Bangkok Boy Read Free Page A

sounds to lure my prey down from the safety of the trees. The second they curiously poked their little heads into view, I’d capture them with a small hand-made rope noose. I often trekked into the forest in search of wild produce such as mushrooms and bamboo shoots, which I triumphantly brought home to Mae along with the birds and lizards I’d ensnared. Mae transformed my bountiful catches into delicious spicy salads, or fried them with basil leaves into my favourite dish. The most exotic treat I could hope to procure was an insect called maeng gut chi , which was to be found in the droppings of buffaloes. Once extracted and cleaned, it would be ground in a mortar, sprinkled with herbs, and then quickly devoured. In times of drought, we boys dug up root plants such as taro and cassava, which we ate as less desirable substitutes for rice.
    My childhood certainly was blissfully innocent. As I recount it here, it feels like the fragments of someone else’s life.
    Despite my innocence, in my early years I developed a very self-centred outlook that made me very proud and arrogant. My parents contributed to this by making no secret of the fact that they favoured me over my siblings; especially my father, who seemed intent on moulding me in his image. In both the Chinese and Thai cultures, being the eldest son is a privileged and enviable position. Parents tend to invest the bulk of their hopes and dreams in their firstborn son to help him achieve success.
    I was something of a model child whom the other parents used as an example to their errant children. My father assured me that if I continued in this vein I was destined to become a distinguished educator or a high-ranking civil servant, thus even surpassing his own achievements. Outperforming one’s parents was considered a great accomplishment: we even have a term for it— aphichattabut .
    Although teachers are respected, I considered the profession boring. Who wants to spend their days policing large groups of children? Certainly not me, that was for sure. I desired a bigger better-paid job. Before I knew it, my arrogance ballooned out of all control. I insulted fellow classmates when they didn’t perform as well as me by rudely informing them that they had the brains of fish. It didn’t take much for an impressionable young boy to become big-headed when all he ever heard was constant praise.

CHAPTER 2
    Adolescence is a confusing period for most, and I was no different. I found myself struggling with a new attraction towards girls. Up to this point, I had only interacted with them in the classroom. I had never had a girl as a close friend, let alone been intimate with one. I became overwhelmed by my increasing attraction to these peculiar creatures. My body tensed the very second I began to talk to them and I began experiencing massive sexual urges for which I had no outlet. Sex education was unheard of back then and this left me ill-equipped to deal with these changes. Adults mistakenly believed that by openly talking about the facts of life they would encourage adolescent promiscuity, so the topic was extremely taboo. Instead, we would leak misleading information among ourselves—like the blind leading the blind.
    Looking back, it makes sense that my first sexual experience was with another boy. Anan, one of my closest friends, initiated our journey into this unknown amatory world. We had been chatting in my family’s storage house in the middle of our big orchard when suddenly, without warning, Anan began rubbing me through my shorts. He then unzipped them and started to fondle my penis until it became hard. In the past, he had already teasingly grabbed my private parts, as boys often do in jest; however, this time he had a hungry look, and his fondling was more deliberate and serious. He clumsily began to undress me—I didn’t know what to expect. I became highly aroused and completely yielded to his advances. So I helped him take off my remaining garments. He