In the jewellry category, the winner is........

Topaz!

Friday 19th (updated and finished on Monday 22nd)
My breakfast in bed arrived pretty much in time but it was really breakfast in my room as I had to get up to let the maid in and I ate it at the table anyway.

By the time I'd got ready for the day and more or less packed my bag it was nearing 10. I asked the front desk to contact the Gems gallery for me and since they were supposed to be 20 minutes away I went to bget some more Thai currency. I had to wait till 10 before the exchange bureaux open but was still back at the hotel in time for a 30 minute wait.

Once there I went to the silver counter to first find a pair of stud earrings to match my garnets. Last time I bought some drop ones, which are quite nice but not for everyday wear. Fortunately I found a matching set.

I then looked at other colours and after looking at both peridot (light green) and the topaz decided on the latter. I bought a set of ring, pendant and studs and then foudn a matching bracelet.

I was thinking of getting dropped off at Pan Thip Plaza again to do some DVD and computer shopping but in the end went straight back to the hotel.The traffic was so bad that it was a challenge getting there by 12, which was check out time. At one traffic light I saw a bus conductor open the rear door and have a cigarette. Obviously there's no smoking on the bus so she basically held her hand outside and stuck her head out to smoke it. She'd finished half of it be fore the bus moved off. Once back at the hotel, I basically just packed my back and went downstairs. Once there I checked my email and then headed out again, sans pc case.

I went to Pan Thip Plaza as the first stop, getting some lunch on the way from roadside stalls - noodles, a chicken drumstick and a sweet corn. Once there I got some DVDs and exchanged the "wrong disk" from last time. The actual disk didn't match the cover. I also bought some software and 4gB versions of the memory for my camera and on a USB thumb drive.

I then wandered the half dozen malls along that part of Sukimvit, in the end only buying a light blue dressy top that might be OK for one of the dinners. I headed back to the hotel about 6 and my back was aching from all the walking. I unloaded my purchases into my PC case and headed to a nearby massage/reflexology place for a back and shoulders massage. It actually felt much better afterwards. I then wandered over to Soi Cowboy again just to take some photos and then back along the main street. It started to sprinkle lightly as I left the hotel but cleared up shortly afterwards so I walked further down the street through the roadside stalls. The rain returned more heavily and I headed back to the hotel, getting a little damp on the way.

I needed to use the loo, so I went to the one in the foyer. Some bright spark had designed this with almost full length mirrors on every wall. I don't know what you think, but I don't need to see infinite reflections of myself in those circumstances.

The hotel staff called a cab and I was soon heading to the airport through the rain. It cost a fair bit less than they'd suggested. I guess they were being conservative to make sure I wasn't short of local currency. We'd just got on to the freeway when I realised my bracelet wasn't on my wrist. There was a moment of panic, but I found it on the seat beside me. I'm going to need a permanent fix for this.

Unfortunately they have closed off most of the taxi drop off area at the international terminal so you get dropped off at the far end near Aisle S. I then had to walk all the way back to Aisle B. Annoying more than anything else. Check in was quick and once in the lounge I had a drink and some noodles and mini pies to eat, since I hadn't had dinner. (not sure I had enough for dinner and cab fare). My free massage was a foot massage this time and very relaxing it was too. It was like the sort of massages most people associate with the word whereas most of mine usually involve a degree of pain as I'm trying to get some sort of sporting injury sorted out.

After that I got on the net and wrote most of this blog. I packed up and headed for the departure lounge. When I looked at the board I couldn't see my flight so I started to worry and was running around looking for terminal E. I got to the main cross roads and head down one leg, realised it was C went back to the centre then upstairs to E. At security they told me I was leaving from C so back I went. This time as I passed the departure board I saw the flight was still boarding so I slowed down. Still, by the time I'd got through the security check, there was no one waiting in the lounge and I walked straight on. I wasn't the last though. We were informed later that 2 people still hadn't turned up and they'd located their luggage. If they didn't turn up soon the luggage was going to be offloaded. Didn't hear the final result but we left shortly after that.

I had the dinner and once that was over went to sleep, not waking till the lights came on for breakfast. I was only about 4 hours. I didn't even bother with duty free and was through passport quickly, got my bag which was in the first few off and out through customs. This time I declared my golf shoes but said I hadn't worn them so they Xrayed my bag but didn't require me to unpack it.

