AOB July and August 2006

Golf yesterday at Thana City GC. In a month's time there will be screaming 747s passing over the course on take-off from the new airport. The course is in good condition and is a far better course than I remembered.

26 August 2006

The scoop on the alleged Thaksin car bomb. Police at the scene said that they had found a 10 gallon can containing urea - and all they did was give it a good soaking with a water hose to neutralise it.

By afternoon this had turned into a bomb that could obliterate everything within a one kilometre radius.

Ho hum.

25 August 2006

Darrel Hair's bottom line - give me US$500,000 and I will resign. Arrogant sod. Surely that is justification enough to fire him.

23 August 2006

A few more comments on Myanmar:

In Heho the Air Bagan flight offloaded a small amount of airmail. At a desk in the dingy terminal there were two staff carefully writing in a book the names and addresses of everyone who received an email from overseas. If the senders address was on the back they also wrote that down as well.

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At every internal airport there is a desk where foreigners have to register and show their passport. Again the details are hand written. They know where you are....

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People are genuinely pleased that you are there. Thank you for coming was almost as often said as where do you come from.

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Air Bagan's staff were very professional and very pleasant. English was well spoken by all the crew and was the first language for their annoucements; which says a lot about the ratio of international to domestic travelers.

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There is a new palace being build in Old Bagan. It looks completely out of place and its pompous size and design do not fit into the historical surrounds. But it is a senior government official who is building it and as one local said to me "we are afraid."

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I sat at the River View restaurant in New Bagan high on the bank over the Irrawaddy River. Fish and Aubergine curries, a beer, some fruit and a bicycle in near darkness back to my hotel. That was the best meal of the trip.

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Worth mentioning that at no time did I ever feel unsafe. Whether walking in Yangon city at day or night or in the countryside.

22 August 2006

I thought I was coming back to civilization. But then I tried to call a friend in their Thai mobile number. I got through at the sixth attempt. Which is better; to have no mobile phone access at all or to have a network that needs six tries every time you want to make a call?

20 August 2006

But then who wants TV when on offer from TV Myanmar today are these fabulous shows:

7.40am Nice and Sweet song
11.00am Martial Song (repeated at 4pm)
4.15pm Songs to Uphold National Spirit
5.15pm Dance of National Race
5.30pm Sing and Enjoy

The golf club yesterday seemed to prefer to watch Chinese programmes (they spoke no Chinese) off satellite. I wonder why !!!

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No TV in the Lake Inle hotel. Instead the hotel staff put on a traditional dance show for the few of us at dinner.

There are many more staff here than guests. This seems to be a fact of life in all Myanmar's hotels.

The mosquito coil is lit. The mosquito net is up. There is no aircon but it is quite cool outside.

Travelling alone can be interesting; but on the whole the experience is probably better shared with someone. I need a proper conversation.

And forget about internet and email access. I am more cut off here than I have been for a long time.

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It is hard to imagine what Myanmar would do without tourist traffic. Here in Bagan most of the tourists are European; Italians and Spanish appear the most common. And a few French.

I have not seen, or more realistically heard, an American accent.

As we wait to board Air Bagan to Mandalay and Heho (for Lake Inle) there are no Burmese passengers. The airlines, hotels, horse and cart operators, taxi drivers and local vendors are being kept alive by tourism. There is little alternative work.

19 August 2006

The big news of the day: it is the opening day of the English football season. Here I am in Bagan, Myanmar, watching my beloved Watford playing away at Everton as they make their remarkable return to the Premiership. A 3pm kick off in Liverpool is 8.30pm here. Meanwhile Arsenal start their new season at the new Emirates Stadium. Two years in the building and a great new stadium. Good business for Arsenal and for Emirates! Now when will they finish Wembley!

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I should sleep well tonight. 18 holes of golf at Bagan Golf Club in the midday heat.

And then a good long cycle around the temples and down to the river for a sunset dinner at the River View restaurant. Dinner was US$6 for a beer, fish curry, aubergine curry, some papaya and a bottle of water. And a view worth a million!

The golf course was an experience:

Very basic clubhouse. No changing room. A golf course that is fairway and jungle; there is no rough, except for the fairways that are very rough indeed. Unwatered cow grass fairways that are cut by hand pushed basic cutters. They then use an army of women to hand brush the cut grass into piles and collect all the grass by hand. Slow, tedious, hot and uncomfortable work.

There is only one set of tees. Mens' tees. Golf is not a game for the women of Bagan. Maybe it is not a game for anyone in Bagan. There was one fourball playing the 9th as I started off. Otherwise there was no one else on the golf course.

