Hi

I am in Pattaya.  I started this trip on Monday by driving to Antioch, taking the BART train at 5:25 PM to SFO. Took less then 2 hours. Long wait for my flight at 11PM with Cathy Pacific to Hong Kong and then to Pattaya.  Very nice airport in Hong Kong.  They changed the gates which were very far apart and involved lot of walking to get to the new gate.  Too much.  Surprised to see Christmas decorations in the airport In Hong Kong.  Flights were good with nice movies to watch. Seat cramped as usual.  Nothing new about that. Met nice Vietnamese person named ken who sat next to me flying to Hong Kong.  He has a wife and 10-month-old child living in Vietnam.  Ken works as a mechanic on Foreign cars in Sacramento.  He came to U.S.A. when he was 20 and now is U.S.A. citizen. 

At the airport in Bangkok, I experienced a crisis in the trip.  My ATM card would not work.  I had changed the pass code and forgot that I had done that.  Fortunately, I always carry enough cash for an emergency like this.  By the time I got to the luggage carousal I was able to get my large piece of luggage and my golf clubs were not there.  A big part of the trip is playing golf and I was concerned that someone had taken my golf clubs from the airport as their own.  This resulted again in my walking around the airport reception area talking with various staff members and eventually filing a missing luggage report.  I ended up taking 16,000 steps yesterday.  Too much walking.  I met my taxi ride for Pattaya in the airport designated area.  As usual, Tman taxi had a driver with my name on a sign in the waiting area.  It was a very nice ride to Pattaya and took less than an hour and a half to make the trip.  The highways continue to improve over here.  This trip to Pattaya used to take many hours and included a rest stop break.  I am staying at a nice hotel named the L.K. Royal Suites and includes a microwave which successfully popped some popcorn for me today. 

I called the airport baggage lost and found and Cathy Pacific has located my golf clubs which will arrive late afternoon on Thursday to Bangkok and then transported to my hotel in Pattaya.  Who knows where my golf clubs have been transported to in the world?  I am greatly relieved that these clubs were not stolen.  I have made many trips with my golf clubs around the world and this is the first time that they did not make the trip with me.  I got a sim card for my travel phone that works in Thailand for less than 4 dollars. 

I will have a down day Thursday and continue with my planned activities of playing bridge and golf.  I will miss one day of golf which is probably best anyway considering my significant walking activity.  

Thailand Trip, second report

Today is Thursday and it has been busy.  Overate the wonderful breakfast that is part of the stay at my hotel. I diet at home and this morning I easily ate more than three times what I would eat in the mornings at home.  And, it was very good.  I then was busy going to the locations to sign up to play golf with the two groups I have been playing with over here lately:  Traveller’s Rest Sports Bar and Colin’s Golf Bar.  I met with both coordinators and got the times of when we leave each place to play golf. 

 I chatted with Colin and he reported some the local information.  The tourist trade has taken a real hit here and particular the golf groups.  The Thai Baht exchange rate to western currencies is at an all time high.  We cannot buy much baht for a dollar, pound, etc. Collin did reveal that he is doing very well renting his rooms to Thais and a person came in and wanted a room while I was there.  She wanted it for a month and the best he could offer was two days.  She took it. Colin also mentioned that it is common now for the airlines to misplace golf clubs when transporting them.  They are kept separate from the regular luggage and sometimes the airlines misplace them.  Which happened to me. 

 I have been chattier than normal and had extended conversations with Peter at the Traveller’s Rest.  Peter is a Canadian who sold his energy company because of pressure by environmental groups.  I also Chatted with a person from Belgian on the Baht bus on the way to the Central Festival Shopping Center to visit their Boots pharmacy (favored by expats).   

I also went to LTC John Emerson’s golf group at the Golf Center.  John has sold his share of the bar and is now avoiding bars because his drinking of alcohol was getting out of hand. I would stop by to talk to him over the years based on our mutual Army background.  I had an extended talk with the last remaining partner of the original group of five who owned this golf bar.  

Waiting for the Shopping Center to open.  It opened and hour later then what is used to on my previous trips which reflects the reduced tourist’s volume related to the currency rate change. I had two conversations waiting for the center to open.  One was with a French person who was very nice to talk to with his only limited English ability.  I also talked with a person from Bangalore India who stopped talking to me after I told him Indian beggars grabbing me on my two months visit there 19 years ago.  

Earlier, I stopped by Kronberg Bar on the way to the shopping center which used to be a golf mecca and I noticed that the golf sign up sheet was very limited indicating reduced participation. 

From the shopping center I took a baht bus to my first golf groups location called the Sugar Shack and had a cup of coffee.  My first trip here was in November 1991.   I was adopted by a person from Sweden who had me play golf with the Sugar Shack group.  They are still operational with new owners.   

I checked out the Cinplex theatre on second road and got the schedule for current English-speaking movies (Midway, Gemini Man).  I also bought a small lamp for the room to read by and a small umbrella.  It did have a major down pour of rain this afternoon which I managed to avoid.   To end the afternoon, I went to my favorite Subway restaurant and had my favorite vegetarian sandwich, followed up with a massage at my favorite massage parlor.  

To top off the day, my golf clubs were delivered to my room.  After a careful inventory, all items are present. Wonderful.