Dear Hillary,
There is a shopping center very close to my office and they have the usual small stand-alone coffee shops along the mall. There is a very pretty young girl in one of them and she always gives me a big smile. Lately she has been giving me a shy little wave as well. I would like to know a bit more about her, but how do I do it, Hillary? Nobody in my office knows her name or anything, and I just can’t ask one of the Thai office girls to front up and get the details for me. Some advice please.
Jon

Dear Jon,
Does JON stand for Jump Over Now, or what? Petal, you are not going to be able to find out anything about your coffee lady from outside sources, which you have worked out already. There is no Hot Line for this kind of problem. Nor can you ‘google’ “Girl in shopping center Thailand.” The girl is doing one of two things - either she is interested in you, OR she wants to get you over to sell you half a dozen hot lattes, frappes or espressos. How do you find out? It is easy, my Petal. Next time she waves, walk over to her little stand and say, “Hi, I’ll have a latte (or frappe or espresso).” After that momentous move, you say, “How long have you been in this shopping center?” or something equally as easy as an ice-breaker. Do you think you can remember all that in the heat of the moment? You will soon see if she is interested in you, or just in what you’ve got in your pants - and it’s not that! It’s your wallet! Even though I am not a gambling person, my money would be on the wallet option, I’m afraid. But you should pluck up courage and make the contact. It will be good practice for the next time you get rejected. Anyway, coffee is always nice at lunchtime.

Dear Hillary,
Thailand says it wants tourists, but it is shooting itself in the foot. I picked up one of those tourist magazines the other day and it had listings of places to go for the tourists. The (stupid) interesting thing was the dual pricing which was plainly printed for the tourists to see that they were going to pay something like twice the price of the Thais. Have you looked at this lately, Hillary? I thought it was against Thai policy on equality to have dual pricing. We certainly don’t have that in the UK. What is the real situation? Should we foreigners just refuse to pay, or what?
Jack
Dear Jack,
Double pricing is not something I agree with, but it is found in many countries, not just Thailand, my Petal. The original concept was to make the attraction affordable for the Thai tourists, but charge more for the foreign tourists as they can afford higher prices, so they are subsidizing the Thai customers. In countries like Thailand where there is a large difference between foreign tourists’ spending power and that of the local people, I can understand why double pricing exists. However, instead of publicly doubling the Thai entrance price, it would be so much better to state one ‘standard’ (foreign) admission price, but offer a 50 percent reduction for Thais. This idea of locals getting a 50 percent discount is more understandable for the tourists than doubling the price for the non-Thais. Of course, there will always be the problem of resident ex-pats who will not be happy at being asked to pay foreign tourist prices. For that group, some form of registration of the fact that they are living here such as a Thai driving license should be enough to convince the girl on the cashier’s desk, but it may take some sweet talking by a Thai partner. Best of luck.

Dear Hillary,
Me and a couple of mates went to a go-go bar the other night, and you can take your advizes (sic) and put it where you like. The girls we met were just incredibibly (sic) sexy, spoke English OK, didn’t want big drinks, just lady drinks and was (sic) OK to stay with us. Spoke with the mummasan (sic) who arranged everythink (sic) for us. No sweat, great night and morning ;-)) Love these Thai girls are the best! No way did we get ripped off.
Joey, George and Jimmy

Dear Joey, George and Jimmy,
I am so glad you were so happy with yourselves that you decided to write to me, though you did not have to be rude about my advice, which I give out free of charge, which is a better price than your lady friends wanted for the night (and morning), I am sure. It was also very fortunate for you that their English was about as good as yours, so you would have really felt at home. I don’t know who you are trying to impress here, boys, but it certainly wasn’t me. Write again in about three months and another 90 go-go bars and see if you are still as impressed.