Thai Girl Read Online Free Page A

morning determined to enjoy the day, having apparently forgotten the furious argument of the previous night. He was in buoyant but provocative mood as they got ready to visit their first Thai temple.
    â€˜Come on Emm, let’s get going.’
    â€˜Just wait can’t you.’
    â€˜While you get dolled up! Emm, you don’t need lipstick.’
    â€˜Shut up, Ben,’ she said pursing her crimson lips in the mirror.
    â€˜You’re reinventing yourself again. Like those highlights … hardly recognised you at Heathrow,’ he said mercilessly.
    â€˜Bet you wish I hadn’t come, now you don’t fancy me anymore.’
    â€˜You used to have a great body, Emm, and you kept your hair natural.’
    â€˜Mousey hair, you called it,’ she said resentfully.
    â€˜And do you really need that long skirt? You’re trying too hard again.’
    â€˜You complain when I don’t,’ she said, almost inaudibly.
    â€˜Well, at least the skirt hides your bum!’ Ben fingered the door handle impatiently.
    â€˜Piss off, Ben. You’re just horrible!’
    â€˜But Emm, you used to love being teased,’ he said more gently.
    â€˜No, I didn’t! I always hated it,’ she whispered, sitting down suddenly on the edge of the bed. ‘The long skirt’s for the temple … but I’ll wear what the hell I like anyway.’
    Ben had decided that their first trip out should be to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. From Khao San Road to the temple, they had their first tuk tuk ride. The tuk tuk, a tiny three-wheeled taxi, was waiting by the side of the road, the driver looking for business.
    â€˜How much to the Grand Palace?’ demanded Ben.
    â€˜Gran’ Palace, fifty baht.’
    â€˜Not fifty baht! Twenty baht,’ said Ben.
    The driver furiously revved the engine, covering them in exhaust smoke and glanced over his shoulder for a gap in the traffic.
    â€˜Forty baht last price.’
    â€˜Okay, forty baht.’
    Honour satisfied and an apparent discount won, Ben climbed in, followed by Emma. The tuk tuk had a bench seat behind the driver and was clearly not for those of a sensitive disposition. They were not strapped in and were open to the elements, except for a low plastic hood. The engine had a prodigious output of noise and fumes and propelled the little cyclops-eyed projectile at suicidal speeds through the heavy traffic. As they passed along the side of Sanam Luang, the dusty open space once used for executions and Royal cremations, they clung on for grim death, scared but exhilarated. Ben felt cheated of his forty baht when all too soon they screeched to a halt by a gateway through the palace walls.
    The Grand Palace satisfied even Emma’s lust for the exotic. This was the ultimate oriental fantasy, a maze of buildings in classical Thai style, of soaring roofs, spires and pinnacles in white, gold and many rich hues. Packed with visitors, they all had to take off their shoes at the door of the temple itself, Thai shoes going in one set of racks and foreign shoes in another, though the smell of feet was the same.
    Inside the temple the wardens beckoned Emma and Ben to sit down like the Thais, the feet carefully pointed away from the Buddha image. High up on its tiny gilded throne, the Emerald Buddha presided over a scene of reverence and awe. It was clear to Emma that for the Thais, visiting the temple was of deep spiritual significance and that they were strongly imbued with the ritual of Buddhism. She watched as a group of elderly ladies made offerings of lotus flowers, candles and joss sticks at the altar. Thailand at last she thought.
    The Grand Palace was unbearably hot and humid and even the locals were glowing and mopping their brows. Emma sat and wilted, but Ben was determined to go on to Wat Po, another temple nearby, to see the famous reclining Buddha. Back in the street he approached a young tuk