Vol. 8~Kr~~g Th~p C~~o~~clernternat,onal Ed,t,on 1989I No. April

CANUCKS VISIT PARTY S.E.A.

The two lads astride the balcony of my apartment. Nice view. Boys where are your beers!Bangkok - After months of planningand delays the boys finally made it toBangkok. They were first planning tocome in the Fall, then it was afterChristmas and then late February. Wellon February 26th at just 'roundmidnight our two weary-eyed travellersmade to the welcoming gate at Don Muangairport.

They weren't two hard to pick out.Looking a little lost and very tired weconnected pretty quickly. It was greatto see some familiar faces.

Our first task was to get a cab and getthese guys home. After complaining that150 baht is too much to pay for a 100baht ride we hopped into a local hackand headed for home.

The first thing that Tim noticed isthat even at midnight it was well intothe high twenties. Hot damn hot infact.

After the half hour drive home andpointing out a few of the sites wearrived.

Next on the agenda was a survey ofavailable domestic ales. There are fourbeers brewed in Thailand and I happenedto have three of them: Singha(pronounced SING), Singha Gold, andKlostier (I don't know anyone whodrinks the fourth Amarit).

I prefer stngha , Tim agreed and Johnsaid it was beer. I told John that wemight not be able to find gingerale butI have seen plenty of Mr. Seagram's.

STRANDED INAfter packing up our three heroes madefor the airport with plenty of time tospare. We had a little bit of a panicat the immigration area. I couldn'tfigure out which line I had to go into(Resident of Bangkok, but non-Thaipassport). Then the immigration copsdecided to let Tim off the 'over-stay'but not John. We couldn't figure outwhy but hey we made it this far rightl

We made our way to the departure loungeand put our baggage down to take abreak and have a smoke (well not all ofus). They announced our boarding calland we joined the queue.

We took our seats and followed the pre-flight instructions. And in meremoments were off. Around about ten feetoff the ground I realized that I leftmy waist pack in the departure lounge.Panic. In it were all our passports,traveller's cheques and the guys planetickets. Aaaaack. Bone-head move Iknow.

I contacted the head stewardess andexplained her the situation. She saidthey would contact Don Muang Airportand find out if anyone reported a blackbag being found in the departure area.She tried to comfort us but only thefree drinks helped.

SINGAPORENothing to do but wait. Pretty tensemoments. As we were approachingSingapore she came back and reportedtha t they hadn't yet found my bag.Gulp. I smelled mutiny.

We were told to be the last ones offthe plane so we could be escorted tothe person who would look after ourproblem. We were told that they foundmy bag and were asking for confirmationof what was in it. We would have towait until the next day before the nextflight would bring our passports.

They assigned a security guard to watchover us. We were lucky we were told,the airport is very nice and there isplenty to do. Yeah, right.

The only bright spot came when John raninto Cindi and Gerry. They found myerror slightly amusing (needless to saythe rest of us weren't too happy aboutit). They would go on ahead to thehotel and wait for us.

Nothing left to do but try to get somesleep. Apparently I was the only onewho got any real sleep that night.Guess it comes from sleeping on trainsand buses around Thailand. Didn't makeme feel any better though. (continuedpage 3)

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After a couple of hours of shooting thebreeze we called it a night.

The next morning I went off to work andleft the jet-setters sleep-in. My maidfed the animals breakfast and put theminto a taxi to meet me at work. Theyhad a little difficulty making out themap I left for them.

After showing them around our office wewent to grab some noodles at myfavourite shop. After a few bowls ofkweetwoe we headed back to the office.

We piled into Gord' s Benz and headedout for a tour of Wat Phra Kheo.

Wat Phra Kheo (Temple of the EmeraldBuddha) and the Grand Palace areprobably the most popular touristattraction in Bangkok. The ornatelydecorated temple and the mixtures ofarchitecture of the palace warrantsseveral visits. I have been there twicebefore and have since gone again. Wewere lucky enough to get a view of theaudience hall and throne room. The boys(continued next page)

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2

Tres DrunkadosIt would figure that if there was aMexican food joint in Bangkok theeditor of this paper would know aboutit. When my two buddies from decidedthey had enough local fare we went tomy favourite cantina.

The Krung Thep Chronicle - April 1st, 1989

very late time was had by all.

I decided that work could be put onhold for a day so I stayed in with theguys until we decided that we should goout and see some of Bangkok. Afterflagging down a killer-tuk-tuk-from-hell we proceeded off wander. Butfirst a little stop to pick up sometickets to Phuket and pay for my flightto Singapore. We had a little hasslewith drivers who wanted ten baht forpointing us in the direction of thetravel agent.

