Throttle to the stop

Thailand 1st Day

Arrive 12 pm. From Airport straight to lunch at Restoran Mak Yah by Petchaburi Road near Soi Surao (Muslim Community). In bus towards Pattaya slept after the heavy makan. Stuck in jam on the Pattaya highway for 3 hours due to a lorry breaking down.

Went to the Tiger (Real ones) Show short of Pattaya (Sriracha Tiger Zoo).

Tiger mum and piglets living together



A crocodile lazing around



Dinner at Ali Baba. Then straight to World Palace Hotel. Dumped all things (including the makciks) in room and hit the streets. Went to the Walking Street and brought the guys who haven't seen Tiger Show before to a club there (What's Up Doc).

The Aquas were good...so were the main attraction. Pretty cheap at RM20 per pax. No hostesses to milk you (no pun intended) of your money. Purely show.

Went back to hotel. Waited until about 1.30 am then hit Beach Road. Best time to go as clubs were closing and this is the time to pick up the ladies. But then during this time only leftovers (pun jadilah). Managed to get 4 girls for some horny bastards. Rates were RM100 for whole night. Slept in another room, gave my room for those in need (privacy sikit la).

Note : While others were admiring the girls/shops, I was admiring the bikes. Damn! Pocket bikes everywhere..for rental pulak tu. Hondas CBR400, CB4, Bros (this is a classic!), Yamahas R6, R1, Suzukis GSX400. Juling mata tengok!!!!!

Thailand 2nd Day

Next day left for Bangkok. Stopped by the beach for pics (part of work la)



Stopped by Nang Nooch Cultural Village.



Elephant Show



Arrived Bangkok around 6pm. Dinner again at Mak Yah (more tomyam) and walked towards hotel (famous Bangkok jam), 15 mins walking, hours if by bus.



Checked-in, cleaned up and went for shopping at Suan Lam Wholesale market.

Ditched the ladies around 10pm. Went back to hotel for a short intermission and then brought the guys to Pat Pong. Went to Wild Cats club. Expensive with lots of hidden charges. Damn! The girls were so-so only. The others left while I had to wait for someone who wanted to bonk 2 ladies at the same time. Yours truly made the same mistake during my Phuket days and "ter"accidently went to the gay section.

Thailand 3rd Day

Went of early to the floating market. Frigging expensive!!!



Food Yummy!!



After that went for river cruise.

Sand barges. Guess they have silting too.



Later went for lunch at a non-pronounceable Muslim restaurant followed by another shopping spree (for the makciks) at MBK. Yours truly and one ham sap friend decided to walk back to hotel (going along Siam Square) and found interesting stuff (mostly the chicks - cun habis). We (I) found better higher class shopping complexes (Isetan , World Central Plaza, Big C etc)and bought some girlie stuff for someone who requested for it back home (Malaysia tak jual lagi)

Dinner at hotel. Had foot massage at hotel massage center by Lathiya (got to know her during the massage). RM30 only. Tonite all stayed in (except the makciks who continued with their shooping) due to EPL and asked for room service (paham-paham jela). Yours truly included. Oil massage RM40..again by Lathiya.

Thailand 4th Day

Went to Pratunam wholesale market. Damn! Cheaper than anywhere else..closer to hotel too. Later on my own went to their Low Yat equivalent.



No lunch provided. 2pm checked-out and transfer to Airport. Left Bangkok at 5.10pm.

Miscellaneous pics

Triple Deck Highway. Safety barrier damn low!


Abandoned pillars. Salah alignment?



Bangkok Sky Train (BST). View from my room.



Various billboard shots






Car accessories shop. Sempat masuk.



Satu lagi projek Barisan Nasional



Conclusion

Tours are okay if you don't have dependents around you.

Letih ooo kalau jalan-jalan bawak makcik-makcik nih!! Asyik nak shopping aje. Tinggalkan sorang-sorang penakut.

Yesterday, just before our normal game of futsal, TC came and dropped da bomb on us.

"We, the Wednesday futsallers have registered you guys for Sunday's Old Skool Futsal (Closed) Tournament. Everything's paid for. Make sure the team is ready."

HUH? We, the Friday recreational players have been registered to play? Gila ke?

To make things worse, only 4 of us (the old skool players) were around yesterday, the rest were our friends.

Damn, we couldn't raise enough players due to short notice. Many had commitments on this coming Sunday. Help!!!

After the game, frantic phone calls were made. Cajoling, threats, sweet-talking and swearing were the points of conversation heard over the handphones.

I don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow!

Wish us luck

Me, the Goalkeeper

********

Update

We were allowed to register 8 players, however only 5 of us turned up. While others could put in fresh legs to play, we were handicapped (no substitutes). Mati ooiiii!!!!

