Happy Birthday Thavorn

Today's song is: Life's Been Good .. Joe Walsh

Thavorn is simply the most wonderful woman I have met in my life. There is not a mean bone in her body and she is happy for everything positive that happens in her life and accepts the 'not so good things' in stride.

She has been physically abused and cheated on by previous Thai husbands but that does not stop her from embracing the present.

She has worked high rise construction projects and cleaned toilets in resorts, but is not happy sitting at home and not contributing to our income.  I keep telling her that her job s to be the best momma that Jaidan could ever have and she is rising to that challenge but is still not used to farang rules such as no hitting the kid! Thai kids are smacked by both parents and teachers on a regular basis. Not Jaidan!

Yesterday afternoon a delicious birthday cake and card arrived compliments of the resort and I was impressed that Thavorn had arranged it as she is very shy and also said she did not. However, today, another birthday card and cake arrived and Thavorn asked how the resort knew and they said they noticed our birthdays when they photocopied our passports. A very nice touch and kudos to the Marriott Resort Beach Club in Phuket!

So happy birthday Thavorn and welcome to middle age. You are getting better, not older :-)

Some pics:

TTYL

The Marriott Birthdays

Today's song is: Money for Nothing .. Dire Straits

Today, September 23rd is my birthday and tomorrow September 24th is Thavorn's birthday and we are both year of the tiger and kindred spirits. We celebrate our birthdays together at midnight :-)

It is interesting staying in the resort with Thai people who can chat with the ladies who clean our room daily. During the conversations, we found out that the ladies make the minimum Thai wage of 300 baht a day but most of their income comes from tips left by the people staying in the rooms. Thavorn asked what that amount would be and the ladies says it all depends on the people staying in the room. Farangs tip well and the Japanese and Chinese leave little or nothing. A typical farang would leave 1,000 baht at the end of their stay.

There are three types of folks here, DINKS who spend their time lounging by the pool and drinking in the bars, retired folks doing the same as DINKS,  and families with children who are more active, trying to keep their kids entertained. I guess I fit into the second group :-)

The sun was out this morning so I managed to take some pics around the resort, before the clouds rolled in.

Balcony area

View from balcony

Outside hallway

Jaidan waiting for women

Off to the pool

Strange tree with nuts or fruit

Jaidan loves to ride poppa

Resort grounds

Thavorn and Jaidan  .. children's pool

Thavorn  .. too shy to show bikini

Children's pool

Resort grounds  .. central court area

One of the adult pools

Many bars like this all around the resort

Air hockey in Thailand

Lots of activities for children and young at heart

Lots of sleepers all over the resort

This is where they hold the sunset water dance

Activity check list

Turtle theme throughout the resort

Jaidan and his older half sister (5 years)

TTYL

Hump Day

Today's song is: Run Through the Jungle .. CCR

I have been quite remiss in not taking and subsequently posting pics of the resort and what we are doing. I was going to do it today, but it rained on and off all day and I wanted some sunshine.  Thavorn and I are going to the gym daily as Jit, (Bai Derry's grandma) is visit and is willing and able to look after Jaidan as well for the hour we spend in the gym. The gym is great!

We have been also spending a couple of hours pool side in the children's pool and Jaidan is loving it. He feels very comfortable in the water and is now ducking his head under it for a second. All good in learning to swim eventually. The pool also has a nice fast slide he likes going down.

We missed out on the pool today and therefore headed off to the local pub Bill Bradley's, if I remember correctly and ordered up some BBQ pork ribs which Thavorn loves for some reason (not spicy but sour) and insists eating at least once while we are at the Marriott resort.

Hopefully the sun will shine tomorrow and we will be back at the pool and I will get some pics.

The ocean beach has had the red flag up due to strong waves and jelly fish at this time of year.

