Soi 6 was never quiet day or night. Motorcycles roared down the narrow street. Western and Thai music blasted from a score of competing sound systems. The conversations between the girls were in loud Thai. The dialogues with the farang men braving the gauntlet of bars running from Beach Road to 2nd Road switched to shouts in bad English.
"Hey, sexy man. You want sexy lady." The 23 year-old bar girl on the stoop of Chic bar had yelled this same phrase over a hundred times in the last two hours. Ping had hooked two western men. Both had gone inside. One to have drinks and another for short-time upstairs. Her long silky hair and large breasts was a magnet to the lust-filled foreigners.
A shy 18 year-old in the back row of the girls on the terrace watched Ping's every move. This was Oom's first day. Ping was her 3rd cousin on her father's mother's side. Her brother had been arrested for ja-bah. 15 tua or pills. He was in provincial prison. The police wanted bail of 50,000 baht. Oom was the youngest and prettiest girl left at home. Her parents decided that her beauty would save her brother.
Two farangs stared at her. They were bigger than any man in her village. One of them larger than her father's pig. Her olive eyes dropped to the ground. She was not a virgin. Her boyfriend had taken his pleasure with her after drinking too much beer the previous Songkran. He left her for another girl a week later.
"Your brother stay in 'kook' long time, you stay so 'iang aii'." Ping pulled her out of the chair. "You shy family no pay police. Girl like you make big money. Go home fast. Forget here."
"I scared farang." Oom's long hair furled down her bare back like a black sail snapping in the wind. Her stick-thin legs disappeared up into her sparkling mini-skirt. She weighted at most 41 kilos.
"Farang man. Thai man same. Want lady short-time. Pee standing up. Lying down." Ping had been in Pattaya 5 years. She had once gone to Switzerland and another time to France. Neither man lasted more than 6 months. Ping was 100% Thai. Without green papaya salad or sum tam in her belly, she would lose her soul. "Men come here to see new girl. No one Soi 6 more new than you. I help you get good man."
Several men approached Ping. They smelled of rotten meat and unwashed feet. Ping said Oom was too good for them. Two young men asked if both girls wanted to go inside. They had nice smiles, but Ping shook her head. Afterward her cousin explained, "Young man fuck long time. Steal your power. Old man better. Not strong."
"How old?" Some of the men staring at her looked old enough to be dead. Ping knew many of them by name. She was very 'hit' or popular with these white-haired elders. The owner of the bar, Frank, was old, but he never touched any of his girls. He called her 'Liebsten' and
"Last week I go with man. He 78. Not want sex. Only want to talk. One hour. Better he have sex. Faster. Not steal my time." Ping spoke hard as the gravel-packed road outside her house. She had two babies from her boyfriend. They lived together here. He worked as an agent for a ja-bah dealer.
"I still scared." Oom didn't like the way Pi-et studied her body. She could read her mind. One day he would try something. One day when Ping was with customer long-time. She couldn't not stop him. He was a bad man.
"Not scared. Here comes your #1." Ping nodded her head toward a tall farang. His skin was as white as paper. His pants were pulled high over his waist. Several bar girls laughed at his appearance.
"I no like."
"No like. This not TV movie with happy ending. This Soi 6. Your brother in jail. Family need money. Drac easy customer. All he want is kiss your underwear. No sex." Ping whispered as if she didn't want the other bar girls to hear this trade secret.
"Not want sex?"
"No, he kiss your bikini. He not take off his bikini. One hour 2000 baht."
"2000 baht?" No one in her village made that much money in one hour. Not even one day, except for agents selling ja-bah or the police or the headman who expected money from everyone.
"One hour. Get money after he finish." Ping called to Drac. He came over. Ping explained that this was Oom's first day. Drac smiled with yellow teeth. He smelled nice, despite his sick appearance. Ping pushed her side and told the mama-san that Drac was taking her upstairs. he asked her several questions going up the steps to the second floor. She nodded and he said, "You really are new?"
"No kohok. first day."
"You ever be with a farang before?"
"Never." She opened
"Then today is my lucky day."
The mama-san had told her that you can see if a man's penis is sick if he is naked, and she said they had to take a shower. Drac he shook his head. "We not have sex. No reason to have shower."
Oom didn't understand why, but started to take off her clothes. Drac waved his hand and pushed Oom onto the head, then tugged her short skirt over her waist. He moaned several times as he undressed down to his underwear. His skin was the same texture as a plucked chicken. She shut her eyes when he spread her legs with his hands. His kisses on her underwear were bot. His breath fast. The hour lasted forever, but in the end he stood up and gave her 3000 baht.
"For you to have good luck." He dressed in 5 seconds and accompanied her to the bar. "Maybe I'll see you again. I like skinny girls."
The mama-san congratulated Oom's initiation and Ping entered the bar beaming with pride. The owner, Frank, looked sad and said, "Drinks for liebsten and her cousin, die schone Ping."
"Two tequilas." Ping held up her fingers and wai-ed the old German. The mama-san poured white liquid into small glasses. It smelled the same as 'lao khao' or rice whiskey. It was fire in her mouth and acid in her throat. Ping laughed at her younger cousin. "You will like it soon enough."
"What is skinny?" Oom coughed with her head spinning. She never drank lao.
"Pom and many farangs like girls pom. You are big success."
Oom nodded her head, for while this wasn't the success she dreamed of as a child, she was a little closer to getting her brother out of jail. She was good in math and did the numbers in her head. Only 17 more times with Drac and she could be a young girl again. Maybe not in her moo-ban, but in Krueng-Thep anything was possible. After all Bangkok was the city of dreams. Pattaya was another story and one best told after the fact.
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