Same Same

 Bangkok has not changed much since I was here in August except there are more tourists and the bars are packed. There are many more asians travelling other than Chinese. There seems to be many punters around bar fining the pretty ladies long time and are walking around in the morning with them, smiling from ear to ear. Apparently the GF experience is not dead and many farangs are on the line.  They, however, are smiling so it is all good.

There are many more Indian families around as well as farang families.

Thavorn headed off to Phuket this moring to visit family. I had stressed we had to be out of the room by 6 am and we did not make it until 6:20 and Thavorn missed her flight due to the Bangkok morning traffic. We had to buy a one way ticket for 5,500 baht to replace it. Lesson learned, I hope.

While we were waiting for Thavorn's call to state she was at her gate I viewed an older farang couple going at each other, arguing about who knows what. Life is too short. Move on, but realize you will be poorer but perhaps happier.

I managed to chip a tooth yesterday and when I tried to eat some pizza it hurt! Sunday evening at 6 pm, what to do? Well, look up my old Thai dentist from 5 or 6 years ago and lo and behold, his clinic was open on a Sunday until 8 pm. I walked over in about 15 mins and the receptionist was able to pull up my file and the dentist was able to fit me in. Try that in Canada! Did I mention my treatment was way cheaper and I can claim back in Canada. I decided to book a cleaning on Wednesday.

So Jaidan and I are bachelors for the next couple of weeks until Thavorn returns from Phuket. Lots of swimming, lots of KFC, and some school work for what he is missong back in the great white North.

John arrives on Thursday and the 3 kings, James, John, and Arthur will head out this Saturday for a walk on the Wild Side. S/B fun :-)

TTYL

Pool Side

 Jaidan went for a swim this morning, early, because he does not like a busy pool.

In the afternoon we headed off to play pool in Times Square. The pool hall is the premier pool hall in Bangkok and features tournament tables. Both Thavorn and I struggled at first and then Thavorn settled down and I never did. Thavorn won 3 games to 2 but that is a win for me as I taught Thavorn how to play about 10 years ago.

Tonight, Thavorn and I will step out for a night on the town. We will visit Nana Plaza and then finish ff at Hillary 2, listening to a live band.

TTYL

Land of Smiles - City of Angels

 Our trip from Ottawa was one of the fastest ever, once we got underway. Our flight to Montreal was delayed by Air Canada which ended up shrinking our connection times from Montreal to Tokyo and Tokyo to Bangkok. Total airtime was under 22 hours.

We booked into an airport hotel for one night arriving by 1 am and leaving the same day at 11:30 am. We are staying at the Park Plaza for the first time and its location on Soi 18 makes everything walkable. However we spent the first 2 days recovering from jet lag.

On the 3rd night I met my friend Arthur for a night out at Soi Cowboy and then some pool on Soi 7 at the new bar complex. I was rusty at pool and lost my first game and then won the next two and decided to quit while I wa ahead. I did not relish getting beat by the 20 something lovely.

Cowboy seems to have gone downhill IMHO with more weed shops and a food and drink bar, of the StumbleInn chain. The best bars were Crazyhouse and Shark Bar. Shark Bar rules and The Dollhouse now sucks. Go figure.

I walked back to the hotel and was in the room by 11:30. I kept my alcohol intake down to about 4 beers due to easing my kidney back into my lifestyle in Bangkok.

Tonight we will visit Thavorn's old bar boss to catch up over a few beers.

Jaidan is swimming in the pool and pigging out on KFC's spicy chicken wings.

Not bad for a start and when you are here for 30 days you have to pace yourself, unlike the 2 week millionaires passing through.

TTYL

Back to Thailand

 We booked a trip to Thailand about a year ago and we leave on December 31st and are back on Feruary 1st. That means Jaidan misses the month of January in school which makes him very excited. I will do some home schooling while in Thailand to keep him caught up. His teachers are envious :-)

My surgery went well on the 28th of November and I appear to be recovering well. My 3 doctors do not seem concerned I am off to Thailand a month after the surgery.

Thavorn is looking forward to spending time with her kids and grand kid while in Thailand. She will fly to Phuket for 10 days in the middle of January. Jaidan will stay in Bangkok with me to give free time for Thavorn. Jaidan and I have no trouble filling our time in Bangkok.

This is a pic of the results of my robotic surgery. I was left with very little pain and only spent one day in the hospital. I am now part of the Borg Collective.

Jaidan attended a basketball camp in the fall. (2nd from right)

I am enjoying coaching the U19 Boys basketball team as they are all new. We have no expectations for them and it will be fun to see how they grow as a team.

