The Girl's alright

Hey, thanks for askin. Yes Deeds is doin fine. She is busy. Ole faithfuls (Barb and Steve) check in on the blog everyday and never seem to miss a comment or ribbing. Also seem to be laughing quite a bit as well. Man you guys are good for a fellas ego. Thanks. I love that you love reading it.
In fact it might be time for me to humbly say thank you to all that read and pass comments along to me in one way or another that you are enjoying the blog. I am flattered.

But I did want to put in a word for poor old Deedles. As Barby mentioned how is the old girl doin anyway. Well the project is in the final stages of gap analysis. What the jello is that? Well it is the difference between what the new system / processes will do or does do and what you wanted it to do. So if it doesn't do it all then there is a gap. Well before you move on you had better identify the gap or else customers may not get what they paid for or some such.
OK? Good! Glad you got that!
Anyway, Deeds is working a solid 5 days a week. Which is a big adjustment for her. You remember that she works 4 days a week back in Canada. Been doin that for about 9 years. So movin up to 5 days is like changin from welter weight to heavy weight class. A whole different ball game.
And of course our original plan was to have an alternate blogger. Kinda give you the womens vivew of what is going on. Another angle as it were. Wellllll, maybe once in a while we can get her to write a paragraph or two, we'll see.
Bottom line on all of this is that Diane is great. She is doin great. Loving what she does! Some people call it a job, not Deedles. The catch up is not as severe now as it was a little while ago and that helps too.

It also becomes easier because we are enjoying Bangkok. I am enjoying the golf, even though I am playing like a putz right now. Deeds and I enjoy our reshaped life, we still do alot of the same stuff that we did in Mississauga just with an Asian twist on it. We eat out a little more than before. Not as many snacks around the house which may be the cause of us both losing some weight. Less snacks is mostly because some of the stuff they call snacks here ain't snacks! Really ya outta see what they put in plastic bags over here!?

We enjoy the apartment. We have that awesome deck which has taken the  place of our deck back home. (This is what we look at when we turn on our laptop. So we are never too far from what we cherish. )

Only now when Deeds comes home from work we sit to have a pint before dinner and we look at this, along with the Bangkok skyline!
Remember it is usually dark when Deeds gets home, it's after six so the skyline is all light up. And yeah I know, the Muskoka chairs are a little more fun then the beach chairs we have out there right now. But a pint and some gabbing works no matter where you have your butt parked.
And we will do it all over again this Friday night, November 26!

Let me put this evening into perspective for you. Kuhn Wandee, our housekeeper has promised to make us a dinner tonight. Looks like it will be a green curry chicken over some basmati rice. Deeds and I can't wait for this. She will cook for us whenever we want something. Wandee tottles off to the market before she arrives here and picks up all the ingredients, puts it all together for us and all we have to do is cook the rice and bingo we have authentic Thai food right in our own place. And yes I will be in the kitchen taking tips and watching what she is doing. Not that I haven't been able to put together a few plates here and there myself. My latest achievement was some Thai Sweet rice with Mango whcih I made on Wednesday for Deeds. Was awesome. Apparently I will have to make some for Doug senior, Deeds thinks he will love it.

So now you know Deeds is great even though she is missing in action from the blogger reports. We are nicely settled in and stuff is starting to grove for us. I have a weekend in Pattaya to tell you about and how that may manifest itself.
This weekend we hope to get out to Chatuchak and order some lamps and some patio furniture. Also have to start looking at getting a basket full of Christmas gifts. We come home in three weeks!!
Sawadee Krup

Another golf

Ok, so I will try and not make every blog post about golf. Just because golf is what I do I know that everyone out there doesn't want to hear golf all the time.
But you have to know that my life experiences will lean towards golf. You get that right. I mean, I play golf. I do not do it for a living. I do nothing for a living. Playing golf is what I do though to get away from my job, just like you would. It's relaxing. Gets my mind off the routine. Exercise, fresh air and comaraderie. Well not so much of that here, but still it is exercise. If you walk.

The other day I am at my course. I took a few pics with the bb, they aren't the greatest quality but good for putting up here on the blog. No pics of the caddies! I will put up one to get over the mind picture that some of you have of this experience. Trust me, you are wrong. They are caddies. How many of the caddies on the pga tour are you staring at? Right, same here!

The first shot with the club house behind is of  the 18th green, you can see the pin which is sitting just off to the right side of the picture here.

