The Misadventures of Joey Tafuro

Last night was my final evening in Malaysia. I arrived in Georgetown, Penang and found a quiet Indian run hostel. I decided to go with a dorm this time around and for $2 I got myself a bed. It was only myself and 2 other people who seemed to be locals. I locked up my valuables, situated myself and headed out to see what Georgetown had to offer. I was hungry so I sat down for some rice with chicken curry. It was fantastic. So far I had only spent $15 on a 4 hour bus ride, a bed and dinner with 2 beers. I’d say that is good value.

I took a walk down towards the spot where most of the bars were located. I passed a few massage parlours with street girls standing outside propositioning any passers. I guess a single white guy with a wandering look on his face is prime for these girls because I was assaulted, quite literally, by 2 of them. “You wahn massage? You come now?!”, with a few other suggestive activities too explicit for this travel blog. Being a solo male traveler I am constantly approached by sex workers but this was easily the most aggressive I have come across all the way down to attempted groping and grabbing of my hands in order to keep me from walking away. When I finally worked myself out of the situation an older white woman was walking by and we locked eyes and had a good laugh about it. She must have enjoyed watching me struggle.

It is sad that a lot of my first impressions of new cities end up being based around prostitutes approaching me. With that experience behind me I decided to hit up the London style pub across the street. I sat down for a beer and just took in the atmosphere. There was a DJ playing your normal pub tunes and a lively atmosphere. After about 30 minutes a girl comes in from outside and has a seat at the bar next to me. It only took 10 minutes but she asked me to move closer to talk to her. I am fresh off of an all out sexual assault so my guard was up and I already assumed she was a bar girl of some sort. Her name was Nadya, she spoke english really well and we had nice conversation about her family and her job and my travels and my life at home. She is from Indonesia living in a village near the city of Medan in northern Sumatra and she comes to Penang to work. She cuts fruit in a local market and only works for a month at a time and then brings money home to her family and starts the process over. She has to return a lot because she would be an illegal immigrant. As she is telling me all of this I couldn’t help but have the image of her trying to get me to bring her to the U.S. and get married so she can work there and send money home and use me for all my American-ness.

Eventually I relaxed a bit and just enjoyed the company rather than being too worried about her intentions. I bought her a couple of drinks and she bought us a few rounds of pool. She challenged me to a battle. I beat her the first game and was beating her pretty well the 2nd game but then she put a wager on the table. I was up 4 balls to 1 and she said, if I come back and beat you or you scratch on the 8 ball, you have to get on the table and dance. She asked me what she would have to do if she lost. I told her that she must take me out somewhere after the game for some dancing. The bet was placed and hands shaken.

I lost. And pool table top dancing began.

A few hours had passed and they flew by. It was really nice to get to hang out and not sit at a bar wondering why the hell I travel by myself. She gave me directions to a nice lake and beach area near her hometown in Indonesia. I told her I was supposed to go there earlier in my trip but had to cancel on it but that I may be returning before I head home.

As the night progressed we hopped around a few places. I really didn’t need anymore drinks but I wanted to test her intentions by suggesting she buy the next round. I shouldn’t be so paranoid about local girls and I should just go with the flow but ALL of my experiences so far have been that they want money of some sort for some service. She seemed different but I had a hunch her plan might have been a little more long term.

She suggested we go out to her place on the beach about 25 minutes away. She got a phone call which till this moment I don’t know if it was real or not. She said her friend Jessica from America was at her place and that I would like her and I should come with her.

And that was enough. For some reason she had an American friend waiting for her at her place that she hadn’t mentioned the entire night until we were leaving and deciding what we were going to do. I had a great night it was getting late and I had to catch a bus in the morning so I told her that she should just head back to her place and I got her email and would catch up another time if I am in Indonesia. She was trying real hard to get me to consider. She held my hand and acted as if she was my date. Which I guess to this point she was. She seemed disappointed but there was no akwardness. I know what you guys are thinking. I passed up on a girl that was actually interested in me and I immediately think she has some cruel intentions. Well, better to be safe than sorry. I figure if it was legit she will reply to my email and if I’m in her area than it would be fun to meet up again. Last thing I need is to take a taxi 30 minutes to some shack in the woods and have 5 Malaysian guys rob me.

Now I sit in Hat Yai a transport hub of Southern Thailand. The land of smiles. Thailand. I am here, finally. 3 years ago I started planning a trip to SE Asia and Thailand was my main destination. It feels good to finally arrive. Due to some stomach issues this entire day I will not be trying my tastebuds on any Thai food but believe me there will be plenty of time for that. I plan on being here for the entire month until after Marisa’s wedding. Tomorrow I will be heading to Ko Pha Ngan where I will spending just about a week basking in the sun on one of Thailands nicest islands.

By the way, Ko Pha Ngan is pronounced “CO Pan-Yan” or “yang”

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 2:56 am and is filed under Thailand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.