We played in the veterans' league lost and all three games with the score of 2-1, 1-0 and 3-0. Our other team went through the next phase and lost in the final 4-1 (penalty kicks) after 2-2 (full & extra time).

All I got was this t-shirt


The sponsor for the tournament

During my biking days, most of my trips up north (too many to count)involves excursions to the southern parts of Thailand, namely Phuket, Haatyai, Pattaya, Narathiwat, Betong and Yala.

Trips to Phuket, Haatyai, Pattaya and Betong were fun because :

1. Lots of twisties and off camber roads (can't find it here -technical riding required)
2. Cheap booze (for my friends la)
3. Massages
4. Girls (include also of Ah Kuas -these guys have kinky taste)
5. Hotels (x rated channel 24 hours)

I hate :

1. Dusty and slippery roads
2. Lorry drivers don't give a damn to bikers
3. Starts at the front but always end up in the rear
4. My back aches due to the "superman like" riding position and my feet numbed due to the vibration of the engine
5. Riding behind an easy rider because its like riding behind a shotgun (they tend to backfire a lot)

Being the most innocent of all (ha ha right), I always become the middle man when the time comes for negotiation with the hootchie mamas. Somehow or rather, by using my limited vocabulary of Thai, I can always get a better rate for my "cheong"ing brothers.

Sometimes, my limited vocab do get me into trouble when my business proposition goes towards an innocent person instead to the ladies of the night. I've been slapped, spat and maki kaw kaw. Well, who asked her/them to be at the wrong place and at the wrong time?

So, what's my point here?

It has been 5 years since I visited Thailand and yes, I'm going there next week (Bangkok to be exact), courtesy of the Company. Some "makciks" (including RI) from the office will also be going but I'm sure I'll be able to ditch them when the time comes. Heh heh.

Woo hoo!!! Time for me to brush up my Thai again.

p/s any recommendations for the places to visit are welcomed here. *hint* *hint*

Yesterday had lunch with a loony, pervert, sex maniac, horny, hard headed friend.

The conversation went like this :

Me : Wassup?

She : Yak, yak, blah, blah, drone, drone,

It went for a long looooooooong time

When she asked me,

She : So you how?

Me : S'okay

That's it. ONE word only.

Aiyaa....fail....fail....la.

Today is my Mak's birthday. She's 71. Have written something longer but decided to cut short with this wish : Happy Birthday Mak.

**************************

On the 12th will be my big brother's birthday. He'll be 44.

**************************

We're celebrating their birthday tonight with a barbeque at my brother's place in Bandar Utama.

The Food




The Fruits and Kuihs



The Birthday Cakes

This cake from us


This from the kids (kononnya)


**************************

My "cili-api"ed nephew's birthday (his 3rd) will be on the 23rd. However, my sister will be coming down from KK together with brat next weekend so he may celebrate his birthday (brought forward) with his cousins here.

Perhaps I could do the same trick again on his birthday....hahahahaha

Of course, once he's here, he has to abide to the rules I would lay down to him :

1. The TV belongs to me
2. The Astro set belongs to me
3. You can watch Disney playground (Ch 63) only when I'm not around.
4. Any mutiny will be dealt with severely (duduk kat luar rumahlah).

**************************

Happy Birthday all!!!!

Today's lunch at Kari Kepala Ikan Stadium Merdeka was a reunion of some sort. Apparently the German bankers for the ERL project flew in for a loans' review and see how ERL is doing. Although I left ERL 5 years ago, they still invited me for the gathering. Why Kari Kepala Ikan? That you have to ask Scheinder.

Back in 1998/1999 (during the economic downturn), none of the local banks wanted to finance the project. Our advisors, a local merchant bank also flew the coop, leaving us stranded. We had a new advisor and assistance from MP Capital, a new local advisory group (all ex Bank Bumi, my ex-colleagues).

We at ERL, basically me and NMN (we were also both ex-Bank Bumi) and MPC then teamed up with Siemens Financial Services to get the required loan from a group German banks. Scheinder helped to arrange and in the end 4 banks were involved, Kreditanstalt fur Weideraufbau, Bank Gesellschaft Berlin, HypoVereinsbank and Dresdner Bank (now Dresdner-Kleinwort-Benson). Bayerische Landesbank Girozentrale and Deutsche Bank pulled out halfway during the negotiations. We were banking on BLG to come in as they are a AAA rated bank but then what to do. Negotiations took place for a long time and in the end we managed to get a DM665.0 million export credit facilities from them.

