Golf Marathon Thailand (V): The Royal Bangkok Sports Club

Sunday, 28th March 2010

Most of the RSGC golfers had a late night on Saturday singing on stage with the resident band and being entertained by the 'caddies' who put up their 'cultural show' and were rewarded with generous tips from the very appreciative audience.....

Despite of the late night, the golfers were back at the club from 6.30 am Sunday morning for breakfast before the second round of the interport match.

Pakdokter was again paired with pakAzman against the RBSC duo of Mr Somsak T and Dr Chokchai. Mr Somsak played to a handicap of 15 and Dr Chokchai played to a handicap of 21.

Mr Somsak is a (retired?) businessman while Dr Chokchai is the Medical Director of the Police Medical Centre. The Police Medical Centre is located at one side of the RBSC ground and along-side the hospital there is also a nursing college and hostel for about 2000 student nurses. On another side of the golf course is another medical school and nursing quarters belonging to the Chulalongkorn University.

Both pakdokter and pakAzman played quite well that morning and were leading the Thai pair throughout most part of the game. Dr Chokchai was a very friendly and funny gentleman and tried to distract pakdokter's attention from the game by narrating how sweet and multi-skilled many of her student nurses are! Being the Medical Director of the Police Medical Academy, he sits on the selection board for the intake of the student nurses. And often times he would have to do his rounds and checks on their hostels too, the details of which pakdokter would not narrate here. Seeing that his stories about the Thai nurses did not affect pakdokter's game, he offerred to introduce to pakdokter his 'select' group of student nurses provided pakdokter agreed to blow the next few holes and let his pair win the match. He even offered to bring the album with the the 2000 photographs of the student nurses for pakdokter to look at and choose.....and he would find a medical reason to have pakdokter admitted to his hospital!

Although pakdokter did not accept his 'bribe', that offer was effective enough to distract pakdokter's attention to the game that we blew the few remaining holes and came home square to enable both teams to contribute 1 point each to the respective team....

Now pakdokter can understand how (and do believe that) many business deals actually take place on the golf course.....

The RSGC was again thrashed by the more superior Thais in the Erawan Cup but pakdokter's Seladang Team managed to hold our fort and win the Cup.

The Thai team will come down to KL for the return match in May.

the many buildings along the perimeter of the Royal

Bangkok Sports Club....

many of them are nurses hostels and hospitals..

Dr Chokchai and pakdokter....
Dr Chokchai was happy that without the bribe

his team managed to square pakdokter in the match...

pakAzman and Mr Somsak.....

the foursome at lunch and prize-giving..

Golf marathon Thailand (IV): The Royal Bangkok Sports Club...

Saturday, 27th March 2010.

After the delicious lunch in Pattaya on pakTgAzman's expenses on Friday afternoon, our group of three was transferred to Bangkok to our respective hotels. Pakdokter and pakZahardin had been booked at the Novotel at Siam Square, where our respective partners had spent the previous two days, shopping to their delight at the nearby Siam Paragon and the MBK Mall. PakTgAzman had left his family at the President Royal Suite Hotel ( what do you expect - after all pakTgAzman belongs to the royal household of the Kingdom of Kelantan!) further up at Sukhumvit Soi 17.

Both pakdokter and pakZahardin had to wait at the lobby of the hotel as both our partners were pampering themselves at a spa at the Siam Paragon! Pakdokter later learnt that their spa treatment cost 2000 bahts per hour........and pakdokter had to scour the whole of Pattaya looking for the best deal.......hmmmmm....

Pakdokter's partner had booked dinner at the Dome Restaurant on the 64th Floor of the State Tower. Pakdokter had visitied this restaurant and jazz bar last year for drinks and decided to try out their restaurant this time. Pakdokter's partner had called up the restaurant earlier and was told that it was fully booked and were put on a wait-list. The booking was only confirmed on the day itself! And unlike last year, they now also enforce strict dress-code - no shorts, collar-less tea-shirt or slippers for the gentlemen and equally smart casual matching outfits? for the ladies.....

The Dome is an open-air restaurant at the top of this 64-storey tower with a jazz combo and a lady jazz singer in action. From the top one gets a panoramic view of the whole of Bangkok city with the meandering Chao Phraya River at the side of the tower flanked by the many 5-star hotels and apartment blocks.

And the cold front/current from China which we felt that morning at the Siam Country Club was still blowing across Bangkok and we had to endure our dinner in windy condition with a temperature in the mid-teens. So to help keep ourselves warm we had to order a bottle of Prosecco from the Veneto region of Italy. Dinner was a fusion cuisine but the bill came to a 'whopping' 20,000 bahts for the four of us.