Since the plane was more or less on time, I wasn't rushed and got to golf with plenty of time and even hit a bucket of balls on the driving range. I was ready to buy that driver till I realised it was $499 not $399. Turns out the Supersports 12,500 Baht was actually cheaper. I started well with a par, then a couple of bogies and a birdie on the Par 3 4th, which was also the nearest the pin. After that things deteriorated with a couple of 4 putts and even a miss to finish 10 over my handicap. Concentration didn't last I'm afraid, although I did get another nearest in the 3rd last hole, only to have it disallowed because I wrote my name ion the B grade sheet instead of the A grade. ( statement at start of previous sentence).

Don't go away. I'm off again in 2 days for the Vets championships, visits to friend in Queensland and family in South Australia, followed by a few days sightseeing in Tasmania before the Mensa conference. New blog to follow.

Conan the civilised

Thursday 17th, evening

I had contacted the Mensa guy Mark and was waiting for him while I did the last blog entry. Once I finished, I went downstairs and did the crossword until he turned up. He uses the nickname “Conan” and as soon as he walked in I knew why. The ceiling in the foyer is relatively low but even in a normal room he’d dominate. He is nearly 7ft tall and had to stoop to avoid hitting his head. He works as an actor in action movies. He made me feel quite petite, which is quite an achievement.

We went to a Thai restaurant not that far from the hotel and just across the main road. He said the food was good but the service was slow, but that wouldn’t be a problem as we’d be talking anyway. We both agreed that eating on your own with slow service was pretty bad.

He has been based in Thailand for 3 years, with the usual foreigner’s trick of leaving and returning every 90 days. His work takes him away reasonably often anyway. He had some interesting comments about living here as opposed to just visiting and had experienced some discrimination on some movie sets. The fact that he’s stayed 3 years indicates these problems are not deal breakers.

While we were there, an English guy at the next table made some comment to Mark and it turns out the Chinese owner (elderly woman) keeps all the tips and doesn’t pass them on to the staff. As Mark said, there’s no incentive for them to give good service.

I had curried crab meat and rice and as we were still talking an hour or so later Mark said he was going to order some more and we both had a serve of fried vegetables with chicken. (400 B in total, about $15 and including 2 soft Cokes) He was heading to the gym and I thought I’d visit Soi Cowboy, which was only a few 100m away. This is a bit of a tourist attraction and I hadn’t got there last trip. I headed back to the hotel first and when I came out again 10 minutes later it was pouring again so I went back to the room for my umbrella. It just a small fold up that I actually found in a taxi in Brisbane last year but it helped a bit.

I realised I was a bit short of local money but by then (nearly 10pm) the exchanges were shut. I headed to Soi Cowboy anyway and it soon became obvious where the name comes from. It’s a bit of a red light district with gogo bars with (names at least) a Cowboy theme. Rawhide, Long gun etc. I went to the Cactus which Mark had mentioned, wander in the door and was confronted by nude pole dancers. Not my scene and I quickly retreated. There were 2 guys at the front both called John, one the owner and I mentioned Conan. They said I could get a drink there but they didn’t make cocktails but on their recommendation I headed to the Old Dutch restaurant at the end of the street where I had a Pina Colada for 220B. That was enough and I headed back to the hotel and watched the end of an Adam Sandler movie before going to sleep.

Its now nearly 7am and I have been awake for an hour or so. I'd better get back to bed soon so I can have my "breakfast in bed". Part of the service.

Actually this style hotel, like the one in Hong Kong, only has a ground floor reception area and the rest of the building is rooms. No restaurant, gym, pool, meeting rooms etc. It's probably more economical to have staff deliver breakfast to the room than to maintain a dining area.

Wet, wet, wet

Thursday 18th


It poured again last night, at least it was raining from 2am to 4-30 which was when I was awake. I finally got back to sleep and woke at 8. I’d only just got in the shower when the driver knocked on the door. It was about 20 minutes before we left and I skipped breakfast.

You could see that the river had risen another metre since last week and a creek by the side of the dirt road to the office had overflowed and was covering the road.

