Patong - The Wake

[HighPriority]

I’m glad you’ve got some company xylo, I can’t imagine my ex coming to care for me though ! 🤣

 

[Olmate]

On 3/31/2024 at 12:48 PM, xylophone said:

A night of disappointments on Friday evening, which started with a visit to a restaurant called "West" in Soi Patong Tower, whereby previous visits had been enjoyable and I negotiated being able to bring my own bottle of wine along (because theirs was fruit wine) for a princely sum of 200 baht, which was okay by me.

 

Only this time (and I didn't find out until the bill came along) the charge was 400 baht +10% service charge, and the price of my meal had increased by about 100 baht!! I queried this with the serving guy and he just said that prices had increased everywhere, so they put their price up, or words to that effect. Now 400 baht charge for my own wine was too steep IMO, so I won't be going back to that restaurant, so they have lost my patronage plus the patronage of the other folks I introduced to it.

 

After leaving that restaurant my friend and I went along to another couple of bars in Bangla, but as I've mentioned before "the thrill has gone" and probably went a long time ago if I was truthful, so I don't much enjoy nights out in Bangla these days.

 

I decided to head for home at about 11 PM and as I was walking towards the motorbike taxi place, a group of about six burly guys in their mid-20s or thereabouts, surrounded me and got in my face, with one of them saying, "you dirty bastard, what are you doing here" with a couple of his mates chiming in with similar comments.

 

At the age of 76 I wasn't about to try and take any of these guys on, however I had overheard them in a bar down the road, mention to someone that they were from Nottinghamshire so I basically said to the ringleader what the "fark" are you on about? "You guys are from Nottinghamshire, so what are you playing at, as I was born in England too?".

 

To which he basically said they were only "playing around", but it certainly didn't feel like that although I wasn't unduly threatened, but it was uncomfortable enough. English louts is the best I can say about them.

 

But the worst was yet to come because I got on a motorbike taxi to go home and when we arrived at my Soi, I asked the motorbike taxi driver if his motorbike was strong enough to take me up my steep drive, mainly because my old football knee was playing up a little, to which he replied that it could. So he attempted to get up the drive with me on the back of his motorbike, but unfortunately about halfway up he lost control of it, and I did a backward somersault off the bike and was knocked out for a few minutes and I'm not quite sure what happened next, but I think maybe he picked me up and saw blood gushing out of a head wound so quickly left on his motorbike.

 

I don't remember walking up the remaining part of the drive or the steps to my apartment, but I do remember that the room/my head was spinning and I was in some pain from my back (pelvis area) and my head and I tried to lay down, but think I passed out for a while because I woke up three hours later with my pillow bloodied somewhat, and feeling not well at all.

 

I was feeling very unwell so decided to wait until a bit later when the owners of my apartments were awake to ask them if they could call me a taxi to take me to the hospital, because I was not in a good way and thought I might have fractured my skull. The owners husband decided to take me in their car and I had a CT scan of my head and an x-ray of my hips and chest and I told him to go home and I would get a taxi home, which I did, still feeling very fragile and unwell.

 

The outcome is that I have a couple of wounds on the back of my head, one on my heel, bruising on my shoulders and damage to my lower spine, which I have to go and see the orthopaedic surgeon about next week?

 

Today I went to get the dressing on my head changed and the nurse said that if this was the fault of the motorbike taxi driver, then they were insured and I should claim from him, but how do you claim from someone who decided to do a "runner" after the incident? Not to worry, I said because I had paid it anyway.

 

So an eventful but an unenjoyable evening, which has left me in some pain and questioning why I really need to go to Patong centre, a place I don't enjoy any more and run the risk of all sorts of unsavoury incidents.

 

Moving away from that, the small laundry which opened up about six months ago at the bottom of my drive has closed and somebody who knew the owner said that the woman had borrowed money all over the place and had done a runner. This being one of the small "one-room" like shops in a very small enclave, which also included a Greek restaurant which was recently sold to Russians, plus a café which wasn't doing any business at all and which was sold and bought by someone who has turned it into a coffee and cannabis café, which doesn't seem to be doing much better?

 

The turnover of these small "enterprises" is very high and the above would be typical of what I'm seeing around Patong these days, yet just the other day the ex-girlfriend of a friend of mine asked me if I knew where there were any shops available for rent because she and a friend wanted to rent one and start a little travel advice bureau in it – – this without any experience in the industry at all, but with the burning desire to "open a shop".

 

When I asked her whether she had been seeking out any places that she could use, she basically said she hadn't, but anywhere would do, to which I replied that she really needed to be in an area with a great deal of foot traffic, so that she could sell to the tourists, something which seemed to be alien to her. I would put good money on it that whatever she opens will be destined to fail.

 

Still feeling a little fragile so I will endeavour to get a bit of rest, with the help of a couple of anti-inflammatories plus the antibiotics that the hospital prescribed for my head wounds, hoping that the damage to the base of my spine is not serious.
 

Faaark Xylo, been missing your recent news, sorry to hear, keep battling pal! Used to live Nanai 8, often figured up that slope would kill me living there. As to the english hard talk, Pattaya bars are overflowing with such trash talkers, permanently......." dont sweat, She ll be right mate"! 

[xylophone]

14 hours ago, HighPriority said:

I’m glad you’ve got some company xylo, I can’t imagine my ex coming to care for me though ! 🤣

 

Thanks HP, and as regards the ex/gf coming to look after me, well when we parted company many years ago I made the decision to ensure that both her and her daughter (now my unofficially adopted daughter) would not want for anything. So I provided them with a small business to run, and helped with building a house for her up in Phitsanulok, and of course have supported my daughter financially for all of these years, so we have been on good terms and they have been only too pleased to be able to repay my kindness by coming down to take care of me.

 

My daughter has moved down to Phuket and wants to stay here, so she will be close by in the future, which is a bonus.

 

I have got to say that I'm still in a great deal of pain and just about immobile, but the back pain I can put up with, however damage to my heel is extremely painful and the room spins don't seem to be getting any better, so I'm just hoping that time will be the healer!

 

Thanks for your concern HP, it is much appreciated.