After the hospital visit, we order a taxi to the five-star hotel where we are going to stay. We reach the hotel and go straight to the reception. I answer the greetings from the beautiful Thai lady behind the reception. Hong instantaneously throws a jealous eye on to me as if to accuse me of smiling back at the black-haired Thai lady in a red dress. When she smiles at me, I have to return her smile. I am surprised to learn that I am not allowed to smile back when women smile at me.
Hong is such a jealousy woman. Everywhere we go, she will find an excuse to show how protective she is to me. I calmly explain to her that it is common in the tourism business, for hosts in places like hotels to smile at guests, and vice-versa. I do not want to spoil our holiday mood. The silent row between Hong and me is not over yet.
During the meal, she comes up with yet another complaint.
"You don't love me enough; if you did, you would have remembered to bring the mosquito spray. I am nothing after all". She laments, shrugging her shoulders.
After the meal that evening, we go for a walk, alongside the beach. In the morning, before leaving for an appointment with the property developer, I have a quick swim in the hotel pool. Here comes the developer, a 50-year old, well-dressed Norwegian man.
He has lived here for over ten years. He knows the place like the back of his palm. Straight away, I tell him that I have not gone to him to hear any excuses or explanations. All I want is my money back. He, however, says that it is not possible to refund the money under the Thai law. But Hong has of a different view. She starts behaving erratically towards the developer, threatens to hit him with a water bottle, saying that such a statement was an insult to us. I try to calm her down. I warn her that violence would not solve any problem.
The reason for what she calls being offended is because she wants to record the conversation with the developer, using her mobile phone, which the latter refuses. She then sneaks and takes pictures of the Environmental Impact Agreement (EIA) when the developer and I are busy looking at the location of the property via Google Earth. The situation goes worse when she is told to delete the pictures. She insists that she is not about to do that. The developer recommends that I sell the property after construction.
While still talking with him, I discover that there is a lawyer's office, next to his showroom on the right-hand side.
Hong is not familiar with Thai real estate issues, despite being a lawyer herself. I want to obtain legal advice about my business.
"If you dare go there, I am going to divorce you".
She bursts out furiously; she insists that I am not going to get proper legal advice because, in her judgment, the lawyer and the developer are the same people. I am still thinking about her reaction.
It has started raining. We use the umbrella I carried with me since I had checked the weather of the day. Hong escorts me to the lawyer's office. Good enough, the young British lawyer does not charge any consultation fee, so I have to explain everything without any worries of being charged hourly.
The lawyer establishes that he would first need to examine whether the contract between the developer and I is legally binding and that all legal correspondence will have to go through him.
Before we go out of the office, Hong picks a leaflet off the shelf from which we notice that the lawyer also deals in real estate, selling apartments and condominiums.
After reading the brochures, Hong suggests that we open a youth hostel in Pattaya, so that we can save accommodation fees, whenever we go there. She says that we will also save money charged by middlemen. It means that we will be on-site for some time, to organize and prepare everything ourselves. We are now going to the city centre to buy tickets for the Travesty show at Tiffany's, and to buy cheap shirts and jeans. I think we have taken the right move. Since her cold is under control, it is wise to wear some of the dresses are going to buy. Usually, theatres and cinema halls get cold because of the air-conditioning system.
During the show, Hong becomes curious, because one of the episodes is about measuring men's penises. I wonder why she is so much interested in this. Does she want to know whether it means erected penises? I cannot not understand a thing. By the time we leave the theatre, it is night. We drive around the illuminated city using a baht, an American converted pickup bus, approved to carry passengers. The name Baht-bus dates back to the time when the fares per person were only one baht, the Thai monetary currency.
After arriving back to the hotel, I am surprised why Hong has changed her moods again. She is complaining that I spend too much time dealing with real estate problems, instead of enjoying the holiday. She demands that I pay for the cost of our trip. To save the situation, I suggest that next time, I will pay for everything. She accepts my suggestion; it helps to resolve the dispute. I tell her, however, that the issue of cost-sharing for future joint holiday packages is over. I have realised that my naive belief of her being a modern woman is wrong. When we return to China, she threatens to divorce me, claiming that she is tired of being exploited by people.
She goes to bed, bursting with anger.
I too go to bed confused; I am trying to figure out what has gone wrong during the holiday. The next morning, I realise that it is mainly about being jealousy. Whenever I am away swimming, Hong uses the opportunity to snatches my phone and look for names of all my contacts. I am surprised to find out that she has a record of all my former girlfriends' text messages. Like a wounded lioness, she roars, accusing me of always looking for a back-up solution.
"I have tried all I can to make you happy; I married you to get happiness. Yes, I admit, as a single man, I used to have girlfriends, but I am now with you, I do not want to cheat on you, never in this relationship. I have always seen myself as an investor; I keep on wondering whether it would be worth investing in you If you were a business".
I speak angrily. This is my first time to talk to her like that.
Sometimes I wonder what's going on in her head. After exposing her jealousy behaviours, she changes the topic back to having children in another country other than in China, insisting that she is doing it for health and safety reasons.
Hong complains that she paid for the entire holiday and therefore she is betrayed. I can’t make a point of that. While booking the holiday, we agreed to visit the property, and she knows it. I decide to keep silent about it to save us from further bickering. We are at the lawyer's office; he is not here yet. He will be busy for another hour. We are going to use the waiting time to walk about the surrounding area. We locate a restaurant on the second floor of one of the buildings here. Everyone in the street can hear the loud noise in the nearby street. We plan that after the meeting with the lawyer, we will come back to the restaurant to get something to eat.
The outcome of the meeting is positive. I have managed to sign the contract. At the restaurant, I gulp down glasses of beer at least to celebrate for what has come out of the lawyer's office. Hong treats herself with a glass of juice. What we have archived so far is only to stop further spending. It is not a guarantee for a successful outcome.
Beers are getting a bit warm. I am feeling uncomfortable, so I want to go home. Despite going to bed early, I am feeling weak and sloppy. Could there be anything wrong with the beers? But I didn't take too much of it! We had planned to go to a neighbouring island today, but because I am not feeling well, I decide to go out of the hotel, and instead, relax on the beach.
In the afternoon I go down the hotel reception to ask where I could find a bank nearby. I want to transfer money for the lawyer, with my German credit card, because the interest rate is lower in Thailand, compared to China. Although there are other ways of transferring the money through banks without an account, still that means depositing cash, which would make it much more expensive than using a credit card. The truth is we do not have too much Thai baht on us; otherwise, we would have used cash to pay the lawyer. I
do not believe that withdrawing money using a credit card and then deposit it as cash in the bank is a wise thing to do.