It is long at over 7,000 yards; and it is very basic. But where can you play golf with 800 year old temples around you and even on the golf course itself.

This is the 3rd hole: aim at the temple.

First day of the English football season and we have already had too much of Andy Penders. Football analysis for people with an IQ of double digits or less.

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Everton lead 1-0 at half time. Watford have played well. Five shots on target and Everton have only had one; trouble is it went in! Andy Johnson's diving is worthy of the Olympic pool. Shocking!

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Watford lost 2-1. Everton's second goal was a disgrace. The ball hits Powell in the face. The linesman who is five yards away waves for a penalty and the referee gives it. Quote Steve McMahon on ESPN; "it is simply embarrassing." At 2-0 down it was game over.

If ever there was a need for video review that was the time. Powell looked stunned.

Players and managers get fined and banned for bringing the game into disrepute for saying how poor the officials are; surely the same should apply to poor officials for shoddy decisions. That decision cost Watford the chance of getting back in the game.

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Manchester United must own all the goalkeeper's in the league - Everton's Tim Howard and Watford's Ben Foster are both on loan from Man U.

18 August 2006

I was on Air Asia's inaugural Bangkok to Yangon (Rangoon to old fashioned Brits) on Wednesday 16th.

Strangely there was no fanfare at all. No celebration at the departure gate. No celebration on arrival. No tokens for the paying passengers.

Mind you there were not that many paying passengers. And those of us who had paid were told to wait to deplane until the press (parasites/hangers on/freebies) had been released first. The honest folk; the fare paying folk; well we were not important.

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I had a room booked at the Kandawgyi Palace hotel; an older hotel on the lake. Guess what; Air Asia were all gathered there as well. Management, hangers-on and press. They had a big evening party at the Lakeview restaurant. Local dignatories, more hangers on. And where was my invitation !? I must be one of their better customers and certainly one of their strongest advocates!

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So I have a new favourite now. Air Bagan. Our 50 minute flight on a Fokker100 from Yangon to Bagan left on time at 6.30am and arrived early. Five cabin crew, lots of leg room, maybe a 34 inch seat pitch. Fresh pastries, some fruit and coffee for breakfast. Very attractive crew; although the pink uniforms and catering dishes were a bit bright for someone who woke up at 4.30am.

15 August 2006

Miami Vice is a very strange film. Almost incomprehensible in places; a Colin Farrell and Gong Li relationship? It simply does not work. Farrell looks terrible and far from Miami chic. And why is it that all crime is at night? This is a predictable yawn.

And don,t forget the soft core sex; the shower (twice), various beds and the back of a car. None of it is interesting; none of it is arousing; it is implausible and dull.

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I am off to Myanmar (Burma as was) tomorrow morning. Updates to this website will be very rare (possibly impossible) while I am away.

14 August 2006

Anyone curious about what it is like to be flying at the pointed end of an Emirates 777 should read this report.

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I go out for 20 minutes and leave the cleaners in my room. I come back and they have demolished the bathroom with a huge slab of tiling fallling off the sink.

I thought they were sending someone to fix it. Instead they sent a guy to photograph it!

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Ask my little guy what was the best part of his holiday ! He will tell you it was the time spent in Devon with his grandmother and uncle. Unlimited Sky TV and 24 hour a day "Top Gear" probably helped! But it is great that he feels such a strong family connection.

13 August 2006

Golf today at Rajpreuk; a private members only club; so thank you to my generous host. There was a nice breeze and except for a disaster on the 9th I played well. So it was a fun day.

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My little guy - at 9 yrs old - is a great fan of Discovery Channel and BBC World. It is cool that he is so well informed. The hard part is answering all his questions. The worrying part is the number of times that I have to say that I don't know !

12 August 2006

The little guy has gone home already and I miss him !

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The Myanmar embassy has to be one of the most depressing places in Bangkok. So slow and so uninterested and unmotivated to provide anything that would vaguely resemble a welcoming service.

They really ought to be a little more exited that people still want to visit their country.

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Almost opposite the Myanmar Embassy is a travel agency (and coffee shop) that will convince you (if you had any doubt!) about why you want to see Myanmar and where to go and where to stay when you get there.

Ask for Paul Manuel, the Managing Director.

Orient Espresso
S & B Tower, 68-68/6, Unit 101, Pun Road, Silom, Bangrak,
BANGKOK 10500, THAILAND.
TELEPHONE: (66/0) 2 - 6377314-5,
FACSIMILE: (66/0) 2 - 6377316
E-mail: info@orientespresso-bangkok.com
Website:www.orientespresso-bangkok.com

9 August 2006

It took 8 hours door-to-door from the Hoi An hotel to Saladaeng today. It would have been easier (and more expensive) on the 3 flights a week PB Air flight not stop to Bangkok.

