Love Last Longer

It was all beginning to make sense.

The day before, the housekeeper at our hotel had button-holed Dani.  In limited English and extensive pantomime, the housekeeper had said she was not feeling well. The various symptoms she acted out led Dani to believe she had a bad cold.

Later, over lunch, Dani said: “She was trying to ask me something, but I couldn’t figure out what she was trying to say.”

The next day, the housekeeper appeared at our door once again.  This time, Caroline tried to interpret.  She handed Caroline a foil package of capsules that looked like cold medicine.

The housekeeper said: “Farang leave this in room.  He throw away.  Me take.  What is?”

Caroline told the housekeeper to wait for a minute while she checked, then showed me the package of pills.

The foil contained about a dozen orange and white capsules.  Four of them were missing, presumably ingested by the farang. I found the name “Prelox” on the bottom of the package.

“I’ve never heard of Prelox,” I said. “But I’ll check online.”

A quick search revealed that Prelox was a “natural” form of Viagra.  It’s advertising slogan:  To Make Love Longer Better. (What did we do before Google?)

We realized the housekeeper was looking for cold medicine — not something to spice up her love life.  Now how to explain Prelox to her?

Dani stepped into the hall and whispered:  “It’s medicine for a man.”

The housekeeper looked confused.

“It’s to help a man…”

More confusion.

“…To help a man with love…”

This phrase and a small bit of pantomime seemed to communicate the point.

“Oh, farang here to buy love,” she said, suppressing a smile. “No good.”

We dug into our first aid kit and found some over the counter cold medicine, which we gave to the housekeeper.

She thanked us and tucked the cold tablets, along with the Prelox, in her pocket.