Kanghan YUAN - One Who Moved Out to Get Rich

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.

The directions given to us by the receptionist were wrong. After going around in circles, we come across an employee of a foreign exchange bureaux, who tells us that the nearest bank is far from where we were standing right now. After a brief walk through the dirty and busy main road, we decide to take a taxi. We negotiate the fare, and Hong pays, looking at me with critically.

"You are far too soft in negotiating; you will never get rich!" she grumbles.

I ignore her provocations and look at the taxi window. The transfer of money using a credit card is a success. I pay some into Hong's account, at least to stop her from moaning about paying for everything.

We walk around the place and find an ice cream where we could have a brief stop to have some. From there, we go to a busy night market within the vicinity where I see a signpost that catches my eyes. It reads. "Traditional Thai Massage," I tell Hong that I need a massage. She agrees, but on the condition, that she takes photos during the massage, of which I had no problem. We proceed on to the reception to get more information.

A young beautiful Thai woman behind the counter tells us that no cameras are allowed in the massage parlour. Hong frowns in surprise! I go to the massage room. After the session, I am now feeling younger and lighter in weight, but the happiness is, however, short-lived. When I go to the reception to pay, I realise that I had forgotten my wallet in the hotel. Hong always does the spending;

therefore, I did not need my purse. However, this time, she refuses to pay. She claims that it has nothing to do with her.

“…after all, I have been watching a movie upstairs for the entire hour that you spent in the massage parlour”.

I quickly sense that she is jealousy about not knowing what was happening between the masseuse and me in the room. I cannot dismiss her, thinking that I could have had sex with the lady in the room.

"This is ridiculous! Hong, I do not have any money on me here, I did not refuse you from having a massage too," Those are my words.

"Listen, I said I am not going to pay, please find a way of sorting out your bill, if you have no money then go and clean the massage parlour to compensate for the debt.", she says emphatically.

It is going too far; it isn’t funny anymore. I have to compose myself to hold back the embarrassment. When the cashier insists that we are not going anywhere until we sort out the bill, Hong gives in and pays, saving me from further embarrassment. Before taking a baht back to the hotel, we eat a portion of shrimp, tea and fruits. It is a Sunday morning. The skies are bright blue, and the weather is charming. It is a pity that it is the last day of our holiday. Before breakfast, I rush to the pool for a quick swim before other hotel guests could take advantage.

They greeted me with "Dobroe Utro" in Thai, and I answered back cheerfully as if I am one of those many Russians we met in the hotel. Hong and I go to sit down on the table on the hotel terrace overlooking the sea. While enjoying the gentle movements of sea waves, she starts telling me about her conversations with Russian

hotel guests. She realises that I am not paying too much attention to the subject, and abruptly changes the topic.

"We must leave this place early because I want to get VAT refunded for our souvenirs at the airport. We need to allow plenty of time to do this because there are long queues to join".

We take a taxi ride to the bus station. While inside the taxi, I pull out of the bag some of the fruits I bought to have a bite. I am horrified to find them littered with ants, which are also crawling over my laptop. It is disgusting.

When we are on holiday, I ask Hong questions about China, and the Chinese culture, to make her proud of how knowledgeable she is. Most of the time, she is dodgy, she tries to play "hide and seek".

She tells me not to disturb her with any questions, until we go back to China, because she is here for a holiday and she wants to enjoy it.