Here is the transcript formatted as a WordPress post, complete with H2 tags, paragraph breaks, and strong emphasis.

Introduction One Long Story and a Q&A Session

Hi everybody, welcome back to my channel once again. This is Peter and you’re watching Thailand Bound. So it’s Saturday, and today I’m going to be reading out another relationship story for you. This is a great story because it shows there’s two sides to a coin. I don’t want to give too much away right now, but as I read this, you’ll see what I mean by that.

This story was sent to me by a guy called Danny. And for the last few weeks when I’ve been reading out these stories, I’ve read out two or three at a time. I’ve decided this week to dedicate this video just to this story because it’s such a good story and it’s a little bit longer than most stories. And I think you’re going to enjoy this, guys. It’s a little bit of a learning curve if you’re one of those guys who hasn’t been out to Thailand or maybe once or twice only.

Story The Tsunami The Crash and The Bar Girl Who Saved Him

This story really starts in 2004 when I took my wife and four kids to Thailand and the tsunami hit. We ran up a hill, we were fine, but very shaken up. When we got back to England, my wife was a changed woman. Nothing was ever right, and we argued constantly until we decided after 18 years of marriage that we would split up. I then discovered she was now in love with some internet guy she had never met, and she refused to stop talking with him. This was the beginning of 2006.

Breaking up was a nightmare. I was losing the family house, car, and my job. Don’t you just love the system? I’m originally from London but had to head back from my small village to use up my friends’ patience with sleeping on their couches for a week at a time, pondering what to do next.

Luckily for me, an old work friend had by chance just moved out to Bangkok, and he offered me some work if I came out – and so off I went. The thought of a nice hotel bed surely beat the couches of married friends and their annoyed wives. This was April 2006.

First Trip to Pattaya

I went for a month, and on about the second weekend my friend said, “We’re going to party in Pattaya this weekend.” I had been to Thailand several times – I liked Thailand a lot – and I said, “I’m never going to Pattaya. Never wanted to, and never will.” He said, “Look, I’ll pay for everything. You’re coming. I’m the boss.” So I went. Needless to say, I had a great time.

My friend had different tastes in entertainment than I do, so we split up each night. On the second night there, I met this mad Thai bar girl who insisted on following me everywhere. After a while, I could see she was damaged property, and I wanted nothing more to do with her – but I just couldn’t get rid of her.

In one bar, one of the most beautiful girls I’d ever seen saw my dilemma. The girl called Som came up to me as we were leaving and said, “Look, you look after her. You take care of her.” And I said, “I’ll tell you what – let’s swap phone numbers, and I’ll call you when I get her back safely.”

Anyway, I managed to ditch this crazy girl, and the next day I phoned Som – the girl I had met on the previous night. She seemed to be a caring type as well as beautiful, I thought to myself. I agreed to meet up with her.

On the Sunday evening, Som turns up with a friend as she was a little bit nervous to meet me alone. Apparently, the friend took one look at me and said, “He is old and ugly.” I was 43 at the time. But anyway, we chatted, we went out for a drink (ditching her friend), and then we spent Sunday night together, leaving Monday morning with my friend.

While waiting for the taxi, I glanced up at Som driving off on her scooter and could see her looking back. I felt there was something there for her too. So after that, I had to come back for the next two weekends after the working week finished to spend time with her.

Back and Forth

After five weeks, I went back to the UK. I must admit I was tearful at leaving – back to sofa surfing. But while back, and before I had time to think, a friend in America said, “I’ll pay for a trip for you to come out to Texas. I know you lost your house and everything and you’re sofa surfing. Come out to Texas for a month, and we’ll have some fun.” I went out to Dallas in June for a month and forgot about Som in Thailand – well, I tried to anyway. Although we did email each other, and in one email she called me “Tilak.” I accused her of mixing me up with an obvious Turkish boyfriend. I hadn’t heard “Tilak” before. (It’s a little joke there – if you haven’t been out to Thailand, “tilak” is an endearing way of calling a partner – darling, my love, something like that. Obviously he’s made a joke of it sounding like a Turkish name, which was quite clever.)

When I got back to England, I realized that I had to get back to Thailand again no matter what and find Som. So on credit cards, I had to head out to Thailand in August and with a plan to just go for five weeks and see what happens. You’ve got to understand – after losing what I thought was everything and becoming a bum sleeping on people’s couches, I thought, “Damn it, I’m at least entitled to smile once or twice.”