This is the landing area / fairway of the 18th hole. A good drive from the whites (235) would put you here with only a wedge in. I play from the yellow tees most often and would have about 8 iron in. Fairway slopes hard left to water so you need to play the ball up on the right hand side. Then you hit across the pond into the green. Nice way to finish with a medium difficulty par 4.





18th green again in the shot to the right, I took two pics of this one because the first time I played the course I stuck a wedge to within four feet and made the putt to finish the round with a birdie. Wahoo! A perfect end to my first round.

In this  picture, I believe it is the fairway on # 9 you may have to look real close but you will be able to see to the right of the cell phone tower another tower just sticking up between a u in the trees. This tower has got flood lights on it. Yes, the other reason I joined this course is because it has night golf. In the heat of the summer it may not be possible to play in 42 degree heat without passing out, soooo play at night when the temperature drops to a fresh 33. Wonderful. I am sure that first round will be a blog all to itself. Caddy should earn her money that day.
Go find my ball!!
Hehehe.

This is the short par 4 #15 dog leg left. Big hitters go for it over top of those trees on the left. I aim just left of those two tall coconut trees (all palm trees are referred to as coconut trees by farang like me) and try to fade the ball into the middle of the fairway. Leaves a comfortable 7 or 8 iron into a tough front to back sloping green. Greens here are firm and do not accept a low shot well. If you want the ball to stop better be hitting it Tiger high coming in. Playing the ball to the front edge of the green is what I try to do so the ball has a chance to stay on the putting surface.

Speaking of big hitters, last time out I played with two young Thai fellas. I would put them at about 23 - 25. Both of them pounded the ball about 270 - 80. They played the tips. And I mean the tips. To heck with the tee blocks. These guys stood at the very back edge of the tee box to tee it up. Playing from the Gold tees left me just 10 or so yards behind them in the fairway.

When I met these gentlemen on the first tee I think they gave me the old Bowery Boys shuffle. Cause when they introduces themselves I heard their names as "Bip" and the other was "Bap".
Yeah, so now what do I do? Hey it's bad enough when two guys you have never met before in your whole life are named Larry and Gary and the third guy in the group is, well I don't know, because I forgot that already. But "Bip and Bap". Come on. That's a set up.
It goes something like this:

"Nice shot Bip"
"Uh sorry misster, he Bip methap."
"Sorry what, you're methupt, I thought your name was Bapt, orrr...."
"No Bap"
"Bip"
"Uh what, uh who's away, I think its............... one of you guys?" He says pointing

So on to Nice Shot, or Yeah Baby, no name mentioned. And as always at the end of the round. "Gentlemen, thank you very much for the game. Pleasure, Great to meet you . Thank you. Korp Koon Krup. Thank you. Nice to meet you. Much bowing and bobbing of heads.
Under his breath as he walks away he whispers, maybe we should wear those red and white tags with HELLO MY NAME IS: on your shirt. On the back of your shirt anyway!
Sawadee Krup

