No "fine dining Pattaya style" to report as yet, but I will try to fit Cafe des Amis, Casa Pascal and a few others in when I can. No Chinese patrons seen anywhere at all, yet, either. Perhaps they - and a few more farang - will fly in once Christmas gets closer.
To continue my report...
Tuesday was spent at Dongtan Beach which, for the first time, showed a few signs of old-style activity. A few blue-jacketed masseurs were now offering their services and the number of ice cream sellers and DVD hawkers had also slightly increased. Falang numbers are still, though, comparatively low.
Tuesday night proved to be less adventurous than Monday. I had exchanged Skype messages with Monday night’s boy from X-Boys and had agreed to take him off as soon as the bar opened at 8 pm, so as to maximise our time together.
Getting to a bar that early in the evening is something that I can’t recall doing in a long time and it was a fascinating experience. As I entered X-Boys at 8.01 pm there were, unsurprisingly, no customers at all, yet a conga line of about 15 or so boys in undies was parading in a circle around the stage to the sound of Abba’s Dancing Queen. Is the routine a sort of team-bonding exercise, I wonder, designed to get them in the mood before the customers arrive? Having asked to take out the boy, I was pleasantly surprised not to be expected to waste money on having to buy a drink while waiting for him to get dressed. In fact, the various mamasans and waiters couldn’t have been nicer. While I waited, the boys’ parade stopped and a fascinating scene took place. From the back of the bar, the voice of, I assume, the boss, began taking a roll-call just like would be done at school, calling out in turn each boy’s number and then the appropriate name. After each one, someone on stage would call back “Kap!” After the roll-call (no-one seemed to have bunked off that night) the boss gave a little pep-talk, also addressing some remarks to “doorman”. Everyone listened very attentively (X-Boys seems a well-run ship). At that point, my young man emerged in street clothes and we left. As a result, I’m unable to confirm anyone’s longstanding fantasies about compulsory – and no doubt invasive - employees’ medical inspection before commencement of the evening’s work. Still, we can go on dreaming.
Having already agreed to meet two falang friends for dinner, I brought my boy along too. Although communication was still a difficulty (he has minimal English, just as my friends and I have minimal Thai) he gamely tried some unfamiliar food and, indeed, opted for wine before later reverting to beer. I hope and think that he enjoyed the experience – but, in such a situation, who really knows what the boys are thinking?
By 10 pm we were ready to go back to my hotel where, interspersed with occasional horrified glances at a rather violent Italian movie, dubbed into Thai, about demonic possession and exorcism, we whiled away the time until well after 2 am when he had to leave (he has a second job as a cleaner at night). Once again, he showed real skill as a customer-pleaser, consistently taking the initiative in finding out what I wanted to do and then acting on it with a convincingly-maintained show of pleasure and enthusiasm. The X-Boys work ethic and training programme yet again turns up trumps. I have to say that he has given this particular holiday the best start of any that I’ve enjoyed for many years.
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Originally Posted by Marsilius
