ends once the customer walks out the door. The bigger chains are more professional.

5. We are saving the camera for my birthday which is coming up soon, but Chalerm could not wait and just HAD to try it. It will be his gift to me.

6. Strange stories get back to me about things Chalerm has said to his friends. I don’t pay much attention to it, as some of it involves my supposed orgies with Thai boys. I wish! People talk a lot in Bangkok.

7. If I am lucky I can get 7% tax back on the camera when I leave Thailand for my next visa run. The shop people did all the paperwork and I must present the camera in box and the papers when I leave the country. I did it once before and it worked.

8. Bangkok is having a series of VIP guests these days. First it was the Frog President. Now it is the King of Spain. One sign of this is the pavement on Silom road, which is cleared of vendors in the evening. The authorities don’t want the VIPs and the foreign press to see what Bangkok really looks like.

One Thai grandmother, age 73, mild tempered and quiet, low maintenance cost, believes in Buddhism, king and country, recently a widow, experienced in farming and rice cultivation, seeks a new husband.

Hobbies include watching the sky, sleeping, eating, doing nothing in particular, following Thai soap operas and the Royal Television Channel on cable, voodoo cooking and doing the laundry. This wise lady is youthful and comes with one small farm, a house, various household items and a farang grandson-in-law.

The ideal candiate will be a gentleman familar with Thai ways and a good understanding of rural dialects in the central plains region of Thailand.

Please write confidentially to “Two is company. Three is a crowd.”

Anonymous 1 said…
hmmmmm…
multiple mobile phones…
nightlife on Silom…
ungrateful and thoughtless…
ladyboy…
heavy use of internet…
sexy photos of self…
where does he get the money…

2+2=4?

Silom Farang said…
Don’t get too excited. The yellow phone he bought was 500 baht and it isn’t even a real mobile, it is a PCT.

Anonymous 2 said…
You have not considered all aspects of the first letter to you, referring only to the mobile phone. It seems to me his attitude as shown around valentine’s day is a clear indication as to his lack of true feeling. All these signs put together really do not look good to an outside reader. Perhaps you are too close to see what is going on, a common occurrence in farang/thai couplings. Real Thais DO NOT act like this.

Anonymous 3 said…
Unfortunately many young, gay, Thai boys act exactly like this, whether “real” or money boy. Indeed Thais as a nation have been characterised as acting in thoughtless, childish ways well into adulthood. This is not only reported by middle-aged gay farang. Ask 18 year old backpackers who have come into contact with their Thai age contemporaries. They often liken them to 12 year olds back home.

However you don’t have to put up with it. The key for me with my bf was conveying that these type of behaviours hurt me. Don’t get angry - then you become the source of the problem, not him.

You need to make an analogy between the hurt you are feeling and some instance where you know he felt hurt - “you remember how you felt when (insert event here) … well that’s how you made me feel”.

Young Thais sense of empathy is often not well enough developed to deal with this on a theoretical level - hence the lack of effect of the theoretical notion that you could have chosen not to buy Chalerm a V-day present. He has no experience of this.

It’s all part of his emotional training.
Unfortunately many young, gay, Thai boys act exactly like this, whether “real” or money boy. Indeed Thais as a nation have been characterised as acting in thoughtless, childish ways well into adulthood. This is not only reported by middle-aged gay farang. Ask 18 year old backpackers who have come into contact with their Thai age contemporaries. They often liken them to 12 year olds back home.

However you don’t have to put up with it. The key for me with my bf was conveying that these type of behaviours hurt me. Don’t get angry - then you become the source of the problem, not him.

You need to make an analogy between the hurt you are feeling and some instance where you know he felt hurt - “you remember how you felt when (insert event here) … well that’s how you made me feel”.

Young Thais sense of empathy is often not well enough developed to deal with this on a theoretical level - hence the lack of effect of the theoretical notion that you could have chosen not to buy Chalerm a V-day present. He has no experience of this.

It’s all part of his emotional training.

Silom Farang wrote:
Well put. I have done something along the lines of what you suggest. I spoke to him about it yesterday, and made it clear that this was hurtful behaviour. He tried to play it down but he did listen. Today he made up for it by giving me a card with his picture on it. It had red roses too. He had gone to one of those instant studios in a shopping mall.

It is true his empathy isn’t fully developed yet. He can still see me as a cardboard figure, similar to how a child sees others, not understanding how what he says and does affect me. But Chalerm doesn’t want to hurt me, he wants to be good and I can appeal to that.

Chalerm is is honest and reliable. Our difficulties and fights take place within the limits of a sincere relationship. He is certainly not a part time moneyboy behind my back, as a reader hinted yesterday.

Despite the problems it is nice to be loved by someone. More people should try that.