I managed to phone Som, and she was very excited to come and meet me. She had moved to Bangkok and was staying with her sister in Bang Bon (that’s on the outskirts of Bangkok). She took a taxi to meet me, and we had a really good night out. From then on, except for one solo trip to Cambodia on a visa run, Som never left my side.

I had said in the very beginning, “I have lost everything. I have nothing. I am not rich or even slightly well off.” It didn’t seem to matter – it really didn’t. But I guess just being able to travel means you are better off than the average Isan guy.

Anyway, those five weeks became one year and three months. I did meet her family – her dad looked at me as if I was from Mars. (If you’re wondering what he means by “Isan guy” – Isan is a rural area in the north of Thailand that a lot of these girls come from. It’s quite a poor region actually, compared to the rest of Thailand.) We traveled around quite a bit, and I enjoyed the sightseeing. My friend Peter gave me the odd bit of work to keep me going, and I just did visa runs to Cambodia to be able to remain in the country.

The Pregnancy

Now it was funny – I had got back in August 2006, and in September Som suddenly tells me, “I’m pregnant.” Being a complete idiot, I thought, “Well, I have four kids in England – it must mean I’m a super stud.” The pregnancy was one of the reasons five weeks became over a year staying in Thailand, as you will see. I decided that if I could, I would wait for the birth of the baby before heading back to the UK to try and earn some big money.

Just before the baby was due on April the 27th, 2007, I was on a visa run to Cambodia with Som, and we had a terrible motorcycle accident which ripped up my legs, smashed up my shoulder, and more. We were extremely lucky. Som and the baby on the back of the motorcycle were really unharmed. Under different circumstances, there could have been deaths.

Som told me months later that she had stood on the side of the road pleading for help. People just stared, not wanting to get involved. The police turned up and threw me into a car and off to the clinic, which got opened up just for us because of the accident. There were three Cambodians on the other bikes which hit us, and they were all in the clinic too – although not as badly hurt as I was.

There is a funny side to this story. In the clinic after treatment, a couple of nurses pushed my gurney just outside the clinic doors into the jungle and closed the door for the night, saying they would be back in the morning. I just remember, through a morphine haze, Som swatting mosquitoes off me all night – her real love taking care of me in this mad situation.

The Hospital Nightmare

The next morning, the police turned up and wanted a thousand dollars – as being a foreigner, that accident must have been my fault, right? They also wanted twenty dollars a piece for blood on their shirts from the previous night, which I paid them. I didn’t have one thousand dollars left, and the clinic was very keen on amputation, so things were looking very grim indeed.

My girlfriend managed to get the clinic to book a taxi, and we fled to the border and onto Trat in Thailand – with the help of a German guy I’d met. He told the staff at the clinic, “If you cut this man’s leg off, he will sue” and told them “I am an important man in London” – of course, but I’m convinced that’s what saved my leg.

The police wanted their money, and I was not allowed to leave until they had been paid. Meanwhile, the clinic wanted to cut my damaged leg off. After a week in Trat Hospital, the Cambodian police arrived with a Thai policeman looking for their money. Som asked the Thai cop (who was in uniform) what they wanted. The cop told her they paid me to make it look official, but it is a Cambodian problem so they can clear off. I think he saw Som was pregnant, took pity on her. Anyway, the doctors threw them all out, and I never saw them again.

While in hospital receiving treatment, Som slept on the floor beside my bed, taking care of everything I needed – even though eight months pregnant. After this, I just fell more in love with her.

The Birth and the Truth

While I was in the hospital, the baby was born, and I remember looking at it and thinking, “I have four blonde kids in the UK, but this baby has dark black hair, and the baby does not look anything like my kids back home or me.” So I asked her the obvious question: “Is the baby mine?” She said yes. So I left it at that for now, as we obviously had enough problems as it was – including my six months of recovery and no funds.

After a few weeks in hospital, we had to rent a place in Trat for a couple of months while my leg was repairing. Som looked after me far better than anyone has ever looked after me, and I fell more in love with her as she nursed a newborn baby while at the same time still taking care of me. I had to swallow my pride, contact my parents, and ask them to send me money to survive. The money was sent to the local Western Union office. Som had to pick it up and do some shopping as I couldn’t walk anywhere – and not a single baht went missing.

