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Previous entries

Returning Home - Again

The God Illusion

Going Home

2022

A Change of Direction

Dogs and Pandemics

The Forgotten tenors

Nine Things I will Miss about Thailand

Circles

Just Do It

Ayr on a Shoestring

Oh Lonesome Me

Tipping Point

Movie Reviews

Putting Pen to Paper

A Year to Remember

A Year to Forget

10 Reasons I Cannot Go Home

China Girl

The State of Play

Veggies

Mind Your Language

New Horizons

Injustice

Honeymoon

Taxes and Death

Also-rans

Stinkhorns

Grey is the Colour

Beating Myself Up

Nothing More to Say

Better Late than Never

Staying Put

Musical Chairs

Wanderlust

A Dog's Life

A Sabbatical

A Welcome Diversion

A Guide to Business Ethics

Remembering the Austin Allegro

Our Lords and Masters

In Transit - Part 2

In Transit - Part 1

Nagging Doubts

While Bangkok Burns

An Evening to Remember

Thai Business Malpractice

The New and the Old

Christmas Lights

Groundhog Day

Singapura

Possessions

Adventure is Out There

Education

Grabbing it While You Can

A Few Ups and Many Downs

Limbo

Pack Up Your Old Kit Bag

Salmon

Bananas

Religion

Football

Grateful

Yummy

Ate Two Caesar

Swine Pie

The Thai Rollercoaster

Stuck in the Middle

There's no Regrets

Profit and Loss

Running on Empty

Getting it out Your System

National Mistrust

Bring in the Old, Out with the New

Humility

I am Reviewing, My Situation...

Wat Phrabhat Nam Poo

Today I will Mostly be Eating...

Mortality

The Thai Experience

Wat Khaowong

Reality Bites

Wat Simalais

Amazing Thailand

He Must have a Big Wand

Right Place, Wrong Time

Carousel

Tin

And it does go on

Mangos

Bring Him Home

Resurgence

Protege

Listening to my Reader.

 

Archives

Diary Archive 18.

Diary Archive 17.

Diary Archive 16.

Diary Archive 15.

Diary Archive 14.

Diary Archive 13.

Diary Archive 12.

Diary Archive 11.

Diary Archive 10.

Diary Archive 9.

Diary Archive 8.

Diary Archive 7.

Diary Archive 6.

Diary Archive 5.

Diary Archive 4.

Diary Archive 3.

Diary Archive 2.

Diary Archive 1.

 

 

Bring Him Home

Yesterday we made a trip to Bangkok.

I don't like Bangkok. Yes there are aspects of it I could like; the ready availability of some Western foods, the more cosmopolitan population, more use of English in shops and restaurants, movies. None of this compensates for the traffic.

It took one hour to reach Bangkok and then a further one hour to go the few kilometres to Central World where I had a business meeting. We met at Starbucks on the 3rd floor and after the shock of paying 210 baht (!) for a coffee and an iced chocolate for Ploy ('I can eat noodles for a week for 210 baht') Ploy ventured off to do some shopping whilst I endured 2 hours of the person who I was meeting talking about his new book and his ventures when the point of the meeting was to talk about my proposal. The meeting was closed by him announcing he was already late for another meeting and him tasking me with more work which left me wondering what exactly it was he was bringing to this possible venture. (Note to self: don't talk to any more ex-pats).

Next we drove on to a cable TV company to collect a demo item from them. On the way we were stopped by the police for some concocted traffic violation, (100 baht, not even a glimpse of Ploy's license or insurance being necessary), and after the collection and a quick discussion Ploy drove me to the Emporium for a late lunch. At the lobby level of the Emporium shopping centre is a nice restaurant, (I think an off shoot of the Mandarin Oriental hotel), which does a mixture of Western and Thai food. The lunch special was tuna loin salad, followed by pork fillet and then cherry tart with lemongrass icecream. A nice basket of various breads, four glasses of Columbard, and some pretty waitresses and all that Bangkok has to offer was resplendent before me, (for the princely sum of 2500 baht). Ploy had chosen to dine elsewhere but had visited the supermarket there to buy some 'real' bread for me and then, it already being 4p.m. we started on the homeward journey.

That took 3 hours, 1.5 hours of which was getting out of Bangkok. The highlight of this was my first glimpse of the Londoner and Robin Hood 'English Style' pubs and of the mythical Soi Cowboy. In all the time I have been coming to Thailand I have never been to or even seen Nana Plaza or Soi Cowboy. We only passed by Soi Cowboy (slowly) on the opposite side of road but it looked a nondescript street of no particular note from where we were parked, certainly not the Entertainment Area it purported to be. In fact it looked a street to avoid, rather like those beggar strewn streets at the back of Waterloo station in London. From recollection the beggars were more attractive than the few girls we saw. As were the plentiful office girls that were walking the pavement to my immediate left.

We got home to an overly-excited Pinky at 7.30p.m., (who starves herself in our absence, of both food and water), stayed to play with her a little and watch her make up her dietary needs, and then retired to bed, exhausted. A 12 hour day for a 1.5 hour lunch and 2 hour meeting.

It is a holiday here today and next week is SongKran where we often stay at home although things are quite discrete here normally. But it is good to be home again. My time in the UK was split between the rural and the urban and it is clear now that I much prefer the former. Saraburi offers a nice compromise but Bangkok is just too much for me and even the incentive of a nice lunch does not compensate. Singapore offers a more organised chaos if I need that fix and we don't have to drive anywhere. I shall be there again at the beginning of next month.

 

 

 

 

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