Gay Boy Thailand

My dessert

The Thai strawberry season is here and S&P Restaurants will offer strawberries and cream for a couple of months. It is 60 baht.

The waiters became curious when I took photos of the strawberries so I ended up taking pictures of them too. They are Isaan boys. The waiters are darker than I made them look in this photo but I have given in to the Thai obsession with having light skin in pictures. It doesn’t matter what I tell them, they insist dark skin is ugly.

At your service, sir

I came to the restaurant at 8.15. It was half full and seemed normal. The table I got was dirty and wet so I asked the waiter to clean it. This took a little while, as she had to find a cloth. I had already decided what I wanted to order but the waitress kind of forgot me after cleaning the table, which meant I had to wait a while.

It took some time to make the food. Longer than normal. But I didn’t mind since I had a magazine to read. I didn’t mind that one of the dishes had gone cold either. The other guests started leaving. When I got my food at 8.30 the staff began putting the chairs upside down on the tables.

The waiters cleaned the restaurant floor. When two Thais left, the last remaining of the other guests, the staff turned off the light everywhere in the restaurant apart from where I was sitting. I was beginning to feel the pressure and ate faster. They turned off the air condition and I began to sweat. At 8.45 I was presented with the bill and since the staff were all hovering near my table it only took seconds from my last piece of pork left the plate till they removed it. At 8.50, still ten minutes before the official closing time, I paid and left. I paid the stated amount. No change was needed.

I have been going to this particular restaurant on Silom road every week but they lost points today. I considered complaining; saying “borigann mai dee”, but my Thai isn’t good enough to explain in detail why I objected. I wonder if the staff considers how a guest feels while sitting in an ever-narrower circle of light as they loudly close the place around him? Do they think it doesn’t matter? If so, maybe they also wondered why they received no tip.

I understand they are eager to get home after a long day but if they let customers inn and give them food they should let people eat undisturbed. I am willing to pay the bill early so they can close the books for the day but the rest of the closing procedure should wait till last customer has left. Turning off the air condition was a particularly unwelcome trick. I won’t name the restaurant as this is fairly typical in Thailand, the only difference is that they took if further today than I have seen in other places.