October 2007 arrives, and I have to go back to the UK with this dodgy leg and sleep on people’s sofas again. After about four months, I managed to get some work, and as soon as I got some money together, I went back to Thailand for five months. This was now May 2008. Mad? Sure, crazy? Sure. But that was how I felt at the time – live for the day. Nothing ever lasts. Look what happened before with my stable family life.

On the first birthday of the little girl – May 2008 – I asked the question again. I said, “Look, just tell me – is she mine or not?” She broke down and cried. She went on to tell me that she thought I wasn’t coming back in 2006, and she had hooked up with another English guy – but it hadn’t worked out. When I came back, she discovered that she was pregnant. She had hoped the baby was mine, but she did not know if it was at the time. She had just prayed it was mine.

Deceitful? Yes, for sure. But in retrospect, understandable. So when I went back to England in October 2007, she went and took a DNA test with the English guy who works in Thailand. It proved positive – but he wanted nothing to do with the little girl, and never has. What a low life, I said to myself.

Well, okay – I guess inside I always suspected what I now know. And again I said to Som, “You are going to have to tell her one day that I am not her father – but for the time being, let’s not spoil her fun.”

A Son of His Own

Anyway, fast forward to 2009 and a few trips back to Thailand. We were still together, and she tells me that she’s pregnant again – and this time, 100% it’s mine. It’s November 2009. A little boy was born. He was definitely mine.

Fast forward to now – our son is 11 years old. Me and Som separated in 2012, but we are still really good friends, and we pretty much talk every day online – and I still fancy her like crazy. We separated for a number of reasons – a long-distance relationship being very difficult on both of us being one of them.

I still take care of my son and the little girl’s expenses. And just before lockdown in January 2020, I took them all on holiday to an island. My son had never seen the sea before. I look back now and think to myself – how can I not still love her?

Back then, I was 43, a lost soul. She was 23, alive and full of life. I believe she actually saved me from suicide or a long lingering death from alcohol. I am now 58, and she is 38. She is still a very good-looking girl, and I think probably the love of my life.

Peter, I remember you said one time that although the bar girls are very cunning and good at what they do – and they know every trick in the book to separate you from your cash – you had gone on to say that there is another side to these girls that shows great kindness and sympathy when you are down on your luck. Here is an example of what you said.

I am in constant communication with Som. In September 2009, when I finally got my own place in the UK, I had no furniture – not even a bed to sleep on – which I had told Som in conversation after I had moved in. And one week later, a huge parcel of food and cooking implements arrived via air freight from Thailand. Som – although about to give birth to my son – spent all of her money to make sure I had a starter kit in my new apartment. Compare that with having to go to court to get my own work computers from the marital home in the UK.

I think the bar girls and freelancers are not all bad. In most cases, it really is simply the circumstances that most of these girls grow up in – for instance, poverty and the lack of opportunity – seems to cause their lives to go in a certain predictable way. I have met many so-called decent girls in the West, and they never had half the honesty that I met in my Thai girlfriend in those six years we were inseparable.

I have been visiting Thailand since 1990 – maybe 17 times. I have met several men who bet on the wrong woman and lost their house and property outright. However, although this is not normally always the outcome of a relationship with a bar girl, freelancer, or go-go girl – you can sometimes come across a gem among the stones, which is I guess the reason so many sensible guys take the gamble. But unfortunately, the stones far outweigh the gems, and the guys normally come out the loser.

I was very lucky, and I don’t regret a thing. Yes, I would do it all over again. If your viewers think that I am stupid, then yes, I am guilty as charged.

Best regards, Danny.

Host’s Thoughts on the Story

Wasn’t that a great story? I was a little bit disappointed because as I was reading it, I thought, “Hey, this is one of those stories that is going to work out” – because most of these bar girl relationship stories never work out. And as I was reading more and more into the story, I thought this is one that had really worked out. It kind of did in a way, because he’s still contacting her. But a great story there. I hope you enjoyed that one, guys. And I’ve got quite a few more in the pipeline.

