The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya "Daddy's Hobby"

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The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya "Daddy's Hobby"

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

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Behind The Smile' is a series of four books about Lek, who was born the eldest child of four in a typical rice farming family. 'Daddy's Hobby' is the first of those books.

Lek did not expect to do anything any different from the other girls in her class in the northern rice belt of Thailand.

Normally that would be: work in the fields for a few years; have a few babies; give them to mum to take care of and get back to work until her kids had their own children and it would be her turn to stop working to take care of them.

One day a catastrophe occurred out of the blue – her father died young and with huge debts that the family knew nothing about. Lek was twenty and she was the only one who could prevent foreclosure. However, the only way she knew was to go to work in her cousin’s bar called Daddy's Hobby in Pattaya.

She went as a waitress-cum-cashier, but when she realised that she was pregnant by her worthless, estranged husband, things had to change. She had the baby, gave it to her mother to look after and went back to work.

However, now she needed real money to provide a better life for her child and to make up for spending its whole youth 500 miles away. She drifted into the tourist sex industry as a Pattaya bar girl.

'Behind The Smile' relates some of her ‘adventures’, her dreams and nightmares and her ‘modus operandi’. It tries to show, from Lek’s point of view, what it really is like to be a Pattaya bar girl – the hopes and frustrations, the hopes and the let-downs, the hopes and the lies and deceit that are part of her every day life.

One day, while working in Daddy's Hobby, she meets a man she likes and he likes her too. Nothing new there, it had happened many times before, but she feels that it is different this time. They have a wonderful four weeks together and then he goes home – as they all had, leaving more promises and more hopes.

This one returns, but real life with a real boyfriend is not as easy as she had dreamed it would be. They go through good and bad times, but will they stay together and for how long?

After all she has been through, will she be able to be a regular girlfriend or even a wife again? Will she ever really be able to trust a man enough again either? Or would she be better off giving up her dreams and carrying on working in Daddy's Hobby bar in Pattaya?

Lek begins to find out that getting what you wish for is not always as good as you thought it would be.

http://behind-the-smile.org/#axzz3JW0r46mM

Meet the author:

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Owen moved to Thailand in 2004, never having written or considered writing a book in his life, but he found one particular bar and the girls/women in it so fascinating that he thought that their story should be told. He called the book 'Behind The Smile'.

He started it in 2004 and finally published it in 2012, so a long, drawn-out process indeed. He was encouraged to write a sequel, and ten months later that appeared.

However, Owen didn't want to lose the title 'Behind She Smile', so made it the title of the series and renamed the first book 'Daddy's Hobby' the fictitious name he had given to the bar in Pattaya. He called the second book 'An Exciting Future'.

The raison d'etre for the second book repeated itself so Owen wrote the third in the trilogy 'Maya - Illusion' in July-August 2013, stopping midway through it to write the first Megan novella, 'The Misconception'.

'Maya' was published in August 2013. Other Megan novellas followed in September and October, and in November, he wrote 'Tiger Lily of Bangkok' for the NaNoWriNo Challenge. His first time entering.

Emboldened by his switch of genre, Owen tried 'a comedy Dracula with a big difference' in December, 'The disallowed', finishing it in January 2014. In February, he wrote five more Megan novellas, to keep to his plan of one a month from May 2013.

In March, he switched genre again with a police/military terrorist book called 'Dead Centre', and did it again in April with 'Fate Twister' the story of Wayne Gamm, a boy with the power to change the world but not the confidence.

There followed more Megans and in September wrote Behind The Smile 4: 'The Old Lady in The Tree' by popular request. In October 2014, he wrote six more Megan novellas.

November is NaNoWriMo again and he is planning a fifth 'Behind The Smile', probably to be called 'Stepping Stones'.



