Author: Mike

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).

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.

 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.

A lot has happened since I last wrote here.

We went to visit ‘Tip, she was staying at her sister’s house from Wed. to Sunday so that she could rest and relax before starting back at work on Monday. Tip came to us last Thursday to do some ironing, which she does much better than I, as well as some cooking. ‘Tip made us a Thai meal of  Pork Omelet, with stir fried morning glory. It was delicious.

‘Tip cooking for us.

  We went to another lecture series at the museum. This time the first lecture was called “Wat Hopping” about some of the differnet temples,  around Bangkok, and their mural  paintings. We decided to go to one of them and it was interesting to study the wall murals rather than just look at the temple. You can just make out the mural behind the Buddha image showing the world according to Buddhist cosmology.

 The other lecture was about Spirit houses which are everywhere on Bangkok streets. I have heard this lecture before, years ago, and it is just as  fascinating and informative 

 Went out for dinner with two couples to The Fish Market opposite our hotel. It is a huge place, a cross between a supermarket, aquarium and restaurant. One goes “shopping” with a trolley and picks up the fish/seafood it is judged will be needed for the group (always better to go with a group) as well as any vegetables one feels the need of. Then it is off to the liquor store to buy the wine and thus sit down and wait for the  dishes to be prepared. We had a very jolly and delicious evening chatting about all sorts of things, most of which seems to have escaped my head at the moment.

In amongst all this I managed to get to MBK, a cheapish indoor shopping experience, where I was able to buy a few items. Happily too, the Thai Craft Sale was taking place on one of the Saturday mornings and I went shopping to it. Unfortunately the night market, Lumpini Park, has now been closed down. it was a wonderful noisy place full of stalls selling all kinds of interesting items as well as a live stage where all types of amateur singing and dancing acts performed. Also every kind of street  food you could imagine all sold in a clean environment together with beer and wine. A very civilised place. Now the whole area is just left to return to the jungle despite threats of it being built on sometime soon.

Another sad event, we discovered, was the closing of a great pub in Bangkok, one of the best British pubs outside the British Isles. Apparently the owner of the building decided this pub was becoming very popular and thus increased the rent by a huge amount which the owner of the business said couldn’t be done and so didn’t pay it. The case went to court but the owner of the building won (probably by the use of “Tea Money”). The owner then gave the business 11 days to vacate the premises and a big farewell party was planned but in the end they were kicked out after only 4 days. The pub was called the Bulls Head, off Sukhumvit, and was very well run by Billy. To cut a long story short Billy now finds himself  half owner of another pub, The Barbican, off  Silom Rd. Now we have found it we shall go there as often as is feasible while we are in Bangkok. I guess shit happens but it really was most unfair. The Bulls head is still a pub, with a new name, terrible food and absolutely no atmosphere. We shall not return there.

  Today was the Melbourne Cup Retrospective. As all you Race Meet aficionados know the Melbourne Cup takes place in Melbourne Australia every November and from what I gather is somewhat like Ascot with a bit of The Grand National thrown in. Anyway those Aussies manage to celebrate the event almost where ever they happen to congregate in the world and one of the biggest of those celebrations takes place in Bangkok every November: I was privileged to attend 3 of them while I was living here. Unfortunately (or fortunately for me) last November’s event was postponed due to the flooding in and around Bangkok and it was decided to hold a party of similar magnitude in February. As they couldn’t screen live footage of the actual race they did a digital rerun of all the winners from the last hundred years of the race thus we were able to have the sweepstakes. I had a winner with a 100bht bet on the horse who came first I got 500bht back (it helped towards the 2,000bht I spent on bets). All the money raised by this extravagant get together goes towards various charities and this year it is going to help flood victims. The event attracts mostly women who get all dolled up in fancy gear to try and win prizes for their outfits. All kinds appear some outrageous and some elegant with everything in between always including a hat of course. I made a fascinator from scratch which I was very proud of. Anyway the party starts at 9:30am with champagne and canapes, then proceeds to lunch and more wine, eventually finishing around 3pm at the venue but continuing at another bar/restaurant until the last one is standing!!!! I was not able to make it after 7pm, my jet lag was catching up with me and I was in bed by 8:30pm. A great day none the less.