I have been looking forward to this tournament for weeks. The Flying Farangs or "foreigners" are exp pat hockey players who do a charity golf tournament once a year in Pattaya.
I played with my school colleagues, who also happen to play hocky every week in Bangkok and are quite fanatic about hockey ( and beer drinking apparently!). They are a great bunch of guys and the tournament was enjoyable. As you can see from the pictures the golf course was situated in beautiful surroundings overlooking the ocean on one hole and surrounding by mountains and beautiful shrubs and flowers.
Luckily, I probably played the game of my life For some reason, I can't seem to drive it as far in Thailand as Ontario but they are all straight. I usually get to the green in 2 ish and yesterday my chipping and putting were exceptional. My score was an 80 which is great for me.
It can be intimidating when you have three friends watching your shots as well as 4 caddies and myriad others you can see in the pictures. They do tend to get distracting if you let them.
When I have been at other golf tournaments, the banquet is usually rubber chicken following by boring speeches and and prizes. This banquet was a few hours after the tournament ended in an upscale new resort in Pattaya. There were cocktails and went cloths when you arrived, beautiful bouquets of flowers and gorgeous furniture. Out by the ocean there were food stations with everything from roast beef to shushi to Thailand dishes. The breadsticks were out of this world, putting the lie to everything Daniel told me about not get any bread here.
Instead of speeches with winners, there was a theatre syle screen which announced the winners of the various prizes. I am sure I won a gross of condoms for being closest to the sand on the fifteenth hole but someone else won it ( by cheating I"m sure). As it turned out, it did him no good because they had put condoms in all of our prize packages and had run out. At most North American tournaments they usually put in a sleeve of balls. I got the condoms, some foods I do not recognize and a flotation device!
Today I am back in Bangkok writing this post. I am going to go swimming, and then maybe cook something( I bought a pot and pan Friday) but am not quite sure how to use them yet. I decided to put off the inevitable Friday night and bought a meal from the food vendor downstairs for about $1.00 but to-night may be the night. I have a fancy grocery across the street. I can buy some fish and vegetables and God knows what could happen. I also have a microwave but I am not sure it will do me much good. I am not sure where to plug it in and if I do figure that mystery out, the front door of instructions is written in Thai. My vocablulary is up to about 10 words now but my reading in Thai is still deficient.
The words I do know, by the way, no-one understands because I put the accent on the wrong syllable. When I say Green Valley golf club, for example, I could go for hours without the cab driver knowing what I am talking about. However, if I say Green Valleeeeeee there is no problem and I get there quickly.
Speak to you again next time. Tanks for visiting.
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