The Secret Thai Girlfriend in Melbourne
I was on a dating site and I started talking to a Thai girl who lives here in Melbourne. We instantly connected and before long we were chatting all day every day. I really wanted to meet her but she said that this could never happen as her daddy (who I presumed was her father) would go crazy if he ever found out. Around three months later we are still chatting each day away. From this dating site we are now exchanging photos and doing video calls. She was one of the sexiest Thai girls I’ve ever seen tanned and tall with a gorgeous face.
She finally agreed to meet me at a beach here. She was even sexier in person wearing tiny shorts. She had really long toned and tanned legs that I could not stop staring at. Months go by and we are meeting more often but she was very secretive. She would never let me pick her up or drop her off at a home. Sometimes when we were chatting on the phone she would suddenly hang up. The relationship became physical and it was amazing.
One day in bed at my place after an aerobic session she started crying. I asked her what was wrong and she came clean. She was married. Her husband was an older Australian guy who was not romantic and made her feel like all he wanted was someone to massage him cook for him clean the house and satisfy him when he had the urge. I said ‘Well you just have to leave him.’ Again she started crying. ‘But he has done so much for me’ she said. They had met in Thailand when this guy was on holiday. She worked at the front desk of the hotel he was staying at. He had brought her to this great country and paid for everything her permanent visa as well as setting her up with a good job and giving her a brand new life.
We kept on meeting in secret. She would panic the whole time worrying that someone would see her. It was madness. We would meet in the dark. We would meet in dark movie theaters or in the handicapped toilets at shopping malls. Some nights she would tell her husband she was going to walk her dog and she would meet me around the corner where I would park my car. She was the sexiest girl I’d ever been with. After six months I was sick of it and basically said ‘If you don’t leave him we’re done.’ She said she would leave him but another three months go by and she hadn’t. So painfully I ended it all. It was a shame as we had a really great connection both in and out of the bedroom but I knew deep down she would never leave her precious daddy.
I have told other people that story and apparently it is quite common here. So my advice is be very careful when meeting Asian girls here in Australia or any country for that matter on dating apps.
Story Two The Violent Filipino Girlfriend
About 10 years ago I met a young sexy Filipino girl from Manila on a dating site. We started chatting more and more so I decided to fly there to meet her. It was a fantastic two weeks as we traveled around her country staying in mainly beach resorts. She was fit and fun just the kind of girl I wanted to be with and of course incredibly sexy. I decided to move to Manila full time. My plan was to get an English teaching qualification online and then we could travel to countries like Vietnam Cambodia and Thailand together.
As is often the case you only find out what someone is like when you live together. I discovered this girl like many Filipinas had an incredible temper and was extremely jealous. One day she demanded to see my phone. I had nothing to hide so I handed it over to her and she went through everything photos chat apps deleted files my internet history you name it. I had nothing to hide as I am not the cheating type even though as a foreign guy in Manila you could have three different girls a day if you wanted to.
I then started to feel she was hiding something so I grabbed her phone off her. She was quite small so I could fend her off with one hand and took a look at her phone with the other as she tried to get it off me. This sent her into what I can only describe as a violent frenzy. She started smashing plates and other crockery in the kitchen. She picked up a chair and threw it at the wall making a huge mark keep in mind I was renting this apartment and had paid a month’s rent as a bond. She threw glasses and coffee mugs at me so I handed her the phone back. I now feared for my life.
I knew I had to get the hell out of there but I also knew if I just came out and told her it was over she would harm herself or try to kill me. I decided to make up a story that I had been offered a teaching job in Vietnam and had to leave right away. When I was safely in Vietnam I called her and ended it as I was not going to be with someone so violent.
I have heard similar stories from other guys about Thai women in particular some can have extreme anger and jealousy issues they keep hidden until later in the relationship. I lived in Japan for two years and found Japanese women too were extremely protective of their man and were cat like to any other females making a play for what they consider to be their property.
Story Three Back to 1988 The Malaysia Hotel and a Different Thailand
my first visit to Thailand back in 1988.
