78 4.2 The Land of A Thousand Smiles

Pattaya, Chon Buri, Thailand

14th April 2003

The blue light that had enveloped me while in transition and talking with Max had sent me to a place in the midst of a stifling hot and airless office that was crammed with a lot SLR cameras on the desk and piles and piles of Hi-8 tapes with strange writings at first but dissolved into Romanised English after a while.

Usually, Max would tap his cane and everything would swirl into the black hole beneath his feet but I guess this is way much cooler than before. With the system update, Max would be around for me to seek guidance or be a companion whenever I wished him around me.

Welcome to Thailand, a land of a thousand smiles; where some hunks were a gigolo and pretty ladies were ladyboys... Ouch!

I looked at myself in the reflection of the closed sliding window just beside my desk where I was sitting and I find myself in such a distasteful and pathetic condition. Believe me, I do not expect much in this Leap and I wondered what I would be doing in this series in the first place... Double Ouch...!!

The air conditioning was very bad in my small, tight and crummy office. There were several Hi-8 tapes on my table and the first thing was am I into pornography flicks?There was a handheld Sony video cam as well as a Canon SLR camera with a 200mm zoom lens attached.

Was I secretly involved with a secret agency to probe and uncover some heinous crimes or illegal trade activities like cocaine trafficking and such... Wow...!!! I can't wait for this adventure to unroll itself in the next few days.

While being Sam Mulder, I had been through parts of Thailand as military personnel serving as a perm staff for a tour lasting 6 months each between 1992 to 2002 and had served a total of 3-4 tours and several short military stints.

I've been to Hatyai, Sukhumvit, Kanchanaburi, Petchaburi and Bangkok as a tourist as well as a military staff. Its smack in the middle of South-East Asia with only two seasons, either it is pouring torrents of rain or its as dry as a camel's back. And here I am in Pattaya, Chon Buri which was actually near some beach tourist attractions.

I looked around myself, slightly underweight and I was sweating buckets beneath a slow swirling ceiling fan that neither helps to swat the number of blood-sucking vector insects or to aid in the ageing and noisy window unit air-conditioner.

My shirt was drenched with dampness around the armpits and gawd...!!! I wish I could have transmigrated as a student or at least in a cold shower... I hate the heat!

The damn overhead ceiling fan creaks as it rotates and the window-mounted air conditioner was wheezing and shuddering every few seconds like as if its gonna come loose and drop off its mount and fall off the second storey.

I looked through my wallet that had been placed at the back of my jeans and was slightly damp as well. Took out the contents and found that I am now known as Aroon Chevapratnadumrong or Aroon for short. These Thai seems to have a short name but a really mouthful surname. I had a few pieces of notes amounting to only THB 460 or around USD 15. Shucks... I'm a pretty poor boy right now.

A set of jiggly keys hand at the belt loop of my jeans and I saw a familiar key... A Honda automatic scooter. Guess it's my mode of transport again. And commuting in Thailand was really a sore in the butt... Especially long rides in the heat and stuck on traffic as well as lots of underdeveloped roads or what we used to call; rats' trail...simply a road well travelled meant to be shortcuts to get from one point to another by avoiding the main asphalt roads.

A Thai ID with a boyish look and a clump of unkempt hair on the front indicates my other personal data as well as the last known address behind. I hope this fella didn't hop around Thailand without changing his address as its quite common for a bachelor to rent places near workplaces to avoid travelling for long hours to and from work.

Among the clutter on the desk was a lanyard and showed my work ID. A profession as a cameraman or crew for a film company of some sort. Well, its a start...at least I know where I am and I know approximately where I live. Right now all I need to do is to grab some grub and get out in the open. At least the heat outside is more bearable than being cooped up in this hell-hole.

I stood up and walked out of my office looking for the exit. My fellow colleagues looked at me and one of them hollered, "Weh... Where are you going...? It is still early to go for the shoot... The host would be here for another hour or so..."

"Out to get something to bite... You wanna come along? I'd be down here for a while bit." I hollered back. Words that came out in Thai came back to me in English and vice versa. My Thai is rather rusty since I had not spoken it for many years after my tours so I better to stick with English. Unless someone speaks rubbish to me, the answer would be "Pud kee mak"

I headed to the exit as I knew my invitation was just a formality towards the Thais and walked down the stairs leading to the main glass door of the building.