Fiona, pakdokter, pakdokter's partner and pakZahardin...

Saturday morning gave pakdokter a little 'window' to do some (window)-shopping. The Novotel is located directly opposite Bangkok's biggest shopping mall, the Siam Paragon. Believe or not, pakdokter has been to Bangkok umpteen times but has never set foot on this Siam Paragon. Walking towards the mall, the band of 'red shirts' supporters of ex-Premier Thaksin drove past on trucks, lorries and cars. This political rally appeared quite friendly actually, it felt more like a street "Ram-vong' party ( in Malaysia - the equivalent would be like the 'joget lambak' maybe...). There was little sign of hostility or aggression, their supporters on the streets waved and cheeredfor them. ( Unfortunately at the time of this writing, this political protest has taken a bloody and violent turn)

Anyway, the Siam Paragon was no different to our own Suria KLCC, the Pavillion or the MegaMall. More or less the same stuff and pakdokter's impression was that things were probably more expensive than in KL. Perhaps some of the stuff had a slightly better abd bigger range and choices. So pakdokter returned to the hotel empty handed........

The Royal Bangkok Sports Club was actually walkable from the Novotel but with our golf bags and hand luggage to carry, pakZahardin and pakdokter hopped onto a taxi to the club. Pakdokter had taken part in this inter-port games for the past 3 or 4 years and some of the caddies there had come to know pakdokter already. So the same bag-caddie and the umbrella-caddy were waiting to accompany pakdokter for the game. We also had a 'fore-caddy' whose duty was to follow us through the game and jump into the pond to retrieve our ball everytime we hit into water. So no worry about not having enough golf balls here, one always gets back one's ball from the water hazard!

Pakdokter partnered pakAzman to represent RSGC and we both played to a handicap of 21. Our opponent was the sole RSBC player, Mr L Pichet. His partner was unable to come due to the many traffic diversions caused by the 'red-shirts' rally in Bangkok.

Mr Pichet is a senior golfer in his late 60's or early 70's. He played to a handicap of 15! What a shame for the two of us....

Mr Pichet had lived in Malaysia for 10 years or so during the 60's. He was one of the first person ( or maybe the first person) in Malaysia involved in the setting up of a 'chicken-farm' industry on a big scale in Negeri Sembilan. Mr Pichet had a lot of good words to say about Malaysia. He told pakdokter that every time he went to Malaysia he witnessed so much chnages and progress that the country has made. He said he was so impressed by the development of our transport infrastructure ( highways, ports and airports) and he also believed that Malaysia's ability to forge ahead of the other Asean countries was helped by the fact that we have a good education system made available across the country. Honestly, it was refreshing, for once, to hear an honest commendation, about our country, coming from a businessman of a neighbouring nation. Pakdokter is tired of having to hear constant 'whining' and 'groaning' and 'complaining' by fellow Malaysian folks who drove Beemers and Mercs, smoke Monte Cristo cigars and sipped 1st-growth Bordeaux wines and yet had nothing good at all to say about our beloved country......

Mr Pichet is now retired and lives in a town on the Korat Plateau, a good 2 hour drive north east of Bangkok. He comes down to Bangkok during the weekends and on some weekdays to attend board meetings of some Japanese companies of which he is a board member. Mr Pichet highly recommended to pakdokter to visit Korat. It has 6 good golf courses and being located on high altitude is a cooler place to be at especially towards the evening. He also recommended to pakdokter to drive up to Chiangmai from Bangkok as along the highway there are a few good golf courses belonging to the Power Authority of Thailand who have developed resorts and golf courses where their hydro-power dams and lakes are located. And he said the hotel and golf rates are a bargain.......

Well, pakdokter will certainly look into this!

The game was played on a match-play best ball format. Mr Pichet played truly to his handicap and pakdokter was left to do the best as pakAzman, for some reason, did not have his form, that afternoon. At the end of the day, we walked home squaring the match, contributing at least 1 point for RSGC. On the first day, The RSBC thrashed RSGC for the Erawan Cup 7-1 but RSGC led in the Seladang Cup by 22-16( pakdokter played in the Seladang Cup competition.)

Dinner that night was at the RSBC Hall and apart from the lavish spread, a group of very talented 'caddies' from RSBC put up a fantastic 'cultural show' to prove what a multi-talented trio of girls they were! Unfortunately these girls were too shy to be photographed and pakdokter is unable to put on record here what a great show they put up for us.....

Golf Marathon Thailand (111): The Siam Country Club ) Old Course....