After straightening out the flights wedecided to head off to the Dusit Zoo tolook at the elephants and tigers,zebras and giraffes. Although it is noton the top ten list of touristattractions the Dusit Zoo is a niceplace to be. They also encourage you tofeed the critters so that is a bonus.

The afternoon sun was just too much sowe called it a day and headed back tothe pool at my place.

In the evening we went out shoppingnear Pratunam. This trip would be thefirst of three we made to that place.The prices were better than the nightmarket on Si lom Road and the crowdsweren't half as bad.

Friday was another work day. But in theevening we went along the Chao PhrayaRiver for some sea food. We joined JimRoy, Khun Rattana, and Khun Gai(Patama). The food was excellent and wetalk well into the evening. They wantedto close the restaurant so we grabbeda boat back to our car and headed forhome.That was the end of the first week.Pretty full but just the start ofthings to come.

Weekend lnWe awoke early Saturday morning andgrabbed a 'killer-tuk-tuk- from-hell'to the Eastern Bus Terminal. We boughtthree 50 baht tickets and were on theroad for Pattaya shortly after 9.00.

Visitors - (from page 1)seemed impressed but the heatgetting to all of us. It was veryof Khunying Patrapa to arrangeguided tour for us.

wasgood

the

John and Tim encountered most ofBangkok's pleasures: heat and trafficall in their first day. So we headedback to rest up by the pool. We decidedto stay in that night as we were allbeat. We agreed to take a beer run andstock with frosties for the evening.

Amporn fixed a great meal. We were allstuffed like artichokes. Nothing moreto do than to sit back, pop open a fewcold ones and enjoy the evening heat.

The next couple of days saw our buddiescatching some serious rays by the poolwhile yours truly tended to work.

Tuesday evening was an introduction tothe shopping and nightlife scene inBangkok. Both guys were amazed at howcrowded it was. I guess after ninemonths I have got ten used to theteeming hoards.

Wednesday night I introduced the ladsto Harry my squash partner. Afterscrounging some brew we settled into alittle squash. Mind you the ales weremuch better than our play.

We went out after for a little bite toeat and to look at a bit of the nightlife. A little apprehensive at firstthe boys got into the swing of thingsas it were and I guess a good if not

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The bus pulled into Pattaya City justbefore noon. We hopped into a song-taew(truck cum mini-bus) and drove off toour hotel.

We were to stay in the Merlin Pattaya.A nice hotel just across the streetfrom the beach.

John was beat. Mornings are not histhing, so Tim and I went out to seeabout a bite to eat. We walked a fairpiece before agreeing on a small openair restaurant.

We wandered down the road after lunchto do a little shopping. Tim picked upa great pair of jams with the Singhalogo on them for under $5.00.

As we were walking somebody was takingtheir pachyderm for a noontime stroll.Right alongside the beach! How aboutthat? Imagine the size of that pooper-scooper.

The mid-day sun was too much for both

El Gordo's is a shophouse that has beenconverted into a fine and cosy place.The food is half decent but theatmosphere is its big selling point.

That night the three of us were talkingover old times and putting away ourshare of the alcohol when Freddy Fenderalias the Sherpa-Guide-From-Hell (aFilipino guitarist) starting playinganything under the sun. Heck he evenmixed stuff together. He even playedone of John-boy's favourites 'Light MyFire.' Unfortunately it was theFeliciano version but the ad-lib guitarwork was just fine. It was also theevening for one of the heaviestversions of "Hotel Cal ifornia" I hadever heard.

Freddy was followed on stage by 'CowPaddy.' She played acoustic and herrepertoire was more on the folk side.

The owner is a friendly kinda fella. Hetold us stories and goaded us intosinging one song before we left. Johnis the only one of us who has 'profess-ionally' (except he didn't get paid)sang and we didn't really want to getup there. But beer overrules commonsense at the best of times. We treatedthe crowd to a rousing (if not off-key) rendition of our college drinkingsong. In the end the evening was a greattime and after all it was a great tune.Let's all get drunk and go naked

(see picture page 03)

Pattayaso we made for the pool at the hotel.We spent the afternoon catching somerays and a few Z's.

Five o'clock was happy hour and notwanting to disappoint the local barmaid we ambled into the lounge for awarm-up. John was in near heaven. Ryeand gingerale. Tim and I stared withCaesar's. After an hour or so wedecided that our six-plus rounds wereenough for this watering-hole and weset off to find another boite.

As luck would have it there was a baraptly named 'Tim Beer Bar.' Well it wastoo much of a good omen to pass up.Fate was gracious as the bar also hada bottle of Mr. Seagram's finest.

We spent the evening sucking back coldones (remarkably kept cold in Tim BeerBar beer holders) and being suckered bythe bar-maids in games of connect four.

The next morning Tim and I left thegentle giant lay and went to check outsome poolside attractions.

