Snippets (3) : 'Sumi masen, can you tell me where......"

During one of pakdokter's earlier trips to Tokyo in the late 70's or early 80's, pakdokter had bought,from the hotel concierge, tickets for what looked like a 'tiger show' at one of the clubs in Ginza, at downtown Tokyo. As we left the hotel, we suddenly realised that we had no clue whatsoever as to where the club was located and neither could we decipher the direction from the ticket and brochure as everything was in Japanese!

In desperation pakdokter and partner approached a pleasant and friendly looking Japanese lady and spoke to her in English for help and direction. She looked at our tickets and probably understood what we were asking for but was helpless at offerring us anything as she could not speak a word of English.

She signalled to us to follow her and took us on a long walk across many streets to the club door and 'bowed' to us many times ( I suppose for the pleasure of having successfully helped us find our destination) in response to our poor attempt to express how grateful we were at her extreme effort to get us to our destination.

This was one of pakdokter's earliest 'positive' impression of Japan and the Japanese.....

footnote - the Tokyo 'tiger show' was soft porn presented with style and taste in 'theatre-broadway-style' that completely wiped out from pakdokter's memory the nightmarish experience of the Bangkok's 'tiger shows' that one get hustled to by the street-side touts.

Snippets (2) : How nice the Japanese are....

One day during the recent trip to Tokyo, pakdokter and family decided to lunch at one of the many restaurants at the Lumine Est Mall in downtown Shinjuku, Tokyo. The restaurant was full except for a table for two which obviously could not accomodate pakdokter's party of three ( pakdokter, makdokter and our son, Rastam). We were told to wait for a while until a table for four was available.

Two Japanese ladies who were having their lunch at a table for four and who must have seen us standing and waiting at the door immediately moved their lunch plates to the empty table for two and invited us to take up their table instead.

Never in pakdokter's life has pakdokter ever come across and experienced such considerate gestures.

Japan kept giving pakdokter many pleasant surprises like this....

Snippets (1) : Japanese hospitality...

During the Royal Selangor Golf Club Japan Tour this year, one of our golfers suddenly found the sole of his golf shoe breaking open midway through the game at the Biwako Golf Club. As he limped along trying to play with the defective shoe, this came to the notice of the lady caddy who immediately called the club office on her handphone to make a report of the incident. Five minutes later a club staff came along on a buggy with 10 pairs of golf shoes to fit the golfer. The old pair of golf shoe was taken away and guess what?......... When we came for the second round of golf the next morning, the old shoe was repaired and cleaned and left in the golfer's assigned locker ready for use.

Pakdokter feels this incident is definitely worth a mention on this blog to emphasise what Japanese hospitality is all about.

To Biwako Golf Club, pakdokter wishes to say..' Arigato gonzaimashita!'....

The Battle for Kampachi.....

No, this is not about an assault of an Edo Castle by the samurais or ninja warriors........but....


...this is about a battle for free lunch at the Kampachi!

Pakdokter's regular 'golf kakis' at the RSGC, the two Tengku Brothers ( not the Blues Brothers) challenged the two old men of the group to a Sunday morning game for which the loser will pay for lunch at the Kampachi Japanese Restaurant of the Equatorial Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. The elder of the Tengkus, the oil-baron by the name of PakAzman played to a handicap of 25 and the younger internet whiz-kid sibling, pakMuzafar, plays to a handicap of 26! Pakdokter now play to a handicap of 25 and the most senior gentleman of the group, pakHyder, plays to a handicap of 22. We agreed that for this 'battle royale', all of us will play to the same handicap of 24....

the four warriors, pakHyder, pakMuzafar, pakAzman and pakdokter...

We were the first to tee-off early Sunday morning. PakAzman came to the club at 6 am to secure the 7.06 am slot for the 2nd Nine of the New Course.

pakHyder was given the honour to tee-off first as he has the lowest official handicap...

