THE LADIES CLUB

Put me on a stage in front of an audience of 10,000 and I will have a great time. I could entertain them for 3 hours without a script.

But today I did something I have never done before and I felt very nervous. I became a member of the PILC, and had my first meeting with this Pattaya’s International Ladies Club. We met on the top floor of a hotel which resembled a Caribbean cruise ship.

There were 80 ladies of different nationalities and they tend to get together a couple of times a month and organise all kinds of social activities. Most ladies have husbands who work in Pattaya and Jomtien and this is how they prevent themselves from feeling totally isolated, as most of them don’t speak Thai and most Thais don’t speak English, French, German, Dutch, Tibetan, Hindi, you name it.

There were two new members and I was one of them. So I was asked by the president to come to the microphone for an official introduction. The other new lady-member was very nervous when suddenly 7 photographers of the local press put their lenses on us. They were doing an article on the PILC. But if you’ve been on live TV before (as I have) this doesn’t really make me nervous. I was nervous about what kind of women I would meet.

I have 67 "friends" in Thailand and 62 of them are gay males, the other ones are straight. But I don’t have girlfriends. That is why I joined this club. I wanted to talk girl talk, not to my gays, but to women. There were conservative ladies, shy ladies, fun ladies, Indian ladies, even one Thai lady, many British and Australian ladies and two Dutch girls.

My first problem was: how do I call myself to these international ladies? Do I introduce myself by my official European name Veronique, or my European nickname Veertje (or Little Feather), or do I use my Tibetan name (Pantau), Chinese name Pantao or Tao), or Thai name Tao. I decided to use my Thai name, which is also a Chinese name. If pronounced correctly, it means Yin/Yang in Thai, and Peach in Chinese. If pronounced incorrectly in Thai, it means turtle. There is an island in the Thai Gulf called Koh Tao (Turtle Island).
To make a long story short; I had a good time. There were a bunch of ladies I could relate to and I even managed to sell a few of them my services as a yoga teacher and reiki master.
So I am looking forward to my next meeting and enjoy a cup of coffee, sandwiches and some small talk with 80 real women.