We packed it in around noon and grabbedthe next bus back. A nice littledistraction never hurt anyone, rightguys!

I

The Krung Thep Chronicle - April 1st 1989

Stranded (from page 1)The next morning things didn't look toomuch brighter. We were told that wewould have to wait a little longer asthe flight was delayed. I'lorepanic.

We managed to get a hold of Gerry andCindi (who buy this time had spent mostof their money on clothes) to let themknow that we would be a little late.

Our guard was nice enough and he tookus on a tour of the shops. Prices wereactually fairly reasonable but nothaving all our funds available '"

Finally after 15.00 we were told thatour passports had arrived. Fourteenhours after we did. The nice folks didrush us through. After checking thatthe only item missing was my camera(poetic justice at its best) we pickedup the guys luggage and made for thebus stop.

I chalked up the experience to fate andmy luck finally running out but Ipromise to be more careful next timeand let someone else take care of thepassports.

After arriving at the hotel we decidedto get shopping. Isn't that why youcome to Singapore?

The Mulcahey's decided to start withoutus and proceeded to spend a bulk oftheir mad money in the first day. Poorsouls. Offered deals they (or anyonefor that matter) couldn't possiblycouldn't refuse. The five of us decidedto check out the shops they visitedearlier. I was interested in a camera(to replace the one 'lost' in transit)and sure enough there was a camerastore right across from the clothesshop that Ger and Cin were at. Andcoincidentally it was owned by abrother of the owner of the cloth shop!

After the fittings were done we walkeddown Orchard Rd. (the place to be inSingapore) to see what else was about.It was getting on in the evening and wedecided to find a place to have dinner.

We chose a little bar/bistro that

advertised surf&turf. The meals werepretty good and reasonable.

The next morning we went all the waydown the other side of Orchard road. Iwas looking forward to having aSingapore Sling in Raffles bar but itwas closed for the next year or so forrenovations. Go figure! My luck wasjust about running pure bad this trip.

I had some errands to run for friendsso we went to the Funan center. Thislarge mall has two floors dedicated tocomputer stuff. Ger and Cin and I wentout to find Merlion park. Tim and Johnsaid they would meet us back at thecomputer store after they found a placeto eat.

Merlion park was a bit on the smallside. With a name like that I figureda few acres at least. Just a smallpatch of land over ooking the harbour.The view was pretty good and the statueof the Merlion was impressive enough.

As we walked along the streets I couldhelp but notice how clean and orderlyeverything was. It was nice but itseemed so sterile. No street vendorsselling ro t i , som-tam or gai-yang.Kinda boring, but a welcome change. Thethree of us found a Chinese restaurant.The luncheon special was good and itwas nice to have a little view of theharbour.We met John and Tim at theappointed time and went out exploring.We tired of walking fairly quickly andgrabbed the subway back to the hotel.

This was to be the last night with Johnand Tim so we found a little pub tohave dinner and drinks afterwards. TheTiger beer was pretty good and theatmosphere perfect for a farewelldrink.

The next morning we misread the ticketsand we realized that we may be late forour plane. We had to rush off withoutproperly saying good-bye to the guys.Luckily we made it time and actuallyhad a few minutes to spare. Singaporewas nice but after our troubles it wasgood to get back to Bangkok.

3

Day at Jomtien BeachCindi and Gerry we eager to visit thebeaches that the Chronicle had reportedon earlier. We left early in themorning and took the same bus as John,Tim and I had to Pattaya. Jomtien is abeach twenty minutes south of PattayaBeach.

Jomtien caters more to locals that tofarang. At least the beach is morepopular with Thais. We arrived andnoticed that we white folk weredefinitely in the minority. We spotteda large umbrella shade and parked ourcarcasses down.

It was still early and we decided thata swim would be in fine order. Gerryand I split on an inner tube to floataround in.

The water was warm and very salty.There was also the occasional slickfrom the water scooters that were verypopular. Popular, loud and dangerous.We saw one farang trying to maintainhis cool even though he kept losingcontrol. The maniacs driving themdidn't seem to notice us poor folkfloating about.

While we were out making like to guysin a beer commercial a group of Thaiswere forming a human raft. They calledover to us. I asked Gerry if he wantedto check it out and he was agreeable tothe situation. We paddled over andintroduced ourselves. They were amazedat our friendliness. They spoke alittle English but the whooping andhollering as a big wave rocked ourfloating island were international.

I stumbled my way through a fewgreetings and found out that most ofthem just came from the city for theweekend. Too hot in Bangkok they said.I have to agree on that one. Theyoungest in the crowd was eight. Thesalt water was too much for our eyes soGer and I called it an early swim andheaded for shore.

