I arrived last night at The Standard Hotel in Hua Hin ready to check in and relax and as you can imagine the front desk was hopping because of Valentine’s Day.
Now you would think that it would not apply here, as I think it’s a made up American holiday by the Hallmark company to sell cards.
As I’m waiting in line to check in, I hear the front desk clerk, tell another couple in line that they are completely sold out. When it’s my turn, she graciously smiles and I give her my passport and my reservation number to get the ball rolling. Now the ever so pleasant Thai girl that I am dealing with, that was previously all smiles, now looks incredibly worried. She informed me that my reservation was canceled.
I told her that would be a serious problem as I am here, my luggage and Clubs are waiting to go to my room and I don’t have a contingency plan. I get my rep from Golf Asia on the phone and hand it to her. It’s enough of a concern that now there are 4 staff having a conference and one furiously tapping on the keyboard.
I do manage a room, which was just fine for the night, but not the room I paid for.
Golf today goes off without a hitch and finds me on the tee at Black Mountain. My caddie of the day is “Oily” and she’s very bubbly and enthusiastic, but like a few girls I’ve had thus far, she’s not the “A” team. She let me know right away she was single and I think she put her phone number on a post it note and slipped it in my Golf bag. Mind you she’s 23 and I’m 63.
I guess she’s doing some fishing to see if there are any nibbles and I’m most likely not the first attempt. Despite her lack of caddie skills compared to the other 2 gals in my group, she excels at eating. She was eating some fruit in a container when we started and she jumped on my offer to buy her something at the first rest station….which to my surprise was a full packaged sandwich and sparkling water.
Yet the next hole, she was eating some type of saucy covered chicken on a stick and drinking a flavored tea that was produced from her little pack along cooler. I assume the sandwich I’ve purchased must be for later. At the turn, I get a Gatorade and just to be polite I make an offer to her.
This time her selection is a chocolate covered ice cream bar. In less than the time it takes to complete hole 10 it’s down the hatch as well as she licks the remnants of chocolate off the stick. As we play along I bypass the next rest station and she looks mildly disappointed but retrieves the packaged sandwich I purchased earlier now covered in pinkish sauce and the sparkling water to wash it all down with. It made for an interesting day as I explored most of the course on my own.
I played with a very nice Irish couple, who were real lovebirds most likely in their middle 70s and it was cute to see them still dote on each other. They have been together 32 years.
Back at the Hotel I’ve now got a proper room upgrade and it’s time to investigate a poolside cocktail.
Tomorrow Pineapple Valley, a course I’ve played before and really like!
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| Caddie of the day "Oily" |
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| Black Mountain course view |
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| Black Mountain course view |
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| Chicken of some type on a stick |
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| Black mountain tee box |
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| Peter & Ann, the Irish couple |
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| Time for a sandwich |
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| Black Mountain course view |
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| Black Mountain clubhouse Tiger prawns in the night market
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