Like the person in your original story I also had my first experience of Thailand in 1988 while still in my youth. I am also 60 years old. Initially I was supposed to have traveled to Thailand in 1987 however my well laid plans were sidelined because I had just bought a house with my brother. I had planned to stay at the Malaysia Hotel and to ensure that I would not back out of going on this solo trip I had paid for a week’s stay with an international money order in 1986. Remember back then there was no internet or online bookings. Because I had committed to buying this property with my brother I then had to write back to the Malaysia Hotel to inform them that I would not be able to visit and would therefore postpone my travel plans.
Full credit to the Malaysia Hotel who then wrote a nice letter to say this was not a problem and they would honor my booking until 1988.
As a solo traveler I was not too concerned about traveling to Asia as I had been to Italy and Amsterdam solo. So Thailand felt like a real foreign country and a challenge but not in a bad way. And truth be told what initially piqued my interest in Thailand was Alan Whicker’s television show in 1984 Whicker’s World on the QE2 liner where some of the crew briefly visited Pattaya.
In May 1988 I departed on my way to Thailand. Being a new property owner money was very tight so I shopped around various travel shops and I found the cheapest flight with Tarom Air which was the national airline of communist Romania. They used to operate these flights twice a week just so they could earn some much needed foreign currency. But there were no Romanian passengers that I could see traveling to Thailand all of the passengers were Western Europeans. And this was the one and only time in my life I have flown on a Boeing 707.
The flight itself was to say an experience. Two thirds of the passengers on this flight were much older than myself however nearly every one of these guys traveling with a partner all had much younger exotic Thai or Filipino wives or girlfriends. And then there were a group of what you would describe as ‘pay for play’ tourists who didn’t look like your average travelers. They were all over 50 and were being herded around by their ‘scout master.’ They looked like a mix of what I would describe as trainspotters and birdwatchers dressed like they were on their way to Bognor Regis not Bangkok. One of them was wearing this thick heavy overcoat over a jacket that just looked odd in May let alone on a flight to Thailand. Each to their own as they say.
The Bucharest Layover
We had a six hour layover in Bucharest and just as I’m walking off the aircraft into the terminal this Australian younger guy Kevin walks up behind me and he says quietly ‘If you want to use a toilet then use it now.’ I thought ‘What an odd thing to say.’ However once I arrived in the terminal I got exactly what he meant. Although this was a so called ‘International Air Terminal’ we were now behind the Iron Curtain in communist Romania. The first shock was to use the bathroom you had to pay I kid you not. I just used all my unwanted European foreign currency largely Dutch and Italian coins and the woman manning the toilet was asking if we had any paper money. Once inside the toilet you then discovered that there was no running water. Water was only on for a few hours a day.
Therefore if you used a toilet there was no water to flush or wash your hands. Hence good advice from this Australian guy Kevin.
I then ended up clicking straight away with Kevin. He was of a similar age as myself also traveling alone. On board the flight as there were no in flight movies I got talking to two other English guys builders around our age from South London. We were all swapping stories. The four of us were all first time newbies to Thailand. Kevin’s reason for traveling to Thailand is a much longer story for another time.
When we arrived in Bangkok a group of what looked like gap year girls sat up the front of the aircraft started clapping once it touched down in Bangkok and this set everybody else off on the flight clapping. The flight was rough and uncomfortable but I’m not sure if they were clapping because we had made it safely back down on the ground or happy to get off this antiquated aircraft.
As I had a hotel reservation and was heading to the Malaysia Hotel given by this time I had paid nearly two years earlier the three others I had been talking with also decided to come over to the Malaysia Hotel as they had not made any type of reservation. However as I was arranging a taxi the two other English guys had somehow signed up for a floating market tour the next morning on what seemed like a too good to be true offer. We found later that the Malaysia Hotel offered a much cheaper deal.
The Malaysia Hotel
When we checked into the Malaysia Hotel there was something like 14 other people from our Tarom flight also staying there which was strange considering the number of available hotels in Bangkok. One couple who remembered me from the flight I later got talking to them in the restaurant that evening. He was an English guy aged about 70 with his Filipino wife who looked younger than me. They were taking a few days in Bangkok for shopping etc. before flying on to the Philippines.
