Daddy’s Hobby
The Story of Lek, A Bar Girl in Pattaya
The first book in the series called
Behind The Smile
by
Owen Jones
The seven-part Behind The Smile Series is the story of Lek, a bar girl in Pattaya, Thailand. Lek was born the eldest child of four in a typical rice farming family in the northern rice belt of Thailand. A catastrophe occurred out of the blue one day – her father died young with huge debts that the family knew nothing about. Lek was just twenty years of age, and the only one who could prevent the foreclosure of the family farm, and allow her younger sister and two brothers to continue their education. However, the only way she knew how was to go to work in her cousin’s bar in Pattaya.
Can a Pattaya bar girl ever go back to being a regular girlfriend or wife?
Behind The Smile is a look into one part of Thailand, a country known around the world as ‘The Land of Smiles’.
Daddy’s Hobby: Lek went to the bar ‘Daddy’s Hobby’, in Pattaya, as a waitress-cum-cashier, until she realised that she was pregnant by her estranged husband, and everything changed. After having the baby, a girl, whom she left with her mother on the farm, she needed real money to provide a better life for her child and drifted into the tourist sex industry.
The adventures, dreams and sometimes nightmares, this is Lek’s point of view of what it’s really like to be a Thai bar girl… the exhilarating hopes that cover up the frustrations, let-downs, lies and deceit of daily life, give way to the dream of a normal life when she meets a new man, yet again.
When this new man returns for a real life relationship, Lek finds it’s not so easy going through the good and bad of couplehood.
Will they stay together, and for how long? Will she ever be able to trust a man enough again either? Or will she go back to the bar girl life?
Chalita Majang –
“From the first pages I was mesmerised by Lek and the other working girls, their hard life styles and thoughts, so different from our own western way of life and aspirations. Couldn’t put it down till I’d finished.”
RLJ, Barry, South Wales
Chalita Majang –
“I enjoyed this book very much and would recommend it. I like stories that take place in foreign countries, so this was right up my alley. It was an easy read and flowed smoothly. Owen did a great job of creating a character readers could connect with and care about. I loved learning little tidbits about the Thai culture and the author’s descriptions allowed me to be able to picture the scenes and get a sense of what it might be like to actually be there. I appreciated learning the back story of Lek and the circumstances that led to her working as a bar girl in Pattaya. Often we only see one side of the sex industry in countries like Thailand and the rest is left up to our own assumptions. The story ended rather abruptly (I wasn’t expecting it) so I’m looking forward to the sequel and finding out what happens next!”
Vanna B., Philadelphia, PA
Chalita Majang –
“I bought your book, Behind The Smile, and enjoyed it tremendously. Your writing style is the sort that I like, it does not take my mind away from the story or the characters. You certainly give the impression that the book was written with fluency although I am sure you spent a lot of time playing with it.
The book is a good read and an accurate description of the world of a Thai bar worker. It is very hard to come to terms with how bar girls live as our cultures are so very different. We may have met at the same place but we took very different routes to get there. There is very little common ground to build upon. This book gives a real insight into their lives, hopes and aspirations.
I would recommend this to anyone with a Thai girlfriend, not as a warning but as a help in understanding her life. If it saves one argument then it’s money well spent. I think it would dispel a lot of prejudices if more people read it, if only those with prejudices cared enough to buy it. If you ever do a sequel put me down for one.”
WD, UK.