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Part 49 |
The View from Nongkhai |
Published |
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14 October |
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2007 |
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Part 48 was the final episode, but here is the
Final Final
Episode !! |
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Thanks again to all who sent
messages after part 48.
As well as the pressure
to keep 'View' going, there were a couple of things
that I had wanted to include, but ran out of space.
One of these was something that I believe Mahatma
Gandhi to have said, which was to the effect that |
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There is enough in the world for mans need, but not
for mans greed. |
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It sounds the sort of thing he would have said, but
when I researched the sayings of Gandhi, I didn't
find it. I did however find a lot of others, and I
have included those that I consider most apposite
for the philosophy of this website. For the last two
sayings I have specific people in Nongkhai in mind.
They will read this, but they may not
recognise themselves, so I shan't identify them. |
| For George Bush and his war
in Iraq |
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What difference
does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless,
whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of
totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?
Mahatma Gandhi |
| For Bill Gates, Thaksin
Shinawatra et al |
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Honesty is
incompatible with amassing a large fortune.
Mahatma Gandhi |
| For all members of organised
religions |
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It is the duty of
every cultured man or woman to read sympathetically the
scriptures of the world. If we are to respect others'
religions as we would have them respect our own, a friendly
study of the world's religions is a sacred duty.
Mahatma Gandhi |
| For all those trapped in the Western rat
race |
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There is more to life than simply increasing its speed.
Mahatma Gandhi |
| For those who have yet to learn to accept
the 'Thai way' |
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Adaptability is
not imitation. It means power of resistance and
assimilation.
Mahatma Gandhi |
| For those who are never
wrong |
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Freedom is not
worth having if it does not include the freedom to make
mistakes.
Mahatma Gandhi |
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I have a dear
aunt in England who from time to time sends me newspaper
cuttings. I didn't know for example that Pavarotti (labelled
in one headline "King of the high C's" -ho ho) had died
until I read one such cutting about a dispute over his
estate. I was immediately reminded of Gandhi's comment above on need and
greed. It is a simple but little known fact that if you have
property in more than one country, then you need to make a
separate will in each country, as any will you make is valid
only in the country in which it is made. Accordingly I have
made two wills, one in England in accordance with English
practices, and one in Thailand in accordance with Thai
practices, which are significantly different. Intentionally
my two wills have different beneficiaries, appropriate to my
estate and dependents in each country. Now it seems (perhaps
not surprisingly) that Luciano Pavarotti also had two wills. An
Italian will dealing with his
£250 MILLION
plus fortune in Italy, and a U.S. will dealing with property in
the U.S. worth about £12 million. Under the first will, each
of his daughters receives about £30 MILLION, but the second
will has a different beneficiary. It seems that £30 MILLION
each is not enough for his daughters, so they are going to
court in the U.S. to contest the second will, for the sake
of perhaps another £1 million each. You see what I mean about human
need and human greed! For some people, the
more you have, the more you want! One thing I can guarantee
is that they will not be any happier!! |
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I guess that I
have my parents to thank for the fact that money and
material things have never had a very strong hold on me. I
am constantly surprised when people that I know well and
know to be well off remain obsessed by making yet more money. Once
you have enough for your own needs, what is the point of
owning more? What is wrong with being generous to others? I
really don't understand the greedy, and as I quoted Hiromi
(right) in the last episode, to adopt the philosophy of the
greedy would
cost me my soul. |
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What's
been happening in Nongkhai? |
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Two of my
favourite former bar proprietors were in town in September.
I caught up with Andrew and Leigh together at Brendan's. |
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It seemed
apposite to ask them whether there was money to be made
running and owning a bar in Nongkhai.
