THE WEEK THAT WAS On enjoying one’s work; why Rooster could never retire

[rooster59]

 

It was the early 1980’s and I’d already fallen hopelessly in love with Thailand. Just one problem - money.

 

So where to go to replenish funds? Working in Thailand seemed a step too far. Neither the Nation nor the Post were hiring foreign reporters, they just needed sub-editors.

 

Returning to the UK - just like nowadays - filled me with deep apprehension. So I plumped for the land of milk and honey, Australia!

 

After brushing up my Aussie slang, I hoped to make my fortune then return to Krung Thep in glory with a fistful of dollars and enrol in a Thai course.

 

This I managed but it was via hook and crook and more than a few amusing incidents and jobs along the way. 

 

I arrived in Perth in 1984 with $40 on a working holiday visa. I told the immigration officer that funds were arriving imminently at Westpac. The first of many occasions when I was economical with the truth down under. 

 

Then I promptly did what any self-respecting Brit would do in the circumstances - tried to sign on the dole.

 

The officious clerk pointed out that I had been away from the UK more than the stipulated 6 weeks - it’d been six months - and Mr Hawke had deemed this too long to be eligible to be a Pommie bludger. 

 

Yikes. I had to find a job! But what? The Scottish woman at my hostel let me paint the place in lieu of rent so that was a start of sorts. I then worked for Tubemakers of Western Australia painting white posts white. 

 

My work colleagues were rough and ready but very pleasant. How they loathed the management. It was like being on the shop floor in England again! 

 

One told me that the bosses were so bad that they began with the letter “A” and I was encouraged to guess.

 

“Er….awful, nah, mmm….appalling?” I ventured.

 

“No, mate this lot are abnoxious, that’s what they are, feckin’ abnoxious”. 

 

(Decades later I’d compete in the Australian Scrabble championships and could only finish 7th - many of them can spell…)

 

Pay at Tubemakers was reasonable but I needed to get-rich-quick so I put 10 bucks in my pocket and hitched lifts to Sydney. Nearly dying on the way when a ute I was riding in almost exploded on the Nullabor, I reached Liverpool (an Aussie town where your hubcaps are safe) four days later and immediately spent my last few cents riding into the center on a double-decker train. 

 

I went into a job center and found an advertisement for a proofreader. I took the precaution of going into about eight other job centers to steal the relevant card from the rack in case I had unwanted competition for the position. 

 

By the end of the day I was an  employee of Edward H. O’Brien at Milson’s Point. For the next nine months I earned my fortune first checking ads for the Yellow Pages then as a humble clerk. Oooh but the overtime was good!

 

A fellow proofreader was a Justice of the Peace who admitted to enjoying dressing in pink tutu on weekends. My! the men were gay in Australia!  It came as quite a surprise as I thought they were all Jeff Thomson or Dennis Lilley with sheilas on both arms. The portly JP was a nice guy and helped me get my Filipina girlfriend from Toongabbie a divorce behind her parents’ back.

 

She’d been forced to marry a “rello” to get him a visa to enter the country. He took his golf clubs to the ceremony, she told me, and rather than going on honeymoon he went for a round afterwards.

 

The clerk’s office had some characters. One was Laurie, a hilarious near retirement age woman who was proud of her convict heritage and made the life of Geoff, our long suffering Geordie boss, pure hell.

 

One day Laurie did something she called the “raw prawn”. She taped a large prawn under Geoff’s chair and waited. By next morning his secluded office stunk to high heaven and he couldn’t work out why! 

 

On another occasion Laurie arrived in the morning with a headache and took some aspirin. Or so she thought. “Oh shoot,” she suddenly exclaimed, calling over the hapless Geoff, more resigned to her shenanigans than a Newcastle supporter is to their hopeless team.

 

“Geoff, mate,” she drawled. “Just took two Mogadon, mate, by mistake, mate”. She scurried to the rest room and spent the whole day fast asleep before knocking off time!

 

Barry the floor boss was a decent sort, too. I was obliged to go and see him one morning when Australian Immigration informed me I was in breach of working holiday rules by staying in one job too long. I resigned with a twinkle in my eye saying I’d be back later. Armed with “proof” of leaving my job, immigration gave me another vital six months after which I returned to Barry who asked what he should do with my letter of resignation.

 

I pointed at the bin and we high-fived after he made a great Jordanesque shot and I went back to my desk.

 

Despite the crash of the Aussie dollar in 1985 I returned to Bangkok mid-year and started at AUA. The rest is history.

