the habberjams

The women at our table, Rhian is taking the pic., including Dawn Lynn, Myself, Anna and Claudia

On one of our trips to try and find Billy’s bar we ended up in  Molly Malone’s bar on Convent St. in the Silom area of Bangkok. While we were refreshing ourselves with a cool beer we chatted with some  Brits. They were Rhian and  Lance who, together with Rhian’s mum,  were in Bangkok for a few  weeks to celebrate Rhian and her twin brother’s 50th birthday. Rhian’s brother has lived in Bangkok for 10 odd years with his New Zealand(?) wife.

Another night we were in the Robin Hood bar on Sukhumvit (did we spend a lot of time in Bangkok in pubs?) when who should walk in but Rhian and Lance. We got chatting and Dave asked if Rhian would like to accompany me to the Oscars Breakfast event. The American Women’s club in Bangkok usually organises a Breakfast  for the Oscars, it starts at about 7am, in Bangkok, on Monday morning (it is Sunday evening in Hollywood).

This year the dress was early morning casual (?) and the usual breakfast food was available from 7 am to noon, we of course brought our own booze. There were  10 of us at our table all enjoying breakfast fare and champagne while watching the Oscar event screened live in the ballroom we were occupiying.  After the screening was over ( I had seen The descendants and The Iron Lady) a few of us ladeis were left still enjoying the wine and the music. The room was being transformed around us but we were not asked to leave. Rhian had left to go back and do some work but Claudia was still with us and we decided to go to Tenderloins on Sukhumvit  soi 33 and someone gave us a lift in their car. At  the bar Claudia and I ordered a bottle of champagne we were sitting with some of the other ladies who had come from the Oscars. A guy who was in the bar offered to buy us all a drink, apparently we were making a lot of noise and he wanted to know what it was all about. Turned out he had climbed Everast and so had one of the ladies husbands as had she, but only up to the first base camp. Not a bad achivement none the less and an amazing coincidence that we should bump into 3 people who had all climbed some or all of Mount Evererest (more on this in my New Zealand blog).

Tricia and Rhian at the Oscars breakfast in Bangkok

Our stay in Bangkok is almost at an end, we have taken two side trips, one to Vietnam and one to Myanmar (Meeanmar) the newish name for Burma, both will be explained in separate blogs.

I still have a few adventures to relate. One day I went with a group of ladies in a book club to a members house to listen to a discussion on the book “Bombay Anna”, about the true life story of Anna Leonowens (The woman whose “story” is supposedly portrayed in “The King and I”)

This book club started life while I was living in Bangkok and is called  “The Fiddleheads”, it began life for members of the Canadian Club who wished to read and discuss  all kinds of books, we focused first on books about Asia as well as Canada, but really anything is read so long as it seems good.  It also usually involved lunch, I am happy to see it is still thriving, no longer just for Canadians, but anyone who likes reading. The get together was hosted by Tessie who lives somewhere out of town and who organised a van to pick us up and drive us to and from here house. Tessie provided a delicious lunch of seafood and many other dishes, not to mention the wine! we also had a guided tour of  her amazing house which is decorated in a Rococo Style with floral overtones.

The book discussion was lead by MOM Betty (an American woman who is married to a member of the Thai Royal family, thus her title.  MOM Betty had been a teacher and her detailed explanation of the book and indeed of Anna’s amazing life was very well received. As I hadn’t read that book (I have read other’s on Anna’s life and knew some of her real story, but not all) I found I know want to read the book, in spite of its title!

MOM Betty explaining "Bombay Anna" to "Fiddleheads" book club

 

Ladies of the Fiddleheads book club at Tessie's house. Mom Betty is in the centre of the sofa, Tessie is seated on the far right and i am standing centre back

Back in Bangkok after our beach trip, we decided to visit the museum again, this time to actually look at some of the exhibits. Although I have spent a lot of time there over the years Dave was always working thus he never really had a good look around. We went around part of the south block before going to lunch, in an open air restaurant on the museum grounds, where we met some of the library staff.  As we were about to pay for lunch I realised I didn’t have my wallet and was leaving to go and check my other bag, left at the entrance lockers, when a member of the museum security staff asked me where I came from and when I said Canada he indicated I should follow him! Turned out I had left/dropped my wallet (Seems to be a recurring story with me and wallets) at the entrance and the staff had been searching for me for about 1 hour. I got it back from the museum director and of course was very grateful, I tried to give her some money but she refused and only said I was to come back to the museum and she wanted to make it very clear the museum was a very safe place where tourists are not ripped off. I was very impressed. Needless to say Dave was a little perturbed at my tardiness!!! However we continued with a  tour of the Palace itself until we were tired out with the heat, none of the museum is really air conditioned.

The Canadian Club crowd on the Valentines dinner cruise

 On 18th February we went on a dinner cruise with a bunch of friends and others from the Canadian Club. We enjoyed delicious Thai food while cruising on an old rice barge up and down the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok.

After the cruise was over, about 10:30pm, Dave and I went off to finally find the bar Billy had gone to, you remember he used to manage the great bar off Sukhumvit, “The Boars Head”? We found the Barbicon and that is where we heard the story I told in no 8  of how  the “Bulls Head” came undone.