Werking Girl

Lena has landed work. Not only that but she will actually be working two jobs which will have her at school for 7 days a week.
Job one is M - F. She works 9 to 11:00. Pretty cool.
Job two is S & S. Sat is 9 to 4 and Sun will be 9 to 12. Not so cool
But it is all about making some money and keeping busy. So this is what she has decided to do.
One of the groups is pre kindergarten, so age like 3 years. Soooo cute.

Water is still all around us. Many of the routes out of BKK are flooded and thus it is still a major topic of discussion. Politically it is going to grind away at the country for months and depending on what happens next rainy season, it could get uglly.
Major foreign companies had moved full bore into Thailand in recent years. Big players being car manufacturing and electronics manufacturing. A definite Japaneses tint to the business model. And of course these companies bring suppliers to the country as well. An example you know of is Celestica. They have a plant here to support the work for their big customers. The upshot of this is that the flood has had a significant impact on a number of these companies. Plants are shut, there are pics showing cars sitting in a lot, like the one beside Ford on the QEW. And the cars are under water!

 

 

 This is taken just last week, the one taken in early just barely showed the roof, so you can imagine what the inside of the plant looks like. No cars coming out of  Honda Thailand for a while!

Auto parts are still in short supply and affecting production for Toyota and Honda in Canada. Clear indication of the global market place we live in. And now these big companies are being wooed by neighbouring countries. Countries that now argue they have the people skills, low wages and do not have the flood risks. So unless Thailand can do something obvious to spell the floods in future they may be down to strike three with some of these global players. A big if for the Thai economy.

U are up to date. Enjoy, talk soon
Sawasdee Krup

Dry and getting dryer

Well we went away for the Remembrance Day weekend.  A beautiful trip to Koh Samui. A gorgeous island in the Gulf of Thailand, way down south on a latitude similar to Ho Chi Minh but to make it more familiar with Americans (people from the Americas, not yankees) it is at a latitude of approximately 9 degrees north, which is the same latitude as San Jose, Costa Rica.

Diane, Lena and I spent a leisurely three days at the Four Seasons there. Tripped into the fishing village of Samui, a little shopping area, fare number of restaurants and small boutique type hotels and rooms above the bars type of accommodation. Most of the hotels in the area are still a little isolated from any tourist type areas as Samui is just starting to turn into Phuket. It was one of the first islands to start to get developed, mostly because of the airport built there.

They tell stories of how the island is still a major coconut producing areas of Thailand. When parents died and it was time to pass along the properties the oldest often received the plantations and growing areas of land in the interior and on the mountains. Younger children and women got the beach and less valuable land. Ahahaha, guess who's rich now and who is still sluggin coconuts for a living!
One of the many ironies of life plays out here as the tourist trade begins to expand.

Our weather was reasonable, still a bit of the rainy season holding on down in the south so we lost a bit of beach time to rain, but not to worry, we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Now we are back in BKK and glad to hear that the water is beginning to subside in many areas around the city. Still have a long way to go for many to be free of the flood, but it is a beginning. As you may know the season from November to end February in this area of the world is like a desert. It seldom rains. The reason they flood the rice paddy in September, it starts the germination of the rice and the water gradually reduces as the plant grows.
To put some perspective to the flood, I have some pictures of my golf course.
Here are some I took back last fall when I first joined the club in November of 2010.

This is a shot of the club house taken from the front edge of the 18th green. Just over that bunker and a little to the left is the practice green.





Here is a pic of the practice green taken by the golf club in better days and used on their website. The picture is taken from the second floor balcony of the clubhouse. You can see the bunker on eighteen top left of this picture

Now here is a picture of the club house taken by a friend on November 1.

 There are stairs that lead into the pro shop in the middle of the picture. The putting green is easily 10 feet below the top of these stairs, which are not visible in this picture at all.

 To arrive at the golf course you drive down a lane way from the main street. Now you need a boat as you can see here.

Just past this main entrance is the par three course which borders on the main road. The first hole you see from the lane way is the 9th hole shown here bottom left. The chap who took these pics entered via the lane way then cut over to the par three course, so that is the same hole to the right. Covered with 10 feet of water!

 Here is a picture of the Golf Academy, with the driving range to the right. The range teeing area is covered. You can see that the water was over the top of the windows in the bag storage room.

