Thai boyfriend Chalerm said he would come to Malaysia and visit me on Friday to Sunday. I had little faith in this. Where would he get the money from?
Chalerm said he had money and a “friend” in Air Asia. Chalerm always has friends who want to sell him stuff.
I decided not to be the bearer of the bad news. When Chalerm said his budget was 2,000 baht I let him find out for himself that this wasn’t enough.
I didn’t like the idea that he would come to Malaysia. He would get bored after twenty minutes, and I would have to give him money for entertainment and probably pay for the flight back too.
In a typical Thai fashion Chalerm never told me he had dropped his plan. He just stopped talking about it. And he didn’t come.
—
I was in a shopping centre when I saw a cute boy selling waffles. He smiled brightly and I offered to take his photo. But when I showed him the photo he asked to see “the other” photos too. What other photos?
I knew there was something familiar with him. But I could not place him. He asked to flicker through my photos on the back of the camera.
- This is me, said the boy and pointed to the middle person in a group photo.
I had forgotten about him. Maybe it was because he looked different in the waffle uniform?
I had met this young man on the street around midnight. He sat under a palm tree. I had complimented him with his fashionable shoes. One thing led to another and the young man, aged 20, soon said he had no room and invited himself to mine.
I thought this was to rush things, but I took his photo instead. Before I could say “flash” two of his buddies showed up and wanted to be included.
At the waffle stand I got to meet one of his friends, also in the waffle business. The job paid 440 ringit a month, they said. No wonder they were thin.
I took more photos of them. A veiled girl appeared and waffle boy said she was his girlfriend. “Only girlfriend”, said the girlfriend as if marriage was out of the question.
Waffle boy gave me a waffle when I left. With chocolate. How did he know?
March 5th, 2008 at 4:45 am
that boy has a sharp memory for him to recall and remember you after a single meeting…
wondering, howd he knew you like chocolates???
March 5th, 2008 at 10:15 am
did you get it with whipped hmm eerr cream hehehe jk!
March 5th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
MYR 440? My goodness. How can his boss be so cruel? How the hell can he survive with only MYR 440 a month if he is working Kuala Lumpur? SF, why are you so lucky? Haha.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
SF, you have captured very accurately the sameness of young men in Thailand and Malaysia. They might be of different religions. They might speak different languages. But they always look at us Farangs as being human ATM’s. The faces and places might change…but the philosophy remains the same. But…they are so sweet.