The Engineer the Translator and the Bar Girl

My story starts in the middle of February 2019 when I worked as a freelance engineer for an engineering company in Rotterdam that designed built and installed food processing plants all over the world. I was working on my last project before leaving the company where my boss asked me to temporarily take over a project from one of my colleagues due to him being sick for several weeks to come which meant I had to travel to Thailand within three days.

Now as a project engineer I was responsible for the smooth and correct installation and handover to the customer of complete production lines both as project leader and engineer. So needless to say the three days’ notice left me no time at all to prepare for the project and to look into the Thai culture. Since I had worked several projects in Asia before China South Korea and Singapore I assumed that it would be fine. But boy how I was wrong. Even though it is called the Land of Smiles I quickly learned that saving face is everything and telling the department head he is wrong in the presence of others is a sure way of losing that smile.

Anyway I left for Thailand knowing only the main details of the project that a local team of employees was waiting for me at the customer’s site approximately one hour north of Bangkok. I guess this project would start as a ‘fake it until you make it’ project until I got up to date with all details. At arrival I met the team finding out that most spoke little to no English. After two difficult days luckily one of the local managers assigned one of his office staff that spoke almost fluent English to assist me. She was a timid girl with zero technical background and was if you ask me afraid of making mistakes so I did not expect too much cooperation. I’m not going to mention her name as I want to honor her privacy.

However after some days of working in the team she loosened up and after a week or two I would even say she became one of the key persons in the team instead of just a translator. She may not have had the engineering skills to fully understand all the details but she picked up the big picture rather quickly. The project which was the installation and commissioning would take 11 to 12 weeks but after two and a half weeks we already met the four week deadline and reached the six week deadline at the end of the fourth week. I can safely say that I could not have done this without her contribution in directing the different staff working on the project allowing me to concentrate on the detailed installation and integration of each process step to the next.

After the fourth week my colleague should be better and would come and take over so I could go back to the Netherlands and continue with my own projects. However due to the fast progress I was making and the fact that he was only 90% recovered my boss in the Netherlands pleaded with me to stay and finish the project especially since he was impressed that I got 50% ahead in the time schedule and he liked to try and get the early delivery bonus that was in the contract. However the last four weeks I had been working on two full time projects my original project in the Netherlands plus the one in Thailand so I was tired and looking forward to concentrating on just one project only. So I declined his offer.

You have to remember that I was leaving the company after my own project was finished anyway so I did not need the goodwill. Since he really liked the way I was handling the project he made me an offer I could not refuse. He would pay me the time I spent working in Thailand on my own project at 150%. I would get one week’s paid holiday after completion of the Thailand project. And if I managed to finish the Thailand project within the next four weeks I would get a third of the early delivery bonus the company would earn since this bonus could earn me an extra half year salary on top of the overtime and standard salary. I agreed.

Feelings for the Translator

Now writing it down like this I see how you could think that I only did it for the money. But what I have not mentioned yet is I have to admit that in the past weeks I had started to appreciate my English speaking colleague in a more than work related way if you know what I mean. And even had the idea that she did too since she made flirty comments and we talked about a lot of personal matters when we were working alone. So I wanted to see if this could become something. Now I have to admit that I am not the greatest in recognizing a woman’s signs and I have been wrong in the past so I doubted talking to her about this directly.

But since a Dutch colleague of mine who came for a specialized job asked me only after half a day if she was into me it was clear to me that she also felt something for me.

So I asked her on the seventh week if she would like to join me on a trip to Bangkok where I planned to celebrate my holiday after this project and hopefully my early delivery bonus. I offered to book her a separate room in the same hotel I stayed in and we could see the city together while getting to know each other outside of work. Unfortunately she declined my offer since she already had a boyfriend. I was so embarrassed I had misread her signs. But until today I’m not sure if I really did especially since my colleague noticed something within half a day as well.

Despite the strange atmosphere between us I managed to get all required signatures two days before the eight week deadline securing my early delivery bonus. Now I’m all about teamwork and paying it forward so I arranged a dinner that evening for the core team to celebrate the successful completion of the transfer and planned to share part of my bonus I gave each of them 25000 Baht as a reward for the hard work. Since I wanted to give each the same amount and did not know if the team would appreciate it if the others knew how much each of them got I had put the cash in an envelope with only their name on it.

My English speaking colleague was not joining us for this celebration dinner therefore I gave her the envelope before the dinner at the office when we were alone. I assumed that she would appreciate it as a nice gesture of me sharing my personal bonus. Now that was not the case at all. She thought I was trying to buy her to join me for my holiday for a week away. So before I could even say one word in explanation she started swearing at me in both English and Thai. After screaming for several minutes I managed to explain that it was meant as a thank you only and I would also give a bonus to the other five key members in the core team not just her.