GOLF

As you may know I appreciate the game of golf. Since I have been out of the working world I have played a fair amount. Coming to Thailand was to be an extension of that appreciation what with all the cheap golf courses over here and all. Well I found out that cheap is in the eye of the beholder. My first encounter with golf here was anything but cheap. And this with a special being offered to me through the contacts at Thanachart. So I had to set out on my own to see if I could find something a little more to my frugal tastes.
I canvassed a number of courses to see if I could get a one year membership or something that would bring my golf costs down to reasonable. Remeber that at home I am paying something in the area of $30 a round plus having the convenience of not having to stand in line or line up on the phone because I am a member. This is big! Ask anyone who has to call ahead two weeks to get a tee time and then curse a streak when Saturday comes around and its pouring rain. Not me! Play when I want. Hehehehe!
So my queries were answered when I found Bangkok Golf Club. About one hour from our place, most courses are well outside Bangkok, and actually kinda on the way past one of Deeds offices. So I ride to work with her in the morning, cup of coffee, little plate of fruit, someone else doing the driving and a kiss on the cheek and I am off to golf. Way cool!
BGC hosted the 2003 Volvo Master of Asia as well as numerous Thai tournaments. Click Here    Bangkok Golf Club
A short track by todays standards, the course is dotted with water and sand. Accuracy off the tee, not my strength, is a necessity. I have had some trouble getting accustomed to this course. The grass is very different here than that back home. Especially the rough. Is very puffy and you must be careful not to ground your club before you stike the ball. The ball has a tendancy to sit on top of the grass, meaning your feet are slightly below the ball. Not mindful of this fact you will hit the ball fat, kinda like being in a fairway bunker, you have to choke down just a little.
But that is something I know already. My biggest problem is the greens.
When I first played the course I noticed a sign on the edge of the practice green that gave the cut height of the rough, the fairway and a distance for the greens. That day and most others it has been 11.3 to 11.7. Now I didn't actually know what that was. I thought "Well it could be a stimp meter reading, but really, an everyday golf course with greens running between 11 and 12 on the stimp? That is PGA speed, or even US Open speed greens. Not something you would do to an everyday club golfer. Right? Wrongo.
The greens are lightning. Table top fast. Slick. Shiny, Superquick Glass like. And they are killing me. I am hitting putts past the hole 10 feet. Brutal.
But it is still golf. I walk 18 holes. My only fee since I am a member is 250 baht for a caddy and then a 250 baht tip for the caddy at the end of the round. $15 cash per round. Don't get me goin on the caddies, they do drag your clubs around in the heat and they are a reference for the break in the green, up or down hill. But that is pretty much it. No Father Patrick or farmers daughter jokes. Nothing to really talk about. But I still have stories.
#1 The day I went to check out the course I was playing by myself. I was actually talking to my mom on the second hole when I notice a single on a cart behind me. Caddy drives the cart, you just sit there. I told my caddy we would wait for him and also gave me a chance to have a word with ma. When he approached I went over and introduced myself, he was Khun John. An owner / executive of an armaments company. John of course isn't his given name as he is a native Thai, but it is a Thai tradition to give your sons a nickname. So John it is. We seemed to hit it off and chatted as best we could for a few holes. At the point that I told him I was very interested to join the club he jumped right in and said, "Let me call the pro and get you the discount" Well very nice of you Kuhn John I said thinking to myself that he is just being a bit of a blowhard, showing off a bit. He had already played nine when he joined me so he peeled off after number 9, wishing me well and telling me that he had got me 5,000 Baht off the price and don't be a stranger we can get a game together. We traded mobile numbers and I finished with a group of Swedes that were playing in front of us. Met another member in that group.
Well when I went into the club house I bumped into the Club Manager who is from Vancouver. His grandparents had actually founded the club and he had mover to Van to go to school, now was back trying to make a go of the club. I talked about K Johns offer. He looked at me like I was a highwayman and said no discount was offered. The price was the price.
Now I am in a pickle. Cause I wanted to join the club at the price. But now K John has me thinking I can get it 5K cheaper. So now I am wondering, do I join at the price or stand for the discount? Isn't that always the way. I would have been happy paying the 40,000 Baht (1,300 CDN) for a one year membership.
So a phone call to K John on Monday and he swears that Tony, the Club Manager has nothing to do with it. Go to the pro shop. They know who you are, because of me says John.
Next time in I walk up to the pros shop counter and say, with chest puffed out, " I'm Kuhn Jerry, Kuhn John has left you a note. Ohhhh yes Kuhn Jerry, no trouble, 35,000. Very nice of you to join our club, so nice to have you!  ????????????????????
Reallly. I'm thinking really. Paid the money and walked out like a somebody.
Just goes to show you that even a rugged adventurer from Thunder Bay can get a break every now and then.
Fariways and greens!
Sawadee Krup

Been awhile

Hi there, well it has been awhile since I updated you all on things in BKK. Tons of stuff goin down so I may even bust this up into a couple of posts and let you catch up.
Last big news must have been the fact that we moved into the new place. Pictures are posted at the following:
  BKK Photo Albums  just click on this link and it should take you to my Picasa Web Albums.

Now to try and get stuff out there in some sort of chronological order. Fat chance, but here goes.

The apartment is coming together for us. First weekend here we went down to the pool to see how that will work for us as a chill spot during the weekends. Not bad. Only gets 2.5 hours of sun, from 9:30 til noon. Water is very refreshing, not like pools that get 7 or more hours of sun, but it is ours, is not crowded and is very refreshing. Once the sun is gone around the building it is still a nice relaxing spot.
We have started a few of the compulsary walk arounds for the neighbourhood. Like all spots in midtown BKK there are restaurantts galore. We have a little mall on the corner a block and a half away that has three Korean restaurants, so brother Jonas will have to do some research with the inlaws and get the best dishes and pronouncaitions down so we can look like pros when we go over for dinner. There is a Wagyu Australian beef restaurant. Wagyu is supposed to be the competition in the area for Kobe beef from Japan. We aren't big beef eaters in the first place so we have not been tempted to try it out as yet. Of course there are numerous thai restaurants. One called Baan Kanitha is owned by a very famous Thai chef and is right around the corner from us. I believe I am going there for my birthday!!? Wahoo!