PakHyder was first at the tee but for whatever reason only known to him he sent his ball into the out-of bound zone to the right. Pakdokter took it calmly and drove his ball slightly left but just about 5 yards short of the 100 yards mark well within the fairway. PakAzman, with his 'goliath' physique sent a hard and high drive but well short of pakdokter's. It was left to PakMuzafar, or Ya, as we fondly call him at most times, to make up for his elder sibling's bruised ego! But Ya only managed to drive about 10 yards short of pakdokter.

PakHyder was out of contention to help our partnership in this hole,and it was left to pakdokter to face the Tengku Brothers. PakAzman, still affected by a dented pride, sliced his second shot to the right well short of the green. His younger sibling, now under some pressure, pulled his shot and sent it into the left front bunker.

Pakdokter used a pitching wedge and lobbed a high ball to about 10 yards of the pin. Pakdokter could see the nervous tics on PakAzman's face even in the somewhat dull morning light. Ya came out of the bunker brilliantly but managed a bogey with 2 putts. PakAzman did a double and with no pressure, pakdokter took 2 easy putts to par and take the hole for our partnership.

If pakdokter were to describe the battle at every hole in detail as the first, then this post will become like an epic of the "One Thousand and One Nights". So suffice to say that pakdokter and partner were two-up at the fourth hole and continued the lead until the sixth hole. Poor pakAzman, he took a while to regain his nerves, sending most of his drives either to the left or the right. Lucky for him that his younger sibling, Ya, had a nerve cool as a cat, and he was able to match the more senior golfers most of the time.

lovely view of KL Tower and the KLCC from hole No. 6 of the 2nd Nine New Course...

Ya took 2 of the last 3 holes to enable the Tengku Brothers to end the 1st Nine square with pakdokter and pakHyder.

We were booked to next play the 1st Nine of the New Course but PakAzman in particular suggested that we change the booking to play the 1st Nine of the Old Course instead. He said that pakHyder's favourite Nine is the 1st of the New Course and he wanted to eliminate this advantage! PakAzman was really sounding 'desperate'!

Ya at the tee, hole No.1 of the New Course...

In the end we decided to play as the original plan after we both reassured the Tengku Brothers that they were good enough to actually match us.

Pakdokter hit a fantastic drive that split the narrow fairway facing the commanding twin-towers of the KLCC. PakHyder sent an equally great drive although about 20 yards short of pakdokter. The tense pakAzman sent his drive a little to the right but way behind the two of us. It took Ya to salvage their 'maruah' when he sent his drive about 40 yards ahead of pakdokter, right in the centre of the fairway.

These young 'guns' have to learn to manage their nerves! PakAzman sent his second shot swerving to the right and Ya overshot the green and almost went to the out-of-bound region. PakHyder sent a low shot that ran up to reach the green in two. And pakdokter used a 7-iron and sent a high lob over the front bunker from about 165 yards to fall on the apron and roll on to about 20 yards of the far-end pin.

As the Tengku Brothers were both going to get a bogey at best, pakHyder putted to about one-and-a-half club length of the pin and pakdokter did better with the putt leaving the ball at a distance of only 1mm longer than the club length. However pakdokter was not offerred a 'give' and was asked to take the putt. To give the 'boys' a little excitement, pakdokter pulled his putt to miss the hole slightly, knowing full well that we would pour cold water on their excitement shortly as pakHyder would not give away his putt for par! And so did he....

We were again one-up at the start of the 2nd Nine.

And not to bore you with so much details, pakdokter can say that the game was evenly matched until the last hole. We were square with one hole to go and only the stamina of the younger bodies probably helped the Tengku Brothers to claim victory and a free lunch after that. And all the fight came from the younger Tengku, whose club handicap is 26 yet could return a score of 90!!!

Pakdokter and pakHyder can proudly say that we brought out the best from Ya....

lunch at Kampachi was great...






and we decided that we will battle it out every 2 months and assault the Shangrila, the Mandarin, the Marriot etc etc...

What? One year already.....?

How time flies.....pakdokter suddenly realised that it has been a year now since this blog first came into being.

Scrolling through the pages, pakdokter also discovered what a hectic year it had been! A fair bit of travelling and , for sure, lots and lots of golfing!...