Friday, 26th March 2010

Pakdokter suspected that pakdokter may have 'over-indulged' in the Thai massage on Wednesday night which sapped out too much of pakdokter's energy to the point that pakdokter could only play about 15 holes before colllapsing against pakAzman in the game at the Plantation course. So pakdokter and pakZahardin decided to persuade pakAzman to go for 2 hours of massage on Thursday evening hoping that it would take out some of his stamina and give pakdokter a small chance of giving him a fight at the Old Course.

Pakdokter had also played at this Old Course last year when pakdokter came to play in the "Quad" tournament as a team member of the RSGC. So pakdokter was also hoping that with a little bit of local knowledge, pakdokter may have a slight chance of beating him. After all pakAzman has continously 'boasted' that he had always beaten pakdokter on all overseas turf. To that pakdokter must agree and pakdokter warned him that if pakdokter were to win this time, it would be a 'breaking news' on pakdokter's golfblog.......

Friday morning turned out to be cloudy with a slight drizzle and a strangely cold breeze blowing across the Gulf of Siam ( we learnt later that Thailand was hit by the cold front that swept from China). The temperature of about 17 degrees celcius, the spray of light rain and gushes of cold wind with the dark clouds in the sky gave a surreal feeling that as if we were playing at the Old Course of the St Andrews of Scotland! Pakdokter tried to capture this atmosphere on camera but the few pictures below were the best that came out of pakdokter's photographic effort.

The Siam Country Club Old Course hosted the LPGA 2010 tournament in February where Ai Miyazato came out triumphant. It has 2 Nines and playing from the white tee the course measured 6534 yards. ( The LPGA ladies played from the white tees too). We teed-off from the 10th tee.

the tee from the 10th hole....

pakAzman and pakZahardin all geared up for the rain...

pakdokter wore Michelle Wee's colour....

pakZahardin was happy with his caddy....

our three 'angels'...

see how excited pakAzman was when his putt almost went in

from a long distance.....

it was a long par-3....212 yards

pakAzman used the driver and scored a par!

what a swing.....

the 'tiger' in pakAzman could not be stopped....

Hole 10 was a par-5 measuring 536 yards. Both pakAzman and pakZahardin hit good drives with their driver. Pakdokter used a wood-5 which sent the ball just about 10 yards short of the other two. (Pakdokter decided to give up on pakdokter's driver because it did not work at all for pakdokter during the previous two games.) The 'tiger' in pakAzman sent another long second shot which almost reached the apron on the left and with a great chip over a bunker he easily got a par on the 10th hole to go 1 up against pakdokter. He fumbled the next par-4 index-1 hole with a 9 to give pakdokter a chance to square the game with pakdokter's score of 7. PakAzman took the next 2 holes to go 2 up but pakdokter levelled the game by winning holes 14 and 15. With a par at the next par-3 hole 16, pakdokter went back 1 down but drew level by winning the 17th hole. And pakdokter was lucky at the par-5 18th hole to return a score of 7 against pakAzman's 9 and walked away with 3 balls for the 1st Nine.

Pakdokter felt that perhaps the 'magic' of the Thai massage on pakAzman the night before had worked and pakdokter was hoping to finally overcome the 'overseas jinx' all this while against pakAzman.

PakAzman has always been strong in the par-5's. He has strong drives and strong 2nd shots - the advantage from his height, strength and age. He bogeyed the par-5 hole No. 1 against pakdokter's 8. But pakdokter drew level with a par at hole No.2. We squared the 3rd hole and pakdokter scored another par at hole No. 4 to go 1 up. Pakdokter again took hole 5 to go 2 up and maintained 2 up at hole No. 6. PakAzman came back and won holes No. 7 and No. 8. So it was left to the last hole No. 9 to determine who would win the overall game. If pakdokter can level with him at hole 9, pakdokter would win with 3 balls and post the 'breaking news' in pakdokter's blogspot! If pakdokter were to loose this last hole, pakAzman would win 6 balls on this Nine ( we always automatically doubled-up on the 2nd Nine in all our games) and take home only 3 balls from pakdokter!

But the winner would have to buy the lunch.....and pakAzman had declared at the beginning of the match that he wanted to have lobster and crabs for lunch because he was confident he could take away at least 10 balls from pakdokter that day......heh...heh.....heh....

Pakdokter's drive with the 5-w00d only reached about 160 yards but pakAzman's drive with his brand new R9 Taylor Made driver went zooming past 200 yards. Pakdokter took another two iron shots to reach the front apron to match PakAzman who also reached the apron but behind pakdokter in 3. PakAzman chipped beautifully to the top end pin and the ball rolled and stopped about one foot from the hole. Pakdokter used the putter but underestimated the uphill speed and had the ball stopped about 10 feet away from the hole.

