Weekends in BKK-2

So the next big weekend was part of the long weekend holdiay for the Kings Birthday. I showed you a few of those pics in the last blog.
It was originally planned that we spend the weekend with my T Bay friend on his boat and just hanging out. This got cancelled at the last minute due to an illness with his friend in Phuket. He ended up flying there on the weekend. So it was alternate planning mode for us!
This is no big deal for Deeds and I to plan. We can very easily slip into a stay at home relaxer weekend. In fact it is the kind of weekend we enjoy. We do this alot even back in the Big Smoke. We don't mind if it rains sometimes cause it allows us to just sit and read the paper, drink some tea, chat some. In the fall especially. Deeds can get to putting together her famous beef stew, or just a big ole pot of veggie soup. Is a good life when you can enjoy like that and it is what Deeds and I can do! Hard for some, easy for us. Simple things.
But before we got there I had checked out some of the hotels in Pattaya to see if we should chase down there to the beach. No was the final answer so we started the weekend out with relaxin on our minds. We just stayed home. I have a few recipes with me that we have come to enjoy as staples. I have scouted out the stores to see if I can access something close to authentic ingredients and that was to be part of the weekend. A feast on "Blokes fussili" right out of Jamie Oliver's cookbook that Lena gave me for Christmas last. Maybe throw in a game of golf, the first for Deeds and we have a weekend!

Saturday we were down to our own pool early (sun window is 9:30 to 12) and read our books and tanned and dipped in the pool. I missed the Habs game. For some funny reason it was on two hours ahead of normal. Not to fear Habs won and I watched the Leafs take down the hated Bs in a shoot out. Well done lads.

Deeds got in a phone call to her mom, I did the same with mine. We chased notes with Lena, she is in the middle of end of semester stuff so we spent less time with her than we wanted. As Shelly has said Lena may have moved her bed to the library. She is there alot! But we understand, this is what Lena wanted to do the most, go to University. Live away from home. We respect and admire her for it.

For lunch we decided to try some street food. There was some good activity to the north of us on our Soi so we wandered down to take a look. Fantastic we thought as we approached. All kinds of Thai folks from the neighbourhood. Security guards from nearby apartments, taxi drivers pulling over to have something or take away. All the right signals. When we started asking questions we got all kinds of offers. He had fresh chicken breast, some pork, a handful of fresh prawns, anything you wanted he would make. I decided on a plate of Pad Sewei. Broad noodles, veggies mixed in with pieces of fresh chicken just cooked especially for me. Deeds went with the daily special which was laid out in a pan there on the cart. Roasted pork with veggies over rice. All this came with a fantastic bowl of chicken soup with a clear coloured squash chopped up, kinda like potatoe but not. It was an awesome lunch. Total for the two or us = 60 baht. Yep two bucks!! I have no idea how they do it.

Saturday evening was movie time and we curled up to watch The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Sunday was to be a golf day for us at my club. I had booked a tee time for early afternoon and expected to play with Deeds and then have dinner at the club. We had lined up our driver for the day. And then at mid morning I got a call from my golf buddy Kuhn John. This is the Thai gentleman who helped me secure my membership at Bangkok Golf Club (BGC). He asked if we wanted to play with him at Chuan Chuen a club not far from BGC, he said it would be a fivesome as he had invited his friends Kuhn Ni and Kuhn Don. We figured it would be a hoot so we agreed.
This turned out to be the highlight of the weekend for us. Ni and Don are fascinating people. She is a former Thai airlines hostess who now works in administration for the airline. Kuhn Don is everything. He has his own plastics business, is the Managing Director of the Thailand Industries Association, which is an appointed position and is therefore well connected. So well connected that he told Diane to say hi to Chaiwat the CEO of Siam City Investment Bank (the one that was purchased by BNS and the reason we are here). You remember Chaiwat, went to Louisville University, the Cardinals!! Yeah, exactly. Even when you are in Thailand it is a small world after all. How the heck could we have met someone who knows someone we met and knows him very very well. Don knows Chaiwat so well he said "Tell him pe Don said hi". Pe meaning older brother. Which is how they refer to each other as they both went to school together at Chulalongkorn University. WOW!

After golf was the best. We had loads of fun on the course which is a Nick Faldo design, lots of water as always in Bangkok, but when we finished we ended up in the grill / snack bar area of the clubhouse. It was dark, 6 pm when we all met. The King's birthday celebration was on the TV and they were explaining things to us about the ceremonies. Extremely interesting. But it was the conversation, the food and the wine in that order and combination that made the evening. We were asked questions from, "So what do you think of the Thai economy?" to "When can you get out to play golf in the morning Diane?"
These were the nicest people. They shared with us, made us feel absolutely fantastic and carried on like we were old friends.
The thai dishes kept coming out of the kitchen even though the whole place, except for us, was empty. They had even turned out lights in the other area of the restaurant! We had fish, thai beef (a little tough but great dipping sauce), a german dish they called pork knuckle, what we call a ham hock (with real mustard!!) and we finished off with a huge plate of pad thai. Marvelous.
To drink, Kuhn John had wandered out to his car and brought in two bottles of a chilean cab that was perfect for the occasion. John apparently buys it 60 cases at a time from a buddy of his who is a supplier in Thailand.
He also apparently keeps a case in his car! I played golf with him on one other occasion and he produced another bottle for the table. Of course I put in an order for 2 cases the next time he is buying. Wine here is taxed to the nines. Very hard to get a good wine under $18 cdn. This was a good wine and the price should be about 13 per bottle when bought by the case!
Can't honestly remember what time we got home, sure was glad that it wasn't a school night, cause there is no way we were getting up before 7 on Monday morning. Nice relaxin day on Monday. The weather even cooperated, not rain but it was cloudy and cool (28) all day. I went out for a walk in the afternoon to do some specific shopping for our special dinner. Deeds was getting into finalizing the iDB books for 09/10. We had a glass of wine while making dinner and a glass with. (our house brand right is Three Penguins, very nice cab that goes with anything). We settled in and watched Eat, Pray, Love. That's the weekend.
And now you are pretty much up to date.

I did play golf on Tuesday. It was in a tournament to raise money for the National Defense College here in Bangkok. This was a fund raising tournament. 18 M Baht was raised. The tournament is so big it is held over two days. A 6:30 tee time for the morning tournament on a 36 hole course, kinda like Lion Head golf course, two groups per tee box = 288 golfers. Then there is an afternoon tee time at 12:30, same same. You are fightning the morning crowd showering as you come into the locker room to change. Then they do it all over again the next day. That's how you raise $600,000 in two days! There was dinner and prizes for each tournament! John brought in his own bottle of wine!! Nice day.
Hope this finds you well. Nine more sleeps!
Sawadee Krup