HOT

Well we are in the middle of it now. I played golf on Monday, temp on the golf course was 40. Way too hot to play. Everything is dripping and you have trouble actually getting air in your nose. It is actually stifling hot. I know you all think that you have seen hot and humid in T dot (Lena taught me to say that) well you ain't. Cause I thought I had as well. This is very very hot. Brutal hot. Put something over your face and head cause it is prickly hot. I am a walker when I play golf back home. Probably take a cart two or three times a year. Only on the hottest days. I can only walk 9 holes here. I ride the second nine. Until this week. Now I ride the whole 18 and when I get off the course I stand in the shower for 10 minutes to try and get my strength back. Wow.

But last week needs to be talked about as well. It was Song Kran as you all know. Deeds had Wed, Thurs and Friday off, so she booked us a trip to Chaing Mai. This is a northern city, second largest in Thailand. About a one hour flight north of BKK. Easy to get to and as we found out very different from BKK. Now we only did a local hotel and the city. We didn't get into the hill tribes and the "long-neck tribes" tours as you can. Some go for the all out trip and stay with a family in a village in the hills. Family sleeps upstairs and the livestock sleep downstairs kinda deal. Deeds and I have that on our radar for sure, but we decided to do a typical Deeds and Jer tour this time around. Yes folks we are talking Five Star!!
We stayed at a Four Seasons Resort about 35 minutes outside of Chaing Mai. I have some pics to show you here and I will put some more up on Picasa later. Song Kran is water festival and the locals all through out Thailand go about splashing water on everyone at every turn. Some think it is fun, most think it is foolish and stay away from the hooligans that have taken over. Lots of drinking and making merry. Kinda for the 20 to 35 year old crowd. Not so much fun for us older folk, and thus a good hide away at a Four Seasons.

 The room was very respectable, as you can see at right.  Large enough so that you aren't bumping into each other when you don't want to. Yet still just a hotel room!!

And it had a walkway out to a room perched high above the grounds. An area referred to as a sala. As shown here.

We enjoyed ourselves at this resort very much. It was totally elegant and a great rest from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok.
We spent hours by the pool. It was so hot that you could barely go 20 minutes without splashing in and cooling off. And we did it is style. Pool pics below.

From the Four Seasons we went on a few tours, there are plenty of pics for that, elephants and stuff. But you know what, I do not have time right now , so I will leave you with these and promise to get back to you real soon with more stories of adventures and pictures to back that up.

Darn Bs won one in MTL today, that didn't make for a good day, but no one figured the Habs to sweep so I am starting to think the Habs in seven now, six would be nice but let's be realistic.

Off to bed soon, take care of your selves. We miss you all and love ya too.
Saw

Time to blog

Hi folks. I am home on a hot and steamy Friday afternoon, watching the rerun of the 2011 Masters day one. Mikie isn't in the mix at this point and probably won't be. But it is the Masters. I actually went to the point of getting satellite TV installed in the apartment so that I could watch some of the tournament. If I want to see it live I will have to get up at 2, or maybe just not go to bed! Yeah right. Rerun is OK. I have no reason to look at anything like a newspaper or anything so I will be able to watch it like it is live.
The satellite also gives me access to some of the NHL playoffs and the finals. I have NHL GameCentre which gives me internet coverage of nearly every game played throughout the season but the NHL sells the Stanley Cup finals and semifinals to the networks and they will not allow the NHL to carry these games on the internet. So I am shutout unless I get some other avenue. Hopefully this will be it. I will keep you informed.

 A new pic on the top of the blog. This is a copy of a picture we took with Lena when we went to dinner at a place called Vertigo. It is on the top of the Banyon Tree Hotel. That is the restaurant at the right. Our table when we were there is the three seater bottom left of this picture. What a fantastic place on a nice evening with a little breeze blowing. Wow.
If you look up to the picture on the banner you see a building with what looks like a pyramid on the top, centre left. That is the location of the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok. 15th floor in case you ever need to go. Lumphini Park to the centre right.

