The Phuket Sandbox Romance

It was COVID and they had just opened the Phuket Sandbox which was a great relief for me because I knew I did not have to do quarantine. And at this time Bangkok had been locked down meaning I would have quarantined into a lockdown. I’d been working hard all through COVID I was very tired and I had also saved up a fair amount of money. I’ve been to Thailand before on holiday and always wanted to go back for a prolonged period of time. So I decided I would not let the restrictions get in the way and I would go to Phuket.

The Sandbox was a bit of a joke really but I went through the motions and did my two weeks of staying at a special hotel and regular testing. During this time I took quite a few girls back to my hotel and as long as they were vaccinated it wasn’t a problem. I really wasn’t looking for anything more than just pay for play but a persistent lady on Tinder kept pursuing me asking me to go on a date. I kept making my excuses but eventually I gave in as aerobics with multiple partners can be quite soul destroying. Don’t get me wrong if you find the right girls you can have some of the most mind blowing aerobics you’ve ever had. But afterwards you’re alone again and it’s a lonely feeling.

I was staying in Chalong at the time which is a bit off the beaten track. Som was her name and she met me outside the hotel with her friend and they took me to a local beach. I was blown away by the beauty of the beach and even more by the beauty of Som. As soon as I laid eyes on her I couldn’t believe my luck. She was 32 I was 44 and absolutely stunning in a girl next door kind of way.

Her friend called Nu chaperoned our first three dates and on the third date asked me why I hadn’t taken Som home yet. I explained that in my country it was normal to go out a few times before going home with someone and I didn’t want to push my luck. Nu’s English was better than Som’s so it was useful that she came along on the dates and helped things along. But now it was time for me to go home alone with Som. My friends told me it was a good sign that she came along with a companion for the first few dates this was apparently Thai tradition for someone who is looking for a long-term relationship.

That night was amazing. I couldn’t believe my luck and we went on to have the best time ever. The best memory I have of us together is at Kata Beach. I remember picking her up from work and getting dinner from the street food vendors and just laying there on a mat watching the sun go down with her in my arms a beautiful sunset and I just couldn’t believe I was in the company of such a beautiful woman. During this time the hotels were cheap and Phuket was empty pretty much so we stayed at the best hotels. We ate Thai food and she took me to all the places where you could get cheap massages and all of the hidden beaches and fantastic hotspots of Phuket. It was amazing the best time ever I’d had in my entire life.

During my time with Som I made it clear to her that I was going home at some point and may never return to Thailand and I’m not looking for a wife and I do not want children. She said she was okay with this and I reminded her many times that this was the case. We started off hanging around together a few days here and there and she was working part time at a hotel. She had her hours cut because of COVID and was on a reduced salary so for her being with me made her life survivable at this time. I kind of understood this but I still believed and maybe still believe now that she really liked me and she hoped that I would change my mind and commit to her.

The Romance Falls Apart

We were together for around 3 months and there were stages where she stayed at mine for over a week. At one point I had to ask her to go home for a couple of days because I needed my own space. I’m not going to lie I felt trapped and I cheated on her while she was away a few times. I took her for granted and if I’m honest I was disrespectful in the way I communicated with her which I really regret as well as cheating and lying to her. It’s weird in Thailand this behavior can become almost normal and tolerated.

Anyway after around 3 months I decided I wanted my freedom back and also the restrictions had been reduced so I could travel again. So I decided to go to Bangkok and then head to Koh Samui and some other islands. We stayed in contact on video call and it seemed to be going well. She said she was back to work full time and she was working hard but I sensed something wasn’t right. She became distant and less invested.

During my time away I spent time with different women but it just wasn’t the same. I decided to return to Phuket and be with Som again I missed her so much. About a week before I was due to return we argued on the phone and I said to her “I think something’s going on and I think she had met somebody else and was just stringing me along.

I had already booked my flights back to Phuket and also booked a hotel close to where she worked so she could see me when she finished work in the evenings and on her days off. She was well aware of this but I guess too cowardly to tell me or just keeping me on the back burner. She admitted she had met another guy and did not want to see me anymore but only because I pushed and pushed. So having paid for all my hotels and my flights I returned back to Phuket single and rejected.

I remember feeling depressed. The hotel I stayed at was noisy and had a rock hard bed with a horrible blanket. I felt awful. Once again I met many women in Phuket but it just was not the same. I tried a couple of times to rekindle our relationship only to be rejected.

I had just come to terms with this and given up when one day I received a phone call from her asking me to meet up. The guy she had been with had gone home. I was starting to understand what this relationship was about. I asked her to be honest with me and she admitted that she had been talking to other men. We agreed to get back together but on the terms that I now knew what she was about and I knew that she was juggling many guys in the hope that one of them one day will settle with her and look after her.

