Pattaya is a very popular destination for the suicidal. Maybe people don’t arrive with the intention of topping themselves, but they drift, or jump, into a hedonistic lifestyle which ends in heartache, an empty wallet, and eventually suicide.
The potential victims are easy enough to spot. Sad, lonely blokes from the west, oozing gratitude for the companionship of the pig-eyed, avaricious bar girl on their arm. Undying love is traded and soon the life savings are being “invested” in a house for the girl. Maybe a motorbike or car to go with it; and anything else that the loving, attentive girl can extract until the funds run dry.
Once no more goodies are forthcoming, the girl will lose interest and the man will be evicted to make room for the Thai husband or boyfriend that has been lurking in the background posing as a brother; or maybe another foreign target to help fill the depleting coffers.
The sad, lonely bloke is now even more sad and lonely, and broke. Suicide is a popular way out. In some cases there are somewhat sinister circumstances surrounding the suicide; such as the man who was found with a gunshot to the head and his hands tied together! The cops are prepared to bend possibilities beyond what is reasonable to save themselves the hassle of investigating a murder, so almost every death defaults to suicide. If President Kennedy had been shot in Thailand rather than Dallas, it would have been a clear case of suicide.
The most popular suicide method is jumping off a tall building, and there are regular reports in the local paper. The latest was a Russian man with cocaine in his hotel room, Viagra in his shirt pocket, and his face splattered over the tarmac having jumped from the ninth floor. There was a chair on his balcony; he was either standing on it for a better view and slipped, or was fuelled up on cocaine and decided he could fly. Or maybe his date for the evening had turned out to be a man in a dress. Anything can happen here, and everything does. Sometimes it just becomes too much.
Comments 🔗
2008-05-31| Jock saysLike they say the quickest way to become a Millionaire in Thailand is to arrive with 3 Million.
2008-05-31| Spike saysThe voice of experience?
2008-05-31| Billy saysWitty riposte but I suspect wide of the mark …
2008-05-31| Spike saysI agree, I expect Jock actually arrived with a lot more than 3 million.