I mostly worked on finishing the selected listing reports but didn’t make ant major changes. Today they were doing some maintenance on the office PCs – virus scans and so forth so the operator couldn’t get his data in. I had lunch about 12 and then went back to the hotel to pack and check out. We came back to the office and the data was in and everything looked fine with the daily report.

It was about 2 when we left and since we have the cases already went via Si Thep rather than back through Wichian Buri. You would really not be aware of the oil field on the normal hotel to office trip but, heading the other way, we passed numerous drilling rigs, nodding donkey pumps and storage tanks and even a depot full of tankers. This is the reality that my software is modelling and I hadn’t really seen them as such.

The heavy rain had turned a lot of the fields alongside the road in to lakes and as usual there were kids swimming and also people fishing – both with poles and nets.

My driver seems to have been caught speeding since the last time as he was quite sedate all the way to Bangkok today. It was more like 3 hours than 2 ½ when we turned off the freeway. I did manage to catch a couple of the buses with the airbrushed art work on the side this time. It helped that it was earlier in the day and the sun was actually shining for the first time this week.

The hotel is quite nice. The room is not quite a suite but has a kitchenette so it’s a bit more than a basic hotel room. Unlike the Windsor where I stayed before, there is absolutely no view.

I have made contact with the Aussie Mensa guy and he will be over shortly and we’ll go for dinner.

The attack of the killer ants

Wednesday 17th
Bloody spell checker, that should have been Kilo-ants – there were thousands of them.

It was raining again this morning and it looks like the river is still rising. It was a busy day. I finished updating the manual and did a test for tank farm features. Normally each group of tanks services several wells and it is the usual practice to have to split the production into these tanks between the wells using an allocation algorithm. That's why companies need software like this in the first place. However, here each well has had its own tank so the production into the tank = the production out of the well.

When I was here last time they were just about to start up a tank farm. That still hasn’t happened but it could be starting any day (or week or month) now. Any way I made up some test data as if it started a few days ago to test the software. I found and fixed some bugs and then had to redesign the daily report. Usual stuff – always in a rush at the end. Anyway, I think it is all done now although I was late leaving the office. It was already dark and still threatening to rain so no run tonight.

There is still the morning for them to test the new version, ask questions and fix any last minute glitches. Then it's off the Bangkok, hopefully soon after lunch. Last time we arrived about 5 and the traffic, once you left the freeway, was horrific, so I'd like to get there a bit earlier.

Jim (the field manager) said he was going to email his old boss in Syria about the system. They apparently are also running on multiple spreadsheets and could do with a consolidation into a proper database. You can’t beat word of mouth for finding new clients.

Oh the ants. I guess the wet weather has driven them inside and there were so many on my desk and getting on the keyboard I had to hunt up some insect spray. They weren’t very big but it got really annoying.

Dinner tonight was pork steaks or mackerel. I had the pork. Lunch was a lemon chicken.

I've added some more then and now photos from the hotel They have knocked out a section of the wall which makes the trip from my room to the canteen very much shorter. Quite an advantage in the rain..

Plans are made

Tuesday 16th

Last night I went for a run again. This time I ran to the other side of the bridge to add the extra distance to make it 5 km. It took me about 38 minutes.

My laptop connected to the network in the canteen but the internet was down so I couldn’t do as much as I had planned. However, the internet had reconnected by this morning so I downloaded my emails and was busy writing replies when my pkone rang. My driver had arrived early and I hadn’t even had a shower. I had a quick one then a quick breakfast and we were off.

We are still discovering new problems with the software, most of them are related to the data collection rather than the code but I added a number of new features and fixed some bugs as well as working on the rest of the help screens. The latter are now up to date.

One of the operators kept coming to me to load his data from a spreadsheet on a memory stick that he said didn’t work on the office PC. When I tested it there I realised the spreadsheet was covering the program so he couldn’t see a confirmation dialog. I spent a few hours replacing the system dialog with a customised one that sits in front of the spreadsheet.

I also added a step by step summary of what they need to do each day to the manual. This turned out to be a 2 page, 13 point list.