Pakdokter wrote in the first post that, in retirement, pakdokter wished to improve pakdokter's golf handicap, catch up on reading and perhaps try out a little bit of writing. Looking back, perhaps pakdokter did achieve some of the KPIs pakdokter drew up for himself. Pakdokter's golf has improved, some of the books pakdokter read were commented on in this blog ( there were others which pakdokter never managed to finish!) and the only evidence of productivity in terms of writing were the regular posts in this blog. Pakdokter must admit how envious pakdokter is of PakZaid Ibrahim, pakdokter's old time buddy, who wrote two books during the past one year and has now started blogging himself! PakZaid's blog can be reached at http://www.myzaidibrahim.wordpress.com/.

To pakZaid, pakdokter would like to wish him 'welcome to blogosphere', and judging from the 20k hits within the first 2 or 3 days, pakdokter is confident that pakZaid's blog will be 'one to watch' this year.

Pakdokter must admit that writing ( and writing regularly at that) is a good mental exercise. It kept pakdokter's 'head' active and complemented the physical well-being achieved from the workout on the golf course and occasionally on the threadmill.

Many people wrote blogs as personal diaries but open to the whole world to read. Many blogs are political and social commentaries. Some use blogs as marketing tools.

Being the stupid (goblok) person pakdokter is, 'pakdoktergolfblog' started out as journals of pakdokter's golf escapades with the different groups of 'golf kakis' that pakdokter associate with. But of late, on some lonely moon-lit nights, riven by melancholy, pakdokter discovered green-shoots of creativity from the depths of pakdokter's heart. So hopefully, in the future, pakdokter may post products of some attempts at 'creative writing' which pakdokter has been deprived of due to pakdokter's years of professional commitment to keeping as many people (including pakdokter himself), sane!

Maybe, in a year's time, pakdokter will publish a memoir, maybe.....

Sawasdee.....

The Royal Bangkok Sports Club came to play in the return match of our annual interport game this weekend. The Thai contingent had played a game against the Royal Selangor Club at the Kajang Hill on Friday and had combined this trip to also play the RSGC on Saturday and Sunday for the Erawan and the Seladang Cups.

The first round played on Saturday afternoon unfortunately had to be abandoned due to a heavy downpour. Pakdokter partnered his regular buddy, pakHyder, and played against Mr Manas, the Thai ex-Commisioner of Customs, whose partner was unfortunately unfit after the previous day's game against the Selangor Club. Although Mr Manas played well to a handicap of 12, pakdokter and pakHyder took advantage of our high handicaps of 24 and 22 to match our opponent in almost every hole. By the time the game was abandoned after 13 holes, we were already 3 up and was hopeful of contributing the winning points for the RSGC.

Our guests were entertained to a buffet dinner at the club's function hall and a Cuban Duo provided the entertainment which included a display of salsa, merenge and machata? by two couples of accomplished dancers. Of course, we could offer nothing in comparison to the cultural feasts our Thai hosts gave us in Bangkok!

Sunday morning was almost ideal for golf. The rain on Saturday afternoon had a cooling effect to the air unlike the unbearable hot and humid Saturday afternoon before the rain. Pakdokter and pakHyder's partnership played against Royal Bangkok's Simon Hirst ( Shell Thailand and Laos) and Peter Burke ( who has been practicing law in Bangkok for the past 15 years). Simon played to a handicap of 15 and Peter, 18. Pakdokter and pakHyder again took advantage of our higher handicaps to match our opponents all the way. We were 5 up with 4 to go and were glad to contribute 2 points to our team.

After a few beers at lunch, Simon whispered to pakdokter that at one stage of the game he felt like walking out of the match for he felt that we had cheated on our handicaps! Although he later testified that he was only joking, pakdokter could 'professionally' sense the bitter 'emotion' which was only partly masked by the tranqulising effect of the Tiger beer....

Pakdokter was lucky to have brought along his pocket camera as it was a nice day for some shots of the city skyline from the fairways.

pakHyder could not beleive that he struck it short at this par-3 hole No. 4 of the Old Course.

