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Bangkok-Soi-11-Sukhumvit
Bangkok-Soi-11-Sukhumvit

Two Thailand trips 2002

This it not part of my travel blog, just my personal photo & travel history from 2002.

Two Thailand trips

Two Thailand trips

Two Thailand trips in 2002, by my standards it was a very quiet year for travel. Shanghai & Beijing however gave me a great introduction to China. Digital cameras were in their early stages so the photo quality is very average indeed.

The photo above shows the team in Bangkok celebrating John Sinclair turning 60. From the left is John Martin aka Pothole, Michael Dowd, John Sinclair, Apple Pie, David Herd and Tony Murphy.

Happy birthday John

Two Thailand trips

Birthdays seem to roll around so fast the older you get.

Christy’s in Soi 33 Bangkok

Two Thailand trips

Soi 33 Sukhumvit in Bangkok.

Here was my choice.

Two Thailand trips

That is a super smile.


 

This really needs no caption.

  Two Thailand trips

You gotta love Thailand.

Hit the road Jack

Two Thailand trips

    John Sinclair and Bruce Donnachie outside the Office in Soi 33, it is a terrific sports bar with lots of TVs and good looking staff.

Phung, aka Cleopatra

Two Thailand trips

My favourite Nana Plaza girl, we met last year in 2001 and hooked up with each other for quite a few years until about 2009. I believe she found a sponsor and is living in Europe now.  

The Bus Stop in Soi 4 Nana

Two Thailand trips

Mike Dowd, David Herd, Pothole Martin and John Sinclair. Once again I’m so disappointed with the photo quality, early days of digital cameras. This was actually AFL grand final day 2002 when Brisbane Lions beat Collingwood.

The Office in Soi 33.

Two Thailand trips

Even now in 2015 the Office sports bar in Soi 33 is still open.

Pothole Bin Ladin and Apple Pie.

    Two Thailand trips

Our regular village idiot with his new girl. When things became serious we were not allowed to call her Apple anymore, Champen was her name. 🙂   I really have to relay this funny story, Pothole took Apple to Australia a couple of times and they planned to marry. At that time in 2003 little did he realize she was actively managing 4 or 5 other suitors from Europe and America. He only discovered the truth much later after cracking into her Hotmail account.

  Anyhow Pothole actually used some common sense (most unusual for him) and presented Apple with a pre nuptial agreement for her signature. Her assets were about $16,000 worth of jewellery that he had given her, his were way in excess of $1,000,000. This all happened on a Thursday night, then Friday he came home early from work to discover her jewellery laid out on the bed alongside a suicide note.   I think I already mentioned that he was known as the village idiot, and in keeping with this image he raced up to North Sydney police station distraught and weeping, and pleaded with the local cops to help him find her. They came to his apartment, took photographs and asked many questions.  

He called me during the day totally distressed and I gave him the following advice, I said “pack all her clothes etc in her suitcase, leave it outside the door and get your locks changed. Naturally my advice didn’t go down all that well. Much later that evening who should turn up all bright and bubbly, you guessed it, Apple Pie, aka Champen. 🙂   He of course forgave her and took her back, even after finding out she was in fact having a long lunch (and who knows what else?) with a friend of his.  

Two things about Apple however, she was the best Thai cook I have ever seen, secondly she finally moved to England, married an ex cop and had a lovely daughter. The husband was awarded an MBE or similar around 2013 and Apple rolled up at the Palace with him when he received his award. Not a bad ending for a chick from Nana Plaza. 🙂  

As I said previously, Pothole is known by many as “the village idiot”, but he is our village idiot and he has provided us with a huge amount of entertainment over the years. His final piece of stupidity in the above “Apple Pie” saga was showing her my texts and relaying the advice I gave him to her, consequently I had abusive phone calls from Apple indicating I was the villain in the whole fiasco. That’s our Pothole for you. 🙂

 Master chef 2003

Two Thailand trips

  This girl could really cook Thai food. What a difference in photo quality in just one year.  