So April is turning out to be everything it was supposed to be. HOT! Real hot. Humidity is over the top. On the golf course I am dead after 9 holes. Walking under an umbrella all day and still you cannot beat the heat. April also brings with it many holidays. We had one on Wednesday to celebrate the Kings coronation. What to do? Well I decided to give Deedles her birthday present early and arrange an adventure.

THE ADVENTURE

Our adventure was a bicycle tour in the countryside outside of Bangkok. No big deal you say. Well truth is Diane and Lena have been trying to get me on a bicycle for around 15 years. To no avail. So me arranging a bicycle tour was a gift in itself.

The tour starts with a ride on a train from the middle of BKK out to the countryside. These trains are the older variety as the pics will indicate. No air conditioning, just windows opened wide and wind blowing through the compartment. They have circulating fans on the roof that help a little bit when the train is in the station. Better get there early and make a dash for the door. Don't be afraid to jump ahead of someone cause there are only so many seats and the ride is one hour long.

Beui and Liz

These tours are especially great because they are guaranteed to be the least intrusive to the countryside and local areas we go through. They are limited to 2 to 6 trekkers. We were only three, four with our tour guide Buei (pronounced like new with a B). We were joined by a doctor from San Antonio, Liz, who was working with the Thai Red Cross. She was working with an international team doing infectious disease research, specifically HIV.  A very charming young lady. She worked too hard though. Proof was this was one of only two or three tours she had done during her stay of four weeks. Hadn't even been to see the Royal Palace and Temple right in downtown BKK. Too bad but still something she will never forget I am sure.

 The ride out gives you plenty of time to see the countryside and even a few little villages as you get further outside of BKK. We are heading east towards Pattaya a place we have talked about. At times you can see the expressway that we travel by car. This train if you wanted will take you all the way to Aranyaprathet, Thailand and across the border to Phoipet, Cambodia. It is a milk run and stops frequently but the views are interesting and enjoyable.

 There were a good number of stations along the way.

 Water everywhere. Khlongs which means canal are all throughout the BKK delta.













We finished our train ride and walked about 75 metres to a small covered area where there were half a dozen bikes for us to choose from. A little adjustment, make sure you have the required head gear and sun tan lotion and we were on our way.

The bikes had a seat on the back, for an additional passenger but I enjoyed the "Easy Rider" look for a drive through the countryside.




The tour took us down gravel and sands roads and paths, over Khlongs with little bridges that took all your mettle to not get off and walk your bike across. All the ponds you see are farms. Fish and fresh water shrimp are the crop. The rest of the terrain was for rice. Many rice paddies in different forms. Some just planted other about one month away from harvest. And being from the Great White North we do not know what rice actually looks like up close. Well surprisingly it looks just like wheat. A long tall grass with a seed head that bows over as it gets later in the season. It gradually begins to turn brown then gold when it is ready to harvest. In Thailand they have three plantings a year. Being the second largest rice producer in the world (next to India) and the largest exporter.

Very scary ride over this one. Although we were told that to go swimming here was something a lot of the tour folks have done. Still. Glad we stayed high and dry!!

 Fish and fresh water shrimp are the crop in these ponds.

Rice one month from harvest. Looks a little like wheat.





A great day. We had awesome food at a little stop. Cooked by the local guides mom. A grilled fish, probably from that pond on the left. Rice that was no doubt locally grown and through out the trip the guide showed us edible leaves and shoots. Fresh basil growing by the roadside that any local could stop and pick for their own use. All of this and you can see why the Thai people are so happy and you do not see a lot of poverty. If you have a little land and are willing to work everything that you need to survive is there in front of you.
Was really a marvelous adventure. Sleepy train ride home. Got back to the apartment and went straight down to the pool for a refreshing and cooling dip.

Oh and in case you missed it. The Habs made the playoffs. Starts on the 13th. Which is Songkran here. Another holiday I told you about earlier. Deeds and I will be up in Chaing Mai so I might miss a couple of games, yikes. Let's go boys.

Sawadee Krup