 

In 2013 after years as a teacher I tried retirement aged 52. I lasted 2 years, it was not for me. Thaivisa beckoned in 2016 and - the economic climate notwithstanding I could see myself doing this translating-column-writing lark for many a moon.

 

I am a busy guy, almost never bored, and I find working a perfect foil to being idle. One balances the other and I don’t think I’ll ever retire.

 

Keel over at my keyboard more likely!

 

It was another lively week in Thailand.

 

Prayuth’s acceptance that the country must reopen was confirmed as 46 countries went on the no quarantine list. 

 

Of course foreign tourists will still need to book at least one night in an SHA+ or AQ hotel to wait for the RT-PCR test result but, as many positive posters pointed out, this is a vast improvement on before. 

 

Pubs, bars and soapies remain shut but I expect to see these open come December. The real reopening is New Year and January (and Chinese hols in February…..)

 

In vaccination news, Pink Card holding foreigners can get their first jab this month and the rest in November. Double vaxxed people in Thailand passed 40%.

 

Rooster was at the Central Vaccination Center at Bang Sue station last Sunday. There were barely 200 people in the cavernous concourse. I got my second AstraZeneca in seven minutes then contemplated buying a snazzy “I Got Jabbed at Bang Sue” t-shirt. Only available on Shoppee for 350 baht, said the lady. 

 

Those who have had two AZ shots like me will get notification of another one from February. From my perspective - adopting the tried and tested, don’t panic Mr Mainwaring strategy - it has been well organized, straightforward and FREE!!!

 

Yes, others have not been so lucky but I believe you make your own luck and far too many posters on ASEAN NOW are overthinking things getting bogged down in minutiae. 

 

Methinks they’ve been listening to their Thai wives too much, nearly always a fatal mistake.

 

Such was the hand wringing that many posters - except those on ASEAN NOW’s Facebook arm - missed the fact that Sinovac, the final dregs thereof, was going into foreigners’ arms. 

 

Missing this red rag to a bull was surprising given the huge anti-China rhetoric that the forum is prone to.

 

Prayuth now accepts that the Covid-19 numbers, like the UK, are set to rocket. But the health system can just about cope and the vax numbers have at last reached a decent threshold. 

 

There have been many bumps on the way and Thailand is by no means out of the woods but progress has been made so I’m putting my bashing rants on hold….at least for this week!

 

The next thing to worry about will probably be inflation. In the more developed world prices are rising fast and I expect this in Thailand especially as those who do have a job have plenty of spare cash. Every business owner will be scandalously marking up their prices under the guise of increased costs, just watch.

 

Filling up the car and bikes this week reflected this - over 30 baht a liter compared to less than 20 last year. Yikes!

 

With inflation will eventually come higher interest rates that will be good news for savers to offset other costs.

 

Savers this week were freaked when many banks reported small sums stolen from tens of thousands of accounts in an alarming fraud linked to online shopping, debit and credit cards.

 

My experience with banks both here and abroad is that they are pretty good at reimbursing customers. Bangkok Bank repaid me in days after a 10,000 baht withdrawal from an ATM gave me nothing and debited my account. Barclays in London paid up promptly when someone withdrew 150 quid from my account in Rome. I’ve never been to Italy!

 

One of the best stories of the week was based on comments by former playboy, businessman, massage tycoon, politico and jailbird Chuwit Kamolwisit who gave us the benefit of his vast experience in the sex industry.

 

The angle of the ASEAN NOW story, was based on a comment he made about Vietnam era GI’s leaving a “legacy of sex culture”.

 

This was fair enough for a site for foreigners, but not Chuwit’s main focus. That was corruption among Thai-Chinese businessmen in cahoots with the police. 

 

Many forum posters overreacted as usual imagining that it was Thais blaming foreigners again. They can’t help themselves; they seem to loathe Thailand but funnily enough can’t leave her alone. Go figure!

 

Rooster slipped in some experiences of his own in the story. I’ve never met Chuwit but I think we could have quite an interesting conversation. He might even learn something, Rooster says modestly!

 

His main focus was how the R and R in the 60’s and 70’s and other developments in Thailand’s huge sex industry - like the numbered hotels in Wisut Kasat Road - led to the Ap-Op-Nuat’s of today. Those hotels - 99, 88 etc - were scandalous short time knocking shops. The customers were Thai. I went once, made my excuses and left. Thank goodness they’re now a footnote in Chuwit’s history.

 

The story was a trip down memory lane by the firebrand ex-TV presenter who now holds court on Facebook. 

 

Best bust of the week was at a tapas bar in Central World right next to RTP HQ! Pathumwan plod rounded up the hapless patrons scandalously imbibing that wicked alcohol.