I tried to call Thai airways to change my flight to Friday night. This will give me a day to shop and relax before I go home. I couldn’t get through on the phone so I sent an email. After several hours I had no response so I tried to send a fax. I was n’t sure if that was getting through so I asked one of the office girls to ring the number so she could work out what the recorded message was saying and eventually I got through. Apparently they had received my request but according to them the flight was booked. Interesting, since I’d already checked the flight and there were business class seats available. Later they called and confirmed my flight change.

Next I booked a hotel. I would have gone back to the Windsor Suites but the price for the same room as last time had gone up from $91 to $127. A lot of that would have been due to the fall in the exchange rate. Instead I booked another hotel One block away for about $90. This one doesn’t have a pool but has free WiFi.

I have also been in contact with a former Mensa member from Australia who is living here. He actually contacted Mensa Australia about something else and when I responded he told me he was in Bangkok. I’ll try and catch up with him for lunch or dinner before I go.

I finally took a photo of the desk of one of the office girls. My friend Lynda from hockey will no doubt be jealous of her pink PC.

Dinner tonight was Pork Gordon Blue (sic) plus the noodle soup they cook up for you. Lunch was a hamburger or rissole with gravy vegies and mashed taties.

I saw another westerner today on the way to work, a guyon the back of a scooter. Apart from the people at work, I have only seen one other, at the market on Sunday. It's definitely not a tourist hub here.

Then and now

Monday 15th

I have been unable to get wireless internet connection using the password I used last time I was here. For some reason they have tightened up and wireless has to be set up by the IT department. There is now wireless at the office as well but I have been using a cable up till now.

When I got in this morning I called Preedaporn and she eventually managed to set me up. It took quite a while for us to work out how to do it since I have Vista and the other PCs she has set up have been running XP. Rather than give out the password they actually need to log in remotely to you PC and they set up and enter passwords. Anyway it’s done now and I am using the wireless in the office and will hopefully have access back at the hotel as well.

A few minor improvement and fixes so far today, so I will start to work on the back log of help screens and reports.

Another busy day has passed. I updated many of the help screens and made them potentially bilingual. Ie I have made provision for someone to translate my help information into Thai and to swap between the 2 languages. At the moment those screens juts say “No have Thai translation”. This I worked out by myself, with some help from a dictionary but the Thai staff still are amazed that I can read and write/type Thai even if my vocab is limited.

Today I did go for a run, another 5km/38 minute effort. It had rained earlier but was dry during the run itself. More than I can say for myself. The perspiration was dripping.

Chicken steak for dinner, spaghetti for lunch.

Scattered through are some comparable screens from my first trip to now. The rice paddy next to the office wasn’t even planted when I was here then. The scrubby area in front of the office has been cleared and gravelled for parking and the nearby potato fields seem to have plants 2 or 3 times larger than before. The river is probably several metres higher as well.

No Golf today

Sunday 14th

I was hoping to get a round of golf in today, but alas it didn’t happen.

I got an SMS from Nicola this morning saying they had lost the prelims so not grand final appearance this year. On the other hand it takes the pressure off my return trip, although I do have a dentist appointment on Monday and then leave on Wednesday next week so I can only have a short extension.

I was hoping to just run through the data entry procedures with the operators and then leave about 10 or 11. The weather looks like it would have held but it was 12 and we were still working through things with a need to talk further with the Field manager. Since the golf course is about an hour away it was really too late to get there and finish before it got dark.

So here I am still at the office, although the last hour or so I have been writing blogs and addressing emails, rather than working.

Still here at 4.30. I have had time to look up my running distance on Google earth and Google maps. It seems its just a tad shy of 2.5km so about 4.7 km return. I’ll run across the bridge next time and that will get me to 5km.

In the end I didn’t run because my Achilles was still sore from the previous night. After dinner I watched the formula 1 on the TV by the canteen. I wouldn’t normally bother at home, but apart from having nothing much else to do here, one of the English guys at the hotel is an enthusiast and his comments and explanations make it more interesting than otherwise.

I went to sleep about 10 but woke up in the middle of the night. Un able to get back to sleep, I finished my book and wrote a review for the book club before finally drifting off again.

I have been taking photos of scenes I photographed last time. When I get them organised I’ll pout up a then and now comparison.

Girl about town

Saturday 13th

On Saturday I went to the office working with the operators and sorting out some problems. I left about 2 and Pairot took me for a bit of a drive through town. At one stage we saw a snake cross the road, only a block or so away from the main street.