Pakdokter had to hole-in the putt to get a bogey and square the 2nd Nine to clinch pakdokter's first ever overseas victory against pakAzman. It was indeed a daunting task for pakdokter and after a long study pakdokter putted from that 10 foot distance only to miss the hole by just one roll!

Pakdokter told pakAzman to pick up his ball as it was only about half-a-putter length left and to let him continue with his winning streak. But strangely pakAzman insisted that he wanted to putt in from that very short distance and he was obviously putting it way off target. To his surprise the ball rolled down the steep slope ( which he forgot to take into consideration) and went into the hole. With that he won the game with 3 balls from pakdokter but had to top up with another 10 balls for our lunch of lobster, prawns, fish and crabs.......

PakAzman ....pakAzman......

Golf Marathon Thailand (11):The Siam Country Club Plantation Course....

Thursday, 25th March 2010

Pakdokter and pakZahardin treated ourselves to two hours of Thai massage on Wednesday night at one of the better outlets in downtown Pattaya. It was really cheap down there in Pattaya. A good traditional thai massage only cost 200 bahts per hour! In KL pakdokter paid something like 800 bahts equivalent for a 90 minutes thai massage. So the two of us gave ourselves a treat and as a result went back to our hotel at almost midnight.

Being the 'soft-hearted' guy that pakdokter is, pakdokter did not have the heart to call up pakTgAzman and ask him to leave Bangkok very early in order to beat the 'supposedly' bad traffic! Anyway, just after breakfast, pakTgAzman messaged us that he was already at the golf club. So he must have left quite early, and being early he must already be at the driving range practising his swings for the game!.....( That's the kind of guy this pakTgAzman is.....)

The Siam Country Club, Plantation Course, is only about 20 minutes from downtown Pattaya. The club hosted the LPGA Tour 2009 where Lorena Ochoa came out champion.

The course has 3 Nines ( Sugar Cane, Tapioca and Pineapple Nines) and we were assigned to play the Tapioca and Pineapple Nines.

Pakdokter was supposed to show off to pakTgAzman the 'cooked' score-card at the Laem Chabang to 'psycho' him before the game as suggested by pakZahardin, but again pakdokter could not overcome pakdokter's 'conscience' on fair-play in pakdokter's on-going oddysey against pakTgAzman.

the lobby of the ultra-modern club-house...

the club-house from hole 1 Pineapple Course..

if you send your ball into these pineapple bush...
finish.....

the gang of three at the 1st tee..

pakdokter and the sweet caddie, Nan....

Hole 1....pakTgAzman hit a long drive..

and pakdokter did not even make it beyond the rough....

senior gentleman pakZahardin was steady......

PakTgAzman started well with a long drive against pakdokter's shot which got stuck in the rough way before the fairway. But he fumbled his subsequents shots and putts that he carded an 8 against pakdokter's 6. Pakdokter botched the 2nd hole and with an 8 against pakAzman's 7, we were now square. It looked like it was going to be a close match. PakAzman went 1 up with a par at the next par-3 and pakdokter matched him in the next 2 holes and lost again at the 6th to go 2 down. Pakdokter won the 7th hole to go 1 down with 2 to play and pakAzman clinched the game with a par at the 8th hole. Pakdokter minimised damage by squaring on the last 'insurance' hole and pakAzman gleefully took 3 balls in the 1st Nine ( Pineapple Course).

As usual, we doubled up on the bet for the 2nd Nine. At the Tapioca Nine, pakdokter started with a par to go 1 up. We squared the next 2 holes but after that pakdokter's stamina could not match pakAzman's youthful vitality. He squared pakdokter at the 4th hole and went 1,2 and 3 up over the next 3 holes to win the match. He even 'sapu' the last 2 holes to return home with another 8 balls from pakdokter.

And on top of that he also collected 5 skins as against pakdokter's 2. Anyway the good amount of bahts he collected was generously spent on a hearty sea-food lunch at a lovely Muslim seafood restaurant.

PakAzman later confided to us that during the game his wife had sent him a text message saying that she had taken all his cash from the safe-box in the hotel room for shopping and told him to earn his money from pakdokter.

My, oh, my.....how can pakdokter beat against this team of two........

Pakdokter was glad that pakdokter did not employ the 'tricks' that pakZahardin suggested, because with such determination and encouraged by a very supportive spouse, pakdokter was sure that pakdokter would never be able to beat pakAzman. And pakdokter would have to nurse the extreme guilt and shame at employing such tactics which would not in anyway guarantee a win against such a determined competitor....

well done pakAzman....you deserved it!