From 2003

David Herd unforgettable year

Sue on the right was one of my girlfriends from Shanghai, I took her to Sydney for a weekend. The other girl is Apple.  

Bee from Bangkok on her 21st birthday.

Two Thailand trips

Another funny story, I was drinking in the Big Dog bar in Nana plaza when this gorgeous little girl rolled up about 8pm to the hamburger stand in her pyjamas and slippers. She looked so cute I went and spoke to her, well to cut a long story short the next night we got together for her 21st birthday, you gotta love Thailand.

You saw Bee, well here is Beer. 🙂

  Two Thailand trips

Beer was a dancer at Rainbow 3 in Nana Plaza and a girl with a terrific personality.  

Na was one of my favourite girls.

Two Thailand trips

Another funny story, as you can see I met Na in a beauty salon in Soi 22 when she was giving me a pedicure. For a couple of years every time I came to Bangkok we would get together. Mostly she would arrive at my hotel around midnight after she finished work.

Lovely Na

    Two Thailand trips

Things were fine for a long time until one day she said to me “I can’t see you any more David”. I was very surprised and asked her “why not, have you found another boyfriend”? She said “no, I have found a girlfriend”. Looking back I guess this was a “George Costanza” moment, I had driven a girl to lesbianism. 🙂  

John settles Murphy’s debt

Two Thailand trips

Luk closed her shop for 10 days to look after one of our friends. When he left to go back to Australia he completely forgot to leave her any money (on purpose I might add). John Sinclair being the gentleman he is made sure she had enough to cover her expenses.

The result

Two Thailand trips

Luk is a lot happier now.  

Two Thailand trips 2006.

Two Thailand trips

As I am so disappointed in the photo quality I have jumped forward to 2006 to show better shots of my favourite Bangkok girl Cleo.

Thanks for visiting my Two Thailand trips photo blog.                       

 Here are some more posts to check out

         Life 2015                     Family history                   Life 1982

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  Adelaide 1972                 Iron Bar Freddy               Sydney 2006

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Thailand 2008                Gold Coast Babes               World trip 2003

Fun in Pattaya-116         92bfa275-a122-4078-9970-1e24188a5917        CopacabanabeachNov2003-124

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 That’s all folks
Surfers Paradise Party Animals
 
A-One hotel on Beach Road

Seven deadly Songkran days

For a great room rate at the A-One hotel opposite the beach just book through THIS LINK.               

 

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Counter only started June 16 2020.

Author: David Herd

My history, particularly over the last 30 years is dominated by overseas travel. I sold my home in Australia October 20th 2011 and have have been living in Thailand since then. I don’t know where the time has gone? It seems like you go to sleep one night, wake up the next morning, and 20 years have flashed by. Not sure how many years I have left, however I have enjoyed a wonderful charmed life, and if it all ended today I would leave this world with no regrets. I was born in Sydney halfway through the last century, started my travels in the 60s with the usual U.K. Europe adventure at the age of 20, back to Australia and worked in Sydney, Melbourne & Adelaide in Sales & Marketing with multinational companies including Sanyo, Canon & Remington. Engaged to be married 3 times and never quite made it to the alter, finally realized by the mid 90s I was not cut out for "long term relationships" so I moved to the Gold Coast in Queensland in January 1987, worked for a couple of banks as a Financial Planner, I took a year off work in 1998 to travel and never went back to full time work again, after 25 fun filled years on the Coast I packed up and moved to Thailand. What is the purpose of this blog? Well I really want to use it to record my travel experiences & to display my photographs, give and receive travel tips, comment on places I visit, restaurants I eat in and use it to replace the autobiography I intended to write, apart from all that it helps me fill in my day. :) I moved to Thailand mainly because I wanted to keep travelling while my health allowed me to, there are huge advantages being closer to all the places I want to visit. Cost of living in Thailand is around 35% of the cost in Australia, plus flights are 50% cheaper because you are much closer to everywhere. ???? Consequently I am able to travel to many more places compared to living in Australia. Having said all that, it is & has always been my intention to return to Australia when my travelling is finished, I predict this will happen around 2021.

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