Simon Hirst trying to get it close to the pin at the par-3 Hole 4 of the Old Course..

Peter Burke got his ball about 4 feet from the pin but unfortunately was beaten to the prize by another Thai player who was closer by 2 feet...

Pakdokter was caddied by his regular, Mr Mohan, who was indeed very helpful in the selection of clubs and reading of putting lines. We decided to take a picture of ourselves with pakHyder's caddy, one Mr Lingam, who attracted our attention from the fact that he was wearing a pink lady's cap with a fancy pair of dark-glasses to boot! Upon our enquiry he told us that the cap was given to him by a Japanese lady golfer for whom he regularly caddied, and she insisted that he must wear his cap all the time! He is terrified that he will be scolded by her if she were to find him not wearing her gift.....

Simon, pakHyder, Lingam, pakdokter and Peter's shoulder....

aah....a better picture of the foursome with Lingam and his 'pink' cap...

RSGC won the Erawan Cup and drew in the Seladang Cup. Next round will be in February or March of 2010. Karp kun kap.

Paula....

Jangan heboh ya!......Coretan ini sebenarnya bukan tentang seorang cewek pakdokter yang bernama Paula...... Ini cuma satu komentar pakdokter tentang satu lagi buku karya penulis terkenal dari Chile, Isabel Allende.

Minggu lalu pakdokter ada bikin sorotan tentang buku terbaharu Isabel Allende berjudul "The Sum of Our Days". Buku berbentuk memoir itu di tulis dalam format bicara Isabel kapada puteri nya, Paula, yang telah meninggal dunia pada tahun 1991. Isabel bercerita kapada Paula tentang apa yang telah terjadi kapada keluarga mereka sejak kematian nya 15 tahun yang lampau hingga ke saat terkini. Isabel berkebolehan menulis subjek yang kelihatan begitu 'simple' dalam bentuk cerita yang amat menarik...

Pakdokter amat puas dengan buku itu lansung terus tergerak untuk membaca karya-karya Isabel yang lain. Lalu terus pakdokter gelidah khazanah dan kamar buku pakdokter dan waduh! kedapatan 4 lagi naskah tulisan Isabel yang sememang nya sudah pakdokter beli dulu tetapi belum lagi di baca kecuali buku pertama Isabel "The House of the Spirits".

Buku berjudul "Paula" ini di tulis Isabel dalam masa setahun ketika beliau sentiasa berada di sisi Paula yang tidak sedar kerana berada dalam keadaan 'koma' akibat penyakit 'porphyria' yang di deritai nya. Buku ini sebenar nya satu kisah riwayat-hidup diri Isabel dan asal-usul keluarga nya ( autobiography) yang juga di tulis se-akan-akan cerita-cerita asal-usul diri dan keluarga nya itu bagai di bisikkan ke telinga Paula agar dia mendengar dan terhibur lansung mungkin bangkit dari keadaan 'koma' itu.

Keindahan buku Isabel ini adalah dalam cara begaimana beliau bercerita tentang asal-usul diri dan keluarga nya. Terasa se-akan-akan kita di hiburi Sheherazade di-dalam Hikayat Seribu Satu Malam yang teragung itu. Begitu lah berbakat nya Isabel Allende, setiap watak dan setiap hari dalam hidup nya di rungkai dengan cerita-cerita yang amat menarik...

Buku-buku Isabel Allende telah di terjemahkan ke dalam 27 bahasa di seluruh dunia, kecuali Bahasa Melayu. Maklum lah agak nya Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka terlalu sibuk menerbitkan buku-buku ulang-kaji subjek Pengetahuan Agama, Sejarah, Matematik, Sains dan lain-lain untuk anak-anak sekolah dan Institut Penterjamahan Negara pula entah apa yang diusahakan mereka.....

Harus mungkin sudah kedapatan terjemahan di dalam Bahasa Indonesia.....ayuh nanti pakdokter ke Jakarta dan coba mencari nya!

buku 'Paula' terbitan tahun 1994 telah usang di khazanah buku pakdokter....namun kebolehan daya-bercerita Isabel tidak akan pupus di makan zaman.....