December 15th, 2007, 15:28
My last night in LOS and IтАЩm on a bus from Payatta to BKK set for an early morning departure.
Quick check in at the hotel and then over to DickтАЩs before taking in a final show at HotMale. Turn off the big street and the normally well lit soi with many boy bar signs is dark. ItтАЩs quiet at 8:00PM. And then I realize IтАЩm making my way down the darkened soi surrounded by a sea of angels. Many wearing yellow. The working boys from the bars and their friends fill the soi. A candle in each hand and now an angel puts a yellow candle in my hand and another hunk is lighting me up with his flame igniting my candle. My questioned expression and someone says тАЬIn Honor of the KingтАЭ.
And then I hear the PA system broadcasting for the entire soi a transmission from one of the Kings 80th Birthday celebrations. At some point the boys break into song along with the sound from the PA and I assume itтАЩs the national anthem. They all know, they all sing.
The darkness is so strange for this soi and the faces of the angels lit by candles told me this was a very special time and place. A special happening! And I was in the middle of this sea of boys with voices coming together as one. With no exceptions, all were respectfully honoring their King.
And the music stops. The celebration is over. Signs are flashing on and my sea of angels has become a bevy of little whores. The working boys are still in the street and many are melting their candles into a forest of lights burning around their special temples. And the massage boys and some bar touts are scraping candle wax from the asphalt with others sweeping the road.
Only in Thailand! What a special time and place I was able to witness. For a moment in time these boys that I love could have been the Vienna Choir Boys. But these innocent young faces have more years and experiences that I can ever imagine.
It was hard to leave, to say good-by to no one in particular but to the whole scene. For a final experience I walk up the stairs at Bonny's and receive my first тАШfour handerтАЩ massage by two wonderful boys. A special treat that leaves me Happy and smiling inside as the magic carpet in the sky carries me across the Pacific and back to another world and the harsh reality of US Customs.
Why did it take a lifetime to discover this Yellow Brick Road?
I was raised thinking I was in the land of the free and the home of the brave. And near the end of my journey I find I had never known freedom. Only in a far-away place with boys called Thai have I found freedom from the clouds that have followed me and lurked overhead ever so close.
I will not be happy and smile as deeply until I can once again feel the peace and spirit of this wonderful land and its people.
Only in Thailand!
Quick check in at the hotel and then over to DickтАЩs before taking in a final show at HotMale. Turn off the big street and the normally well lit soi with many boy bar signs is dark. ItтАЩs quiet at 8:00PM. And then I realize IтАЩm making my way down the darkened soi surrounded by a sea of angels. Many wearing yellow. The working boys from the bars and their friends fill the soi. A candle in each hand and now an angel puts a yellow candle in my hand and another hunk is lighting me up with his flame igniting my candle. My questioned expression and someone says тАЬIn Honor of the KingтАЭ.
And then I hear the PA system broadcasting for the entire soi a transmission from one of the Kings 80th Birthday celebrations. At some point the boys break into song along with the sound from the PA and I assume itтАЩs the national anthem. They all know, they all sing.
The darkness is so strange for this soi and the faces of the angels lit by candles told me this was a very special time and place. A special happening! And I was in the middle of this sea of boys with voices coming together as one. With no exceptions, all were respectfully honoring their King.
And the music stops. The celebration is over. Signs are flashing on and my sea of angels has become a bevy of little whores. The working boys are still in the street and many are melting their candles into a forest of lights burning around their special temples. And the massage boys and some bar touts are scraping candle wax from the asphalt with others sweeping the road.
Only in Thailand! What a special time and place I was able to witness. For a moment in time these boys that I love could have been the Vienna Choir Boys. But these innocent young faces have more years and experiences that I can ever imagine.
It was hard to leave, to say good-by to no one in particular but to the whole scene. For a final experience I walk up the stairs at Bonny's and receive my first тАШfour handerтАЩ massage by two wonderful boys. A special treat that leaves me Happy and smiling inside as the magic carpet in the sky carries me across the Pacific and back to another world and the harsh reality of US Customs.
Why did it take a lifetime to discover this Yellow Brick Road?
I was raised thinking I was in the land of the free and the home of the brave. And near the end of my journey I find I had never known freedom. Only in a far-away place with boys called Thai have I found freedom from the clouds that have followed me and lurked overhead ever so close.
I will not be happy and smile as deeply until I can once again feel the peace and spirit of this wonderful land and its people.
Only in Thailand!