Just after noon we started to get alittle hungry. Fortunately we did nothave to leave our little shelter to golooking for food. Several ladies werecarrying a wide variety of food. Wedecided on shrimp and crab. We were allimpressed with the freshness and tasteof the food. You can't beat sittingback on the beach with a cool drink andeating sea food. Sabai ••Sabai .•

For dessert we had a selection of fruitto choose from.Pineapple and pomelocost us all of thirty baht. Not only isfood readily available and good but itis cheap too. T-shirts, hats, varnishedpuffer-fish lamps were among the otheritems available for sale by the beachvendors.

After another round of crab and prawnswe decided we had enough sun for thefirst weekend and decided to head home.Jomtien is a nice place to escapeBangkok and the many foreign touriststhat haunt most parts of Thailand.

4 19891III

II

The Krung Thep Chronicle - April 1st,

Phuket RevisitedBy the end of the second week Bangkoktraffic and heat got the better of usso we welcomed the chance to flyawayfrom it all. We grabbed an earlymorning flight to Phuket.

When we landed in Phuket we realizedthat it was even hotter than when weleft Krung Thep. We were staying in thePhuket Island Resort, about an hoursdrive from the airport. We hopped inthe complimentary van and settled infor the ride.

When we arrived and finished thechecking details we promptly went toour rooms to shower and change intobeach gear. As reported in an earlieredi tion the swimming beach is locatedon an island about twenty minutes outby boat. We signed aboard for the nexttrip and shortly we were soaking up therays.

The island is equipped with a smallrestaurant serv Lng snacks, lunch anddrinks. We supplied ourselves with somerefreshments and headed towards thebeach.

The beach is fairly secluded and thewater emerald green. A fairly far-outplace if I do say so myself. I know theboys were happy to be out of Bangkokand in paradise.

Being less interesting in power tanningI went about seeing if I could bodysurf. The breakers weren't near as highas my first trip but they still hadenough power to turn me over sidewaysa couple of times.

SUN

The boys take a little r-;;ose on the beach of OUi semi-deserted island in the tropics. Good day!Back on the beach the boys wereenjoying the tropical scenery, althoughmost of it was imported from Europe andwearing at least half of a designerbikini!After a few hours of melting in the sunwe decided to hop the ferry back to theresort. During the ride back we noticedthat we had overdone it on the sun bitand were starting to feel our skinpunish us for our abuse.

That evening we decided to hit thebuffet. There was a wide selection ofwestern and Thai CU1S1ne. Tim and Ibloated out fairly bad. But hey we wereon vacation.

As we were beat by too much sun we hitthe sack early. The next morning it wasoff to the buffet breakfast. We plannedto go visit the aquarium, Tim still hasthis thing for sharks. We rented a vanand driver and set off to the islandsaquarium. The trip was just under anhour (truly amazing how everythingtakes the same time).

There was a wide assortment of fish.Tim knew many of the varieties andfloored us with estimates of the pricesof some of the little critters. Asidefrom the normal tropical fish they alsohad some salamander type beasts.(Continued page 07)

Yet another beautiful beach. Our young honeymooning couple get a chance to smooch in the setting sun.

TRANQUIL KRABI

Another long weekend in the sun. Whatcould be better. Cindi, Gerry and Iagreed to take the VIP bus to theislands in Krabi. We hailed a cab anddrove across to the Thonburi side ofthe river to the Southern Bus Terminal.

The terminal is at the end of a smallsoi and extremely overcrowded. Busesmoved in and out gobbling or spewingout tourists. Our first task was togather supplies for the over-nightride.

The bus we were to drive in wasdecorated a la Mercedes. Thecleanliness and comfort made me wonder,but nah it couldn't be. Each seat hadample room (even more than on Businessclass airplanes) and came with ablanket and pillow.

We left just after 20.30. It was awelcome change to have a driver thatwasn't all over the road and travellingat break-neck speed. We tried to get alittle sleep before our stop in Hua Hinfor khao-tom.

Being woken up just before midnight isnot a very pleasant experience. I wouldhave preferred to sleep right through,but the meal was part of the service.Back on the bus I quickly dozed off.Ger and Cin had a more restless sleep,but in the morning were ready for theday.

We arrived in the town of Krabi around08.00. Our bus let us off right infront of the restaurant that we weresupposed to get a boat to the island.Khun Udomsin, of the Pilot Pen office,had suggest the Phra Nang Place andmade arrangements for us. She had eventaken the time to write me a note (withinstructions in Thai) to help us out incase of trouble.

The island was about a forty minuteboat ride out of the town. We hoppedinto the long-tail boat and took to thesea. The town harboured a fleet, which,by the gear I assumed to be aftersquid. (continued next page)

I

I

I

The Krung Thep Chronicle - April 1st 1989 5

Krabi (from page 4)The islands we passed along the waytowered out of the sea like greenvelvet fingers. The water was a clearemerald. More paradise.

