Christmas In Thailand

[DaveYo]

I wish to all expats and their wives and girlfriends a very mery xmas and a happy new year. Tis the season is arriving, me looking at the north pole hoping to catch that glimpse of Santa riding high with the wind. Brings very fond memories to all of us and of this to pass on to our children.

So to all of you, enjoy the Xmas holidays, as for me, I am stuck here, no flight to Thailand cause of no seats till after the holidays. The best I can do is make a phone call to my wife, sigh but it is better than nothing at all.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR.

This is the only message I will post.

Daveyo

[Koh_Falang]

Hmmmm thats a bit depressing for u daveyo.... no xmas lovin this year?

im gonna be on Koh Tao for xmas .... im not sure if they will serve up anything xtra special...??

Anyone in the area wish to join me for xmas day dinner

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Happy Christmas Davey.

[plachon]

OOOh xmas. Working. Will ring the parents.

My favourite memory of xmas is of sitting on the verandah at King Cobra in Mae Sai as my son was visiting his mother (real birth mother not my wife) over the river.

It was -2 degrees. He still talks about it. He crossed in a small boat with a rope. I had a hamburger, read a book, got a call from parents, didn't miss the turkey.

He was 12 that year. Had been HIV positive just over 6 months.

Thanks for the memory IT. Brought back one of my own from somewhere near the Burmese border in Tak province many Xmas moons ago. Bloody freezing the same and somehow got talked into by the guesthouse owner to go to a "party" occurring in a village nearby on Xmas Eve. Details v. sketchy about exactly what kind of party, but went along anyway with two other guests staying there - one an ultra-cynical Israeli and the other a London geezer who would have fitted right into the cast of Only fools and Horses.

We were taken in apick-up truck up a mountain then dropped off in the middle of bloody nowhere with a guide to lead us. Not a light to be seen, we scrabbloed down dale and up hill for what seemed like hours, but was probably about 45 mins, and eventually saw a light in the distance and heard singing. The israeli had been mumbling all the way, while the Cockney kept on going on about what would happen if a tiger attacked us. I kept their spirits up by saying i'd never heard of any tiger attacks the whole time I'd lived in Thailand and anyway, they were virtually extinct, while saying the Thais always know how to throw a good party with plenty of hooch. The guide kept strangely quiet the whole walk.

When we got to the village, we found there was a generator lighting up a meeting hut and all the villagers were seated in there watching some kind of show. It turned out to be a full-on nativity play with sheperds, angels, wise men, cattle, Herod, Jesus, Mary and baby Jesus all featuring! We were made guests of honour and expected to sit up the front row. Worse still, the food had already been eaten and the village it turned out was under the aegis of missionaries who were tee-total! So we had to sit there, smiling politely, gagging for a drink for about an hour before we could politely make excuses and leave.

Then we had to find our guide to lead us out of the village back to the pick-up. He was eventually located in alittle hut smoking opium, the crafty bugger. So he was bugger all-use for leading us back and it took us twice as long on the return trek, falling in several streams along the way, nearly half freezing to death. Meanwhile, the israeli was still moaning about the sacriligious entertainment while the Cockney was going "Oh my gawd, what was that sound? Tell 'er indoors I love 'er if a tiger bloody gets me. Saints 'alive, promise I'll never stray again if I get out of this alive". Just my luck to choose such company and the only dry Karen villlage for miles around to spend Xmas Eve, but made up for it the next day back in Mae Sot!

This year will be a much more conventional Xmas with the wife and daughter and a roast goose with all the trimmings (nowt's wasted round these parts after all!) Season's Greetings one and all and all the best for '04!

Plachon