The Malaysia Hotel although looking dated and could have come straight from a James Bond ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ movie was a good hotel with many facilities. The restaurant was always busy and was my favorite part of this hotel as it was open 24 hours and had an extensive menu with a mixture of Thai and Western dishes but not expensive. The two South London guys stuck to eating typical English meals like steak and chips or egg and chips and were somewhat wary about trying the Thai food whereas Kevin and I preferred the Thai meals available.
The Malaysia Hotel was an institution. You could literally meet all sorts of people. It was a crossroads hotel for travelers from all over the world. I met so many different people there Scandinavians Europeans and Americans all with various stories about where they had come from what they were doing and where they were heading. Young old male female it was a crossroads and you never needed to dine alone. Because of the Malaysia’s long history as an R&R spot for U.S. servicemen during the Vietnam War there were always lots of girls hanging around largely around the swimming pool and restaurant hoping to meet a new holiday boyfriend. If it had not been done already you could easily write a book about the Malaysia Hotel and scams.
Myself and Kevin were both similar in nature and character wise hence the reason we got on so well and ended up spending the whole two weeks traveling around Thailand together.
Scams Then and Now
Now one point that the Kiwi guy from ‘Five Stories from Bangkok’ made reference to was that most scams people were not aware of in 1981. I would have to disagree as Kevin had this old battered Thailand travel guide from the early 1970s a hippie neighbor of his had given him when he returned from Thailand and listed in that publication were most of the scams that you needed to be wary of some that still operate today 50 years on. This guide although dated was a very useful reference point. I would say that 90% of the information was relevant.
However the one about not drinking anything with ice was outdated and it also suggested you only drink Coca Cola rather than any local drinks to be safe as the quality of Coca Cola was always guaranteed around the world even though Coke was considerably more expensive than freshly squeezed orange juice or other fruit juice available and definitely not as healthy as fruit juice.
The jewelry scam where someone approaches you on the street and takes you to his relative’s jewelry business and tries to convince you to purchase substandard jewelry that you could apparently sell for a fortune back in your home country they would conveniently have someone tell you that a customer had just done this about two weeks or a month ago and how they had made a fortune that covered the cost of their vacation. As we were wise to this we would play along go to these stores get a free drink and then say we would come back later and buy their jewelry on our return trip home because we were backpacking around Thailand and didn’t want to carry the jewelry around. Nine times out of ten they would try to convince you to part with your money paying a deposit before you left the store.
The third time we tried this one jewelry store owner realizing we were not prepared to pay out for any jewelry there and then got angry and demanded we pay for the so called ‘complementary’ drinks. We gave him 20 Baht each and left.
We also had an incident in a Patpong bar for a so called ping pong show. We had one soft drink in this empty bar and saw what apparently was a show. Then the manager in an all white Saturday Night Fever style three piece suit presented us with a 1000 Baht bill and demanded we pay now for this so called show that lasted no more than three minutes in total. Naturally we argued with two heavies in the background trying to intimidate us claiming we must pay for the show. With no other customers around we put down 100 Baht for drinks and left there fast. Fortunately we got away.
Now by this stage the two South London guys had already departed south to Pattaya after just three days in Bangkok. However in the 1980s and prior to that time in what is still not widely known even today is that despite what few scams the Thais might pull we were generally more at risk from our fellow countrymen than we would be from the average Thai. The fact is a Thai would never kill a tourist because it would be such a major incident that would bring far too much negative attention on the country and put tourists off from visiting and they would be worse off in the long run. Whereas someone from your own country would not have the same concerns.
Warnings About Fellow Travellers
All of the terrible incidents that generally might happen to tourists tended to be caused by people from their own country but some of these were put down to the locals.
Kevin’s old hippie friend had warned him to be very wary of any kind hearted Western people claiming to be looking out for you offering to show you around and take you under their wing. I personally know of one English guy who was one of the nicest people you could ever meet he was born in Hong Kong and raised in the UK. In 1986 he was backpacking all the way from Vietnam to Australia. He was taking the bus from Bangkok and got talking to an English girl sitting next to him during this ride heading down to Southern Thailand. At a rest stop the girl asked if he would like a drink from the shop.