Read more: http://owencerijones.com/#ixzz3JdUKO26d

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NokTang
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Re: The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya

Post by NokTang »

Hundreds if not thousands make their writing book debut writing about the Thai bar culture. Fact remains, it's driven by poverty and Thai's don't crack down on it. It's about the money.(not the book writing, the prostitution)
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Re: The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya

Post by Yobbo »

A man is not a camel!
A woman i was with in Pattaya who charged me 500 baht for the night showed me photo's of her home, kids car & moto.
Made me feel like a peasant!
She was supposed to meet me the next afternoon but didn't show for cheap charlie :unknown:
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Re: The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya

Post by NokTang »

Yobbo wrote:A man is not a camel!
A woman i was with in Pattaya who charged me 500 baht for the night showed me photo's of her home, kids car & moto.
Made me feel like a peasant!
She was supposed to meet me the next afternoon but didn't show for cheap charlie :unknown:
The guy who paid for the home, car, and moto, was simply put...ahead of you in line. Don't feel cheap. 500 baht is generous. It's only to again remind those few still in denial and who rely on other barangs/farangs to tell them how much to pay....whew...okay, it's only those unknowing where they are who pay more combined with those who think paying more makes them special and above it all. There are thousands of girls in Pattaya alone who will stay with you for 15,000.baht a month.(500 baht a day) If they haven't been spoiled, they will also clean your home and even do the laundry by hand! and cook. Can you imagine the horror on some readers faces here at CEO?
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Re: The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya

Post by Yobbo »

She took my $5 hat that i bought at central market in PP.
So i do tip :crazy:
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Re: The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya

Post by NokTang »

Yobbo wrote:She took my $5 hat that i bought at central market in PP.
So i do tip :crazy:
$5.usd is also crazy for a hat at the central market in PNH. You are indeed generous giving her a used hat of such quality and which carried so many memories in its sweatband/straw.
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Re: The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya

Post by Yobbo »

The memories remain in a sweat laced waist!
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Re: The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya

Post by clippy »

daddys hobby just sounds the most sinister name for a bar
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Re: The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya

Post by phuketrichard »

NokTang wrote:
Yobbo wrote:A man is not a camel!
A woman i was with in Pattaya who charged me 500 baht for the night showed me photo's of her home, kids car & moto.
Made me feel like a peasant!
She was supposed to meet me the next afternoon but didn't show for cheap charlie :unknown:
The guy who paid for the home, car, and moto, was simply put...ahead of you in line. Don't feel cheap. 500 baht is generous. It's only to again remind those few still in denial and who rely on other barangs/farangs to tell them how much to pay....whew...okay, it's only those unknowing where they are who pay more combined with those who think paying more makes them special and above it all. There are thousands of girls in Pattaya alone who will stay with you for 15,000.baht a month.(500 baht a day) If they haven't been spoiled, they will also clean your home and even do the laundry by hand! and cook. Can you imagine the horror on some readers faces here at CEO?
my god, once again u show u know fuck all
500 baht is the going rate for st off of walking street,
how do i know?
well got lots of friends that live up there and that the min they pay for girls that they have the tel numbers for.

all night is cheap 500/night is pre 2000 rates

to pay any girl almost $500/month +++ living expenses is sheer insanity

Your really living in a delusional world

Still waiting on a reply to what u do with the girls u meet at 7/11
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
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Re: The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya

Post by kgbagent »

NokTang wrote:
Yobbo wrote:A man is not a camel!
A woman i was with in Pattaya who charged me 500 baht for the night showed me photo's of her home, kids car & moto.
Made me feel like a peasant!
She was supposed to meet me the next afternoon but didn't show for cheap charlie :unknown:
The guy who paid for the home, car, and moto, was simply put...ahead of you in line. Don't feel cheap. 500 baht is generous. It's only to again remind those few still in denial and who rely on other barangs/farangs to tell them how much to pay....whew...okay, it's only those unknowing where they are who pay more combined with those who think paying more makes them special and above it all. There are thousands of girls in Pattaya alone who will stay with you for 15,000.baht a month.(500 baht a day) If they haven't been spoiled, they will also clean your home and even do the laundry by hand! and cook. Can you imagine the horror on some readers faces here at CEO?

Bollocks !!! What decade are you in ? :unknown:
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