Daily Report: Happy New... Doh, What A Long Day

I was up fairly early — at 10:00 — considering that I walked in the door from the airport at 3:00 a.m. Maid Go wasn't there to greet us last night: She was up in Bangkok with Riza visiting her ill sister. I uploaded the photos from the trip to my computer, and made phone calls to all of my friends.


Lunch at the Dao Café was great
as always. Best pizza too.

Epril and Franky peacing out.I tried to get some work done, but the New Year's holiday (along with Thanksgiving) marks the least amount of work that there is available during the year, and I simply had nothing to do. Therefore, I spent a little time blogging.

Franky came over at 1:00, back in town for a month. (Franky is president of the J.I.P. Fan Club (i.e. this blog's first regular reader, amongst others) for those of you who don't know, and is a really enjoyable fellow from Arizona.) We spent time looking at the 300 photos I took from my week in the Philippines.

After that, it was out with Epril and Franky to The Dao Café for pizza. I tried the Pizza Orientale (chicken, sausage, onion, peppers), which wasn't as good as other types, but still quite nice. After that, we went back into the bar area and had some beers, while Franky turned on the charm and in no time flat had garnered several marriage proposals from the local lasses assembled for his entertainment.


Franky with one of the
Dao Café cuties.

Patented Franky move: Give
the cute bartender the sad
puppy dog eye look from
behind the beer bottle.After a couple of beers, Franky went back to his apartment, while Epril and I went home and spent the afternoon enjoying some quiet time. Maid Go finally got back from Bangkok and got to work on the massive pile of dirty laundry that she found in the suitcases stacked outside her door, I read my book for a while, and put up another few days' worth of trip photos on the blog.

In the evening it was out with Epril to Bob's BBQ for dinner. Bob is pleased as punch at his new location, and told me that this December has been his best month ever since starting the restaurant four years ago. I'm really happy for him. Many of my friends saw their business efforts really start to pay off in 2007.

After Bob's, it was off to Rick's bar for the New Year's countdown. It was there that I found out two things: First and foremost was that one of my best friends, Willie, had flown in from Arizona on a surprise visit the day after I left for The Philippines. Unfortunately, last night at about the same time my plane was landing, Willie got in a bad motorcycle accident and got mangled pretty badly on his face, arm, and foot (as well as about a dozen other places, according to Rick, who spent the entire night and today at the hospital). No broken bones, but cuts that sounded truly gruesome. Willie was apparently home in bed unconscious on narcotics for New Year's Eve. So that stained the evening, knowing that Willie was here, and in such poor shape.


Da, Pui, Epril, Riza, Maid Go,
Baby Sara, and Rat.The second thing I found out shortly thereafter was that Rick has hired Pui (my ex-girlfriend) as the nighttime bartender for his bar. I'm not too happy about it, but it's something I can live with. Pui and Rick's wife, Da, are as close friends as I am with Rick, and it's no surprise and perfectly reasonable that they took her on. Pui had been working at the Buffalo Bar on Third Road, but she's found some new boyfriend whom I saw briefly (seems European, in his 60's or 70's) who is paying Pui a few extra thousand baht a month to work for Rick.


The fireworks this year
were nice, but only a
fraction as many on Soi
Rungland as in prior years.So Pui The Old and Epril The New were hanging out together with Riza, Da, Rat, and Maid Go for New Year's. (This is actually the second time Epril and Pui have met, the first being on Buddha's Birthday earlier this month, when Maid Go and Epril went to the beach, and Da and Pui showed up and joined them.)

Anyway, it was a low-tone countdown. The vikings from next door did barely anything for fireworks this year. (In 2005/6, we guessed it was 40,000 baht's worth of fireworks they set off; in 2006/7, probably around 10,000; this year was barely 4,000.)


Miss Ahm, Shooters manager Ray,
and Epril enjoying New Year's.

Walking Street was packed.After midnight, Epril and I went down to Walking Street to find Stan. I finally reached him on the phone, to find out that he was "pissed as a fart" (that's British lingo in case you didn't know), and was walking home. So, Epril and I stopped in at Shooters for a drink with Ray. Epril and I also chatted with Sam for a while as well. He's still putting out some great Mexican food there, if you are interested, and Shooters still does have the best beer selection in Pattaya, bar none. (Sam and Ray want me to let you all know to keep an eye out on the Pattaya Secrets board for upcoming meal specials... which I'm happy to do.)

So finally, after Shooters, it was a stroll back down Walking Street, trying to share space with all the drunk foreigners some of whom tended to saunter down the street like they were 3 feet wide, bumping into any and all in their way. So, seeing that the fun part of the party was already over, Epril and I got on the motorcycle and made our way home safely and slowly by the empty back roads.