2002 | Hello from the Five Star Vagabond

Two Thailand trips 2002

May 1, 2015 by David Herd

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

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

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

Christy’s in Soi 33 Bangkok

Soi 33 Sukhumvit in Bangkok.

Here was my choice.

That is a super smile.

This really needs no caption.

You gotta love Thailand.

Hit the road Jack

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

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

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.

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

Pothole Bin Ladin and Apple Pie.

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

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

From 2003

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.

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. 🙂

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

Na was one of my favourite girls.

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

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

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.