Q&A Answering Your Questions About the Stories

So before I go, I thought it would be quite interesting to read out some questions that I get on these stories. I’ve got a guy who writes to me quite often – he subscribes to the channel, he supports the channel as well – and we often email each other about certain aspects of Thailand. He wanted to know some things – he asked me some questions specifically about these stories. There’s sort of six questions here. And I thought, if he’s interested in these questions and he’s asking, there must be other people out there who are thinking the same. So I thought I’d read these questions and I’ll try to explain them to you as best as I can. If you’re one of those people who wanted to ask a question but you weren’t sure, then maybe this little epilogue on the end of this video will answer them.

I won’t read this whole email out because it was quite lengthy. I’ll just read the line that references the questions. It says: “Hi Peter, I would like to ask you several questions about your relationship stories if you don’t mind.” And of course, I don’t mind. So I’ll just read the questions out one by one and I’ll answer them off the cuff as best as I can.

Question 1: Do you read these stories directly from emails sent to you? Do you always read them as written, or do you have to make changes?

That’s a good question. No, I wish I could read them straight from the emails. I mean, a guy will send me a lengthy email – I can’t just read it out. It’s impossible. I have to read the stories normally two or three times before I can really get them into a format that will make the story flow freely. For instance, guys write to me from Denmark, Sweden – countries that aren’t their mother tongue – and although they speak very good English, sometimes they’re not quite right to read out in a story.

So the way I generally do it is: I’ll read the email, decide whether it’s a story I can use or not. If I think it’s a good story, I’ll copy and paste his email into a Word document, and then I’ll spell-check it, and then I’ll read it and adjust the story in such a way that it flows when I read it. I try not to change the original format of his story – the guy who’s writing it to me – but I’ll change certain words so that when I read it, it comes out nice and smoothly. And even then, sometimes I’m stuck like an idiot. I’m not natural at this. So there is a lot of preparation that goes into these stories before I actually read them out.

Question 2: Do you make any changes to the content, and if yes, why?

Well, I kind of touched on that already, but let me give you an example. I do have to change quite a lot of words because guys all use words that they use frequently in their country, but other guys around the world won’t understand them. I’ve got to tell the story using words that everybody will understand.

So to give you an example, an English guy might say something like, “I told him to sod off” – which is slang for basically “I told him to get lost” kind of thing. So I wouldn’t use that word because not everybody would understand it. I would replace that with “I told him to clear off.” So those are the sort of changes I have to make – any kind of slang words or sentences that are related to that country.

The Australians have quite a few sentences – they use quite a lot of slang. And although I understand most of it, some of them you just wouldn’t get. It’s quite nice slang, but you just wouldn’t get it. The worst one – the most difficult story I’ve ever had to translate (because it really was translation, near enough) – was a guy from Scotland sent me a story. And although I can understand it, there are so many words in the Scottish language that you just wouldn’t get. I actually had to change the whole story – but I did get through it. And that was the story about the two guys from Glasgow who met the girls in Pattaya. So you can go back and look at that video if you want to have a look at that.

Question 3: Do you get much criticism, and if yes, what kind?

I don’t get much criticism. I do get some criticism. The most common bit of criticism I’ll get is that all the stories are negative – all the stories sound the same. And unfortunately, that’s just the lay of the land. You’ve got to remember, guys, I’m telling stories that people have sent in to me – and they’re stories about guys who go on holiday, they’ll walk into a bar, and they’ll hook up with a Thai bar girl, and you know what they do – we don’t have to get into it deeply here – and it goes the wrong way and ends in disaster in most cases. So obviously the stories are all going to be the same.

But what I would say to that is – if you think the stories are all the same and they’re boring or you don’t like them – without trying to sound arrogant – just don’t watch them. I mean, if you come on the channel and it’s a story, then you know what’s coming up. It’s best just to go off and watch somebody else’s.

Question 4: How do you know the stories are real and not made up?

Okay, I don’t actually know that they’re not made up. But I do quite a lot of checks, and I can tell. I’ve been to Thailand for a long time. I’ve visited many, many times. I know what goes on. And when somebody tells me a story, the way they write it – you get a feel for the story. I think I’ve only ever had one where I thought, “Yeah, he’s made this up.”

But generally, what will happen – most guys who send in the stories, they’ll back it up with photographs. And they’ll say, “Look, here’s the girl I met, here’s the bar I met her in, here’s where we went” – and they’ll send me all these photographs. And they’ll end it by saying, “Please don’t use the photographs – these are just for verifying that the story is correct.” So in most cases, I don’t think guys would go to the trouble to make them up.