We revisited the temple complex that has the reclining golden Buddha. This statue is over 40 metres long, because this time we got out and walked around so I could step it out. The original shots of this area were shown in the entry for 25^th June.

The road in goes passed the lake on the left with this golden image of a goddess of some sort. I saw a similar figure at the golf hotel last trip. On the right is a seated Buddha and the wheel. Again the wheel is familiar as they had one in the historical park I visited the first weekend of the last trip, only that one was unpainted stone.

There is a new temple being build behind the lake but the road turns right past the old temple which is looking a bit neglected. We got out then and walked around the statues. As well as the reclining and sitting Buddha images which I saw from the road before, there is another statue with 3 figures from history – Malaysian, I think, if I understood Pairot correctly.

From there we went back to the hotel where I changed into trainers and picked up some water, a soft drink and an ice cream. I was then dropped in town so I could wander around for a while. It was about 3pm. I walked down the main street and bought some small items in a stationary store and then wandered through the markets, mostly browsing, although I bough a peanut and seed honey cake.

I then headed along the main road and found a beauty parlour where I had a manicure and pedicure. This took some time and even then the nail polish wasn’t quite as set as I thought when I went to put my shoes back on. A touch up on some fingernails meant a further wait.

I didn’t walk too much further down the road before turning down a side street and from that to a dirt track heading back towards the market. This lead to a couple of lakes or reservoirs which seem to be a centre for exercise with a number of people jogging, walking or cycling around them.

At one corner there was a gate into the temple complex, which allowed me to walk back to the markets through the main gate. I then called Pairot to pick me up.

It was about 6 and I changed to go for a jog. It started to rain then but was only a light drizzle so I decided to go anyway. I figured a light rain was probably an advantage over just being humid. This time I ran another 400m or so passed the kilometre post to the next bridge and then a bit further in the opposite direction, taking 35 minutes or so all up.

Dinner was crumbed chicken drumsticks, chips and carrots. Lunch was sweet and sour fish with rice.

After dinner, I went back to the room and read on my bed for a couple of hours.

On the move

Friday 12th


Narwin arranged for me to move rooms. The room I stayed the first night was one of the wooden buildings – pine floorboards, walls etc. as well as the furniture. And the latter was the problem – not enough of it. No cupboards or drawers and no desk to use the laptop on.

The bathroom was interesting, quite small and the drain was at the opposite corner from the shower nozzle, virtually ensuring the entire floor got wet. It did have an exhaust fan so that was one positive. Can you count how many different sorts of tiles they used? I guess they just used whatever was around.

I moved to C3, next to the room I had last time and a mirage image in layout. There are 2 main differences – 2 singles rather than a double bed and no power point on the wall at the bed head. I have to run the power board from the other wall. Fortunately, unlike Australian power boards, which some corporate bright spark – no doubt an accountant – decreed that the cord should only be one metre long, this one is 2 or 3 metres and can actually reach far enough for my bedside lamp to plug into. This is the same lamp I bought last time, which I gave to the camp manager to store for me, just in case I came back.

I didn’t leave the office till after 6 yesterday. Its amazing how easy it is to work long hours here – not as many distractions as at home I guess.

Once I’d moved rooms and unpacked I changed and – wait for it – went for a run!!! Ok, maybe a jog is more accurate, but with only 2 weeks before the Australian Vets Championships I need to do some exercise. It stopped raining mid way through the day so that didn’t provide me with an excuse not to run.

I headed towards town and after 5 minutes was nearing the end of the streetlights. I’d just passed a Distance sign (ie a milepost but in km), so I thought I’d turn round and run back past the hotel until the next one the other side, thus giving me a good estimate of my distance. I in fact ran another 10 minutes past the hotel in the other direction, without seeing one, before turning back. 30 minutes wasn’t a bad start. If I can keep it up, I will get back some of the fitness I lost in the US where I did stuff all exercise, other than 1 run on a treadmill and 2 games of golf. I had planned to do some running before I left but didn’t think to put in the watch with the timer feature I’d bought specifically for running. I also probably should have sprayed myself with mossie repellent.