Becoming Friends With Benefits

We would have aerobics and she would have to go outside her home to speak to other boyfriends she was grooming from other countries. I kind of accepted this and at least I now really knew her and we became friends with benefits I guess. To be honest it wasn’t the same as before but it was convenient and she never asked for money although I would pay for dinner all the activities we did the hotels and sometimes I would sneak the odd 500 baht into her bag.

I forgot to mention when we first met she kind of followed me around a little bit and she would buy me gifts such as T-shirts and other small gifts. I can see now that this was kind of grooming me into the belief that the relationship was not about money. But the fact is that I looked after her during COVID and when she found someone else who was more generous than I was she left me. And when they broke up she would contact me again. For every baht she spent on me I spent a hundred on her.

She was never a working girl other than her regular job as far as I knew. And I would ask her “If she’s going to take part in aerobics with lots of men why not charge for your time?” “I’m not that sort of girl” she said. During our total of about 4 months together we would have aerobics literally every day and I was too tired to look at any other woman for the most part. I have to say for the amount of money I spent on us having a good time I must have had aerobics 150 times and also had the best time I’ve ever had with anyone. She was funny beautiful and great in bed. We even made a 35 minute aerobics recording which is a great reminder of our time together and I have to say it was pretty good.

I honestly hope that she finds her knight in shining armor who will look after her. Sometimes I think I missed out on a good opportunity with a really nice woman. But I’ve since got in touch and she’s not interested in anything romantic and has just suggested meeting up as friends. I can’t help but have very strong feelings for her even to this day. And I didn’t mention how horrible and rude she would have been to me in the past maybe I asked for it to be honest. When Thai women want to get rid of you they can be very cruel.

I can’t help but still love her. Another thing I will say is that we never used protection and she would have been quite happy for me to have fathered a child with her. In the UK we call this a “baby trap.” In Thailand basically the foreign guy gets them pregnant the baby goes and lives with the grandparents and the foreign guy gets milked for a lot of money.

So the moral of the story is even if you’re not paying for aerobics directly with a Thai woman there is always a cost. Don’t get me wrong if your girlfriend earns the equivalent of $15 a day then if you didn’t offer to pay for things that would be weird. In the UK we earn maybe $150 a day. Basically I think Thai women especially in their 30s and 40s are seeking security. They want to feel safe and they will go to any length for that to happen. And if you’re a cheap Charlie chances are they will find somebody else more generous.

Story 2 The Freelancer Who Stole 30000 Baht A Sobering Lesson in Pattaya

My name is Simon 42 years old from the United States. I landed in Bangkok several hours after midnight the day that Thailand eased all restrictions on tourists coming into the country. I had done all the necessary paperwork prior to the Thai government making the announcement that they would no longer require people to stay one night at a SHA hotel or have to take a COVID test before being free to tour the country. As it turned out my delayed flight from Tokyo to Bangkok put us landing at Bangkok Airport after midnight and I was free to do as I pleased once I cleared customs and collected my luggage.

The drive down to Pattaya was exciting and I couldn’t wait to begin another fun vacation in the Land of Smiles as it had been a few years since my last trip to the kingdom. After arriving at my pre-booked SHA hotel The Flipper House on Soi 7 and getting checked in I decided to take a little walk around the area as the jet lag had completely ruined my chance of getting any rest. The time was around 3:00 a.m. and the once anticipated sleep turned into excitement as I stepped out of the well-located hotel on Soi 7 and headed down Beach Road. Being back in Pattaya was the best feeling I’d had in a long time.

I walked down to Beach Road over to Soi 6 up Second Road before returning to The Flipper House Hotel occasionally stopping to talk to random girls that were still out. The sights sounds and even the smells of this amazing city were welcoming and long overdue. I was happier than a child gone to Disney World for the first time.

My sleep that night was brief about 3 hours as the excitement of being back in Thailand made me restless and eager to get my adventure started. Upon waking up I had some breakfast at the hotel collected all of my belongings checked out of The Flipper House jumped in a Grab taxi and headed to my new home for the next 2 weeks the LK Metropole.

Bar Drinks and Decisions

I was greeted by the most amazing hotel staff in Pattaya. During my stay there they really proved themselves as remarkable people and helped me out tremendously but I’ll get to those details in a bit. The ladies at the counter informed me that I had been given an upgraded room which was very nice. After settling in I headed back outside to immerse myself in everything central Pattaya had to offer. I strolled through LK Metro to see what might have changed since my last visit and then proceeded to Soi Pothole where a few bars were already open. After a few beers in a handful of different bars and buying a few of the girls some drinks I ended up in one of the more popular bars and this would be the end of the evening for me.