TTYL

Saturday Night out for Jimmy

Today's song is: The Logical Song  .. Supertramp

Tonight is my last Saturday night out in Bangkok for a week so I thought I would head out about 4:30 in search of some challenging games of pool a few beers with some pretty ladies.  Not that it will be a long night as we are up early, about 7 am to head off by taxi to Don Muang airport for our 10:30 am flight to Phuket.

Phuket has a brand new terminal so I am anxious to see it. Thavorn's sister and BF will pick us up at the airport and drive us to the Marriott. As I type this blog Thavorn is mercilessly teasing her sister as she eats red grapes and drinks a red wine cooler and shares the experience over LINE video as her sister can afford neither. However they own a truck and I might as well pay them the 600 baht transfer fee than some taxi :-)

Phuket is an international airport because it is a major tourist destination with easy access to Phi Phi and Krabi which the Scandinavians enjoy.

A typical night out for pool which actually consists of 20 baht per game, 2 jugs of Singha beer for myself, and a couple of lady drinks and a 100 baht tip for my pool lady usually comes to about 1,000 baht for 4 hours of entertainment which is about $35 CDN. All in all, a good night's entertainment and even more so if I win.

Bangkok has a plethora of beer bars, with salaried and free lancers, gogo dance bars with gogo girls and coyote dancers, and my favorite, pool bars with pool girls.  Beer bars and pool bars often come with live music as well. There is also no shortage of wine bars and high end hotel bars and roof top bars for the hi-rollers out there but I find them somewhat stuffy and no cheaper than back in North America.

Don't forget, when you are tired and all played out there are the massage parlors both legit and discreet to wind down in.

If you can't enjoy yourself in Bangkok then there is something wrong with you :-)

TTYL

Pool

Today's song is: Do it Again  .. Steely Dan

Not the kind you swim in but the kind you play. I love to play pool but unfortunately do not have the chance to play or practice as much as I like but nevertheless, at times, I play well.  Yesterday Thavorn, Jaidan and I headed off to Country Road for a few jugs of Singha and a chance to play pool. Dum, whom we normally play with had a day off. Dum would be the resident #3 player and plays a decent game. May, is the resident #2 player but I have not seen her for a while.

That left only #1 who I normally avoid as she is very, very good. Thavorn started off and managed managed 5 games and ended up losing 3 games to 2 but one of her wins was when #1 scratched after sinking the 8 ball. She did have a legitimate win which was really quite good for her.

Couple of pics of Thai girls playing pool, from the net  .. not mine  ..

Classic Thai form

It was getting late, about 6 ish and we were asked to leave before 7 pm as the army was coming in at 7 pm to run a check on the bars and Jaidan is not 20 tears of age or older and we did not want to get the bar in trouble. After 2 jugs of beer I was ready to take on #1 (for the life of me I can not remember her name).  The whole key with #1 is to make sure she is never left with an easy shot. An easy shot for #1 is pretty well everything that does not require a bank or combination.  I managed to that for the game and ended up with the cue ball on the rail and the 8 ball closest to the side pocket which was not ideal, but I made the shot and that now makes me #1 in the bar as I have beaten her twice now :-)

However, I am sure if I played her for 10 games that the score would be 6-4 or even 7-3 for #1. When I play well, I am very good, but I do not get enough practice to play well most of the time.

It is Friday night and I would love to head out and play pool but I have been caring for Jaidan, most of the day and I am tired, so not tonight. Maybe Saturday night :-)

http://tastythailand.com/best-pool-and-billiards-bars-in-bangkok-thailand-good-food-great-beer-cute-thai-girls/

Above article was published in 2011 but is still relevant although the Sportsman has moved to Sukhumvit Soi 13

Tomorrow being Saturday, we have to do some washes and get packed for our early morning flight to Phuket, which reminds me I should check in on the web to save some time at the airport.

A couple of shots of Jaidan sitting on Darryl's (RIP) motorbike and side car outside of Dollhouse on Soi Cowboy. Darryl was well liked by all the staff of Dollhouse before he fell off the balcony at his condo. Seems to be a common occurrence in Thailand.

TTYL