As my cycling friend David had explained earlier, "This place is inter-planetary.  It's a place in this universe like no other."  Before I had assessed that Pattaya was the best place on earth, now I was thinking otherwise - it was out of this world.

Before meeting him and our cycling tour of the dark side, a Russian friend had just come into town from the bus station.  I arranged to meet her in the same restaurant that I saw off my colleague from a few hours earlier in the day.  

We got talking and there is no way I would be the first one to bring up this topic but a Ukrainian couple she knew were recently kicked out of Shanghai.  With no place to go, they ended up in Bangkok.  Certainly they couldn't go back to Ukraine as they were from Mariupol.  It's all Russian occupied territory which they decimated as their way of war.  If you dare to watch it as I did, the documentary  20 Days in Mariupol goes into graphic detail.  The reason why Mariupol was targeted so heavily is it stood in the way of the land bridge to Crimea that the Russians targeted as part of their grand annexation plan.

Then the next part which didn't surprise me:  this couple got kicked out of China because their documents from the Ukraine Embassy weren't recognized.  This was because they were from a so-called "disputed" territory.  One thing you have to understand:  you learn more about what the Chinese government's position on world affairs by what they don't say instead of what they say.  For example they'll never admit that Mariupol was destroyed by the Z Army, but they'll talk about the so-called rebuilding effort that they are most likely financing anyway.

As for what this has to do with the couple, they don't have enough to support themselves and the woman tries to make a living by modeling even though she is well into her 40s.  The story touched me deeply and I asked if there was any way I could help.  Unfortunately there was not right now, but I'll certainly keep my eye out for future opportunities to help.

Later on it was time to meet my cycling buddy.  We ended up taking turns leading bar tours.  I told him, "Since we have the bikes, let's head out to the dark side and check out places we wouldn't otherwise see near Beach Road."  That was done and we had a blast and stumbled across some interesting stuff.  In the end though, we realized that most of the bars all concentrated in one area.  We ended up going back to the beach.

The highlight happened just before they rang in Chinese New Year, as my friend found a bar that was located off the beaten track but still in the vicinity of the main strip.  We ended up meeting Somjai who is both a model and a fitness instructor.  She does part time work at the bars, on her own terms as a kind of freelance.  As she explained, "If the boss tells me to do this or wear that outfit, he can go fuck himself, I'll just find another bar.  My strong point is I can speak English better than anyone else around here."  I liked her right away.  She was completely on point and knew her value.  For someone 48 years old it was impossible to tell, she looked much younger and was basically slim and fit like a model.

She had been single over 15 years, and explained that it's a combination of personal choice and being very selective about who she meets.  For example Somjai said "I party all the time, and one night decided to dance all night at the clubs by myself".  This was also more evidence to confirm my thesis that those who are hardcore fitness people are also into partying.  We shared a whole bunch more and then David talked more about the books he reads and recommended some.  

I then told  her a few stories about my exes and wanted to get a female opinion on the matter with some past mishaps.   She said, "No, if I see that woman I will personally go to her house and kill her.  What she did to you was brutal.   You're a nice guy but you really have to put a stop that you know.  These women you talk about are very manipulative and taking advantage of you." 

She really got this on point.  Based on more research it was clear that I had been attracting narcissistic personalities.  Plus she wasn't the only one to tell me to axe the nice guy syndrome.  Maybe I could save a lot of money on therapy also, after all I was meeting the right kind of people all along this trip who volunteered their own life coaching for free.  Just by following all this advice I could really get ahead here.

Both of us left the bar shortly after the firecrackers rang in Chinese New Year but I already knew this year was going to blow the others out of the water.