A new boy appeared in the Straight Internet Café yesterday. I shall call him Black Boy 2. He was just like the first Black Boy, dark, handsome and flirty. He was dressed in the clean but cheap clothes that marks a working-class boy, be he from a village or from a Bangkok slum.
This guy was seriously cute. I hoped Black Boy 2 would come and sit next to me, where a computer was available. But the manager sent him upstairs.
This was what made me realise there was a hi-so and a lo-so zone in the Internet café. Hi-so was for middle class Thai people and tourists. Lo-so was for the commoners.
The ladyboy-in-training always sat in hi-so. The original Black Boy, while I still saw him around, was always in lo-so.
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Yesterday it was full in hi-so when I arrived. I asked if I could sit in the lo-so zone, as I had before when the zone I belonged to was full. No, I could not. I had to wait for a computer in hi-so. Grandpa gave me a small stool to sit on while waiting.
I pondered their hierarchy. The computers and the prices were the same in both sections. The point was to keep the haves and the have-nots apart. Admittedly the have-nots could get noisy at times, but they were also more fun. I never had any problems with them. But I could imagine some Thai-Chinese well off person taking offence if a dark slum person sat next to him.
And now the management denied me going where Black Boy 2 was. How unfair. Was there nobody I could complain to about this human rights issue? The United Nations?
I was unhappy about this till I realised they denied me access to the lo-so section only because grandpa was watching. Grandpa was old school Chinese and wanted a strict separation of the classes. The others didn’t care.
Next time I hope grandpa is out. I want to slum it with Black Boy 2.
August 15th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Sheesh… It’s the same story all over: the Chinese slumlord won’t rent to me! What are we going to do SF? First open up our own lo-so Internet Café. Since I’m not going to be my own slumlord, I guess I have to move to the village to find those youthful dusky beauties I like so much!
Why is life so damn complicated?
August 15th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Some farangs are known to live in Klong Toey, the biggest and scariest slum in Bangkok. But they are not there for boy-watching. They are down and out.
August 15th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
SF,
Klong Toey! What a swoon you have put me into!
How did you know that’s where I want to live? I am homesick already for my life in the South Bronx in the 60s and 70s now ruined and overrun with development.
Me, alone among farang, boy-watching in Klong Toey!
It boggles my mind!
August 15th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Yes, the UN has a web site where you can lodge an official complaint. Here is the link: www.righttopickupcuteboysanywhereIwantto/un.org
Usually a squad of handsome, international mix of soldiers shows up within a few days, flying the blue flag. They will need food and lodging, however.
-Former Farang
August 15th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
I’ve been thinking all day about just how dangerous the slum is. You know, humans are not good at risk-assessment, all the more so when their most extreme emotions are involved. Over the years I have had a few friends lose their lives at the hands of their boyfriends, none of whom came from the slum. Maybe we indeed need a division from the UN forces or something like that just to protect us from ourselves.
First thing tomorrow I’m going for a walk in Klong Toey just to refresh my intuitive powers, and to get an eyeful.