It is time to check out of the Marriott, catch a taxi to the airport to fly back to Bangkok. Good to get away and also good to get back home, wherever that is.
We will enroll Jaidan back in nursery school on Monday. This gives Thavorn and I a break during the day ants us go for a walk and enjoy a coffee. Better still, it gives Jaidan face time with other children and other adults as well as getting him off the smart phone and away from the television.
Thavorn has decided that her two oldest children will not come to Bangkok during their October school holiday. Apparently they are needed at their grandmother's as her live in bf is working in Bangkok and she does not want to be left alone. I do not think that is fair to her two children, but in Thailand, the parents are valued more than the children.
Thavorn will go visit them for a week or two but Jaidan will stay with me. I will need the nursery school break during the day. :-)
I really enjoyed being in a gym again. Too bad Bangkok gyms are so expensive.
Here are some pics from our final day at the resort.
Today's song is: Forever and for Always .. Shania Twain
an interview with Shania ..
Can you truly have a vacation if you are retired? I think it is just another level of relaxed :-) Regardless we are enjoying our week at the Marriott Beach Club Resort in Phuket. We are joined by Ciara (John's daughter) and Fon (John's gf) as well as Jit, Bai Deri's grandmother as well as Bai Deri, Thavorn's third child.
Jaidan is enjoying having another child (6 years old) to play with as they are about the same size. They both enjoy the children's pool and can spend hours at a time in the pool unlike all the farang kids who are sunburned in their first 30 minutes. Thais don't burn, just get darker whereas Jaidan for some mysterious reason does neither. He can stay out in the sun for 7 hours and never get burned and does not seem to darken much, if any at all.
I was nabbed at the airport by the local Antanares Time Share employee who offered us free transport to the Marriott if Thavorn and I sat through the usual 90 mins sales pitch. Normally I would just say no but he sweetened it to include 5,000 baht if we did so. I figured 5,000 baht for short term was a good deal as did Thavorn so we sat through the triple play sales pitch and enjoyed free ribs for all at Bill Bentley's pub, courtesy of Antanares.
I am going to the gym every day (not including the first 2 days) and the facility is great for a resort gym. Just as well since we have polished off countless beer plus a bottle of gin and a bottle of vodka. We are on vacation afterall.
I have decided to place jaidan back in his nursery school (2 - 6 years of age) starting October 2nd, as Jaidan is spending way too much time watching video and playing games on my smart phone. However, he is very adept at using all the features of my phone (camera, YouTube, games, photo gallery, etc.)
My buddy Arthur still has 6 weeks to go in the US and I am still not sure when Harvey will arrive back to the LOS from England. However, I will remember to join Jimmy (originally from Singapore) for a beer at Country Road next Friday. I also missed Mimmo (Switzerland) as this was his Bangkok week while we were in Phuket.
Here are some pics from the resport.
Jit is always cooking ..
Jaidan playing air hockey with Bai Deri .. supervised by Ciara
Today's song is: Hotel California .. Eagles .. Always a favorite with Bangkok live bands
and one great song deserves another .. Highway to Heaven .. Led Zeppelin
and yet another classic
Born to be Wild .. Steppenwolf .. torn between it and Magic Carpet Ride .. I bought my first motorcycle in 1969, a Triumph T100 Bonneville .. Motorcycle nirvana in 69
While I am on a roll and after 3 large glasses of Pipers 100 whisky, a tribute to my basketball teams over the years ..
and what we are looking for ..
I headed out for a game of pool on Wednesday night at 5 pm and got home at 1:30 am. What went right? Many things ..
I decided to ask my friend Phai if she was avalable for pool as all my guy friends were busy or out of the country. Phai gets off work at 5 pm and was available after grabbing a bite to eat at 6 pm. We played about 5 games of pool and she got lucky once :-) She is getting better!
After we played pool we decided to go bar hopping. Phai loves to bar hop as she enjoys pretty ladies as do I. We visted Lighthouse, Shark Bar, and Bacara and decided Nana and some live music would be good for a change. We headed off to Hillary 2 and listened to one of my favorite bands for a couple of hours and then we headed over to Hillary 1 (newly refurbished and upscale) for another of my favoroite bands for an hour.
We then decided to visit Twisters, one of my favorite gogo bars in nana Plaza and spent an hour there. It was then time to jump on a motorcycle taxi and head back to Cowboy for a visit to long Gun and then Crazy House. We then decided to call it a night and I put Phai in a taxi and walked home to wear off some of the alcohol before hitting the sack.
All in all, a great night out with a good friend.
Hillary 1
My friend Phai and me at Hillary 1
My favorite band at Hillary 2
ditto
My favorite waitress .. always runs a tab for me ..
Today is Friday and we are packing for our week at the JW Marriott resort in Phuket where we will celebrate our birthdays on the 23 rd and 24th of September. Yesterday, on our walk to Big C to buy supplies for our trip we passed the surf place and Jaidan loves to go in and watch the wipe-outs.
