Owen Jones
The 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’.An Exciting Future: An Exciting Future starts where volume one ends. Lek and Craig, her new ’permanent’ boyfriend are flying back to Bangkok from Craig’s home in Wales. The holiday atmosphere continues in Pattaya for months, but then reality dawns, and they have important decisions to make such as: where are they going to live, and how are they going to make a living. They start squabbling, and both wonder whether they have done the right thing in joining forces. They persevere, and, after many trials, tribulations and happy times, begin to settle down into, what, for them at least, could be called a normal life. One of the trio dies tragically, but gives the other two new hope. However, will the old villagers forgive Lek for going to Pattaya? And will Lek and Craig be able to adapt to rural village life after all that Lek has seen and done, and Craig being used to living in large towns? What chance do they have of really fitting in?