The beach we landed at was very wideand not crowded. There were someinteresting caves on one side and theother end of the beach disappearedaround the island. During 10\"1 tidethere is a sand bar that becomes anadditional tanning area. So far it wasbeautiful.

We checked in and they were a littleconfused, until I showed them the noteKhun Udomsin wrote. There were nobungalows on this side of the beach sowe would have to go to the other sideof the island and stay on Sunset beach.

The manager of the sunset beach was alively fellow that spoke reasonableEnglish. He was the kind of guy thatgave Gerry the willies, the kind of guythat thinks I'm kinda cute. No harm he

was getting carried away by all the'Really neat stuffs' that the beach hadto offer.

The water was verytherefore fairly warm.big salty bath, untilcurrent and experience

shallow andIt felt like a

you hit a colda little chill.

We went to theoffice/restaurant/gathering place tohave lunch and escape the sun for abit. The food was excellent and thekitchen offered a wide variety tochoose from.

We spent that afternoon between thebeach and our balcony. We definitelyenjoyed the change of pace andpeacefulness the island offered.

That evening we went back to therestaurant for supper and arrived intime to watch the sun set into the sea.You know you can hear the water sizzlewhen the sun touches the edge! Weordered a round of seafood (So fresh

was just very friendly. He let us havea bungalow at the far end of the beach.

Just another beatiful shot of Phra Hang Place. This shot from the balcony of Ollr little grass shack.

We made our way to the little grassshack and were in awe of the whitebeach and green sea. More heaven. Ourlittle shack had four mattresses on thefloor and had mosquito netting.

The privy was mixed Thai-Western style.There was a sit-down commode that youhad to pour a bucket of water down toflush. There were two huge water jarswith a small bowl to ap-nam with.

We set up our stuff and decided toshower before setting out for the sun.The cool water felt great after thetwelve hour journey.

Sunset beach was along a horse-shoebay. The sand was soft but there werebelts of sea-debris left by thechanging tides. A variety of shells,coral, wood and some odd bits offlotsam and jetsam made for aninteresting time of beachcombing. Cindi

and cheap) and Gerry and I decided totry some of the local hooch, l1ekong. Itake my poison with soda and Gerryprefers cola, Cindi decided that twodrunks would be enough but she order acouple of wine coolers to join in thefestive mood.

After one small bottle we were finishedour meal and started back to ourcabana.

The next morning I decided to go for arun on the beach. I hadn't finishedfour laps before I found a soft spot inthe sand and went tumbling down.Nothing hurt but my pride.

We had a scrumptious breakfast ofbanana pancakes by the beach. Themorning breeze was cooling, but the sunhad already started to tweek our skin.

He decided to hike up to the PrincessPool. The guide pamphlet said it was agood forty minute hike from the mainsite. Hhat they neglected to tell us is

that you need repelling gear and amountain jack to make the trip.

Undaunted we decided to carry on. Thefirst climb was very steep and none ofus had prepared for the hike. I was inflip-flops, Cindi had on a skirt andlight canvas shoes, Gerry was a littlebetter off. Using the ropes we managedto struggle up the main climb. We werecovered in sweat and dirt, but hey wewere on an adventure.

The next section started down. I foundthis to be a little more complicatedthan climbing. The jungle around us waslush and giant trees kept out the sun.I half expected the Lord of the Apes toappear swinging off one of the vines.

As we neared the pool we noticed acamera crew setup. They had loads ofequipment and plenty of crew. I wonderhow they got everything up here. Hefound out they were shooting a Camelcigarette commercial. Interesting tonote that not a single person smoke.

The camera crew had set up on thesecond ledge of three. They put up amountaineering ladder and wereresponsible for most of the good ropesthat we use on the way up. We managedour way down. Slightly touch and gothere for a while but the view wasspectacular.

There were two more cliffs to climbdown before you hit the waters edge. Iventure down to the third ledge butlooked down at the next descent I gaveup. Maybe with hiking boots and gloves.The rocks were very jaggedlimestone/pumice and I managed to jammy heel. The young couple agreed thatthe view from our vantage point wasworth the trip.

We talked with the crew for a whilewhen I mentioned a similar site in theGulf of Thailand. The lagoon was largerand there were stairs and ladders thatmade the hike easier. I was not makingany friends by sharing my travels withthese folks. The hike back was almostas exhausting as the climb up. At longlast we made it. A little worse forwear but feeling proud that we (in ournot so conditioned bodies) could stillhike up a mountain.

It was a unanimous decision that wehead back to the cabana for a goodshower and swim. As it was near lunchtime we made it a quick one and set offto the restaurant at the other side ofthe beach to have our midday meal.

