Pray For Thailand

We all have been saddened by the long flood disaster that has hit Bangkok today. While the water level has dropped significantly in Ayutthaya, the woes in the city of Bangkok remains unsolved. Their Loy Krathong festival has just ended and the Thais were still in the festive mood to place their wishes onto the flower floats down the water everywhere! They did not have to gather at the big rivers or klongs (canal) at all.

Some Thais are angry at the prolonged disaster and blamed the Red Shirts instead besides their weak government as reported in news. I asked a Thai lady the reasons the Red Shirts were being blamed? She pointed out that the Red Shirts had earlier on collected many bags of their own real blood and smeared them around the city including splashing outside ex-PM Abhisit's house at Sukhumvit area. They said their uttered curse was grossly horrible and had brought this disaster in return, as expected to their folklore beliefs. So better not curse anyone as they might work!

I have been gluing to my Facebook everyday to check on the well being of my Thai friends and relatives. I think most of them were badly hit with extensive damages to their houses. Some of them are so wealthy and left their homes submerged while they retreated to their posh condos instead.

I have stolen all the photos from their FB without their permission to share with you all here.

They taught me that when your legs are submerged in murky waters for too long, your skin will peel besides getting bad sores. Their remedy of prevention is to smear their legs and body with cooking oil before wading across the flood waters!

These lady friends still could be in high spirits and jovial mood!

 
They hired this gorgeous hunky man to build low walls to barricade! He was so hot that the ladies had to post every inch of his movements all over in their FB!! Polygamy is nothing to the Thais sometimes.



This is the typical scene outside their homes and the water does not move at all. The residents would just measure the depth everyday, cm by cm! If it goes down by 1 cm, they would be jubilant and even celebrate!! That is how low they pin their hopes!


 
This rich family has abandoned their home as the low walls and sand bags could not save the main door. It has reached their gate posts outside.


 
My friend who is a Merchant Exporter at the Baiyoke Towers rallied people to help make thousands of life jackets ala Cottage Industry style to distribute out.

 
The flood has badly affected over 9.5 million Thais, young and old ones.

 
A royalty friend showed the photo near his home where the 2 canals from the North meet days before the whole city was flooded as it was not easy to prevent such a big flow of water.


His mini palace could not be spared too but he did not post his home being flooded later probably due to the electricity being cut off eventually, so no facebook.


 
This is the daily scene in the back lanes Soi around Bangkok where they have to wade across very dirty and blackish water. How on earth could I swim happily inside those murky waters when I was a kid? Call me stupid then! Ha ha...


 
Millions of sand bags were being made and sold to barricade all the river banks but with little success.


 
This photo is most popular inside the Thai Facebooks besides those showing monkey carried a dog and pigs riding boats.

Pray For Thailand.

My 18 Hole Experience

A thousand apologies for disappearing from this blogsphere for so many weeks! I was caught up with my work which was the toughest stint I ever had done in my entire life. I hated every minute of it as I suffered so terribly from tremendous pressure, lack of sleep and no rest with countless skipped meals. Today I have lost over 5 kgs and have been burnt by the sun till I look like OREO cookies!



My company was being roped in at the 11th hour to handle the whole A&P for the recent international golf championship which was being sponsored by our leading bank. We had never done any jobs of that size and amount, not mentioning within 3 weeks!!!

Their other supplier was being dismissed at a very last minute and we went in, not realising it was so scary and life threatening to me. I had sleepless nights and often slept in their clubhouse's sofa or inside my car! I had nightmares when I slept thinking that things went awry and wrong. My whole life turned upside down for once and I wished I had died inside my client's office. I lost count the number of times I scolded my boss too as he was an asshole when I needed his support. On average sense, these jobs would require 3 months and not 3 weeks for sane fellas to cope.




I am glad the 3 weeks nightmare had ended and everything ended up happily and well. I had to monitor close to a 100 workers working in our 2 factories producing all the miracle items on time for this international event. The whole set up was mammoth and mind boggling as everything was being custom made within the shortest time. They demanded perfection as everything would be aired live on TV daily across the USA and other countries too.



This is their Main Score Board and it was the SUPER TOUGHEST item to create as it required so much precision and accuracy. So much tempers and abuses were exchanged to get the 3 giant boards up on time!



Take a closer look to see why it was so tough to design and custom make. The clients were pleased with the results and felt they all looked great & fantastic! You might think that they should use an electronics board instead but I found out that it was not suitable for such golf tournaments as they have too many little scores that need to be changed every other seconds. No way one could just type on the computer to update them as it could be messy.



The tournament was officially kicked off on Thursday by our PM Datuk Najib and the finals was being held 4 days later. The huge crowd fans and supporters turned up eagerly at sunrise! The finals ticket was priced at RM200!! Discounts were given to CIMB and PGA members. Who says our economy was bad?


Many celebrities arrived & turned up in Ferraris, Lamborhginis, Bentleys and Cayennes. The above Hong Kong actress looked familiar and alas, I forgot her name. All the big players who flew in from USA and worldwide arrived like hottest stars with media cameras flashing continuosly and blinded my eyes. Everything was perfected to the finest details with Westin Hotel serving their superb F&B throughout the event. I was running between Westin Hotel and Mines for 3 days overseeing their private function set ups too. It was a great eye opener for me to learn many things.



BMW was one of the sponsors and they generously provided their most luxurious fleets to fetch the players and guests daily. It was like a Hollywood scene where all the best and most luxurious came together amongst the Who & Whos!...



I drove on the buggy car everyday checking on the entire 18 holes fairways and passed the affluent million dollar homes lining on the rolling hills that overlook the beautiful lakes, valleys and it was so heavenly! I asked myself where do these filthy rich families get their money and wealth? Why not ME? The number of cars they parked in their huge basement of their homes sent my eyes popping out of sockets!


This is the home of our former PM! It looks vacant with his collection of cars parked outside. I passed there daily for 3 weeks and it looked idle. Where has he gone to? Hello?


They even have special boats to ferry the special guests to watch the players closely from the waters! This is indeed the playground for the Rich & Famous!



I looked at this 6 Star Hotel and felt that it has lost its shine and glory, for reasons unknown to me.


Along the way, I bumped into a Thai comrade who is the TV Star and host for the Sports Channel Of Thailand. You might wonder why I didn't post any photos showing the players teeing off? Well, no one was allowed to click photos when the players needed the fullest concentration. Only media team were allowed to do so but using zoom lenses from far.


When the game finally ended, our handsome King arrived in his special yellow buggy car that was named "ROYAL 1".



Our King presented the championship prize of US$1.3 million to Bo Van Pelt from USA!



This lucky man was leading for the last 2 days before finals and we felt he could win as he was the BEST without doubts! Congratulations to this almost 7 footer player!


My brains and soul are not back into normal mode yet, so need to catch some more sleep!