But we were on Vietnam Air with an early morning A321 flight to Saigon; collect the bags; check in (long) for the international flight to Bangkok. The queues were painful.

The flights were rather strange; the flight from Hoi An was captained by an Australian and the flight to BKK was on a leased China Airlines A300 with a British Captain. The only thing Vietnamese were the cabin crew and the kids throwing up in the seats in front of us as we bounced into BKK.

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We ate at The Brothers Cafe on a terrace by the river in Hoi An last night. It must be posh as the menu is priced in US dollars. But the food was high quality and it is in a lovely setting. Highly recommended.

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Back to BKK. No peaceful walks along the beach; no quiet undisturbed nights. It is 10.30pm and somewhere nearby there are building works going on and a jackhammer/drill battering noisily.

It is a full moon; if I howl maybe they will go away.

5 August 2006

A really nice day on Hoi An yesterday as we celebrated the wedding (and about time too) of Edward and Sarawan. A beach wedding on a lovely sunny evening and dinner on the beach under the stars followed by dancing on the beach and occasionally in the ocean.

Truly nice people, articulate and heartfelt words from the family, a few glasses of wine, and a bit of a headache this morning. So it must have been a good evening!

Hoi An is an attractive and welcoming small town and the beach resorts are still unspoiled.

4 August 2006

This link is to one of the most depressing articles that I have read in the Guardian for some time; and the comments that follow are a mix between sensible reaction and ignorance.

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I have added a few pictures from London, Stockholm and Copenhagen. I liked Stockholm a lot; but I suspect Winter is pretty bleak there.

3 August 2006

Oops- lost a day there - it was 26 hours from my mother's home in Devon to the front door in Bangkok. A little weary after that !

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How does Emirates get 10 across in EY in its 777s? Thai, Singapore, Etihad all have 9 across. The extra seat in every row makes for a very cosy cabin !

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Dubai airport at 2am. The world's crossover. Flights going East, West, North and South. Every race, every nationality. every size, shape, rich, poor. More than anywhere else in the World at the moment Dubai airport is the cultural melting pot. And guess what. It works. No jihad here. You can still by FM magazine. You can still have a drink. Sure, the bacon is made of turkey !

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Bigbury Golf Club; Devon. A gbp 30 green fee is a bit excessive. The members are a grumpy bunch. It feels like a boys club. Ties and jackets and a stiff upper lip please.

You cant play off the white tees said a stuffy local as we banged away on the 11th tee. Miserable sod.

BUT; the view of the 15th holes over Bantham, Bigbury, and Burgh Island is worth the green fee on is own. Just breathtaking.

On a sunny, windy day there can be few nicer places to be.

The wind can change your golf game completely. I was hitting 230 yard 5 irons !

31 July 2006

We are now in England and the weather is more typical of an English summer - yes it did rain all day.

I did find this picture from last year's local farm show in Devon which I should have posted before - dialling Bovey Blondes and hoping it is an escort agency could result in a significant disappointment:

29 July 2006

Went up to Helsingor today 45 kms north of Copenhagen and the site of Kronborg Castle, used by Shakespeare as his inspiration for Elsinore Castle in Hamlet.

It was good to be out of the big city and by the Baltic Sea.

Helsingor is also the departure point for ferries across the strait to the Swedish town of Helsingborg. And judging by the number of Swedish arriving by late afternoon it is a popular route for Swedish booze shoppers.

Wine, beer and spirits are significantly cheaper in Denmark; it is the only thing that is cheaper in Denmark. Drinking here appears to be a way of life; you can buy, and consume, alcohol anywhere and everywhere. You can buy from age 16. Actually it is a bit in your face on a weekend evening.

28 July 2006

Forgot to mention that I fell out of bed last night. This is a very very narrow single bed. A bit like trying to sleep on a gymnastics beam.

I woke as I was falling - bum first - onto the floor. And then remember lying there trapped between the bed and the outer wall of the room just laughing away.

It must have been about 3am - was still dark outside.

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You can read about Stockholm on the "Today" page. Copenhagen suddenly turned grey and rainy today. The first cool day for a couple of weeks.

Copenhagen is interesting. People commute to work by bicycle; there and bicycles everywhere. More people bike to work than drive. The city (and country) is largely flat. There are cycle lanes everywhere.

People take cycling holidays; buses and trains have cycle storage.