Another bonus about our location is a fresh veggie market is held outside our building gate every Friday evening starting at 6 pm. The supply is limited to veggies such as fresh carrots (best I have eaten, very sweet), potatoes, long beans, cucumbers (large and small), garlic, pea eggplant, basil, coriander, tomatoes. Stuff is brought to us in plastic packing crates and you grab a bag and help yourself. When you go over to pay there is a small scale and a guy with a flashlight strapped to his forehead. He watches it get weighed off and scriblles numbers on a piece of paper. After all is done he'll show you a number like 24 Baht. $1.00 for a bag full of fresh veggies to last a week. Amazing.

Flights home are booked, we will be back in the big smoke on Saturday, December 18. Lena arrives the same day only a little later at night. What a reunion that is gonna be. We miss her big time to say the least. Skype and instant messages aside there is nothing like a good hug. Deeds will be in town for two weeks and myself for three. Don't bother trying to get hold of us until the 20th. We want some familly together time, well at least until Lena wants to go to the bar with her buddies anyway, then Deeds and I are looking for some contact with our peeps.

Next on the list was our visitors whcih I blogged about and the walk around that we did in old BKK. Deeds and I followed up with another walk into Chinatown that was OK, but not nearly as great as the first. We kinda got lost looking for the Indian quarter in order to buy some spices and didn't enjoy much of the walk, no great chinese food so all in all not our best effort. We have a deal to go back with a guide from a co-worker at the bank which should be a lot more fruitful. We'll keep notes for visitors.
The next order of business for us was to find a housekeeper. Someone to help keep the place clean, maybe wash some dishes. Dishes are the worst. At our place in Mississauga we had our counter tops in the kitchen raised 1 1/2 inches. The bathroom vanities by 3. Stooping over a sink that is 40 inches of the ground is a killer for me. What do you think it is like in Thailand, where the average person is 5', tall people here are 5' 4". The bloody sink just makes the bottom of my pockets. Ya gotta see me, my legs spread as far apart as possible, like some kinda warrior yoga position trying to get my hands to reach the top of the water in the sink, never mind the bottom! This is painful stuff.
So we interviewed and found a maid who will come in 3 days a week to clean, laundry, iron and as she is a Thai will also do some thai cooking for us. I will be looking over her shoulder to try and get the best cooking tips I can for some awesome food when I return to TO.
Khun Wandee is a delightful lady. Laughing and smiling are her two biggest attributes. What a great addition to our household. In the interview she brought a friend with her to help with translation maybe or so that she wouldn't forget stuff, we weren't really sure. Turns out they were like a comedy duo. Between the two of them trying to remember words and things to ask they were laughing and poking each other and talking to each other in Thai. It had Deeds and I laughing at one point ourselves. We had no idea what was funny but the two of them had us smiling. It was awesome. She was hired right there. Didn't even have to talk about it later. Done! She is here this morning, I just sent her out with our driver to go and buy all the household necessitities she needs to feel comfortable doing her job.
So there ya are caught up on the domestic front. I have to check some emails and stuff and will come back to bring youup to date on my golf adventures.
Sawadee Krup

Not a rant, it's a reiteration

The dweebs at LA Music. I told you all about these people earlier.
I cancelled that order, should have been no surprise to them, and of course gave them very explicit instructions as follows..............
Order # 4579. Please cancel this order immediatlely. Refund the payment to the credit card on file. Thank you. YT Js.
Well I have been back to the website and the order is no longer on file. Not pending as it was for some 9 weeks. So they actuallly got that part right. Well.............. you do remember that they had ordered a product that was no longer manufactured so in fact the order was cancelled when it was made if you follow the logic! So maybe they still haven't actually done anything correctly.

I have been back to my charge card on a near daily basis to see if they have credited my account. Of course not. I have to chase after the dweebs from 25,000 miles away. Of course dweebs don't open for business at normal hours, theirs is 10:30 am, which for me is pm. I have tried to get through their phone system and talk with someone who has a clue, nope that ain't happening that early in the morning. And I have tried to get it done first thing in the morning for me, but it seems that anyone who has a brain, if they have anyone like that, has already left for the day. DUHH!!! This is going to have to wait until Jer gets home and goes and pays a personal visit.

