RAWBangkok

I got an SMS at 10:30 this morning from a bargirl that read: “Hi..How are u?  Can u help me.  I need some money for pay rent room about 2000 baht. about 11:00am today. please help me.”

I guess the first thing to explain is how well I know this girl.

The answer is: not well.  On two occasions I took her to my room and had sex with her.  The first time was a short time session and the second was, effectively, long time.  Aside from that we have traded a few email messages.  I took her home the first time about 4 or 5 weeks ago, and I hadn’t  heard from her in the past two weeks.

So on the face of it, there isn’t any reason for me to help her.

On top of that is the nature of the message itself.  It looks like a broadcast sent to every punter in her contact list.  No personal details (like my name), and since it’s an urgent situation — 30 minutes to raise 2000 baht — a phone call would have been more appropriate than a message if I was her sole target.  So I have no doubt that this same message went to every farang in her list.

So, I should forget about it.  Let someone else help her, if she really needs help.  She’s got to have guys who are more likely than me to help her.

I read the message then strolled into my bathroom to take a shower.

I thought about lots of things after reading the message.  For a girl with a big phone book it seems like a potentially lucrative scam.  Send a message like this and hope that even a portion of the guys you send it to actually donate money; if you’ve collected enough phone numbers from enough satisfied customers, you could rake in the dough.  At two thousand baht, no one is likely to feel extremely scammed if you don’t repay, and if any guy insists, you could always offer to ‘work it off’, treating it as a simple advance payment for services rendered.  A low risk gambit.

Also, the timing is funny.  Today is the 16th and normally in Bangkok the rent is due on the 5th.  Of course you could argue that this explains the urgency — whoever she owes money to has threatened to put her out if she doesn’t ante up by lunchtime, but it just doesn’t ‘feel’ right.  As a friend of mine in Brisbane used to say, it doesn’t pass the “sniff” test.

This particular girl works at one of the overnight bars that spring up along Sukhumvit around midnight and stay open till 5 a.m.  For her to be up at ten in the morning seems unusual… she should be home sleeping.

Lots of possible explanations for that.  Maybe she doesn’t work there any more — the turnover in those places is reminiscent of a telemarketing office.  Maybe she was awakened this morning by an emergency phone call from friend or family and this begging for cash is to help someone else out of a jam and nothing to do with rent.  Maybe she went with a customer last night thinking she’d earn the money she needs for today and when she left at 9 a.m. he stiffed her.

Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Generally, I was thinking of a lot of reasons to ignore the message and not help this girl.

But then I remembered the two times that I saw her.

The first time was nothing very out of the ordinary — I’d had a minor misunderstanding (my fault) with a go go dancer from Shark Bar resulting in the dancer going home with the barfine and my blessing without having had sex with me.  I was walking down Sukhumvit a bit juiced up and horny when I saw this girl — the one who sent me the SMS today.  She looked good, and an hour later she was at home in my bed with me.  She was sexy and fun, and I had a great time.  I paid her what I had planned to pay the go go dancer for the short time, which was 2,000 baht.  Well above the mark for a girl from an outdoor bar on Sukhumvit, but she had definitely earned it.

But I ended up with a problem that was all my fault.

In the morning, I overslept and was an hour late for work.  It’s unusual for me to be late — only the second time in a year — so it wasn’t too big a problem, but I didn’t want it to happen again any time soon.

A couple days later I was in much the same position around 1:00 a.m.  I was at Soi Cowboy, juiced and horny and trying to decide which girl to take home.  Suddenly I remembered what a good time I’d had with Asok-girl just two days earlier.  I went out and talked to her.  She was willing to go with me, but she wanted the same price as before — 2,000 baht.  Ouch!  This is 500 to 1,000 baht over the odds for an Asok corner girl, but I agreed on one condition.

I explained that last time, after she left, I had overslept.  I explained that if it happened again in the same week I might actually lose my job.  I asked her if she could make sure I woke up at 7 a.m.

She came home with me.  I fell asleep while she was in the shower, which I know from experience is a stupid move. She didn’t steal anything and she didn’t forget her promise.

I slept through my alarm at 6:15 but she woke me up at 7 o’clock.  I hadn’t had sex with her yet, so I grabbed a quick shower, came back and fucked her.  We both got dressed and left together — me to work and her to home and sleep.  That was about a month ago and I’ve never seen her again.

But, today, as I showered I remembered those two days, and especially the fact that when I fell asleep she didn’t steal anything from me and didn’t forget about her promise.  She either stayed awake or set an alarm and she woke me up so that I didn’t miss work.

I could have lost my job if she hadn’t.  Even if I kept my job, it would have cost me an easy 2K in lost wages (I charge hourly rates for my work).

I started to think that maybe I should help her.

Yesterday was payday, so I should have had plenty of money, making the decision an easy one.  But I’d had a small misunderstanding regarding the timing of my pay, and yesterday’s deposit to my bank was about 10,000 baht lighter than I had expected.  Again, no drama normally, but I had set up some automatic payments to occur on payday.  Before seeing my actual pay, an extra 14,000 baht payment had already been processed to reduce the balance on my credit card.   If I had been paid as expected, I would have still had plenty of cash, but with the 10K cut in my cash it made it tough to throw another 2,000 baht to this girl.

But then I put things in perspective.

I actually have a lot of options.  I’ve got money in the bank.  I’ve got friends who can cover me for two or five thousand for a few days if I run short.  Push comes to shove I can take cash against my credit card.

I wondered again if Asok-girl really had a problem or not.

And then I figured it didn’t matter.  I value people above money, and I always have.  It’s one of the things that has been a blessing and a curse in my life.

I stepped out of the shower, dried off, and sent her this message: “If no one else will help you then I will loan u the cash if u come pick it up from my room.”

My intent was to give her help if she really needed it, but to try to make it hard enough that she would take the money from a different guy if he was offering.

And I believe she must have gotten several responses, because she was slow responding to my message.  Like a girl trying to chat with several guys online at once, she was sluggish to answer me.

But when she did, this was her reply: “Can you send to my bank [details provided]. Then i go see u.  i will pay soon.  i promise please…“

Well, she got me with that last bit: I promise please…

I went to a branch of her bank near my home and deposited 2,000 baht.  We had to trade about three more emails to get all the info I needed (first & last name, branch location, etc) and each time there was a long pause between messages — too long for a girl in an urgent situation — so I’m sure I wasn’t the only punter agreeing to help her, or at least discussing it with her.

It doesn’t matter.

I may never see the money again, and I certainly don’t expect her to pay me back in actual cash.  Frankly, though, I’m just as happy to take it out in trade.  The girl was fun in bed, and a long-time session in repayment will suit me just fine.

I don’t have any moral-of-the-story closing for you.  All of this happened less than two hours ago.  I have no idea what the end of the story is or will be.

My response may not be typical, but the situation is not unusual at all here in Bangkok.  Bar girls live the kind of lives where they or their friends are almost constantly in need of assistance.  It’s tiring if you deal with them full time.

Perhaps most punters would have simply ignored the message today, but in the end I felt like I wanted to help her, no matter what the truth was of her situation.

As long as it doesn’t become a routine then I’m happy with the decision.