I am sure, when he gets old enough he will want to give it a go ...
Today's song is: Times Changing .. Sinead O'Connor
Tourism is a huge industry in Thailand. According to the Bangkok post:
Pongpanu Svetarundra, permanent secretary for the Tourism and Sports Ministry, said visitors in August generated 163 billion baht in revenue, up 11.7% from the same month a year earlier. In August, the number of visitors from East Asia increased 10% from a year earlier to 2.26 million, with nearly 1 million from China, up 10.3%.
Numbers from the Middle East rose 19.4% to 103,784 in August, while those from Europe were flat, at 437,739. Mr Pongpanu said Thailand welcomed 23.54 million foreign tourists from January to August, up 5.36% from the same period last year.
Revenue from foreign tourists in the first eight months rose 7.47% to 1.19 trillion baht.
The government has forecast about 35 million tourist arrivals this year, an increase from 2016's record 32.6 million. Tourism accounts for 12% of Thailand's GDP.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/1327455/tourism-resilient-despite-baht
The number of tourists, and the type of tourist is bound to have an impact on Thailand and the Thai people. Thailand only has a population of 69 million people, so throughout the year, the tourists push the number of people in Thailand up by over 50%. These farangs will definitely change the country as the Thai ramp up to service the tourists. I can't help but think it won't be for the better.
Why, the old rules of supply and demand will push up the cost of everything. The baht has been appreciating against other currencies this year which makes Thailand less of a bargain. Add in the supply and demand curves and prices will also rise from the cost of a tuk tuk ride to the price of a street meal. These new tourists will also be less Thai savvy and will fall prone to the farang price, rather than the usual Thai price.
I think, if you are interested in seeing the old Thailand, you should do so within the next year, as I think the old Thailand is rapidly evolving into something else. Not sure what it will look like, will it be better or worse.
As always, I will be watching and reporting on what trends I see. The latest trend is away form the busloads of Chinese tourists who follow the flag bearing tour leader en mass, spending little money to smaller groups of 2-6 Chinese tourists travelling on their own, with money to spend.
I have seen single Chinese tourists in the bar throwing 20 baht bills at the girls, while laughing at the melee that he created. I can't say I like that scene as I find it demeaning to the ladies scrambling for less than a dollar. To each their own, but times are a changing and I suspect that he will have to pony up with 100 baht notes in the near future.
This article in the Atlantic is an interesting read:
The past few years have been great for China's economy, meaning more money to spend on travel. "In 2012, Chinese overtook Americans and Germans as the world's top international tourism spenders, with 83 million people spending a record $102 billion on international tourism," CNN reported last month. More Chinese tourists traveling make Chinese tourists more visible, and that gives people around the world the templates to start a stereotype. And just like the Americans who were rude and demanding when the dollar was strong, so too are the Chinese. "Rich Chinese tourists are pushing the boundaries and unfortunately some of these places are bending to their will ... Particularly the newly rich, who think, 'If I'm paying money then I'm God,'" as Mei Zhang, the owner of a Chinese travel told CNN.
Saturday night is the best night to enjoy the vibe that is Bangkok, the Big Mango (yet another nickname). However, I passed on Saturday night as it is always busy and I wanted to play some pool. Instead, Thavorn, Jaidan, and I headed out about 2 pm to play some pool at Country Road on Soi Cowboy and for the most part we had the pool tables to ourselves during the afternoon. As we are wont to do, we ordered pitchers of Singha beer and played 4 games, which I won by a ball or two until Fon, arrived and I dropped one game to her, and then Thavorn beat her, and then I beat Thavorn again and then finished off Fon and retired as the champ of that afternoon.
Ploy, Thavorn's friend works the day shift at Country Road so we all headed outside to watch the girls arrive for their evening shifts. My buddy John joined us and we discussed my recent trip to Canada and our upcoming trip to Phuket's JW Mariott resort for our birthdays. I booked an extra unit for John's live in GF and John's daughter, who is visiting for a while. Ciara, John's daughter is an aspiring author and is looking forward to a new venue to write for the coming week. John works all week so it will be good for Fon (John's gf) and Ciara to experience a different part of Thailand.
Jaidan, Fon, and Ploy at Country Road
Jaidan and Fon (Ploy's Tom Boy) get along well
About 6 pm, John and I decided to head off to Nana as Thavorn and Jaidan headed home. After a couple of Black Soda's John headed home and I walked down to Hillary 2 to listen to some music but then got the munchies and headed off to Hillary 1 for a pepperoni pizza. After the pizza I was too full to drink any more and walked home (3 kms) and called it a night. I must be getting old :-)
My favorite waitress at Hillary 2 - Ouan, always runs a tab for me
Yes, I ate the whole pizza .. yummy
Hillary 1 venue .. little bit more upscale than Hillary 2