We had to use Clifford Chance, an international law firm based in Singapore together with a local firm for the loan documentation process. Up to 2 days before the signing we were still amending the agreements and during that time I did not get any sleep at all. As usual, balachi me was running around getting all the necessary approvals from the directors, preparing for the signing ceremony etc etc.

We had an innovative plan for this DM loan to cap our expenses. At the final drawdown, ERL will transfer the whole amount of DM665.0 million to the Government at an exchange rate of RM1.76 for every DM. The Government will pay the German bankers DM665.0 million at the prevailing exchange rate (within 10 years) while ERL pays the Government in Ringgit a fixed amount of RM1,170.0 million. Clever huh?

We finally signed it on a Friday afternoon and as reward for managing to get the required financing, we were shipped off to Pangkor Laut for a weekend of R&R (myself, NMN and the gaggle of German bankers) courtesy of a generous shareholder, who also owns the resort.

The same people (well, almost the same) who represented the banks were at the lunch and we had a fine time reminiscing the stressful time trying to put together the said financing. Some have gone up the ladder like Volker (KfW) and Michael (Hypo), both now VPs (back then just Asst Managers) while Scheinder will be going back to Germany soon.

I left ERL in 2000 after the 2nd drawdown of the facilities and having put up the system in place for use by my replacement. I still keep in touch with the people in ERL and being a typical Malaysian freeloader (heh heh) still managed to get free tickets from time to time for my own consumption.

My browser has been attacked by #!$#@%#%^&^&* and currently disabled despite the various anti-spyware used; ad-aware and spybot. Can't do any postings until my IT people rectify the problem. No more postings until such time.

p/s Am currently posting from 6515. Cool eh!

Shell : any cool stuff to counter this?

DZ meme'ed me. So here goes :

20 years ago 1985 (I was 16)

1. Honeymoon year. Entered science stream even though I hated it. Should have joined social science. Slept almost 90% of all lab classes.
2. An English teacher by the name of Sharon Young came from Birmingham (I think) to help me us ace the 1119 paper, which I did. She, together with Takami Ono, the Japanese teacher were the source of my our "inspiration". We were teenagers back then (paham-paham ajelah). She's now known as Sharon Bakar and has her own blog thebookaholic
3. Back injury during an athletic meet meant I never got chance to represent school during F4 and F5 in any sports.
4. I was "family"less. Parents and sis in States, brother in Sarawak. I was left to my own devices during the school holidays.
5. Tea dances at Piccad and Hollywood East.

10 years ago 1995 (I was 26)

1. Won two air tickets to London 1st prize during a lucky draw. Was targeting the Vitara which was the grand prize.
2. Backpacked across Europe with my brother, his ex-gf and her husband (they're Londoners).
3. Bought my Ducati - the source of my many happy moments (used only for weekends)
4. I worked with Bank Bumiputra - Corporate Banking, mostly loans syndication and project financing (STAR and PUTRA were my babies).
5. Almost assisted in bankrupting the country (I kid you not). Can't disclose much as the trial is still on-going.
6. Use the bus as my main mode of transport
7. Party party party after work.

5 years ago 2000

1. Rode like crazy anytime everywhere right up to the last weekend before I got hitched
2. Ended my (hard) partying days
3. I got married
4. Got a new better paying job
5. Bought a condo in IT city

3 years ago 2002

1. Condo ready and moved in
2. Wife works overseas
3. Sold off Ducati and Wira
4. Bought a Honda Integra
5. I got transferred back to HQ in Shah Alam

Last year 2004

1. Started a blog (now defunct)
2. Teluk Cempedak beach rehabilitation project completed
3. Celebrated my birthday overseas playing golf at a course designed by Nick Faldo. Woo hoo!!!
4. Beach construction training in the middle of winter. Froze my balls off.
5. Wife asked for the big D

This year 2005 (I am 36)

1. Sold of the Integra and bought a sedate W202
2. Learnt how to dive.
3. Single again
4. Futsal
5. 2 projects moving ahead
6. Bangkok trip - 1st time office sponsors such trip
7. China/Ghana/Australia trip (training)

Next year 2006

1. Work only
2. DZ says I'll find someone - should I believe?
3. Settle most of my debts

10 years from now 2015 (I'll be 46)

1. I may be married
2. I may have kids
3. I may be rich
4. Become a Haji
5. I may be a pimp for DZ's proposed rumah perempuan-perempuan (simpanan) tua.
6. Maybe my dreams will come true


OK, Frenkensteina..your turn. Bruder Ace..lu sudah kena jugak ke?

I'm a dingbat. I admit. So in this blog I apologise.

Sorry. It will not happen again.

Have a nice weekend.

Tonite is another futsal nite. What can I do this time to hurt myself? Break a bone or something? Heh Heh.

Have a nice weekend people.