The club is located aprproximately 45 minutes north of my apartment. Obviously the flood water never made it to my home. It has been diverted to areas east and west of BKK. The impression is that most of the water will be past BKK or away from the golf course by end of November. Of course the golf is done here for many months afterwards. I do not see how they can get grass to grow, cut and groom to form fairways in less than a month, never mind the greens. Which at Bangkok golf club were exceptional. Some have said it will cost a minimum of $75,000 per hole to rejuvenate. And the high season has begun. Korean and Japanese golfers are looking for places to play. With the loss of so many golf courses to the north, Thailand golf courses will be a very chaotic place come January when most of the Asian golfer normally take their holidays to this area.
Me, well I have to try new ground. As it was my membership to Bangkok Golf Club expires on the 15th of November. I haven't played there since October 20 as of the floods which actually came to the golf course area on the 15th.
Trust to say my hardship is not as bad as the people who live in the area and are traveling around in boats, canoes and punts of various kinds.
Good news is that the waters are receding and the family here is dry.

Coming up the fam is into a month of minimal travel. Most likely just to Pattaya condo. Lena looks for a job and Deeds settles into her role as helper.
We look forward to our next two sets of guests. Kyle and Lindsay and then the family Vertkas for Christmas.
Wow, Christmas talk already! Has it snowed where you are?

Hockey is shaping up to be a post kicker. Kinda thinking the Habs should back off right now and get into the Nail Yakupov sweeps. You know the last time the Habs picked first? 1980. Doug Wickenheiser. Shoulda taken Hayley. Much better player.
We'll see what happens. Fighting it out for the last playoff spot again no doubt. Or maybe Markov is the kick we have been waiting for?
Sawasdee Krup

Who knows??

Yeah, that is the only thing you can say about the Great Flood of Thailand of 2011. Will the water actually come into the centre of BKK. You can scour the web read all the newspaper clippings and reports you want but you are no closer to revealing the truth. Only time will tell.
They are sooooo screwed up over here that there is no way to tell. The city of BKK has a governor, not sure if this is a higher rank than mayor but in any event he told the Prime Minister to pound salt the other day. Refusing to agree with her and allow her to open a sluice gate that would allow water to flow quicker to the sea, thus perhaps alleviating some of the flooding in the north a little sooner than the suggested 2 months they are talking about now. His position was to not allow inner BKK to get wet. (we are kinda in inner bkk, so I thought his standing up to her was cool). Now they say that the story will be told by this Friday. Of course they have said that about every Friday or Satruday since the middle of September. Truly they have no idea. I do know that people to the north are under water, my golf course among them.
Of course I have no idea what they mean by the "north". Is that north of BKK or north like Chang Mai? For sure it still includes Ayutthaya. News is hard to come by and means even less because they talk about districts and areas and such that I have not been able to figure out or even find on a map.
Suffice to say that you now start doing what is right for you. As so many locals have. Today I bought a jug of water, 20 litres. Normally I would pay to have this delivered to my kitchen for 70 baht. About $2.25. I found a truck on the street and the guy was delivering water jugs to a hotel. I asked him if I could buy some. 400 baht he said. I bought two. That is 800 baht = $24.00 for water that before the flooding began cost $4.50. Don't care. Don't wanna be rationing water or worrying about it. So I overpaid and the fella who delivered it wants to come back again next week. And if things don't chill as far as the flooding goes, I may just give him a call.

A positive occured last week. I found a golf course and a game with a few friends from the washed out course. Played twice last week and playing again for sure on Monday. Some relief for me. Out of the house and stretching my legs a bit.
News from the group. Lena had her wisdom teeth removed at the hospital on Saturday. So it is all soup and sleep for her.
The three of us are scheduled to fly to Koh Samui on Friday and spend a weekend on the beach taking it easy. Looking forward to that.

Hockey beat bears mentioning. I haven't received the official parade route from any Leaf fans yet but I hear that the route will definitely go down Bay Street and finish at the ACC. That will be in June of course and I may just be back in town. But I think my sock drawer, what with all the traveling and all, will need rearranging so I am not going to be able to make it. Sell my spot to one of the suffering masses who have waited forever for that day to come. Oh and bonne chance mon amis...

Grey Cup soon. Not even sure who will be in it but as always I know it will be a barn burner. I will try to download when it is posted. Last years version only has three seeders so it would take until next year to download so I had to past.

All for now. Hey daylight saving time ended. You are now exactly 12 hours behind again. Makes it easy, and also gives me a little bit of space to settle in to watch hockey in the morning. You have to believe me that it is the coolest way to watch hockey. 7 in the morning. Game is over by 10 and  you tee off at 11. Wonderbar.
Sawasdee Krup