Now since I am out of pocket the interest on $500 I have a little proposition for you. In order to make this money back I am going to sell tickets to my appearance at LA Music. YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS FOLKS. IT IS GOING TO BE A ROCKIN GOOD TIME! If you know what I mean. Anyone interested can contact the writer at this blog and I will send you a personal invitation to be onsite the day I show up there to get my money back.
Bunch of dweebs, holy mother of pearl.

Swadee Krup

Visitor one is in the books

So Kara and Purdy have left for Canada. They had a great trip up to Chang Mai, trekked around in the jungle for a day and a half. Slept on the floor in a village style hut. Probably ate bugs mixed with rice and stuff like that as well that they didn't tell us about but that's ok. It sounded like an amazing trip. We dutifully picked there brains about good and bad and made notes. We also took all maps, business cards, hotel info, etc. So we are set to prompt others who want similar or partial.
Deeds and I have a two day ground package already purchased for Chang Mai and by the sounds of Kara and Purdy we may be taking that to 3 or 4 days to take in some of the stuff they did. So cool.

The first visitors was a total success in my opinion. No real issues on the innkeeper side and I hope that they both enjoyed their stay as well as the stop over style stay they did earlier. We ended the visit with a classic Jer dinner. I walked out to the street and bought four of a lot of things, except spring rolls. Kara is a freak for spring rolls so I had to buy eight knowing she would enjoy a refill. The menu was:

Spicy papaya salad - Deeds swears she will come home with this recipe. I am not sure how we get our hands on fresh green papaya back in Canada but nonetheless you could be eating this on our deck as well as here in Bangkok.

Grilled chicken strips on a stick with a hint of jalapeno and pineapple piece. This dish came with the most fantastic orange sauce. I have had this sauce a few times on other items and I have to find it. Very tasty, not too hot.

Deep fried chicken drum stick. Better than your southern momma ever made. Honestly!

Fresh corn. Corn is boiled in the husk. When you buy this they simply husk it and strip the kernels off the cob and pop it in a bag for you. Anyday, everyday, fresh corn on the cob folks!

Rice. I made about 5 cups of thai basmati rice. A bed for all the street goodies. Just plain steamed rice. You could put the sauces on the meat of mix it right in. 

All this was a taste treat and plenty of food for all of us. Eat all your meat and goodies before you top up with the rice. In the future I will add a little fried rice. A Hong Kong tradition. There they eat all the meat and tasty foods. Usually no rice is available. At the end of the meal they bring around a pot of fried rice, each person is given a small bowl and you eat what you can. Just to top up! Very cool process. We have adopted it.

Ohh of course I have to brag about the cost of this. 230 baht. Which is $7.60. I bought 30 baht worth of fresh pineapple for dessert but we were too full to partake.

Well I have some more apartment outfitting to do so I am off to the department store again to buy an ironing board and looking for some potting soil. The backyard herb garden begins soon!
Sawadee Krup

Walking tour photo update

This is a tad late but I just cleared a number of photos off my phone and noticed there were some good ones of the stuff I talked about when we went on that Walk through the old farang quarter. So I have posted those photos as well with some captions. You will have to go back to the post for "Next move Hawaii Tower" to pick up on the finer details of the walk, or you can just stare at the pictures with captions and take it form there.

The walk around the old farang quarter

Tonight Purdy and Kara return from Chang Mai. They will arrive a little late so I am up waiting to let them in. Deeds is off to sleep already. Work is tough right now and taking its toll on the poor thing. Me I am paying the price of my own life. Played golf yesterday and have to play again tomorrow. Couldn't get a game for Friday, yet! But I have met a few fellows at the course that I will join. Pics and web site connections when it happens. Nice track, a little short by north american standards. I shot 85 there yesterday with a birdie on the last. Feels good to play a course and be hitting some 8 and 9 irons into the greens. Ball does not hold with anything above 8 iron. Greens are thin, hard and fast. Even faster than Trafalgar when they are at their best. So I look forward to getting to know this course as well.

Kara and Purdy will be around tomorrow and we have plans to go out for dinner. They head off to Canada real early on Thursday morning.
Speaking of heading to Canada. We booked our flights home for Christmas today. Yeah think about that, we are already planning our short little return. We arrive on the 18th, Lena will be back from Halifax on the 19th. Just cannot wait to give that girl a hug. We skype and talk alot, but I want a hug.