An elderly armed security guard with a shotgun sat outside while smoking. He smiled at me and showed his tobacco-stained teeth and cracked lips as he drew another long one from his cigarette.

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"Khun pen yangraiii," he asked me how I am and I answered him "hot like fuck" in which came out in Thai as usual and he let out a short laugh while he flicked his cigarette ash away.

A short distance away I saw a sidewalk vendor whipping her dish of fried rice on her pushcart. It would normally cost 15 to 30 baht and had complimentary ice-cold water on their water dispenser that was self-service. Their cups, however, were not disposable so... Let us try to eat and drink without getting diarrhoea whilst in this body of Aroon.

So I ordered a plate of steaming spicy fried rice known as "kaw padd" and seated myself at their makeshift table which was part of their pushcart and a red plastic stool. She quickly turned up the flame over her enormous wok and with the oil simmering, she poured the contents of the main ingredients such as pieces of pork, shrimps, sliced shallots and garlic with a pinch of kaw prikk or chilli padi into it.

Chilli padi is like the tiniest version of the red chilli's but the spiciness is at another hellish level. If it goes awry into the windpipe you can expect the person to convulse from it. Yeah, the person was me when I first tried it to gobble my food down.

Within minutes the scent of the freshly fried rice arrived before me and it was such a glorious mix of seafood and meat amidst the thinly sliced vegetables and garnishing with a sunny side up egg on top of it. I soon dug in and finished it while it's hot. What a simple gastronomical trip after being transmigrated into this body. I soon paid up and walked back to my office building.

There was a pack of soft pack cigarettes in my breast pocket of my shirt. It was Line brand and held 20 sticks that cost around 35-40 baht per pack. Not going to destroy my lungs anyway; so I gave it away to the elderly security guard at the entrance.

"Nah... Here are some cigarettes."

"Thank you, Aroon. You stopped smoking already?"

"Yeah, I think it's best to stop now. One pack can give me a plate of fried rice anyway... Better to eat rather than smoke, right?"

"Ya... Ya... Sure, I'd smoke for you. If you think if quitting, you can buy cigarettes and pass it to me the next time... Hahahaha"

The security guard laughed and spat on the floor before extending his hand to accept the seemingly full pack of Line brand before I cursed under my breath what a bastard he was asking me to buy him ciggies with the fact of me trying to quit.

I headed back to my little hole of an office behind the rows of tables. I switched off the damn air-conditioning and swung the idling windows wide open; letting a draft of sea breeze into my space and turned the oscillation regular to the maximum for the ceiling fan. Now, things are looking a bit brighter than the initial Transmigration to this body I'm occupying right now.

A few scattered papers were fluttering on my table due to the circulating wind from the ceiling fan and I saw the heading "Special Paranormal Investigation" or SPI. Things gonna be interesting and as I read the papers on the table, it indicated that a group of paranormal investigators had engaged us to take down documentary pieces of evidence through visual unedited photo and videography.

"Hey...!! Is this a coincidence fact that I had a Third Eye from my 1st series that was awakened by the Old Master from New Hope Village? Wah eh... Powerrrrr..i could make full use of this added advantage!"

I thought to myself that I realised my following Transmigration had something to do with what the path of fate had brought me. Third Eye and my Gathering Chi that I had last upgraded. I wondered if there was any progress in my meditation and gathering of internal powers. Also, this equipped me with the arts of self-defence awareness on the second series.

***Spoiler alert***

I deduced that there won't be any fighting against any villains or the use of internal spiritual strength against similar nemesis too. Plus I don't think the keris that could never kill, just like the Tessaiga that was own by Sesshomaru from Inu Yasha would suddenly reappear anytime in this dimension.

**********

After learning much about the contract by SPI that had been met earlier before, a knock rapped at my closed door and from the tinted glass of the partition, I saw one of my working colleagues was with a young lady aged somewhere in the early '20s.

"HunNaa, the narrator is here... Should I send her in right now or let you finish up what you are doing..."

My office colleague opened the door a crack and his head peeked in as he saw me arranging the papers on the table.

"Send her in immediately... And could you get us 2 bottles of green tea? Don't worry, I'd pay you back after meeting her... Thanks, pheurn."

I motioned with my hand to let the narrator entered my office as I slowly rise from my chair to welcome her.