Other than that, life is pretty routine with Thavorn's work and my business activities.  I am looking forward to another walk on the wild side :-)

TTYL

A Month and a Half Later

 Lots has happened since my last post.

We flew out of Phuket on the 5th of September via Bangkok, Abu Dhabi, Toronto and finally Ottawa. It did not happen without incident. Our flight from Bangkok to Abu Dhabi was delayed for 3 hours due to mechanical problems. Needless to say, we missed our next flight from Abu Dhabi to Toronto. We were flying with Etihad airlines who put us up in a 5 star hotel hotel in downtown but not without incident. Jaidan and I could leave the airport on our Canadian passports but Thavorn needed a visa to leave. We ended waiting 6 hours in the transit area while Etihad arranged for Thavorn's visa. Communication was very poor but the airline eventually did all the right things first class, However our trip home was 40+ hours long.

A bigger problem was, I had used aeroplan points for 3 seats from Toronto to Ottawa I had to rebook those seats for the next day and Aeroplan charged he $325 to change them. Worst still, if I wanted to cancel the tickets and get by points back it would have cost me $525. Aeroplan nickles and dime you! Beware!!!!

We eventually arrived in Ottawa and Elaine picked us up and drove us home to sleep. Jaidan was too tired for school on Friday and I booked him off due to jetlag.

To describe the trip, it would be, 'It was the best of times, and the worst of times.'.

Next up is for Thavorn to work as much as possible to pay off the visa $10,000 that our tickets ended up costing us. It was $3,600 to get there, and a whopping $5,600 to get back. The airlines seem to be gouging the international students big time as the return tickets in August, September, October are twice as expensive as the outgoing tickets.

I am coaching U19 boys basketball again this year and it is going well.

I also have a date for my kidney surgery and it is November 28th. In the meantime, I have come down with a very similar illness to the one I had in Thailand and I just tested positive for covid so I suspect another Covid strain is what I had in Thailand.

TTYL

Mommy Died

 It has been 15 days since the last post and I have been ill the last 10 days with some awful bug. I tried to fight it off for the first 5 days  but eventually went to the local pharmacy with Thavorn and got a round of amoxocillin and I started to heal. I believe it is that RSV thingy.

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)

Respiratory syncytial (sin-SISH-uhl) virus, or RSV, is a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms. Most people recover in a week or two, but RSV can be serious. Infants and older adults are more likely to develop severe RSV and need hospitalization.

It was exacerbated by not being able to rest as I was busy with Jaidan as well as relocating from Bangkok to Phuket. However, definetly on the mend as that is good because I fly to Phnom Penh on the the first for a visa run.

We arrived at the Marriott Beach Club Resort in Phuket on Friday, the 25th and Thavorn's mother passed away on the Monday the 28th. Thavorn and Jaidan immediately joined the sister's family in the 12 hour pickup drive to the village. I stayed behind due to my illness (mainly the hourly diarhea).

Thavorn and Jaidan should arrive back in Phuket on Monday sometime and we fly out Tuesday back to Canada. I fly back from Cambodia on Sunday and have booked an airport hotel for the 3rd and 4th. It has not been an easy trip due to many things. 

Thavorn is happy to be there for her mom as well as see her family that she has not seen for over 4 years. She wore a joyous smile on her face as she held her 4 year old grandchild for the first time :-)

Mission accomplished.

TTYL

Saturday Night in BKK

 It is low season in Bangkok but you could not tell last night. I started off as usual at Country Road for a couple of happy hour vodka and red bulls. Then it was off to Dollhouse, one of my favorite Cowboy bars where I met an Aussie who had recently discovered Thailand. Kind of reminded me of myself about 13 years ago.

The Aussie was enamoured of a recent addition to the bar scene who was very shy and needed a little encouragement. I suggested he invite her down for a drink and I would do the same with another lady so she would have some Thai company. That turned out to be a good idea and the 4 of us decide to go party at Nana for the evening. We decided to walk from Cowboy to Nana which is always a good test of how much fun the ladies will be.

Nana (soi 4) was busy as usual as we threaded our way to Nana Plaza. First stop should always be Billboard and it was superb as usual, especially the suds tub. After Billboard we hit her sister bar Butterflies and it was also very busy. The pole dancer was good and turned out to be a friend of the girl I was with so we shared some conversaation over a few drinks and then headed off to Hillary 2 for some dancing, drinking, and songs.

I was dismayed I no longer knew any band members but that changed when the bands changed and one of the band member recornized me and gave me a big hug. I stayed at Hillariy's until 2 am when I baled on a motorcycle taxi back to my hotel where Thavorn and jaidan were sound asleep.

The next morning my new Aussie friend texted me stating he had a very enjoyable night.

All in all a great night in the City of Angels.

TTYL