They were in agreement that for three months of the year,
you will make a reasonable profit. Unfortunately it is not
enough to cover the money that you will lose during the
remaining nine months of the year. So there you have
it, direct from the horse's mouth. |
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It follows
that if your
dream is to own a bar in Nongkhai, you will need to remember that the
purchase of the bar is only the down payment, and that you
will probably be paying annual instalments on your dream
until you find another dreamer to buy the bar from you. |
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However you would be
wrong to infer that I think one such dreamer is Steve, who took over the
Laundry Bar in August. In the last episode I mentioned the
opening, but now have a few photos, courtesy of Steve. |
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Above left stripping out the old
Laundry bar, and above centre the transformation. The bar is now generally known
as 'Steve's', but because of the decor, it was dubbed by
some "Nongkhai's first gay bar". I
think that is unfair. It seems to me that the builders had
the plans turned round the wrong way during construction, which is how the
lights ended up on the wall, and the curtains are on the
ceiling. If you rotate the photo through 90° (right above)
and ignore the furniture
then you can see how much more natural it looks with the
lights in the ceiling etc etc. |
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Below is a random selection of
customers attending the opening night. |
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Do these look like the kind of
people who would go cruising to Nongkhai's first gay bar. To
protect their identities, I won't give their names, except of
course Steve himself (above right) posing as a not gay barman.
Actually I suppose
there is a good test:- Is it the sort of place that Not Gay
Dave would go? If Not Gay Dave would go there, then clearly
it is a Not Gay bar. |
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News from other bars : Two Wheels Biker Bar |
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Left is a
photo of Brendan in jeans and classic pose (with a glass of beer in
one hand - clearly beer thief Dake was not around) also taken at the opening of Steve's. |
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Many consider
this photo to be a great
rarity, one to be savored, as in all other photos of him,
Brendan is legless. |
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Meanwhile above right
at the Two Wheels biker bar, John and Phoon look very happy.
John is pursuing his stated aim of changing the menu to
include more English dishes, so I was pleased to try the
latest addition, traditional English Spaghetti Bolognese. It
was
delicious! |
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It wasn't
until I saw this photo that I understood why guys who have
big motorbikes have a girl on the pillion. There is nowhere
else to keep an open bottle of beer when you are on the
bike. Good thinking! |
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On the subject of
big bikes, I am quite envious of John (left) who has
apparently acquired the only Honda Valkyrie in Thailand. |
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For the
technically minded, this bike has a 1520cc horizontally
opposed six cylinder engine. For comparison, my car, a Honda
Jazz has a 1500cc four cylinder engine. |
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News from other bars : Meeting Place |
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One of the
more unlikely sights in Nongkhai was to be found in the
Meeting Place last week. On Sunday morning we were assembled
there to watch the Japanese Grand Prix. It was a tad early
for Martin, but we were treated to
the sight of Jeff in various stated of dress, until he
eventually settled at the bar, and (shock, horror) proceeded
to order and then consume drinking water!! |
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I can only
think of one thing that would be more shocking, and that
would be if Brendan were to do the same, but something tells
me that it's not going to happen in this lifetime. |
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News from other bars : Brendan & Noi's Riverside
Restaurant |
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I mentioned
above how rare it is to see a 'not legless' Brendan, but here
is another rarity, Graham and Apple joining the company of
Jon & Sam in Brendan's. It goes without saying that they
didn't stop long enough to buy a drink, but it was great to
see Apple, and Apple was looking great. Below, also looking
great in Brendan's are Ying (posing in my sunglasses) and
Dao (looking ddg having just had her hair done). |
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Sandwiched
between them (now there's a thought) but not looking quite
so great is Brendan himself. The photo of Brendan comes
courtesy of Steve who seems able to photograph Brendan with
not only his eyes open, but his mouth open too. I imagine
that Brendan was calling for a beer, as he doesn't have one
to hand, but maybe he was catching flies.. |
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Here is another photo of Dao,
whose name means star, coincidentally wearing a T-shirt with
a star emblazoned on it, while on the right it was Sam's
birthday, so Duan presented him with a cake to celebrate.
The bleary-eyed expression on Sam's face suggests that he
had already done a lot of celebrating. |
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Construction in Nongkhai |
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Early last
year I took the picture on the left below, while the
building was under construction. It is clearly not part of a
temple complex, as it stands alone. It was finished this
year, and looks quite stunning. It can be seen from quite
some distance away, especially at night when it is
illuminated. But, what is it for? Someone told me that it
was being built to house a Buddha relic, but then someone
else told me that it was paid for by the people of Laos as a
goodwill gesture. Does anyone know? |
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I didn't know
that we had barn owls in Thailand until I saw this one that
someone had captured. |
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As well as the
tether, it's wings had been broken to stop it flying. Shame
on them!! |
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If I had to
nominate a favourite type of bird, it would be owls, which
is why I have included both these pictures, although I
didn't find the associated humour especially funny. |
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So here is one of my
favourite jokes was sent to me in a text message by my son.