He said yes takes a drink and the next thing he recalls he’s been woken up by the bus driver and all his stuff is gone backpack passport even the money belt he was wearing all gone. The bus driver takes him to a hospital and gets the police involved and they tell him he’s very lucky because sometimes these guys doing these scams get the dosage wrong of whatever drug they are using to sedate people and end up killing them in the process and these types of crimes were not from Thais but from someone from your own country who would engage you. Once you have dropped your guard they would then pounce trying to take advantage of you being naive to the country while claiming to protect you from the Thais all out to scam you.
Naturally we were both wary and on guard and you had to have your wits about you at all times. One time in Pattaya a taxi driver insisted he took us to some dodgy so called ‘English bar’ he said just to have a look run by his apparently good friend. Before we even agreed to go he started driving us there. On arrival Kevin and I both felt uneasy because for one it was some remote place practically in the middle of nowhere and it was dark all around with about four people there three guys and a Thai bar girl.
The other reason it felt off was that they were trying to engage us in pool for money or card games again for money claiming you could win easy money not a problem and if we didn’t have the cash on us we could just get cash off our credit cards. As the both of us were not gamblers we had one drink and left. Kevin said if he was in Australia he would have also given them a wide berth as there was something just off with the whole situation. I can’t quite put my finger on it but it looked like we were being set up to be scammed out of our money.
Pattaya was overall much cheaper than Bangkok with one exception clothing was much pricier than Bangkok. On the whole Pattaya was much seedier than Bangkok as well. At night when walking around we would get propositioned by ladyboys compared to the girls by two to one. I recall we found rooms for two dollars a night by the second or third road. According to the guide in the 1970s you could get a room for one dollar a night. We moved accommodation because Kevin had met some girl the night before and he wanted to avoid getting too involved with her because she was getting very serious very quickly like planning out his day. So with that he switched to another part of Pattaya so he could play the field a bit more.
Back to Bangkok The Night Visitor
After a few days in Pattaya we headed back up to Bangkok and by this time my two weeks was almost up. Back in the Malaysia Hotel again and with this being June in Thailand I had picked up the beginnings of a cold. One evening two days before I’m due to depart back home a Thai girl from the crowd that used to hang around the hotel joined us on the table. We engaged in conversation about her love of all things England and English guys. Being polite I bought her a drink. After an hour it was fast approaching midnight so with my departure flight due soon and trying my best to shake this onset of a cold I decided to be sensible and go to bed early. I didn’t want to be traveling home all bunged up on the flight.
Ten minutes after I arrive in my room I hear a knock at the door. Thinking it must be Kevin but no. It’s the Thai girl from the restaurant who insists she wants to continue our conversation. Stupidly I allow her into my room. When the conversation goes on for too long I really wanted her to leave so that I could sleep Pattaya had worn me out. It’s now the early hours and she asks if she could stay with me as she’d missed the last bus for the night. I should have just suggested she takes a taxi instead but she claims to have no money. So being a gentleman I offered her 100 Baht for a motorbike to get her home. She refuses the money then asks to use my bathroom.
I say yes and when she comes out she has removed all her clothes has a towel wrapped around her and then climbs into my bed.
I said she needed to get dressed and leave but she is pleading that she will just lay beside me to sleep. I said no. I was feeling a bit rough and I just wanted to sleep alone that night. I then warned her that unless she got out of my bed and left I would carry her out of my room. She ignored what I said and just patted the side of the bed inviting me to join her. So with that I grabbed her clothes in the bathroom picked her up and carried her into the hallway and left her there. And with that she finally got the message and departed.
But as I said this was 1988 and there were much more crazier things going on in the Malaysia Hotel all of which could be a footnote in any book. Kevin by the way had planned to get back home to Australia by traveling overland to Singapore and then catching his return flight onto Melbourne. But on the day I departed he met two Scandinavian girls backpacking and they all ended up traveling overland to Singapore together. Then he ended up dating one of the girls for two years as they visited me in London 18 months later when they were on their way to Norway.