This hut didn't have the same warmthand atmosphere as our little restauranton Sunset. The menu was virtually thesame and the food comparable.

We tried to get snorkel and fins tofurther explore the sea bed. But theywere out. No problem. We could comeback the next day.

We spent that afternoon lazing about inthe shade. I managed to get a hold ofGerry's book and read the time away. I

6

Development NewsWork carried out. on the project despitethe Technical Support Specials frequenttrips. March saw the analysis teaminterviewing people in the office inpreparation for the final prototypepresentation.

The Krung Thep Chronicle - April 1st, 1989

a short ledge. He too had cut himself,pretty bad too. After taking a damagecheck we decided that we hadoverstepped our limits and headed back.

On the way back we saw some wild coraland I saw my first sea urchin. Thething looked hug and I wasn't intoseeing it much closer so I swam on. Iwish that I wasn't so nervous aboutbeing out in the deep (anything over myhead) sea. There is plenty of colourfullife down there. Maybe next time.

It was low tide by the time we got backand had nurse Cindi look at our wounds.We needed a little si est.a to recoverfrom our little excursion.

Later that afternoon Cindi and I setoff for the grotto to look for shells.We came back with too much. Gerry saidwe would never be able to bring themback.

After supper that evening we made alittle fire to celebrate a greatholiday in the south. There was somesort of celebration across the bay asthere were fireworks. A fine way to enda great weekend.

The next morning we went for an earlyswim and packed up our belongings. Hhyis it that no matter how hard you tryyou always end up with less space inyour bag than when you came? Especiallywhen you are guaranteed to losesomething (I lost my "hippie" hat ...bummer) •

We thanked everyone at the office fora wonderful time and headed off to geta boat back to the town and get on thebus back to Bangkok.

The islands of Krabi offered a tranquilplace with the right amounts ofadventure and excitement thrown in forgood measure. We would like to thankKhun Udomsin (Manager, FSU) forrecommending the spot. So far severalother Canucks have taken herrecommendation and all said that it isten times better than Phuket!

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Krabi (from page 5)am becoming very used to this casualway of life. It would be very hardgetting back to the regular pace ofBangkok.

After we showered for supper, Cindinoticed a creature under our cabana .Simians! I was surprised. I didn'tthink they would come down during theday. We rushed outside and followedtheir movement to a bunch of fruitbearing trees just beside our hut.There were at least a dozen monkeysfeeding off the branches. We tried toget a couple of shots of the crittersbut they weren't very cooperative. Itwas getting dark anyway off to supper.

Gerry and decided that we shouldcontinue our investigation into localalcohol and found that two bottles werein order. The one yesterday was justenough to get us going. We orderedplenty of food to go along with thedrinks. In the end we ate more than ourfill and took our second bottle back toour hut.

After breakfast we went off to getsnorkeling gear. We planned to spend abetter part of today splashing aboutlooking for shells and coral.

He all went out that morning for acouple of hours. By lunch we were giantpink raisins. We had collected a fairshare of shells and other goodies.

After a relaxing lunch we took a bit ofa siesta. Last nights overexertion wascatching up. Gel' and I then decided togo out once more and see how far wecould go. He left Cindi to finish herpostcards (neat idea, writing down adiary on postcards).

We paddled around close to shorelooking at the fishes and seacucumbers. Getting a little braver wedecided to venture around the firstbend. There were some small channelsthat help some very colourful fish.Jacques Cousteau has nothing on thesetwo boys. Around another corner wediscovered a grotto with a treasuretrove of polished stones and shells. Hefilled our loot bag and head out aroundthe next corner.

Hhat we found was beyond words. Aseries of caves and channels heldschools of fish all colours of thespectrum, shapes and sizes. It was likeone of those undersea documentarieswhere the camera swims through a schoolexcept we were the camera. The feelingwas invigorating. The rock formationswere fascinating but very sharp. It washard to find a rest spot without beingbashed about.

We swam on and somehow I turned rightwhen Ger turned left. I ended up in theseaward side of the caves fighting offthe current and waves crashing into thecliff. Trying to get my balance Igrabbed a rock and cut my hand alittle. No big deal but where was Ger-beav? I swam back to find Gerry. Hethought he lost me and was resting on

The prototype itself was nearcompletion and only a few details wereleft for the few days before thepresentation on April 04th.

During the middle of the month theproject had a new secretary. KhunDusanee (Goy) has just recentlygraduated from the Bachelor of Artsprogram at Chulalongkorn University.She passed the intervied by telling usher hobby was eating. Full points fromthe TSS.

He also received the Compaq SLT 286. Anifty little toy. But both Gord and Ifeel the keyboard is kind of mushy. Butthe rest of the machine is great. Weeven have a 5 1/2" drive expansion kit.Makes it easy to switch stuff betweenmachines.