The other thing is, when they write the emails, it must take them several hours to write the emails because they have to think about what they’re writing, they have to put it in such a format that it comes out as a nice story. So to go to all that trouble to tell lies – I don’t think a lot of people would do that. So that’s how I sort of pretty much know that most – nearly all – of them are genuine.

Question 5: Why do you tell so many stories on your channel?

Okay, another good question. The reason I tell so many stories on the channel is because I haven’t been able to get back to Thailand. When I started my YouTube channel, I started it when I was in Hua Hin – that’s a beach town in Thailand. I decided to make a YouTube channel, and my first videos that went up – I’ve just re-edited several of them actually and I’m uploading them now because they were a bit long-winded – they were my first videos and they weren’t very good. So I’ve re-edited some of them and uploaded them recently.

So the reason I tell so many stories is because when I started the channel I was in Thailand. And I was going to make videos about Thailand. I was going to – if I was in Hua Hin – shoot the night market, the beaches, the islands, places I’d visit in Thailand. And when I came back to the UK, I could make some videos talking about my trips because I do still work – I can’t retire out there yet, unfortunately.

You know what I’m going to say – the pandemic hit. And when I came back in October, I thought, “Well, it’s going to be three months and I can get back out there.” None of us knew it would go on for over a year. And if I hadn’t been telling these stories, I feel pretty sure now that I wouldn’t be around at the moment. For example, I know several YouTubers who have just stopped making videos for months now. There is a popular YouTuber – well, I’ll name him – Ed Sweeney. I’m subscribed to his channel – it’s very good. He has been doing live streams every week for the last few months because he hasn’t been traveling. He recently sent out a post and in that post he said he won’t be making any more streams for a while because he doesn’t want the channel to become stale, but he might make a Christmas video or something like that. And I can understand where he’s coming from.

And that’s the same for me. I can’t say I’ll never stop – I’ll never put it on hold. I don’t know how long this is going to go on. But the news with the vaccines and everything seems to be quite promising, so I’m hoping if I can string it out a bit longer, then hopefully I can get back to Thailand eventually and continue doing what I started off to do.

But to reiterate again – this channel is not about relationship stories – it’s about all aspects of Thailand. But these have been great, and without you guys sending them in, I wouldn’t have been able to continue doing them. I told several that I knew myself that I didn’t read out at the beginning, and they very, very quickly got used up. And you guys have been sending them to me, and they’re still coming in. I put a call out two weeks ago, and I’ve had a dozen stories coming in. So thank you very much for that.

Question 6: Once you are able to get back to Thailand, will you stop the stories?

No. Why would I stop them? I wouldn’t stop them. I won’t tell them every week like I tell them now because I’ll have a lot more things to make content about. But I’ll be observing. I can see what goes on. I’ve got friends out there. And if a good story comes along, then I will include it on the channel.

There are a lot of guys who do write to me. I don’t know if you remember about a few weeks ago – I went a month without telling any relationship stories. And when you have a YouTube channel, you tend to sort of remember the criticism. You could have 20 guys write to you saying, “Love the stories, great stories, thanks for your efforts,” and one guy will write to you – or two guys will write to you – and say, “Oh, they’re all the same.” You kind of remember the two that say it’s all the same.

And I kind of thought to myself, “Well, maybe I’m making too many of these stories and I should lay off.” And I stopped making the stories for about a month. And I suddenly got an influx of emails and messages saying, “Hey, what’s going on? I subscribed to your channel for these stories. I want to hear more of them.” So I do realize there’s a lot of you guys out there who love the stories. You always write to me and say, “Look, thanks for that – that was a great story” – or you’ll leave a comment about the story. And there’s other guys who just really hate them – they say they’re all the same, they can predict them, and they just don’t like listening to them. That’s fair enough – I understand.

So there you go – there’s six questions that this guy (Dave is his name, actually) wrote to me. And they’re good questions. I hope that explains a few things.

Closing Remarks

So next Saturday, there will be another relationship story – maybe two or three. I’ve got an Australian guy who sent me one or two stories, and I think I’m going to work on them in the week and get them up for you next Saturday. I might stick one or two little videos in from Hua Hin in between these stories just to mix it up a little bit.

But for now, guys – as always – that’s it. Thanks very much for watching, and I’ll catch up with you real soon.

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