I believe we are starting to fall into a bit of a routine now. Deeds has made some get to work and home adjustments. Leaving our driver sitting at a near by transit station to ferry her back and forth from the apartment. Taking the transit system to either one of her two offices turns out to be a much more effecient use of time. It is nice to sit in the back of the car and be chauferred around, but when it takes over an hour to get somewhere and you know you could have done it in 20 minutes bu subway you gotta ask yourself..... wtf. Right! So Deeds is wisking about on public transit. Oh don't feel bad for the driver. He gets to take me to the golf course. Hahahaha. I sit in the back of the car like Ernie Els going to a world golf championshop tourney. Not bad for the swarthy adventurer from northwestern ontario.
I say swarthy cause I am gettin the tan on. Wow! Thai people look at me like I am one of there own. Except maybe a little tall. Chocolate is one of the colour tones being used.
OK, time to go. Enjoy
Sawadee Krup

Many pictures

Ok so I promised you some pics of the apartment, best for me to put them up on Picasa with a link and that way you can go directly there and not have to scroll down thru the whole mess here.
Here is the link to that photo album. Enjoy!

Our apartment

I had earlier endorsed Chang beer as the beverage of choice here in Thailand. Deeds and I ended up at Suda one evening, and we ended up having a taste testing between Chang and Singha. Well folks the vote is unanimous. Singha is it. Chang is just a little too rough around the edges. This blog will now only tolerate Singha Beer. The battle between the elephant and the lion has declared a winner!

 PICS OF SUDA POTCHANA OUR FAV EATERY IN BKK

Deeds waiting for the rest of our food. Service is reasonable only if you order beer!

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A broader shot of Scuda Potchana. Is not very elegant but good Thai food, cold beer and some decent atmosphere make it perfect for us. Gets you out the house as well with a good walk to and back. We love it.

Photo for You

The Wat Tours

I am still experimenting as you can see. So I finally figured out how to put the photos as an accessible link right here in the Blog. So no more 33 recipients in an email. I can just put the link up on the blog page you can view by clicking on the link. Up there, click on The Wat Tours and you will be directed to see the photos. Technology!.
And I'll also give you a stock tip. If you own any of the Google guys stock hang on to it. They are good and getting bigger. Microsoft bigger. They have their hands in everything. TV is the next one that I am waiting for!

So now that I am here I will bring you up to date on the goings on. Yes I will post pictures of the new apartment very soon. I do have a life ya know!
Friday was a laid back day for us. Deeds happy to have a weekend to decompress. She is working remember! So we hung out. Saturday we had a Hawaiian Luau party with work mates to attend. Unfortunately we had Kara and Purdy returning from Phuket so there had to be a meeting of the minds. Because they weren't able to get to BKK before the party started we went on and spent a few hours with at the Luau and came back to meet the girls, who were waiting for us on our patio. Security here isn't the greatest but crime like stealing or house break-ins is very minimal. You just take it in stride.

So Kara came and went and came and went again. Her and Purdy this time. Up to Chang Mai. They are back on Wednesday night for dinner and then they fly home very early on Thursday. We also skyped a bit MJ last night.
So last night was a beauty of a night. Kara is now off training for a few months so I saw her get a little tipsy for the first time. Funn---nnny! We talked and talked Purdy, Kara, Deeds and I, well actually the three of them more than me. I finally had to bring the hammer down around 9. Starving. So off we went to one of Deeds and my favourite new food joints. It is called Suda Potchana. A short walk from our new digs. This is an open air type of place that is lit with overhead neon lights. Tables are cafeteria style, covered with plastic table cloths. The tables spill out onto the street. The place is packed with many farang and a good number of thai customers as well. A dead give away for good quality thai food at good pricing. We love it. The menu, typical of thai restaurants is a book. Listing probably one hundred dishes, many with photographs. Everything you could want or want to try. The four of us ate plenty, had a beer each, 870 Baht total. Yeah $30. Not bad for a night out for four!
From here the adventure was on. We trekked back towards home. This brought us directly into contact with Soi Cowboy. Because this is a family blog I will not detail these adventures. I will tell you that it is something that Deeds has wanted to do for a long time. Add a tick mark to that bucket list!! For specific details, reactions, etc. please contact Ms. Brooks directly at her personal email address.
With the visitors gone, we are hanging out a bit. Plan is to go downtown, maybe catch a movie this aft, do some shopping. Holy mother of pearl. We are like 20 year old into our first ever apartment. We need an iron and ironing board. Gotta get a little fold up style clothes hangar for one of the balconies. Can't be throwing our delicates in the dryer can we!
Hey. Here is a why is that question! Women's things are called delicates and men's are called unmentionables!?
Wassup with that?
Another new week of adventure and change coming. Let you know more as it unfolds.
Sawadee Krup



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The Wat tours

We r in!!

