[Note: I've gotten way behind here because, again, as I mentioned, getting a wifi connection has proved impossible here in Korat. All my files and images are on my laptop. On my last night, someone tipped me off to the fifth floor of Klang Plaza 2 but I was leaving next day. This part below was written the day it happened but is just now being filed from Surin on Friday Jan. 2.]
New Year's Eve. Hard to know where to start. Okay, the end. Got hammered at the George and Dragon on Sunararee Road. Call it mid-town, if you like. Not far from the western moat. Baht bus No. 1 or walk. English pub, owned by German and Thai.
Got there around 10 pm. Place was busy, with folks spilling onto street. You can do that here. No need to worry about some liquor regulation specifying how high, how far and how long. Went directly to bar and felt a little out of place because, as I discovered later, the place was filled with farang-Thai couples. And the guys were obviously well known to each other. But eventually, the lovely Thai co-owner, Mem, introduced me to a Swede who was very friendly and helpful. That started the night off very well. Soon we were talking about hockey. Ugh. Know nothing about it anymore. Anyway, that to an offer of beer, which i was drinking, and whiskey, which he was drinking. It went downhill fast. The Swede introduced me to a Montrealer. We both agreed the Swede thinks hockey is still a sport. The Montrealer has been living in Thailand for five years now and is expert in Thai law, and can also speak and write fluently in Thai. He now runs a respected law firm specializing in foreigner-Thai relations in law and business.
The evening reached a crescendo with bar-supplied fireworks (outdoors) and the fact I won the most desirable prize, a bottle of Black Label Johnnie Walker whiskey. The bar ran a draw. Everyone got a number and if you were drawn, you got to draw for a prize. Mem put it this way: they couldn't give every one of their regulars a gift, but they could get a few things to give away. FEW things?!?!?!? The prize list must have run to 25 items, topped by the Black Label. Some were things like two packs of chips taped together. But many others were substantial things like boxes of fine chocolates and Guinness golf shirts. Expensive stuff in the west, not so in the east.
When I won the Black Label, a roar went up from the female customers, desirous, it must be, of my prize. Actually, it was more like a SCRE-E-E-E-AMMMMMM. AGAIN AND AGAIN. Wow, never knew I had so much to give. Heheheh. I knew that if I walked out of there with an UNopened box of Black Label, I wouldn't make it. Heheheheh. When the draw was over, i told Mem that all the girls get a shot . . . of whiskey and then her and boyfriend and then me and then whoever.
That went over well. But we couldn't polish it all off.
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