It isn't rude or offensive, and makes fun of no-one. It goes
like this:- |
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in the world, - those who understand binary notation, and
those who don't. |
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Many companies
now provide 'smoking rooms' for their employees. One company
decorated the ceiling in an unusual way (right), clearly a
bit of a joke. Here is another:- |
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I was feeling
a bit depressed the other day, so I called 'LifeLine.'
>
I was put through to a 'call centre' in Pakistan.
>
I explained that I was feeling suicidal.
>
They were very excited at this news and wanted to know if
I could drive a
truck or fly an aeroplane.... |
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English
Language |
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I have
featured unusual translations and spellings of English by
Thais. Here is an advertisement by a USA company on the
internet. I counted two mistakes in one sentence. Are there
more? Anybody? |
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PCs with Intel® Centrino® Duo processor technology deliver
the power to ensure crisp audio and shaper video. |
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Moving to Nongkhai |
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Per & Gwen
(far left) plan to spend much more time here in Nongkhai
next year and are in the process of building a house about
5/6 km to the west, not far from Graham & Kim. |
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They invited
Kim, Ou, and I out for a meal together (I tried to include
the dishes on the table.) Kim is is missing from the group
photo as he took the picture in which I was the only one
smiling. Must have been something Kim said. |
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Planning to
move here early next year is Rupert. He has built a house
about 5/6 km to the east of Nongkhai, and is seen
here pretending to do some gardening. |
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Rupert and I
have done a deal whereby he will take over the domain name,
and will produce his own blog, which may or may not be
similar to 'View'. |
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This is likely to start once Rupert moves here, so
in the meantime I have the opportunity to publish
this 'final final' episode. I am hopeful that he
will give me a guest spot within his blog, so there
may be an element of continuity. Naturally being a
canny Scot Rupert has yet to part with any
'bawbies', but I have every confidence that a fat
cheque will be winging its way to me in the not too
distant future. |
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I ended
episode 48 with the comment "I sense the end of my 40 year
search to find a woman who will love and take care of me as
my Mum has done for my Dad for the last 64 years." I was
trying to be upbeat at the end of what I thought was my last
episode, and in so doing I think that I may have done a
disservice to two people in particular. The first of these
was my first wife Susan, the mother of Chris & Jacq. When
she met someone else in 1979, I made no effort to stop her
going. With the benefit of hindsight, this was almost
certainly a mistake. The second disservice was to someone I met 10 years later
in 1989. We lived together for a while and planned to marry. I probably
made an even bigger mistake when I didn't fight to keep her. |
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I may also
have been premature in my comments about Noi in the last
episode. (Remember that I was trying to be upbeat).
Undoubtedly she has many admirable qualities, but she also
has two teenage sons. As it is the school holidays here in
Thailand, they all came to stay this month, bringing with
them Noi's teenage nephew. I found myself invaded, and I
have some doubts about my ability to be happy in such an
environment. There is however no hurry, and as ever, I shall
let my life take its natural course. It is always so much
more fun!! |
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WonderWoman
Someone truly
deserving the title 'WonderWoman' is my daughter. Just about
a year ago she discovered that her Indonesian husband had
another woman. (What a fool!) After spending time with me in
Thailand, she returned with her three children to the UK in
December to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives. Less
than a year later she has succeeded magnificently!! I am
very proud of her. Here she is in a costume at a party last
weekend. It suits her, she really is WonderWoman!!
OK that's it for this the
final final episode.
Best wishes to you all
Tony |
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If you want copies of any of the photos, or
want to write, but you don't know my personal email address, you can
send email to :
mail@nongkhai.co.uk
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To view all previous
episodes move your mouse cursor over this big yellow
button and left click |
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