One of the more interesting tasks wasto help install the GIS software on HerRoyal Highness Princess Maim ChakriSirindorn's Compaq Deskpro 286. He hadsome people from Compaq in to help incase of any problems. It took a fewattempts but eventually we had it upand running.

We even managed to put the software onthe Portable SLT. The 8 shade LCDscreen had enough resolution to clearlydefine an image of the northern shoresof Scotland. It took a bit ofconvincing the software that theoddball resolution was possible andfinally it gave in and up came thecoastline.

We have a major presentation to NESDBexecutives, and representatives fromthe Embassy.

The project is asking to extend untilear ly August. Hord has not yet comefrom Ottawa whether it is official yetbut a mission is due from our PRO,Brian sometime soon and he can helpmake it official.

Everybody is very busy and there isplenty to do. It is nice to take abreak from the hustle and bustle andhave lunch. I have got ten into thehabi t of taking the team out to arestauraunt using the money I made frommy daily allowances on the road trips.

Programming should start in April andcontinue through to the middle of May.Hith things going well we should betravelling again in Mid-June. Anotherround the country trip. I am not sureif I will be up to travelling aroundonce again. Programming and travellingtakes a toll on ones constitution.

Things do look good and we will come inonly marginally over schedule and righton budget. Remarkable how things neverget done this way at home.

7The Krung Thep Chronicle - April 1st 1989

Phuket (from page 4)

The main attraction was the salt watertank with, of course, the sharks. Therewere a couple of species in the tankalong with some giant turtles and othersea beasts.

After the tour was over we decided tohead back. Tim was hyped for fishingafter seeing the sharks and other fishat the aquarium. We went down to themain building to inquire at the tourdesk if we could find a boat for a halfday. They were willing to rent us aboat for two-thirds the daily rate. Noproblem. Still reasonable at aroundfifteen dollars a person.

We had to be down at the dock aroundnoon. There was still time for a quickbite and to stock up on supplies. Wearrived at the dock and boarded thesmall fishing craft. The craft was thesame one that ferried us to the smallswimming island.

We first went to a large island andanchored about fifteen meters offshore. The captain pulled out thewooden handles that were to be ourfishing dev ices. He then retrieved alittle squid from the bait bucket andchopped it up for us. vie dropped ourlines and after ten minutes the captainpulled in a small fish. Our hooks wereignored.

The captain just smiled and told us toreel in and we would move off to a newsite. Ok. He was the expert and I wasnot about to question the guy with thekeys.

I have never known myself to get sea-sick but that day I was fighting to getmy sea legs something fierce. Tim wasundisturbed by the constant rocking. Ohwell I just had to grin and bear it.

We stopped on the other side of theisland. The only thing we saw for abouthalf an hour were little brownjellyfish. Still no luck. The captainsmiled and pointed further out to sea.Ok. I'll try anything.

We anchored well away from any shoreand dropped our lines once more. Atleast this time we had a few nibbles.But after another hour at sea wedecided to pack it in. All part of thegame.

We were both exhausted by the half-dayat the boat so we headed back to theroom to see how John was doing. Thepoor lad had an awful burn and spentthe afternoon in the shade. His skinhad suffered more than Tim or I andcold cream was keeping him justcomfortable.

We decided to check into the HappyHour. Ahhhh . Cool drinks in the seaair. Is there anything that could beatthis? There were plenty of free bar-snacks to tide us over. Shrimp beatsthe heck out of stale pretzels anyday.After happy hour we went to the seaviewrestaurant. A good meal and a few more

drinks was just the ticket to sendthree kids into dodo land.

Tim and I got up early the next morningto take a trip to James Bond Island. Weclimbed into a van with about sevenother folks and headed for the dock. Itappears that no matter where you areyou always have about an hours drive toget where you want to go. No matter Icould use the extra doze time.

We arrived at the dock when it was lowtide. You could see some boats restingon the sea-bed waiting for the water toreturn. There was a small tour todayabout twenty people.

There was a short wait till thelong=tailed boat ferried us to thecruise boat. Out on the open sea again.Fortunately my sea-legs returned and Ienjoyed the ride out there.

James Bond Island is in the province ofPhang Nga. The province is made up ofa group of islands on the southwest ofThailand in the Adaman Sea. The watersare very green and the islands tower inmagnificent colours.

We spotted several jellyfish of thesame variety as those we spotted theday before. We also saw a long thinfish that appeared to fly inches abovethe water.

The ride was peaceful. We passed asmall 'floating' village. The communitywas Islamic and made its existence on

That infamous tal/er of rock as featured in the JamBond epic. Say isn't that Timothy, Daltonn?

fishing and providing a place to lunchfor the many tours that pass by as wewould.