I am sitting on the big couch in the living room and it is dark out already, 6:03 pm. Deeds is bringing home some take out as she is just leaving the downtown office. Take out - that's funny. Most good food can be bought on the street here, not sure if that is take out or not?? I guess a lot of food here is called take home.

We slept in our place for the first time last night. Was really nice. What a great breeze we have blowing through the place. Deeds had a glass of wine on our monstrous patio last night, I was drinking water. Spent the afternoon representing Thanachart Bank at a golf tourney. Seems none of the working stiffs could afford to take a day off so they called retired guy to fill in for them. What a great day it was. Perfect weather, nice breeze blowin and I shot 84 with 3 three putts!! So things were good. Won absolutely nothing though. I am not that guy. They were raffling off an iPad, a 32" flat panel tv, trips to islands and stuff. I won absolutely nothing. My brother once won a toaster at a church bazar or was that bingo? Can't remember it was that long ago slansky won anything. Ow wait, I did win a draw for nephew Kyle's hockey team. Take it all back. One of the luckiest guys around. Hehehe! No seriously I feel like I am. Don't give a shite about that other stuff. Also allows me to leave early cause I know!!

Deeds gave me a call early on Tuesday morning about the golf. "Do you thinkyou could take someones place at the tournament? she asked. I had just got my clubs out of hock the night before and was itching to go. "Well let me take a look at my calendar" I said. Hmm, Busy on Tuesdays as usual, rest of the day looks like nothin, tomorrow, yep dawn till dusk, nothin. :I'm in" I shouted.

So Deeds gave me the contact info and I got hold of Kuhn Bobby to see what the details were.
"Just meet us at the hotel and you can catch a ride in the van with the rest of my staff". "What time do I need to be there" I questioned. "Well we want to be away by 4:45 so it would be good if you showed up at about 4:30"
Now you know Bangkok is a very lively town. But even BKK is closed down and quiet at that hour. This is early and it was very tough, but that is what crazy golfers do around here to tee off at 7. It was a one hour ride, breakfast and then walk out to the 9th tee for the shotgun start. I played in a fivesome. Which is rather typical here. We walked, which was nice. So like a real 18 holes for me, cause I don't push or pull a cart, I have an electronic caddy, this time I had a Thai caddy. She pulled my clubs all around. Gave advice on putts and cleaned and pampered the golf gear. On top of that I met three awesome guys from Japan. They were ex US military who have all retired there. They fly in to play in this tournament every year. A charity event that results in building schools in the north of Thailand. Great cause. Raised 1,000,000 Baht, which will build a five room school house complete with desks, blackboards, etc.
It was an awesome day with these guys. What great fun we had, teasing the thai caddies and just joking and tellin stories. After the tournament festivites I was looking for a ride home, didn't want to stick around waiting for Khun Bobby and his staff as they were kinda cleaning up. So I went to one of the Americans, he still works with the military, servicing the US embassies in asia. So he hooked me up with a van full of marines who work at the US embassy here in BKK. They had no trouble giving me a seat and being all What can I do for you sir. Are you comfy back there sir. Was real cool. They were all 20 - 24 ish. Not real tv, story book, kick you butt type marines. But marines nonetheless. Saved me about an hour and after getting up at 4 in the morning, it was a godsend for me.

I missed a chance to play with the guys from Japan on the weekend though cause I thought I was going to Phuket today. That kinda fell through because Kara and Julie lost, now they are coming to BKK a day early so I had no real reason to go there just for one day?! On top of that I have a bit of a cold coming on, been fighting it for two or three days and there was a ton of stuff to do and shopping as well for the apartment.
Things are shaping up. This blog is proof we now have internet. We got gas delivered to day and maybe have some drinking water for next week. Otherwise we just buy huge ol jugs and cart them up the elevator ourselves. In todays shopping adventure I was assisted by our driver Phatsin (pronounced pat-cin). Always helps when you have someone who can read the labels!!
Now I know I promised pics as soon as we got here. However, the place is a little bit of a mess. We are trying to clean up for Kara's return and unpack and blah blah blah. So pictures later.
Sawadee Krup

Next move >> Hawaii Tower

It looks like the day has finally arrived. Payments have cleared both sides of the ocean and our friends at Asian Tiger have informed us they will deliver our goods to our new address this morning. Yehaaa! Because I am off to Phuket on Thursday morning to see Kara and Julie play some volley ball. Diane gets to unpack!