 

Never short on shocking crime, Thailand excelled again. In Trang a younger monk took a scythe to his Luang Phee who was hogging the donations limelight. That would never do! His saffron robes were covered in blood and the older monk nearly had his nostrils detached. 

 

A bit like cutting off your nose to spite your faith.

 

Even more heinous was a Saraburi stepfather who tied an eight year old to a beam, thrashed him with flex, fed him his own urine then kicked him to death. He was arrested after fleeing south.

 

I shall never be in favor of the death penalty not least of all because rotting in a Thai prison is far worse punishment. Just don’t ever let him out.

 

Finally, there was light at the end of the tunnel for us parents with young children. We’re hoping that the kids might be back at what Thais now call “onsite learning” sometime in November. 

 

I’m heading off to Pattaya with the family this coming week to see how the other half live. I’ll write about my experiences next week.

 

It’ll be my first trip outside the Bangkok area since before Christmas. I haven’t been abroad or on a plane for three years. 

 

Like many of my readers I’m sure, we can’t wait for all this lurgy looniness to end.

 

Here’s hoping!

 

Rooster

 

 

 

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[nkg]

Love the anecdotes about your time in Oz, let's have more of "Rooster's Autobiography" in future installments! ????

[fangless]

23 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

I am a busy guy, almost never bored, and I find working a perfect foil to being idle. One balances the other and I don’t think I’ll ever retire.

In order to help stave off the dreaded retirement why don't you write a book about your travels etc!

Old RC at the POST seems to have succeeded in that sort of venture.

[clivebaxter]

Glad he reminded us how long he's been here again some might have missed it in the past, not a bad effort but Bangkok Phil and Andrew Biggs were the kings of this sort of material.

[toofarnorth]

Hey , some similarities here.  I arrived in Perth after an overland trip of 15 countries in 15 weeks .  Not allowed  to land in Oz without 50 quid , oh this was Dec. 1970.  Between about 4 of us on the 'Australasia ' we managed the 50 quid by passing it to the next broke bloke. Truth being I arrived at Freemantle with 35 cents.

The remaining girl in our group had a sister in Perth so digs were sorted. Next day I signed on. The lady there said sign here ............what for I wanted work not benefits.

Too much for here but worked for Australian Aerial Mapping for about a year up in the north west. A great time , glad I still have the photos.

[mommysboy]

Sounds like rooster is an 'old testament sort' hiding behind jocularity, and I took particular exception to the make your own luck trope where vaccines are concerned.

[Gandtee]

'Cutting off you nose to spite your faith!' Nice one.????

[George Aylesham]

4 hours ago, nkg said:

Love the anecdotes about your time in Oz, let's have more of "Rooster's Autobiography" in future installments! ????

nkg - You beat me to it; I was going to ask rooster to write his autobiog too. Whatever - its sure to be a best seller.

[sambum]

1 hour ago, Gandtee said:

'Cutting off you nose to spite your faith!' Nice one.????

Beat me to it - mind I got up late!

[MUSTYJACK]

Quote

In 2013 after years as a teacher I tried retirement aged 52.

Was retirement your choice, or was it shall we say "foisted" on you by your employer?

 

Just wonderin' like.

[BostonRob2]

37 minutes ago, MUSTYJACK said:

Was retirement your choice, or was it shall we say "foisted" on you by your employer?

 

Just wonderin' like.

I'd planned to retire eight months after I actually did. My hand was forced after my boss, my headmaster,refused to allow me to go to Prague to represent Thailand in the world Scrabble championship of 2013. I appealed to a committee, he refused to budge so I resigned mid-term. I was only a little short of my financial target, it made no difference. I went to Prague a few weeks later. 

 

Thank you to those people encouraging me to write an autobiography. I've been meaning to do it for some time and have finally decided today to start when the children return to school next month. I'll find the time by foregoing Scrabble practice for a few months. I hope to get it published and in the shops by about July/August next year. Watch this space and please continue to read the column. Your support is much appreciated.

[KhunMorris]

Really enjoying the weekly column. I used to read another regular Sunday blog but that's fallen by the wayside. The balance today was great, I enjoyed reading about your experiences in Antipodea.

 

Chapeau

 

Sincerely 

 

MORRIS

Olympic Bronze Medallist, LA 1984

Ex Bar Owner.

[Marpa47]

AUA?  As in, “Despite the crash of the Aussie dollar in 1985 I returned to Bangkok mid-year and started at AUA”

 

Lurgy?  As in “we can’t wait for all this lurgy looniness to end”

 

OK so I was able to look both up on google.   However.  