It was approaching 7-30 by then and I drank 2 bottles of water trying to cool down. Eventually I recovered enough to have dinner, since the canteen closes at 8. I just had a salad with a couple of crumbed prawns and pieces of fish and then an ice cream cone. The icecream cabinet is a new benefit, which has arrived sometime since my last visit.

Lunch was spare ribs with potatoes and cauliflower, cake and grapes. I skipped the soup.

Another thing that has changed is the countryside. Fields that I saw being planted with rice now have plants a foot or 2 high and the sugar cane and potato plants I recall seem to have grown several feet as well.

My driver arrived as I was writing the last bit and I am now in the office. I asked him to drive down to where I ran last night to get a measurement but his odometer only displays whole km so it’s not very accurate. I’d guess it was something like 4km in total.

Pyramid schemes

Thursday 11th

I am now back at Hotel Pyramid for another week. The trip was about 16 hours from when I got up till when I got to the room.

I left home about 6-45am and apart from a bit of heavy traffic just before the airport turn off had no problems getting there and again was quickly through checkin and passport control. I had time for some breakfast in the Qantas lounge before we boarded the flight.

For a change I was flying during the day and business class was not very full so I had an empty seat beside me. I watch a couple of films – The Forgotten Kingdom, a Kung Fu movie with Jackie Chan and Jet Li and Sex in the City. In between, I redid the first chapter of the Intermediate Thai book. I also did a few crossword puzzles.

We stooped in Phuket for about an hour. It was quite confusing because they seemed to have said we could leave our bags on board but then they seemed to say we couldn’t. I took my handbag and notebook with me anyway and it was a good thing because we needed our passport, boarding pass etc, which may have been left on board otherwise. We did in fact clear customs here, which is quite a good idea even if it meant a bit of queuing. Since we were on the ground for an hour, we had time to do it and it meant we didn’t need to do it at Bangkok. I had a brief spell in the lounge there, just enough time to read my emails and prepare one to go, although I couldn’t send it.

The flight to Bangkok is then only another hour. Every other time I’ve been here the plane has parked some distance from the terminal and we have all had to get on buses to get there. This time we pulled right up and a bridge came out. Then they said we couldn’t use it and to disembark from the rear door, once again downstairs and on to buses. One of the advantages of business class is that you are up the front and first off. This time we were last off. It did mean that my bag was already on the carousel by the time I’d got there so I was straight out the door.

I then changed some money. The rate has dropped from around 31 baht per dollar to 27, which is where it was 2 years ago when I came for golf.

I couldn’t see my driver at the customs exit so I wandered left to the first exit to the carpark without finding him. I dug out some business cards from the last trip and went back inside before calling anybody and headed in the other direction. Fortunately I found Khun Thin, the driver who took me to Wichian Buri the first time.

It was raining when we landed and it doesn’t seem to have stopped since. We left the airport a bit before 6pm and the traffic from the airport was quite heavy. We did bypass the centre of the city and headed to Sara Buri where we stopped so I could do some shopping at Lotus. I bought a thin foam mattress to put on the bed, since last time I had back problems because the bed was so hard. This proved to be a bit help last night. It was about 8 by the time we left there and nearly 10 by the time we arrived. The rain got even heavier just before we got to WB and it poured all night as well. There’s a lot of water around with some of the streets in town completely covered over.

A drama has occurred with my bracelet. I noticed it was missing when I was going to bed. I double checked the room and the not book case, just in case I knocked it off reaching in for something but couldn’t find it. An SMS to David confirmed I didn’t leave it at home. If it didn’t fall off in the car then it could have happened 9in the plane, the airport or even the shops so I suspect there’s not much chance of getting it back.

Looks like some calls to the airline and insurance company may be needed. I suppose one ray of sunshine is that I bought it in Bangkok, so there is a chance that I might be able to get a replacement before I go home.

I did think to put in a small fold up umbrella this trip and used it to get to the canteen for breakfast. I picked up a washing basket, which I just realised I didn’t put out and my bedside lamp from last time.

Narwin was leaving for the office so I grabbed a ride with him. I’m back in the same office and have now organised an extra monitor, keyboard, power board and network cable. Last time I also had a printer but if I can use the network printer that will do.

I’ll put some stuff about the hotel in the next blog.

Good news! The driver found my bracelet.