The next few days would be similar to the first day. I would wake up mid morning get breakfast at the Hungry Hippo on Soi Buakhao walk around the city for a while enjoy a foot massage or a full body Thai massage and then I would begin visiting bars and go go clubs. The nightlife is certainly why I was back in Pattaya and I was going to enjoy every bit of it.

When I entered this bar I spotted a ladyboy whose name I can’t remember but she was a delight to be around and rather good at playing pool. She and I played pool for several hours and she made sure I never ran out of ice cold Chang. I noticed a few girls sitting at a table outside of a bar across the street one of them a very pretty lady was flirting with me when I looked her way. Tempted to leave the company of the ladyboy I was playing pool with I decided to stay in this bar as I was really enjoying the company the cold Chang beer and the game of pool. I would spend a few more nights there before leaving Pattaya and heading down to Phuket.

Eventually the trio of new Pattaya bar owners would meet me at this bar after I was plenty drunk and we would head over to Soi 6 but not before stopping at a few bars along Soi Buakhao. Soi 6 was busy when we got there and we joined right in. The four of us went down from bar to bar and joined the company of the ladies we encountered and it was ultimately a great time.

Somewhere along the way in my drunken state I became separated from the other guys but this didn’t stop me from continuing to have a great night and I bar hopped up Soi 6 before deciding to return to the LK Metro area. As I made my way along Second Road towards Soi Diana where I had to turn and head towards LK Metro I stopped at a 7 Eleven to eat a couple of those delicious grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. I think we all know what a treat those are after a long night of drinking.

For whatever reason I decided to go through Tree Town on my way to LK Metro instead of walking up Soi Diana. When I got to Tree Town I ran into the girl that had been flirting with me earlier when I was playing pool. We chatted briefly before I asked her to join me for the rest of the night’s drinking and fun which she happily agreed to do. So she and I ventured down to LK Metro and had a few drinks at a few different bars before we ended up separating for the night. I’m not sure how we ended up parting ways but she was gone nonetheless and I continued partying.

Meeting a Freelancer

At some point I decided to go back to the hotel. So I made my way to Soi Diana before turning off Soi Diana and going to the Metropole. I stopped off for yet another ham and cheese sandwich at a 7 Eleven just outside of the entrance to the hotel. After eating the sandwich and turning towards the hotel I saw a freelancer standing outside of the 7 Eleven. So I asked her if she’d like to have a few beers in my room. She agreed to join me but I decided I would take her to a few go go bars in LK Metro before going back to my hotel.

I had to withdraw some more cash out of the ATM. The two of us walked up the stairs to the Metropole where there’s an ATM just at the top of the stairs and this lady watched everything I was doing. I proceeded to withdraw 30,000 baht from the ATM and place it in my wallet. (Just for anyone who might not know 30,000 baht is equivalent to roughly $1000.) I placed the wallet and funds back into the pocket of my shorts which had a button on the pocket to secure it shut and the two of us went on to LK Metro.

I was having a great time and I was thoroughly enjoying my time interacting with all of the dancers. As I was ready to pay the tab at the last go go we had visited I noticed that the 30,000 baht that I had put in my wallet was missing. Mindful to never make any accusations I asked the freelancer that was with me if she knew what might have happened to the missing money. She was adamant that we had gone to my room before going to LK Metro and that I had put the money in the safe in my room. Even as drunk as I was I knew that had not happened I had not gone to my room after taking the money out of the ATM or at any time while this young girl was my companion.

Still cautious of making any accusations I knew that she had somehow gotten my wallet from me and taken the money. I left the go go bar after I paid the tab with what little money she had not taken and I tried getting her up to my room but she was insisting on going to an after hours club. Not wanting to go to the club I had no choice since I had to keep her in sight and do my best to get her to my hotel room where I would have a chance at getting my money back.

Sadly I never got that chance because of the chaos of the nightclub the freelancer managed to sneak out and I’ve never seen her to this day. Deciding not to give in to misery I left the nightclub with another freelancer and headed to the room. Utilizing her talent she was able to make me quickly forget about the missing 30,000 baht.

Waking up to a pounding headache a terrible hangover and a beautiful lady with amazing talents who was wanting compensated for those amazing talents I realized that I didn’t have the cash on hand to pay her for her time. She was not happy about this and rightfully so. We went downstairs and I tried to get more money from the ATM. Despite having more than enough money in my bank account I couldn’t withdraw anything my bank had limited me to $1000 per day on ATM withdrawals.

The Theft and Its Consequences

Not knowing what to do at this point I tried to explain to her what had happened earlier but she didn’t fully understand and her anger was becoming uncontrollable. She began causing a scene in the hotel lobby and all I could do was go back to my room and hopefully somehow explain to her what had happened and that I would definitely get the money she well deserved but it would have to wait.