 

before you publish, may I suggest that you run your copy by someone who is other than from the U. K. ?  I love your writing and also look forward with bated breath for the forthcoming fare — only, please let someone clarify these ‘ethnicisms’; or at least provide a glossary?  Although the process of mining Google for traces of meaning is in itself sometimes a rewarding experience for me.  Really I love this weekly post, whether I can always make out what you are going on about or not.  LOL  Safe trip to Pattaya and back, all of you.

[BangkokReady]

7 hours ago, rooster59 said:

In 2013 after years as a teacher I tried retirement aged 52.

How were you planning to fund your retirement?

[TPI]

Thanks rooster, it's good you didn't stay too long in Sydney!

[BangkokReady]

7 hours ago, rooster59 said:

The angle of the ASEAN NOW story, was based on a comment he made about Vietnam era GI’s leaving a “legacy of sex culture”.

 

This was fair enough for a site for foreigners, but not Chuwit’s main focus. That was corruption among Thai-Chinese businessmen in cahoots with the police. 

 

Many forum posters overreacted as usual imagining that it was Thais blaming foreigners again. They can’t help themselves; they seem to loathe Thailand but funnily enough can’t leave her alone. Go figure!

In what world is a guy saying that foreigners left a legacy of sex culture not a Thai person blaming foreigners for said sex culture?

 

Anyone who objected the contents of that "article" was quite right to.  It was a blatant lie.

 

If anyone is imagining anything or overreacting, it's you.

[BostonRob2]

53 minutes ago, Marpa47 said:

AUA?  As in, “Despite the crash of the Aussie dollar in 1985 I returned to Bangkok mid-year and started at AUA”

 

Lurgy?  As in “we can’t wait for all this lurgy looniness to end”

 

OK so I was able to look both up on google.   However.  

 

before you publish, may I suggest that you run your copy by someone who is other than from the U. K. ?  I love your writing and also look forward with bated breath for the forthcoming fare — only, please let someone clarify these ‘ethnicisms’; or at least provide a glossary?  Although the process of mining Google for traces of meaning is in itself sometimes a rewarding experience for me.  Really I love this weekly post, whether I can always make out what you are going on about or not.  LOL  Safe trip to Pattaya and back, all of you.

Thanks. Yes there will be a glossary, not least of all for the Thai terms that I intend to use. However, your points are noted, cheers.

 

I never worked at AUA on Ratdamri Road but several friends did including one who became a manager there and who is no going for citizenship. I learned Thai there, or started to, in 1985 in a listening only program called the "natural approach". I spent several thousand Aussie bucks on lessons, one of my best ever investments. That and a linguagephone course I used to help me learn reading and writing.

[Speedhump]

7 hours ago, clivebaxter said:

Glad he reminded us how long he's been here again some might have missed it in the past, not a bad effort but Bangkok Phil and Andrew Biggs were the kings of this sort of material.

Can't these reminiscence columns be headed 'Rooster's Backstory' so I know when not to bother to start reading? They're not for everyone! 

[BostonRob2]

48 minutes ago, BangkokReady said:

In what world is a guy saying that foreigners left a legacy of sex culture not a Thai person blaming foreigners for said sex culture?

 

Anyone who objected the contents of that "article" was quite right to.  It was a blatant lie.

 

If anyone is imagining anything or overreacting, it's you.

Chuwit used the term "moradok" and, as I tried to convey in the column, it was by no means the main point of his post on Facebook that concentrated on historical aspects of the industry and corruption. It was repackaged via Daily News for the ASEAN NOW audience as many stories are. I am sure Chuwit is aware of the history of the sex culture in Thailand over the centuries. He was really talking about how the GI's played a part in bringing Ap-Op-Nuat to the fore. Though I'll grant you that there is much denial about the origins and depth of the sex industry in Thailand that I'm sure I'll go into much greater detail in my book.

 

Thanks for reading.

[Gandtee]

4 hours ago, Gandtee said:

'Cutting off you nose to spite your faith!' Nice one.????

Perhaps I should have said Nithe one."?

[BangkokReady]

14 minutes ago, BostonRob2 said:

He was really talking about how the GI's played a part in bringing Ap-Op-Nuat to the fore.

I see.

 

In that case, I suppose rather than saying "Vietnam era GI’s leaving a “legacy of sex culture”", which implies that a sex culture which wasn't present before was created and left by the GIs, Chuwit should have said something along the lines of "Vietnam era GIs left a new kind of sex culture aimed at foreign clientele in the form of Ap-Op-Nuat (or soapy massage)", which would clearly explain that GIs did not create a sex culture, rather they prompted a change in what was already there.