At first she did not believe me but after showing her the five envelopes she calmed down but never thanked me for the bonus and just left. So the last two days the atmosphere between us was even worse and when I said goodbye on the last day she was nowhere to be seen.

The Holiday in Bangkok

The second part of my story is about my holiday in Bangkok. I arranged a hotel close to Nana Plaza. Now after working for an average of 90 to 100 hours per week for the last two months on two full time projects you could imagine that I was exhausted. So the first two days I did little but sleep and got one of the famous Thai massages the one without the extra service. However the second evening I decided to join the party in Nana Plaza just to see where the night would end.

Now in the third bar I entered I made a huge mistake. When I walked in I saw a girl at a table standing alone. At first I thought I was mistaken but she looked exactly the same as my English speaking colleague same height same weight same haircut and even a somewhat similar scar on her neck. So after observing her for a few minutes she was still alone I was convinced it was her. So still being a bit hurt from the way she reacted and did not show up to say goodbye I went over and bluntly asked her why she did not show up to say goodbye to me in the office. Once she started talking however I knew I’d made a mistake she was not my English speaking colleague.

I did not know where to look and I guess I said sorry a hundred times before retreating to a different table.

At that moment I did not understand why but she followed me after me approaching her so unfriendly. Now in hindsight I know the reason money. I was an easy target. But now I’m jumping over the juicy bit of the story.

After several drinks and buying her some lady drinks she convinced me to take her up to my room for some aerobics. I was not drunk but close to it when paying the bar bill. But I am sure I did not order 12 rounds for me and her at most it was six or seven. However she swore on the grave of her mother it was more than 10 and since I had no proof I had to pay. I guess I should have paid more attention to the bills in the cup on my table.

Walking back to the hotel we passed a 7 Eleven and here is the next mistake of the evening. She wanted a toothbrush so she could freshen up for me. Since I saw no harm in a one or two dollar toothbrush and I liked the idea of her freshening up I agreed. But once inside the one toothbrush became one toothbrush plus some perfume plus some of that shampoo that smells so good and something to drink to continue the night in the hotel making the one dollar toothbrush into a forty dollar bill.

The Hotel Room Dispute

In the hotel room she did freshen up but it took her a long time in which I waited on the bed and almost fell asleep. When she finally left the bathroom we drank the booze from the 7 Eleven before finally engaging in some aerobics. But honestly it was not good at all. She just rushed it without smiling once. It really felt as if she was saying ‘Just get it over with so I can sleep.’ The next morning we did round two but this was hardly any better. And to top this wonderful night off the girl claimed I still had to pay her when she was leaving. Well I was sure I’d paid her the moment we entered the hotel room. She lowered her demand to 1500 Baht. I paid her anyway just to get rid of her.

This experience ruined my next evening and I left the bars early on my own. However the night after that I hit the jackpot. I met a gorgeous girl named Cherry I’m sure that isn’t her real name so I’ll use this name in the story with whom I had a wonderful evening in which she never asked for anything and was content with the drinks I offered her. Around one o’clock she joined me to continue the party in my hotel and this time I can say nothing more than ‘Wow that was good.’ After an hour of fun we finished the whiskey I had left in the room before we were done.

The next morning I woke up but she was not next to me anymore. After finding the bathroom empty as well and noticing the money I left on the counter for her was gone I thought back to the previous experience and started looking through my stuff to see if anything was missing. I had already emptied my suitcase onto the floor when the door opened and there she was with a big smile carrying two cups of coffee and some bottled water. Since we had so much to drink the night before and there was nothing left in my room she decided to go out to buy something before I woke up and took the money I left her to pay for it. The fact that she went out to buy coffee and water from her own money impressed me so much.

After the coffee we had some even better aerobics than the night before. Since I enjoyed our time together and trusted her not to take advantage of me I decided to spend the next few days together until I left for home. I cannot think of anything negative about Cherry or my remaining time in Bangkok. She never ordered too much or the most expensive dishes in a restaurant. She never begged me for gifts when we visited a market or shopping mall. I did buy her some small gifts but this was always on my initiative. So when I left I gave her my remaining cash approximately 9000 Baht and I really felt that she deserved every single Baht even though I already paid her the agreed amount for her company.

Now you could say I was 50% lucky in choosing bar girls but I like to think my first bar girl was not the exception and most are just honest working people like you and me.