To conclude I stayed at the Malaysia Hotel a further four times each time with interesting stories but that was the only one flying with Tarom Airlines. I still continue to visit Thailand today in excess of 50 times in total typically in February or March period preferring to stay in an apartment hotel in Pratunam. As I had a job requiring me to travel to Australia and New Zealand I would always stop over for a few days on the way home. Then when I was briefly based in the Middle East I would also visit Thailand during my regular breaks as it was easier to fly to Thailand than go home to the UK in the midst of winter. I visited the Malaysia Hotel once again back in March 2020 but that is another story for another time.
Story Four The Birthday Cake and the Guilt Trip
September 2022. I had been visiting Phuket Thailand for 10 days with a few of my friends for my 30th birthday. As we landed we booked a shuttle to our villa and our taxi driver had requested us to stop to meet his sister at her massage parlor. Having just landed an hour ago we soon came to realize just how deeply rooted the aerobics is part of their culture with how open minded the conversations were. We soon reached our beautiful villa and having spoken to at least five people during that journey each one of them suggested Bangla Road in Patong.
Having been to Phuket once in 2013 at the age of 21 I had a blurry memory of just how much fun it was but nothing could have prepared us for what was truly awaiting us. As we reached Bangla Road on our first night which was my birthday by the way some of my friends ended up at a regular bar offering Guinness on tap while the rest of us found ourselves at a beer bar. As the night progressed I met a girl named Jib. She was 36 divorced with one child. Throughout the night we engaged in deep conversation where I mentioned it was my birthday. It was soon 12 am and my friends quick to rush to me from the other bar took me towards a gentleman’s club called Susie Wong’s.
Surrounded by red lights beautiful women and alcohol I found myself engaging in conversation with several foreigners while giggling away. Suddenly the girl from the last bar fully dressed compared to the girls in Susie Wong’s walked straight into the gentleman’s club and pulled me out. I was curious as to how they even allowed her in to take out one of their customers. I later found out that the entire alley of bars was owned by the same owner. My friends were in a trance at that moment and I just went along with it wondering if I had made this girl jealous. As we got out she started kissing me and asked me to bar fine her. I didn’t want to leave my friends so I told her I would meet her at a club one of my friends was at.
I went back in and soon found myself being dragged by five beautiful women along with my friends to the other gentleman’s club which was open until 3 am. I never got the chance to go to the nightclub.
The next day we went back to the same area and sober I hoped to meet Jib again. To my amazement she was there and greeted me with the biggest hug ever. I was shocked that she remembered me as the drinks had flowed and she was quite drunk like the rest of us. She told me she had brought me a cake with her money and was waiting for me at the nightclub from the previous night. My heart dropped when I heard that she had done this for me and I decided that this girl has gone out of her way to make sure I enjoy myself. Needless to say I spent the whole week with her.
After a few drunk nights of trying to make it up to her we soon decided to get lunch on her day off. We visited the market. I just couldn’t understand how people drink this much alcohol every night for a living. I was hoping I would get to know her over a nice lunch. That was when I began to realize a different sober side to things. She did not engage in any conversation but our friends actually ended up with my friends for the rest of the trip. Jib was continually trying to guilt trip me into paying her more money. I hadn’t paid anything apart from lady drinks which were quite expensive. As we reached the village she told me it was ‘that time of the month’ for her. Having had a great day I decided I should just sleep over.
Money Talk and Mixed Feelings
The next few days we met and I realized that she was really good at convincing me into going back with her. As the week progressed conversation started getting more and more about money. At one point I couldn’t believe how emotionally connected I felt having known this person for only a few days but I felt like we had been together for months. I knew what I had got myself into and wanted out. So having told her over a few drinks she bursts into tears. I tried to make it up to her and I soon left.
As we reached closer to the end of the trip I decided I’m going to make it up and leave on a good note but at the same time enjoy being a butterfly on my own. I had a great time. I knew I was just another guy on her list and she would be fine on her own. When people say you should not take a bar girl too seriously it’s all about the money I must say that it feels like the most realistic feeling ever. Thailand is one of the most beautiful experiences I have ever had and I plan to go back in another few months. This story doesn’t have a bad ending really.
Jib and I are still connected on social media and I would just like to share the rollercoaster of emotions I went through during the 10 days with Jib.
