The name of the restaurant is Priwan, and it is a mostly outdoor restaurant alongside of a small manmade lake that is perhaps a half mile from one of the runways. It is about 6:30 when I get there. L is waiting, and A is still getting ready and will arrive soon. She and A are both from the Philippines; both have been here in BK for over 10 years; and they both speak Thai. From our table we have a side view of some of the planes coming in to land, but they are far enough away so that it is not too noisy. L and I go ahead and order dinner--I have not eaten since my McDonald's breakfast. I get chicken and veggies and rice, and L gets crab cooked in a red-orange sauce. Both dishes are very good, although her crab dish was really nice! I also order a Singha beer.
In Thailand I am finding that when I order a beer, it is often a large bottle, perhaps 24 oz or so, and it is served in a glass with ice! I guess the ice is to help it stay cool, but I don't usually like ice in my beer, and I am also a bit concerned about the ice. So I try to avoid the ice but I am not always quick enough! Tonight my beer did come with ice, but we are sitting right along side the lake so I just take my spoon and toss the ice into the water.
As we finish eating A comes with her business associate, P, to say hello and goodbye, They are on the way to the airport. They fly to Amsterdam via Frankfurt. It is nice to meet my internet friend, but we then say goodbye and she and P are off. L and I finish our beers and she talks me into going to the Karaoke bar of the restaurant. I have never in my life been to a Karaoke bar, but I am willing to have a new experience and so I agree. The Karaoke bar is rather small, and there are only 3 or 4 other tables of people. At the front of the room is a video monitor, and an operator who sits at a piano and plays accompaniment. The other people are all Thai, and they are singing Thai songs. L really likes Karaoke, and when she takes her turn at the stage I can see why--she has a nice singing voice. A short while later she gets me up there to join her. We sing a song that I don't know, but I am able to follow her lead, and when we are finished the "audience" applauds. Well, they applauded for everyone. Actually, it was fun!
The evening soon comes to a close. L and I walk out to the main road where we get a taxi. L gets out at her home nearby, and I go back to the hotel. It is a bit late, and I have had several beers. I am happy to hit the sack.
Soon after getting up I get a phone call telling me that I have won a free week at my choice of several hotels and would I come in to collect my voucher? A few days earlier I had filled out a tourist questionaire near the Central pier along the river, and it seems that I have been selected as a winner. Well, I know perfectly well that this is a time share sales pitch, but what the heck, I'm not really busy and maybe the hotel voucher will be useful. So I say OK, and they say that they will pick me up at my hotel about 12:00 noon.
My cellphone has run out of time, and so I must get a recharge card. I decide to go back to where I bought the SIM card a few days earlier--The Mall, on Ramkaheng. I have learned that I can easily get there by taking the river boat jus a few stops west, and so I walk over to the boat dock and wait for my boat. A few minutes later it comes and I get on along with about 6 other people. The Mall is 4 stops west, and so it only takes a few minutes. I hop off and walk south about 2 blocks to Ramkaheng, and the walk up the stairs to the over-the-road walkway to get to The Mall on the other side. It is about 10:00AM, and The Mall opens at 10:30. This is OK, because I have also planned to eat breakfast at McDonalds which is located in the corner first floor of The Mall. I walk into McDonalds really looking forward to some pancakes. Uh, wait a minute, there are no breakfast items on the displayed menu. I look around, and the few customers are all eating french fries and burgers. Darn! It turns out that McDonalds here does not serve breakfast food. They are open for breakfast, but you must order from the regular menu. So I have a Big Mac and a cup of coffee for breakfast. What a let down!
After eating I wait a few minutes for The Mall to open, and then go to the third floor where I got the SIM card. I ask the same buy who had sold me the first SIM card for a recharge card, and he tells me that no, he doesn't sell them, I must go to the stationery department. So I find the stationery department, and yes, they have the SIM recharge cards, and I get two of them totalling 1000Baht, about $27US. I hope it lasts me a few days!
I then walk back to the boat dock and take the boat back to the hotel. The ride each way was 7B, less than 20 cents! It is about 11:15, and the time share folks will pick me up at noon. I wait in the hotel lobby while using the internet. It takes them a while to get to me, but finally a young lady arrives and we take a taxi near downtown to the offices of Quality Vacations something or other, QVC for short. I am offered a soft drink and some fruit, and I sit and chat with a young woman from Wales who says she also just arrived in Thailand a few days earlier to work for this company, which she already had been working for in Spain. We have a nice chat, a sometimes we are joined by an older man, but they cannot get me to buy their timeshare (today's price is $10,000 US), and so they finally give up and give me the travel voucher.
As I walk out of their offices and notice that the building has many golf shops. Interesting. It seems that this is a smallish mall and office building that really focuses on leisure and recreation.
I am near KP's office, and so I take a taxi there to finalize my travel plans to Krabi. I meet with C, the air ticket clerk, and I buy my ticket to Krabi on Thai Airways, leaving Thursday at about 4:00 PM. Cost is 2665B, about $65.
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