Right where was I? Let’s check in on Arthur. I’ve skipped a lot of formative stuff. School-days, snogging in the local cinema, Lorraine (Arthur’s first girlfriend), Simon’s job at a bank etc. etc. It’s all standard stuff and doesn’t make for interesting reading. But it does go some way to explaining how Simon became a TV personality what Arthur is doing in Thailand and why I’m sitting on this boat. We’ll get there.
We find Arthur sitting on the Bangkok Skytrain going nowhere in particular. He thought he’d spotted his mother’s ghost buying a ticket at Nana Station but he’d been too quick for her. He was gone before she even made it through the turnstile. Now safely squeezed between two Thai schoolgirls he’s thinking about Simon. So Simon is coming to Bangkok. Simon who he hasn’t seen for God knows how many years. They’d been at school together…hitchhiked to India together. They had been very close but inevitably they had gone their separate ways. And now apparently Simon is something of a TV celebrity.
Hang on! A bulletin just came in. Arthur has made a decision! The train is pulling into On Nut when he decides to email Simon agreeing to meet and discuss Simon’s documentary project….with one proviso. Arthur isn’t sure he is the right person to be conducting tours of the Bangkok naughty nightlife. So he may have a few questions.
The meeting is still a few months away. In the meantime he will be going back to the village in Northern Thailand where he lives with his Thai wife Tui. He runs a second-hand bookshop in the nearby town of Af Makom. There, among shelves of well-worn paperbacks, he will wait to hear from Simon.
Good. This will give me a chance to describe his domestic situation. Tui, like most Thais, believes in ghosts. Arthur had always scoffed at such simple superstitions but lately he isn’t so sure.
We find Arthur sitting on the Bangkok Skytrain going nowhere in particular. He thought he’d spotted his mother’s ghost buying a ticket at Nana Station but he’d been too quick for her. He was gone before she even made it through the turnstile. Now safely squeezed between two Thai schoolgirls he’s thinking about Simon. So Simon is coming to Bangkok. Simon who he hasn’t seen for God knows how many years. They’d been at school together…hitchhiked to India together. They had been very close but inevitably they had gone their separate ways. And now apparently Simon is something of a TV celebrity.
Hang on! A bulletin just came in. Arthur has made a decision! The train is pulling into On Nut when he decides to email Simon agreeing to meet and discuss Simon’s documentary project….with one proviso. Arthur isn’t sure he is the right person to be conducting tours of the Bangkok naughty nightlife. So he may have a few questions.
The meeting is still a few months away. In the meantime he will be going back to the village in Northern Thailand where he lives with his Thai wife Tui. He runs a second-hand bookshop in the nearby town of Af Makom. There, among shelves of well-worn paperbacks, he will wait to hear from Simon.
Good. This will give me a chance to describe his domestic situation. Tui, like most Thais, believes in ghosts. Arthur had always scoffed at such simple superstitions but lately he isn’t so sure.
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