But first we had to see the limestonetunnel. After navigating several thinchannels among the mangrove we reachedour destination. Unfortunately the tidewas in and our boat couldn't make thejourney through the passage. Just aswell I didn't like the idea of drivingthrough a fragile limestone tunnel.

The limestone islands in the area tookon some interesting shapes. One juttedout like a leaning wall. I was amazedthat it didn't topple over. There wasone that we agreed look like a dog ora Thai lion.

We went onwards to the floatingvillage. Lunch was served immediatelyafter we docked. Tim and I wereassigned separate tables. So we had tofend for ourselves. The food wasexcellent. Fish, shrimp, crab and rice.I1mmm. Good. At my table a group ofyuppie Thais had joined their parentson a business trip. They were veryeager to ta lk and giggled at myattempts at Thai.

After lunch we toured the small island.The villagers had turned the islandinto a giant market. Every soi hadseveral shops. All selling waresavailable in Bangkok plus some giftswi th a more local flavour. We alsostopped to look at the local school andmosque.

Despite all the international furorover a certain book these folks seemedvery calm and peaceful. They werefriendly. A nice blend of Thai spiritand religious devotion is probably agood example for all of us.

Our time had run out on the island sowe boarded the boat for our returnjourney. It was interesting to notethat the journey back was considerablyshorter than the ride out. Timing waseverything.

We stopped for a stay on James BondIsland. Not much to look at. Thecitadel was very small and the beachcould be crossed in under two minutes.Still it made for some interestingphotos.

Our next stop was James Bond Island.This was the famous home of The l1anWith The Golden Gun? The island wasvery small. Impressive but small. Therewas a wall of rock that look like itwas the model for the Leaning Tower ofPisa. The monolith was smaller than Ipictured but then it was only a movie,right?

I had been trying to move our flight tolater in the day but I had no luck. Wehad a very early wake-up call and thevan parked on the terrace just aboveour room.

With beautiful coastline, crystalwaters and plenty of sunshine Phuket isa great little weekend getaway.

8 The Krung Thep Chronicle - April 1st, 1989

Ask KTCDear KTC:

Do you ever get tired ofworking on the Chronicle? Itseems like a lot of work.

Littlest Sis.Dear Littlest Sis:

Well, actually I findworking on the paper ratherrefreshing. It does take upsome of my time but it israther enjoyable. I also getto look over some neatpictures and think aboutwhat I have done everymonth. Normally I writearticles during the wholemonth and then try to findthe time to put it into thenewspaper format.

Dear KTC:Why don't you give up on

a half-[editedJ product likeWP 5.0 and use a real desktop publisher.

LoganDear Logan:

Laziness. Pure andsimple. I would have tofigure out how that workedand I am still having a heckof a time putting 5.0through its paces. But yourpoint is a valid one and Imay just pick up a copy ofVentura or PageMaker. Anypreferences? Bampf!

Dear KTC:When is my son coming

home? Mom.Dear Mom:

Well, we're not sureabout that. Ed.

AnnouncementsAndrea Teske - April 19th.Another year older but youstill haven't grown. Don'tsweat it your still cute andScott probably likes shortgirls.

Khun Gai - April 23rd. Pee,Even though you are fightingthis with all your strengthyou can't beat time. HappyBirthday!

ENGAGED!Congratulations to John andMary on their engagement.The news was late gettinghere but all the best. Whenis your wedding date.

IS IT OFFICIAL?Rumour control has it theMike and Margo are planningto marry in 1990. Somethingabout the 12th of May. Stillone more year.

Send your announcements tothe Chronicle and we w i Lltry to put them in as soonas we get them.

CLASSIFIEDS

DEAR JOHN: WE MISS YOUTERRIBLY. PLEASE COME BACK.WE LOVE YOU! LEK AND NOI (P.GALORE)

FOUND! ONE SLIGHTLY BATTEREDAND OUT OF SHAPE STRAW HAT.BELIEVED TO BE IMPORTED FROMCANADA. MAID MISTOOK IT FORA BASKET. PLEASE CONTACT THEChronicle TO CLAIM

TO VISITORS! THANKS FORDROPPING IN ON FRIENDOVERSEAS. IT WAS A BLAST ANDA HALF. HOPE TO HAVE AREUNION IN THE FALL. KHAPKHUN MAK NA KHRAP!

NEEDED! IDEAS FOR TRAVELPLANS BACK TO CANADA. SO FARTHE BEST SUGGESTION IS TONOT COME HOME AND AVOIDWILSON-ITIS. ANY HELP WOULDBE APPRECIATED.

STAR CHARTS. SEND YOURBIRTHDATE, TIME AND LOCATIONTO Box 000 clo The ChronicleAND GET YOUR FREE THAIASTROLOGY STAR CHART.

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