At twenty-one years of age, Lek, an ordinary, contemporary, farm girl from the northern Thai Rice belt, had to go to Pattaya to work in the leisure industry to help her widowed mother pay off the mortgage to save the farm from foreclosure and keep her siblings in school. This book, The Beginning, shows what her life was like before she had to leave her small, hard-working, but happy village and the only people she had ever known. It depicts the events that made her happy and those that saddened her in her early life from living with her grandmother to surviving with her husband, Tom. At the very last moment, some friends step up to make Lek's transition to life in Thailand's number one sex city just that little bit easier.
Owen Jones, Amazon Best-Selling Author from Barry, Wales, has lived in several countries and travelled in many more. While studying Russian in the USSR in the '70's, he hobnobbed with spies on a regular basis; in Suriname, he got caught up in the 1982 coup; and while a company director, he joined the crew of four as the galley slave to sail, from Barry to Gibraltar, a home-made concrete yacht, which was almost rammed by a Russian oil tanker and an American aircraft carrier. “I am a Celt, and we are romantic”, he said when asked about his writing style, “and I firmly believe in reincarnation, Karma and Fate, so, sayings like 'Do unto another...', and 'What goes round comes around' are central to my life and reflected in my work. I write about what I see, or think I see, or dream... and, in the end it is all the same really”. He speaks seven languages and is learning Thai, since he lives in Thailand with his Thai wife of seventeen years. His first novel, Daddy's Hobby is from the seven-part series 'Behind The Smile: The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya', but his largest collection is 'The Megan Series', twenty-three novelettes on the psychic development of a teenage girl, the subtitle of which, 'A Spirit Guide, A Ghost Tiger and One Scary Mother!' sums them up nicely. He has written fifty novels and novelettes, including: Dead Centre; Andropov's Cuckoo; Fate Twister; The Disallowed (a philosophical comedy); Tiger Lily of Bangkok; and A Night in Annwn (Annwn being the ancient Welsh word for Heaven). Many have been translated into foreign languages and narrated into audio books. Owen Jones writes stories set in Wales, Spain and Thailand, where he now lives. He is a life-long Spiritualist, and this belief is interwoven, in a very realistic way, into many of his books and storylines. If you like a touch of the 'supernatural', try his books He sums his life up thus: “Born in the Land of Song, Living in the Land of Smiles”.
This book is part of the 'How to...' series of 125 manuals by Owen Jones. The whole series can be found on Megan Publishing Services at: http://meganpublishingservices.com
Lek led a pretty normal childhood in a tiny town--much like every other girl living in that town. Her family owned a rice field where Lek helped out when she wasn't in school. She never could understand why she lived with her grandmother while the rest of her siblings lived with her parents--but never mentioned it--even to her two best friends. Then she was forced to leave school--her family needed her help more-but they did at least give her a small salary!
After several years she bumped into a boy she had known once when he and his brothers has hired onto the rice farm as extra hands. She liked him then--now she really liked him. He was charming and fun and well you know the type! Only her grandmother seemed to see through this guy-but of course said nothing. Lek married him and then the real troubles began.
He left her stranded and she moved back with her parents and grandmother. Then her father died leaving them with enormous bills. Her cousin came to her rescue and invited her to work in Pattaya at a bar she owned. Lek ultimately said yes--and her two best friends decided to go as well. She really did not have a choice--she certainly did not want her Mom to lose the rice farm! All went well until she realized that her husband had left her a little something--a baby. She had to return home and leave the baby with her mother--then return back to work.
This is the beginning of Behind The Smile - The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya. It is the 7th in the series and is actually a prequel to all the rest. I enjoyed learning about the culture of the people and why they sometimes did what they did. I can certainly understand that in that culture that Lek had to join the profession she did. The Beginning: Behind The Smile - The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya : Book 7