The move is just in time as well. I like The Somerset. You are pampered here. Great pool. Amazing amount of sun. And Sukhumvit Soi 16 is a great neighbourhood. Some great upscale restaurants like Kuppa and Ten Sui where we went last night. But we need to settle in. Have a place we can call ours.

Restaurant Review: Ten Sui is Japanese. Featuring sushi, shashimi, miso soups, tempura, etc. etc. The restaurant itself is very beautiful. A gracious looking place that is set back from the street. They have misting ponds that appear as if you are in the mountains and a flowing stream in front of the building to the front door. Very elegant. The food was for me surprisingly good. I am not a sushi guy. I like sushi a little bit but fell away from it because of the extra glutoneous rice they use. But here in the land of rice, you must get with the program. My only complaint with this restaurant as with many if not all if BKK is the air conditioning. Some like to show their prowess with buying big fast cars, in BKK it is having the AC on to the point that the customers nearly freeze to death. Ten Sui is a winner in that category. It was freaking cold. (Yes colder than George and Tammy's back deck on Melton. If I coulda I would have been wearing my purple coat.). For those who are coming and enjoy good Japanese food make sure you put Ten Sui on your list of places to go. I hear that the lunch is probably the best as it features a set plate that is reasonably priced and a good representation of different dishes because the dinner is a tad expensive

A Walking Tour Through The Old Farang Quarter
Back on the weekend we took a walking tour out of one of the many Thailand travel books we seem to have laying around. This one had a good mix of different things that make BKK into the cosmopolitan place it is. On this tour we saw a buddhist wat (temple), which is no surprise in BKK, a muslim mosque and the largest catholic cathedral in BKK. The tour we did added about half hour of extra walking as is our want to do. We meandered down a major street at 8:30 in the morning on Sunday. A very quiet day in BKK and a good one to get out into the downtown core.
The first destination on the walk was the River City Shopping complex. Now you will get sick of these books talking about places to shop in BKK. There are hundreds if not thousands of malls as we call them. Of course many here are grand. The Eaton Centre holds it's own but may be a little tired compared to these. But shopping compleses are part of the program.
River City sits on the Chao Phraya River. This main river in Thailand runs right through BKK. It was my first glimpse of the river. It is a back and forth river. Running hard into the ocean at low tide and nearly flowing backwards at high tide. River traffic is abundant with many ferries to take you across or up and down. There are many piers along the river and you can hop scotch all the way along. There are also the famous long tail boats of thailand. These boats are taxis, sightseers, etc. You have to see these to believe them. The motor sits right out on top of the stern shaft. The long tail boats navigate in Bangkok canals or near beaches. They use a car motor engine to be propelled. They run quite fast, loud and are a nice way to discover the canals around Bangkok or Thai coasts.
And like every taxi in BKK, when they see farang they pull over, even on the river. I was standing on the verandah at the Oriental Hotel and they came buzzing over. While walking around we were shooing away tuk tuk drivers every ten minutes. It gets to be a little annoying that you can't walk down the street 100 feet without someone asking you where are you goin mister. I take you for 50 baht 2 hours. Were are you goin mister!
From River City we expolered some side soi and saw great antiques and ideas for furnishing the apartment. We walked on, saw a glimpse of the Portugese and French Embassy. We continued on to another area of the walk were we saw the Haroon Moseque as well as Assumption Cathedral. Assumption was a very large area encompassing schools and other buildings in the complex.
Nestled right next door and only a step away from the river was an abandon building that a local said closed about 30 years ago. This building housed the old  East Asiatic Company. A walk around the corner from there and we were at the Oriental Hotel. This is an upscale place. At one point I had to duck into the washroom. No paper towels here. There were linen hapkins to wipe your hands with. Major cool!

We finished off the day strolling back to the Mass Rapid Transit station and heading on home. Even had enough time at the end of this day to head to the pool for a refreshing swim. Great day!
Sawadee Krup