This next part is where the Metropole staff proved just how great they were. Seeing how outraged the lady was in the lobby one of the guys working at the hotel followed us up to the room to provide assistance. I explained to him exactly what was happening and what had previously happened. Thankfully he was almost as fluent in English as I am and he was able to better explain to the girl what was happening so that she would calm down. But better than that the guy suggested that I use PayPal to pay her what was owed. This thought had never crossed my mind due to my hangover and my constant outrage from thinking about the freelancer who had stolen my 30,000 baht nor did I know that most Thai people use PayPal.

Despite about an hour of arguing I paid the young lady double what I owed her apologized and she was once again happy as she went on her merry way. There was no way to thank this staff member of the Metropole enough he required nothing in return for having saved me in that situation. But once again I was able to withdraw more funds from the ATM and I compensated him with several thousand baht anyway.

The front desk lady who had witnessed the embarrassing moment that morning were also very nice and polite. They told me not to worry about what had happened as they had seen far worse. They also encouraged me to contact the police about the theft but I didn’t want to do that. I only hoped that the bulk of the money stolen was sent back home to the girl’s family.

I went on to make the most of my time in Pattaya as remarkable as all the other times and not letting this one incident ruin the entire trip. After leaving Pattaya for a couple of weeks in Phuket I bumped into a well-known YouTuber who ironically experienced something similar in Pattaya not long before this happened to me.

Like I mentioned in the beginning this was entirely my fault. I know better and I should have never let the freelancer see me withdraw the cash. I’ll never hold a grudge against her for doing what she did I’ll only kick myself for being so ignorant. It’s a tough lesson learned but thankfully it didn’t hurt me too much.

How the Money Was Taken

It’s amazing isn’t it? I mean how did she get the wallet out of his pocket considering it had a button and how did she then take the money out get the wallet back into his pocket and button it up again? I could only imagine that in between transactions he must have put his wallet down beside him or on a counter or something and she went in quick. Because there’s no way she could have taken it out of his pocket without him knowing especially with the button on there.

There’s another story that was told a few months ago on here which I believe can happen because the in-house safes every time you check into a hotel there’s a safe in the room. Normally you put your valuables in there and then you key in your own number. Well what happens when you open a safe for the first time the instructions are there and what you have to do is key normally a four digit number then a hash something like that close it and then that’s your safe number. But what happens when you do that is the number stays on screen just for a couple of seconds very very briefly maybe one second I don’t know. And there was a story about a Scottish guy who’d been out same thing in Pattaya he’s blind drunk he went back to his room with a girl.

Remembered all the stories from here had quite a lot of cash on him and instead of waiting for the girl to jump in the shower then put the stuff into the safe (which is the best way to do it) what he’d done she was standing behind him. He keyed in the number put the money in there shut the door ’cause he was drunk and the number stayed there for a split second or a second something like that. She clocked it and she remembered it. So when he was drunk and he was out she just opened the safe and cleared it out. And his money was gone. So it does happen. You have to be very very careful. And of course doing things like taking money out in front of freelancers is not very wise.

Probably better to excuse yourself for 5 minutes and make out you’re going to the pharmacy or something.

My real experience started after COVID when I decided I wanted to live my life and not just work all the time. As I was traveling to Thailand every 3 months I was heading to Bangkok Phuket and the islands having a great time. During one of these trips a friend asked if I’d been to Pattaya and I said no back then I didn’t even know where it was. He said “You have to go.

Story 3 Discovering Pattaya After COVID

So my next trip April 2023 was a month solo and meeting friends later in the trip. I first as always started in Bangkok for 4 days and then off to Pattaya for five nights before heading to Phuket. All I can say is first impressions of Pattaya when I first arrived were not great. It was dirty compared to Phuket and just generally rougher around the edges. At the time I had booked a backpacker hostel on Beach Road so I checked in and ended up just crashing mainly because of the partying in Bangkok.

That morning I woke up and thought I needed a hotel. So I headed to Beach Road and I ended up at a bar near Soi 8. There I met a couple of long-term Pattaya guys from England both had been going to Pattaya for 20 years. After a few beers and a lot of chatting they said to come and stay at their hotel on Soi 7 so I did.

I don’t want to explain the whole holiday as it was full of adventure but I ended up staying for 10 days until I had to leave to meet my friends. I fell in love with Pattaya and all the fun to be had. It’s truly unique and it’s not just about the girls but all the guys are on the same level and I met so many great people.

Since I’ve returned to Australia I’ve been saving and waiting for the peak season to arrive. Now I’m only 5 weeks from Pattaya and I’m no longer a newbie. I’ve got a massive hit list of gentleman’s clubs and bars this time and I plan on doing a full party tour. To all you guys Pattaya will change you forever and it’s hard to go anywhere else once you’ve been to Pattaya.