David's Big Adventure - Part 3

July 21, 2006

3:10 am wake up call. Damn it’s early. Kris and driver arrive at 4:00 am sharp, while I’m checking out. On time !! Wow.

Bangkok is the same 24/7. A bit of a traffic jam on the way, but we made it in time. By 5:25 we are all checked in; we board for our 6 am flight a short time later.

The captain said it was a 45 minute flight, but this place seems MUCH farther away than that. I’m still expecting Tatoo to jump out from behind a palm tree.

The airport is now two terminals, being two thatched roofs with no walls, side by side, each with the cutest little baggage carousel I’ve ever seen. We even drove from the plane to Terminal One (the “old” one) in little open carts a la Fantasy Island.

My new office is on one of the nicest beaches I’ve ever seen. My “studio” apartment above is sparse but large. It has two Queen beds and should have instead one bed and some other furniture. Television, small fridge, couple of small desks, one small armoire with no hangers, and a large bathroom. Air conditioning everywhere. Two large dining tables down by the beach, for entertaining clients and visitors from Canada. That’s outside so the A/C comes from the beautiful ocean breeze.

Sand like powdered sugar, palm trees for shade. Almost paradise – all that’s missing is Jacquie. I think it will take her some time to tire of this. Also, the maid whipped up a great lunch which was served to us there (served by my new secretary, Ju, who suitably bowed when she met me – lawyers and staff at Power, Dempsey, are you listening?). The maid takes requests too – there is a fisherman who moors his boat next door who fishes at night, arrives back at 8 am. If Jacquie tells the maid in time she will get fresh fish from him in the morning for lunch.

The BIG news is the large, flat, unused parking lot between my office and the beach – I smell a BASKETBALL HOOP!

The wireless high speed internet reaches everywhere, right down to the beach.

Ow! I just pinched myself. Jacquie, come quick – I need you.

Drove the whole island this afternoon (the ring road, so called) saw the police station, land office, municipal building – and the most awesome courthouse I’ve ever seen, brand new, huge, high on a hill with a commanding view of the ocean on two sides. The provincial court here is the court of first instance for both criminal and civil matters: for constitutional matters or administrative appeals there are separate courts in Surithani on the mainland.

Tonight the other partner – Desmond Hughes – flies in from Phuket and we are all going to dinner. And so the schmoozing begins.
July 22, 2006.

Something I hadn’t realized till this trip is that they don’t do the Daylight Savings Time thing here – no jumping ahead and falling back. So since the clocks went ahead in Nova Scotia this spring Thailand is now only 10 hours ahead – in the fall it will become 11 hours.

Desmond arrived, then we all went out for dinner and a night of drinking in the bars. It kind of felt like I was out with my kids. I won’t say I was the oldest guy out, but I was the oldest guy not with a young Thai girl.

Late night swim before bed was nice. Sleep of the dead after being awake for 23 hours.

Saturday – Finally a day off. But wait, no – Desmond took a call on his cellphone at 8 in the morning from a client, agreed we would all meet here this afternoon..

I hope I feel better by this afternoon.

Clients came. Very nice. Two new developments – one with 10 – 3000 sq. ft. townhouses each with its own pool, the second with 22 units similarly sized, all with pools. The selling prices of all will be about $800,000 each – the reason they are so cheap is that they are ocean VIEW only,

Yesterday my new next door neighbor – Richie from Toronto – invited us all for a barbeque tonight. We have to bring the beer (so Richie can sit and drink it while his Thai girlfriend waits on us. Richie is quite self impressed, but the food was EXTRAORDINARY. Barbequed ribs, Sausage, French fries, and Richie made cheeseburgers with grilled pepper – wow. I can hardly wait till Jacqiue gets here so I can sit on my ass drinking beer and tell her how to do those.!

This morning I took a walk on the beach. Crappy at one end, nice at the other. Quite a bit of garbage around; plastic bottles and such, some broken glass. Near the nice end is the flight path for the airport. You don’t really notice it from where I am, but this morning a plane was landing when I was walking there – Boeing 717 I think. It was all I could do to resist ducking it was so low. What a sight.

Also took a walk on the road, stopped at a real estate office window to look. Nothing too cheap here. I’d say prices are comparable to there, but incomes are not.

Just up the road from here, past “Captain Cavemans Dive Shop”, is “The Beaver Bar”. They sure are creative with the names.

Tonight the partners both leave and I expect I’ll feel like I get some control of my life back. At least that is my hope.

I am attaching a few photos, file names “View from my window”, “Mine is upper far right” (my private office is lower right) and “My backyard”.

I’m back, finally rid of the bosses – completely on my own – sink or swim. Work starts tomorrow at 9:00 am sharp, probably with a cup of coffee on the beach. Went to Tesco Lotus tonight for towels, etc., but couldn’t find it. I’ll try again tomorrow – and try to find a couple of pieces of furniture too – dresser, chair. Getting settled.

I feel like I’m 25, moving out of home for the first (second) time.

July 24

This is REALLY my first day. I’m here on my own now. First I’m served breakfast beside the beach – coffee, toast, bacon and sausage. Cooked by the maid/cook, served by my assistant (my assistant back home NEVER served me meals). Repeated reassurance to the maid/cook that I liked it.

They were both a bit put off when I tried to walk my plate the 8 feet to the bar by the kitchen – not my job.

Then I created a flowchart in Powerpoint – first time ever – to help explain the complicated corporate structure we are proposing to a client, and sent it and our engagement letter to the client.

Then my assistant buzzed me to say that lunch is served at the beach – again cooked by the maid/cook and served by assistant. Aloye (Delicious).

Afternoon was spent finding the clients resort – it is a mountain top resort of spectacular proportions – check it out at www.chawengbayview.com - but she wasn’t there so I’m going to go by tomorrow morning. End of the workday I finally got to Tesco-Lotus. I took my assistant Ju and the neighbor kid Pram (Ritchies girlfriends daughter) and they went off on their own – I think they like getting out. Ju is 27, here alone (her family is in Chiang Rai and she misses them) and she has no transportation – she is sort of captive here.

Bought some hangers, 24 for a dollar – takes 2 to support a pair of pants, but my choice was those ones or none.

Bought some towels – bought cheap, got cheap, but they’ll do.

I told Ju I was going to go out for dinner, but she advised that the maid/cook was cooking it and would be disappointed, so again like lunch. This time I helped serve, and tried to explain that that is okay where I come from. They both protested. This is surreal. Supper was Pad Beo Wan and Gan Keo Wan, and rice. I must be settling in because I don’t even ask – or care – what I’m eating, it just tastes good. The Gan Keo Wan was spicy with unidentifiable meat; the Pad Beo Wan sweet with pork? And pineapple, etc.
During my evening swim, which I think will become a regular thing, a plane appeared out of the darkness and came in low over the water – looked like it wouldn’t clear the palm trees but it did – really cool.

I realized tonight that I am already becoming proficient at single-tasking. It’s what they do here. I guess that is part of what we are coming for, which is good because it seems like that will be forced upon us.

Bye for now – at least until part 4.