Days in the Life of a Pattaya Hotel Owner

I have been thinking recently of lines from shows and quotations from famous people. Perhaps I have too much time on my hands. This mental diversion has, however, been the result of more and more people referring to me as “that writer bloke”. I suppose in its own way, this is flattering. One never knows…some of them may even have read my book! I wondered, if I never wrote another word, whether in twenty years time I would still be called “that writer bloke”.

I recall when working in London as an insurance broker, back in the early ‘80, one of my colleagues was a guy by the name of Alan Gowling. Alan had been a professional footballer of some repute and played, most notably, for Manchester United from 1966 to 1972. Our company was responsible for all of the players and stadium insurances, so Alan — as an ex-footballer — was a useful addition to the company. We were having a few beers after work one evening when someone walked up to him and said, “Didn’t you used to be Alan Gowling?” How do you respond to that? Whilst obviously he was still Alan Gowling he was no longer Alan Gowling the footballer. Therefore not only did he hang up his boots but, in the public eye, he had also hung up his name.

The Alan Gowling story then bought to mind a line from one of the songs in Andrew Lloyd Webbers’ Evita where Eva Peron was crying on the shoulder of an Admiral of the Fleet bemoaning the fact that the cognoscenti still thought of her as a prostitute. “Well my dear,” the Admiral said, “they still call me Admiral although I gave up the sea a long time ago!” I just love that line.

This lead me into considering the working girls here in Pattaya and how easy or difficult it would be for them to shake off their past and enjoy a traditional relationship in the years ahead, if they so chose. Women, I am sure, would better know the answer, but whatever the motivation, the world attaches a stigma to this profession — the oldest in the world they tell me. Personally I would have gone for gynecology or midwifery as being the oldest profession, but I have been unable to secure any documentation to validate this.

The next thing that came to my mind was a wonderful story attributed, I believe, to the great George Bernard Shaw. It may have been a quote, it may have been a scene from one his plays, or it may not have come from him at all!!! If anyone knows for sure please do not hesitate to share your superior knowledge on this with me. However, from my recollection Shaw was at a gathering of socialites when he espied an attractive woman who took his fancy. “Madam you are beautiful, would you have sex with me for a shilling?” he enquired. The response was a look of disgust quickly followed by a slap across dear George’s face. Undaunted, Shaw approached the same woman a little later and said, “Madam I still find you to be most beautiful and I am impelled to enquire whether you would you have sex with me for one pound.” This merely served to incense the lady further who rebuked him and delivered another slap across his face. Now we all know Shaw was not a man easily diverted so, a suitable period of time having been allowed to elapse, he approached the same woman for a third time. “Madam if I have offended you I apologise, however to me you are beautiful and I must enquire as to whether you would have sex with me for one hundred pounds?” The woman replied, “One hundred pounds, why did you not say that in the first place? Yes for one hundred pounds I will have sex with you.” Shaw then immediately turned away and said to a fellow guest, “There you go, that proves what I have always said. All women are prostitutes it is just a matter of haggling over the price!”

Priceless stuff that and I wonder if I can get away with writing this in these politically correct times! If it turns out not to be attributable to George Bernard Shaw then I humbly apologies to the late Mr. Shaw whilst taking my hat off to the rightful author, whoever he may be. Now before you go jumping down my throat, do not get me wrong — it is not a theory I buy into…well not totally anyway. However, it has made me consider the differences or lack thereof between the overt sexual behaviour of many Thai women against that of their Western counterparts. There are many women who will only go out with a man because of his social standing or financial position. There are many women who will eventually have sex with a man after being taken out to a number of restaurants or places of entertainment or been bought fine jewels. There are any number of similar scenarios that will see a women agreeing to have sex with a man after first having extorted money from him in one guise or another. I am not criticizing here, I am not endeavouring to put women down, and I am most certainly not saying that all women are prostitutes. However, I am saying that we need to try hard to avoid using double standards before we typecast Thai women for their behaviour.