Compare this to China where at breakneck speed people are moving from the cycle to the car. In Scandinavia they are moving back to the bike. Great for health; great for the environment.

Of course this works better in a compact city like Copenhagen; few people in London (or Beijing) would want a 15 mile bike ride commute every day.

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The French hot dog is now wrapped in bacon !

24 July 2006

Still not sleeping very well. It is not easy when the thermostat in the hotel room is still showing 29C.

Had a good day out at Farnborough Airshow yesterday. The pictures are here.

22 July 2006

It is so hot in London - and the hotel has no air conditioning ! Few hotels in London do. There is a fan in the room simply to stir up the hot air. Not a good night's sleep.

Flights to London on Emirates were full - and Dubai airport will continue to be a dump until the new terminal is opened.

17 July 2006

We went to see Superman Returns today at Bangkok's new Imax theater. There are four scenes in 3D including our hero's spectacular rescue of a Boeing 777. About 20 minutes of the film are in 3D and it is very effective. The big screen is fabulous. The only surprise is the lack of legroom in the steeply raked seating. But it is a terrific cinema. Baht 250 per ticket.

25 July 2006

First impressions of Stockholm are good. Waking up without being in a hot sweat is certainly a bonus.

Flew in on a packed British Airways flight to the main Stockholm airport, Arlanda. There is an express train from the airport to the city. Prices in Stockholm feel similar to Hong Kong.

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One of the joys of Europe and something that we do take for granted - tap water that you can drink without catching a life threatening disease.

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Walked around Westminster and Embankment yesterday. Past Downing Street; which now more resembles a fortress it is so well protected. The weather was wonderful; warm and sunny. Walked into St. James Park; it is hard to know that you are in one of the world's great capitals; a very pretty and restful place.

15 July 2006

Back in Bkk after a couple of days in Chiang Rai. What a nice little town. Cooler than Bkk, nice weather, friendly people, pretty countryside, cheap (especially after Koh Samui), good breathable air. A nice hotel (The Dusit Island Resort) and a great golf course at Santiburi, about 20 minutes drive from Chiang Rai.

Spent Friday on a one day tour that took us into the hills to see the Kuomintang Yunnan Chinese Settlement at Doi Mae Salong before going to Mae Sai, the Golden Triangle and to Chiang Saen.

Mae Sai is the border point to Myanmar, Burma as was. A 30 minute time zone difference; but a 50 year gap in economic, political and social development.

Here are the little guy and I at the border crossing; US$5 for a one day pass.

11 July 2006

Samui is a bit short on things to see. The major tourist attraction appears to be this rather phallic shaped rock! Which with the joys of digital photography can be extended to a more international size....

8 July 2006

A day out in Hong Kong. It is hot and sticky here. Heavy rains in the morning; brighter in the afternoons.

And not a lot to tell you about from here. Happy to see my little boy - not so little now - 9 years old and getting smarter by the day! He is good company.

Flew here on Thursday afternoon on China Airlines. Their daily 747 service to BKK arrives into HGK at about 6.30pm. There is a good meal service; but these are older planes with no seat back video. Not that that matters much on a two hour flight. At about Baht7,500 including taxes this is cheaper than Emirates and much cheaper than Thai or Cathay. You can book an e-ticket online.

Leaving tomorrow morning for BKK and going to Samui in the evening.

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Jesse James on Jay Leno talking about the boys who keep the "war effort" going....that's how their nation thinks.

5 July 2006

The North Koreans, disappointed to miss out on the world cup, as they have every world cup since 1966, have found other ways to get the world's attention. 7 missile tests conveniently timed for US independence day and the same day that the US relaunched the space shuttle.

4 July 2006

Happy Independence Day. I am so bored ! A long weekend in Pattaya did nothing for my state of mind. It was very wet and very dreary. I did not golf. Not in the mood. The best I managed was to get to either the mall or to a bar to watch football.

Wish I had more to write about. The football world up blog has been updated.

I need to find some inspiration and motivation. I dont even want to play golf at the moment - the result of playing so badly last Tuesday - I have not even practiced all week. Some exercise would help. But then I have to get to the gym !! And that is as appealing as a trip to the dentist - who incidentally I should also go and see !

2 July 2006

Johnny Miller talking about Michelle Wie in the TV coverage of the US Women's Open - "it is a joy to watch her swing the club." - : a classic, phenomenal swing." He is a fan!! I hope she comes to Thailand in October. Wonder if she needs a tour guide - or practice partner ! I know - she is only 16.

1 July 2006

Still raining in Pattaya. Wet, wet and wet.