scooters, vacation, fall

When I asked for requests, some brave soul anonymously requested erotica. That reminded me! I did once write an erotic story. I was on a ten week trip to Thailand with my former best friend. We traveled apart for a couple weeks in the middle; she went to meet other friends of hers in the south. Me, I did what any traveler would do on finding herself alone, adventuresome and needy, in such a sensual, exotic county. That’s right, my friends. I visited irrigation projects.

I took a bus to an irrigation project up in the north, on the Mekong. The diversion structures were in a small town, but the bus went to a town fifteen minutes away, so I stayed there overnight. I got up good and early the next day to be on the first bus to the town with the diversion structures. I caught the bus just fine. Everything was going well until we pulled into town. Now, I have a good sense of direction and had been oriented all the way until the last three minutes of the trip, but somehow, in the turning around to get into the station, I completely lost track of which way I was facing. I got off the bus and could not figure out where the river was. Now friends, this is technical and I don’t expect you to understand it right away. But in fancy engineering school, they teach you that if you want to find a river, you walk downhill.

I put this plan into action, despite feeling that I was going the wrong way. I’d walked for fifteen minutes or so, increasingly sure that my irrigation project was behind me, when a guy on a scooter pulled up. He asked where I was going, and I said I was looking for the Mekong. The Mekong! Good! He would take me to the Mekong. He seemed harmless and potentially helpful, so I got on the scooter behind him. We kept going the wrong way. We went the wrong way until he turned onto a dirt road, then turned onto a smaller dirt road. I was liking this not at all, and tapped on his shoulder to turn back. He shook his head. I told him I wanted to go back and he kept going. So I put my feet down and fell off the back of the scooter.

I turned to walk back to the main road and he circled back for me. He said he’d take me back to town, and looked sincere, and that’s what he did. I ended up back at the bus station, still not knowing where to find the damn Mekong. I tried the other direction and a couple blocks away, three giggly women waved me into their beauty salon. I was hot and shook up and happy to sit with them and drink their water. They knew where the diversion structures were, a couple more blocks away, and walked me there.

I lucked out when we got there. A couple geotechnical engineers were visiting from Bangkok. One spoke English; he gave me a tour of their levees. I believe he was the only person in Thailand who didn’t tell me I was too pretty to be an engineer and must be a model. Fuckers. I was on my way back to the bus stop when the three giggly women appeared again. They would take me back to the neighboring town! Really, I was fine on the bus, but they would take me back.

I found myself on a scooter again, one woman driving in front, one behind me. I thought they were sitting a trifle close, but assumed that norms were different until the woman behind me put her hands on my thighs. I put her hands back. She put my hands on her thighs. I took my hands back. She put my hands on the thighs of the woman in front of me. I took them back. She put her arms around my waist, snuggling me and pushing me against the woman in front. I began to think longingly of the morning, when I only had the one kidnapper and a nice, soft dirt road to land on. Friends, I did not invite them in when we got to my hotel.

That evening after dinner I wrote down the daydream that had kept me occupied for the long bus ride the day before. There were no scooters in it, and I was the only woman involved. I’ve never shown it to anyone, but now you know it exists. And that is as close as it will ever come to the internet.