Dear Hillary,

A friend of mine is getting very tired of the ladies he meets in the bars, who only seem to be interested in money. They stay with him for a few weeks, and when he hasn’t coughed up the money for whatever they want, they move on to find another sucker who will. He has asked me where can he go to find a better class of lady in Thailand, or are they all like this. He has heard about introduction agencies. Are they worthwhile? I can’t help him because I’ve never had any experience of them.

Ivan

Dear Introduction Ivan,

What is wrong with you men these days? Your friend claims the girls he meets seem only interested in money - but what is the only thing your friend seems interested in? Why does he have them living with him? To learn how to eat som tam? Here’s the first piece of advice, how about meeting the girl of his dreams the same way he would in his own country? Go to places where ‘nice’ girls go. Join groups where ‘nice’ girls go. Meet eligible ladies at parties, social gatherings, art exhibitions. He will find that these are ladies who appreciate a gentleman, but will also not race off to bed on the first date to stay for a few weeks. As has been pointed out many times - you get what you pay for, Petal. And are you sure this is for a “friend” and not for you?

Dear Hillary,

I do spend a fair bit of time at night in the bars. The old bill in the cup routine I think is very good because it shows that the bar trusts you not to lose a couple before you pay at the end of the night. Recently I have been getting the feeling that my bill is not right, because it seems to be a lot more than I thought it should. Is it OK to add the bills yourself? I don’t want them to think I don’t trust them, when they are trusting me. What is the usual thing?

Unsure Drinker

Dear Unsure Drinker,

It is your bill, and you pay it with your money. Of course you can check it. Mind you, if you are getting yourself to the stage where you can’t count past ten without taking your shoes off, you have a problem. Is this the situation? You’ve got no real idea how many drinks you’ve had, or how many “lady drinks” you’ve bought in the course of the evening? You have the choice - go on the wagon for a while or take a pocket calculator into your favorite bars.

Dear Hillary,

This is a story that touched my heart, it concerns a huge festival at Wat Doi Noi Temple in Lamphun about a month ago. I was taking a video movie and gave my pocket camera to a student named Ang. She took lots of photos which I got processed and returned them to Ang to distribute to the various people she had taken photos of.

Well that evening she phoned me to say that on giving one of the photos to a novice monk he started to cry. She asked him why he was crying and he told her in all his seventeen years he had never had a photo taken of himself. He loved the photo and put it under his robes near his heart.

So I guess if we Farang ever take photos of Thai people it would be nice to make sure they get a copy, who knows it might be the same story. It really touched me and made me feel so good to have been a part of the story.

Just a couple more things, I was involved in a bad motorcycle accident and if I had not been wearing an good crash helmet I would be dead the police told me. There were three nineteen year old lads on the bike that hit me head on, two died on the spot, the third was hospitalized like me. They had no helmets but that’s not unusual is it, no driving licenses, no registration or insurance, my hospital bill was 130,000 baht, but my 900 baht ‘Index’ helmet saved my life. Oh I did get my picture on the front page of Thai News, not a pretty one Hillary!

All the very best to you all at “The Mail” Hillary, I hope you all enjoy the Songkran season.

Delboy

Dear Delboy,

Great to hear from you again, and you certainly had a narrow escape. Hillary will not travel on motorcycles, as at my age, falling off one would be very dangerous. But back to your photographic escapades. You are so correct for many of the country people. To have a photo of themselves can be quite a thrill. Particularly with today’s digital cameras, many photographers do not bother to have prints made, so the subject of the shot never gets to see it. To take the time and effort to have them printed and then distributed is very good of you, Petal. Maybe some others reading this will do the same in the future.