 

Probably Chuwit couldn't put it like that, as he has to toe the line and effectively deny the long established sex industry that caters to Thai men. 

 

Easy to see how people would end up objecting to the content of the article in these circumstances.

[WingFat]

29 minutes ago, BangkokReady said:

I see.

 

In that case, I suppose rather than saying "Vietnam era GI’s leaving a “legacy of sex culture”", which implies that a sex culture which wasn't present before was created and left by the GIs, Chuwit should have said something along the lines of "Vietnam era GIs left a new kind of sex culture aimed at foreign clientele in the form of Ap-Op-Nuat (or soapy massage)", which would clearly explain that GIs did not create a sex culture, rather they prompted a change in what was already there.

 

Probably Chuwit couldn't put it like that, as he has to toe the line and effectively deny the long established sex industry that caters to Thai men. 

 

Easy to see how people would end up objecting to the content of the article in these circumstances.

I met a retired US Army colonel in Pattaya some years ago who at that time, had lived in Thailand with his Thai wife since the 1980's. This fellow had served in the Vietnam War and also observed GI's on R&R in Thailand during the war. His observation was there wasn't much of a sex industry in Thailand before the war and how he detested it. I don't think he understood how the sex industry was well imbedded in Thailand before the war.

 

I agree with BangkokReady that there has been a sex industry in Thailand prior to the war and well after, that caters primarily to Thai men; it's just done more quietly and not with in your face soi venues the GI's helped to foster with the with blaring neon signs and skimpy dressed girls outside beckoning you to come in and be loved long time.

 

Having lived in a small town in Nakhon Pathom for many years, my TGF pointed out to me a few times the quiet small bars and nightclubs around town that featured imported Burmese girls for the local Thai men, most of whom were married. Aside from a few farang guys who taught at the local catholic seminary which also had schools, I was one of less than a full handful of farang in my town. So the guys patronizing these places I mention, were mostly, if not all, Thai guys.

 

 

[yankyoakum]

OK as I got here in 1973 and was part of this USA GI horde got U beat...., left end December 179 days, with Hep A, Mono, seven malnutrition and dehydration 2 months hospital and returned 5 months later for a year  plus a month or so in 74-75 and ended up marrying a Thai chick in USA 1976...guess I got dibs...we here and we retired, 2 things I did right, enlisting in USAF and marrying a Thai chic.... My road was extremely colorful.... but the road goes on forever and the party never ends.......

[SiSePuede419]

11 hours ago, rooster59 said:

I’m heading off to Pattaya with the family this coming week...It’ll be my first trip outside the Bangkok area since before Christmas. I haven’t been abroad or on a plane for three years. 

Learn something new everyday. 

 

Pattaya is a foreign country.

 

And it's so far from Bangkok, you take a plane there, not a bus. ????

[Gandtee]

12 minutes ago, SiSePuede419 said:

Learn something new everyday. 

 

Pattaya is a foreign country.

 

And it's so far from Bangkok, you take a plane there, not a bus. ????

Yes. Of course. In 1985 it used to take me up to five hours to get from Bangkok to Sattahip by road. ????

[BostonRob2]

4 hours ago, BangkokReady said:

How were you planning to fund your retirement?

Savings and rental properties mostly. 

[BangkokReady]

36 minutes ago, BostonRob2 said:

Savings and rental properties mostly. 

Interesting.  And you accumulated them while teaching English in Thailand?  If I have the numbers right, you started when you were 24.  Did you just work as many hours as you could?  Or was there some external source of money, inheritance, etc.?

[BostonRob2]

2 hours ago, BangkokReady said:

Interesting.  And you accumulated them while teaching English in Thailand?  If I have the numbers right, you started when you were 24.  Did you just work as many hours as you could?  Or was there some external source of money, inheritance, etc.?

I was head of department at one of the best paid international schools in Bangkok. I saved more than half my salary for 15 years. I am. I won a million baht playing Scrabble too....

[chrisandsu]

Forgive me for such a stupid question. Where do I get to read your blog weekly ? I quite enjoyed that and just stumbled on it today . Thanks 

[Neeranam]

On 10/24/2021 at 9:36 AM, rooster59 said:

Many forum posters overreacted as usual imagining that it was Thais blaming foreigners again. They can’t help themselves; they seem to loathe Thailand but funnily enough can’t leave her alone. Go figure!

They are paranoid.