Reed in Asia - Asian diary - Asia25: Back to Bangkok and the dome

Reed in Asia

Back to Bangkok and the dome

A life-changing trip

I packed my bag and then made my way down to reception, at the counter I asked for the bill and told them that I was checking-out. When I received the bill, I thought that it was a lot of money just for a room for three nights, food and beer, but I paid it anyway. There was no sign of Dumrong yet, so I just sat in the lounge and ordered a cup of tea, then looking at my receipt from reception, I could now see why the bill was so expensive, I had been charged for Dumrong's room aswell, so obviously he had arranged that with them. A little later, I was just finishing my tea when Dumrong arrived, so I grabbed my bags and went with him to the car and we then set off back to Bangkok. I was expecting a lot of questions and comments about the girl and the evening before, that was why I was not looking forward to this drive back with him, but he never mentioned it at all.

When we arrived in the Bangkok area, I knew that we only had about twenty more minutes to drive to Don Muang and I was looking forward to getting back to the hotel, just relaxing a little and working out my installation plans for the dome for the next day. Then Dumrong started driving towards the city, so I asked him where we were going and he replied that he wanted to introduce me to one of his friends and the first thing that I thought was "Here we go! Another one of his friends for me to take care of and pay for", I could not have been more wrong. We arrived at a house on the outskirts of Bangkok and Dumrong said that this was his friend's house, the house was surrounded by a high wall, so at first I could not see it properly, then Dumrong got out of the car, went to the gate and rang the bell and after a while, the gate was then opened and we drove in. When I got out of the car, Dumrong introduced me to an older Thai man who's name was 'Banyat', Banyat shook my hand and then asked me to follow him, he led me to a veranda that was covered with a bamboo latticework and creeping plants and asked me to sit down on one of the rattan armchairs that he had in there.

Banyat then asked me if I would like a beer and I said that I would love a beer, so he went into the house and came back with a large bottle of Singha beer and a glass for me. He then asked me if I liked Thai food, so I told him that I loved Thai food, he asked me what Thai food I liked and I just said "Anything". Banyat then went back into the house for a while and returned with a beer for himself and one for Dumrong, he then sat down and we all started talking. The company that Dumrong worked for was called 'Annex Motors' and apparently Banyat was a senior manager there, Banyat seemed like a very nice person and he was genuinely interested in me and my background and he told me that he used to be a Police Colonel in Bangkok before he worked for Annex motors and we sat there talking and drinking very easily. His wife then came out and he introduced us, she moved things around on the table there, went back inside the house and returned a couple of minutes later with plates and bowls of food, went back into the house again and then returned with more food, I looked at all of this food and it looked more like a banquet than just a meal to me.

We all then sat at the table to eat, there was a lot of food and many dishes that I had never seen before. The food was all wonderful, I sat there eating for a long time, which was very unusual for me, usually I just liked to snack. We stayed at Banyat's house all afternoon that day and Banyat kept plying me with beer, but I had to get back to the hotel and start preparing for the next day, so I told Banyat that although I really enjoyed my time at his house and his hospitality, I had to leave and get ready for the next day, he said that he understood and he also said that he would go to visit me at the dome sometimes. We got back to the Airport hotel that day at about 18:00, after dropping me off, Dumrong said that he would see me at the dome the next day and then drove away. I went up to my room, got all of my paperwork and technical manuals out and started to make a plan for the installation, I had never done an installation before and the company never gave me any guidelines, it was all new to me and I just tried to plan things logically. A couple of hours later, when I thought that I had worked out everything, I took a shower, got changed and went down to the hotel lounge. I sat there with a beer and just listened to the Philippine band, after a while the other GQ guys joined me there and they all wanted to know about Pattaya and Sattahib, so I told them the whole story, well, most of it, I left some of the private parts of it out.

That night we all sat in the lounge for a while drinking beer and listening to music, later we adjurned to the disco, this was becoming a routine now. When everyone had had enough for the night, we all went to our rooms and everyone agreed to meet for breakfast the next morning at 07:00. So I went back to my room and as per my personal routine by then, I got a beer for a nightcap, put the music on and lay on the bed