Golf Marathon Thailand (1)....

Wednesday, 24th March 2010

It was time again for the Royal Selangor Golf Club to make its annual trip to Bangkok to play in the inter-port match against the Royal Bangkok Sports Club. Pakdokter and a few friends decided to go a few days earlier and play a few rounds at the many good golf courses around Pattaya, before the weekend inter-port match.

Pakdokter and pakZahardin were the only 2 golfers who could make it on Wednesday. We arrived into Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport at around 11 am and were picked up and sent to the Laem Chabang Golf Resort for our first game. Laem Chabang is only about 40 minutes from the airport. It is a championship course and pakdokter had played here a few times before with the Staroba Golf Club and the RSGC outings.

Laem Chabang has 3 Nines ( Lake, Valley and Mountain Courses) and we were assigned to play the Valley and the Mountain Nines. The course was in great shape and the green speed, although being reported as 9.5 felt like it was playing to 11! As a result we mostly had at least 3 putts to enable a miserable return of 54/49 for pakdokter and 52/45 for pakZahardin. The unusually hot and humid weather did not help either.

pakZahardin and pakdokter at hole 1 Valley Course..

some apartments at the golf resort..


a colourful lizard.....

the actual score-card of the day....
pakdokter scored 49/54..
pakZahardin scored 45/52...

PakTg Azman would be joining the two of us on Thursday to play at the Siam Country Club. PakTg Azman would be travelling down from Bangkok to Pattaya as he had come in late Wednesday afternoon with his family for the holidays in Bangkok. PakTg Azman has always been a very competitive player and has always played against pakdokter for a small bet, most of which he would easily win against pakdokter because of his skill and younger age. Despite of this he has never been generous in giving pakdokter any strokes but would insist that we play against each other on the same handicap!

PakZahardin suggested that we 'psycho' pakTgAzman in order to try to beat him on Thursday.
He suggested that we call up pakTgAzman and tell him that the traffic from Bangkok to Pattaya

was so bad that he should leave Bangkok at 4 am in order to be at the Siam Country Club at 8 am for our 8.30 am tee off time. This would deprive him of enough sleep and hopefully would affect his game to give pakdokter a little chance of beating him. The other suggestion was to write another score card with much better results in order to rattle his 'nerves' and add extra odds to pakdokter's chances of beating him....

Well, below is the 'cooked' score-cards, as suggested by pakdokter's good friend, pakZahardin In this card pakdokter returned a score of 46/43! ( Never in pakdokter's life has pakdokter played under 90!!!!).........

To find out whether it worked or not, read the next posting....

the 'cooked' score-card to 'psycho' pakTgAzman..
pakdokter scored 43/46.....
pakZahardin scored 41/44.....

Back to Delhi....

Wednesday, 10th March 2010

The full day at Agra ended with dinner at a luxury hotel followed by a show ala Broadway/Bollywood at a modern theatre in Agra. It was a long 2 hour show, showcasing Mughal history in colourful costumes of vibrant colours with great music and dance in the tradition of Bollywood. Pakdokter was extremely exhausted from the very long day in Agra that as usual pakdokter fell asleep very early in the show. But this did not mean that it was a bad show, most people had a lot of praise for the show.

Next morning we arrived in Delhi very early and checked out of the Palace on Wheels after breakfast. We had another full day in New Delhi as our return flight to Kuala Lumpur was at around midnight. We had a room booked at the Park Hotel.

It was a pleasant surprise, upon our arrival at the Park Hotel, to be told that the group of thieves who stole Siti's bag on our first day, had been arrested the previous 2 days. They were caught in the act at the Shangrila Hotel, after every hotel in town had been warned to be on the look-out for the gang. The gang was made up of two 'gentlemen' in their 60's and a 'lady' in her 50's. They were Israelis but carried Peruvian passport.

Siti and Ravi had to spend almost a full morning at the police station, re-writing their police report and identifying their camera ( the only item from their belongings recovered from the thieves). Well, finally, greed caught up with the thieves......

a happier Siti and pakdokter's partner at the lobby of Park Hotel...

Pakdokter and the rest of the company had the day to kill and decided to walk to the nearby Connaught Place to look and see and do some shopping. The Connaught Place was undergoing a major restoration and renovation work to be ready for the Commonwealth Games in October. Pakdokter wondered if this can be completed in time or not. The whole place was in a mess.....

restoration work at Connaught Place...








this little bajaj fitted the four of us plus the driver....