Where does one start? There are many different styles one can write in, and choosing the right style is a key to a good story. This one had so many alternatives; did I write it from the boy’s point of view? Did I write it as a short story; or did I write it as a tiny documentary? I decided to write it as I heard it. To understand the story, is to understand a boy and understand a life that is alien to most people who will read it.
I have known Tam (and yes, I have changed his name to spare blushes) for a long time. Little did I know how long he had been around? He’s currently a door boy at a nightclub and very friendly. He told me the other night he was going home to see his mother soon (nothing unusual there), but what he went on to tell me stunned me. However his story is not unique and he told me there are other boys around like him. He went on to tell me that he had not seen his mother for 7 years; had not been home to Ubon in the same period; and had not seen any of his many brothers and sisters in the same time. Just for the record he has no idea how many brothers or sisters he has. He’s now 20, this means he came to Pattaya when he was just 13.
At this point you need to disconnect all you think you know, from the reality that I learned that evening. We can all think about 13 year old boys being picked up by evil mama sans and brought to Pattaya. The stories talk about their being drugged and forced into the work. The boys can’t escape and they don’t get any money to run away with. In Tam’s case this was not true. He ran away from home because of trouble with the police and had a friend in Pattaya. He knew what he was getting into and didn’t mind it. The tales of Sunee Plaza from past eras are mostly true and very lurid. They relate to a time long gone and so there’s no point in going over old ground. Needless to say, there was a much more liberal attitude to what could happen in bars and what the boys could do in secluded corners.
Tam had done most of it, before he left his first nightclub at the age of 14. He decided though that he was not gay, and so became a door man at 14 at his second bar. He still got many offs, and as long as the farang respected his limits, they would have a good time. Pay was pitiful in the early days. 
He might get 200 or 300 Baht for an off, and if he was very lucky, he could hide a little of it, so that it wasn’t stolen from him as soon as he got back. I did try to get from him what the most he had ever been paid. He thought about 12,000 Baht from one farang who took him for two weeks. He said he sent some of that home to mama. He had been offered 10,000 baht one time by a farang if he let him penetrate him. But, (and he was adamant about this) he says he has never done this with a man and never will.
He talks to his mother all the time (he says). He phones her once a month and sends her 1,000 baht each month to help the family out. He never has any contact with the rest of his family. He does proudly boast a girlfriend from Ubon. She came and stayed with him for a while. However she couldn’t find a job in Pattaya and went back. With some sadness he tells me he never had a baby. He knows all the characters in the area. From former bosses (and he has worked for most of them) to regular tourists. He’s never had a “boyfriend”. When I asked that he turned up his nose and repeated he was not gay. I told him many boys have “boyfriends” just to get money from them. He said he knew this and he was not like that.
And what of the future? Next year he will be 21 and go for the draw to get into the army. He hopes he gets selected and will be proud to be a soldier for Thailand. After that though, he wants to come back to the area and be a doorman again. And in ten years time? In his own mind he will still be a doorman.
Why have I written this small report? Because it is a story of a real person. Seldom if ever do we sit down and listen to a boy. Seldom do we give them the time to talk. I took pages of notes and had one of the most interesting hours I have had in a long time getting this together. To me it was more fascinating than weeks of superficial pleasantries. Here I’ve given you the smallest of flavours of what it was like, but through his words, I entered a world few farang think about – the world of the boy. In my head and through his words I lived his life, and more to the point the life of a 13 year old in a former era.
Next time you have a boy who can communicate with you and who is willing to talk; sit and listen. What you hear might change your preconceptions forever.
