Thailand

Four days. Two continents. Four birdies. Lots of celebrating. {.asset-media-link} {.asset-media-link} {.asset-media-link} A trans-Pacific flight. {.asset-media-link} {.asset-media-link} After that, some popcorn and jet lag. {.asset-media-link}

Go away for a while, and come back, and find some of one’s favorite flavors now offered in potato chip or peanut form. New, and awesome, flavor developments. {.asset-media-link} {.asset-media-link}

Continuing this series of unsolicited advice, I’d like to recommend: Thailand in January After three weeks away, it is indescribably salubrious to be back in Thailand, enjoying the clement days of January.

{.asset-media-link} It was a great month of golf, with just enough birdies to win the right matches, closing out the year with three rounds at three fine courses in Thailand that I hadn’t visited before, and with the exception of a single round early in the month, lots of sunshine.

There is going to be more than the usual amount of golf this month, so I’m breaking the report into two parts. {.asset-media-link} That birdie on a spectacular day in Bangkok makes a fine opening statement for my upcoming matches.

{.asset-media-link} I’ve heard the rumors, going around in some circles, that perhaps I’ve retired, or gone into seclusion, as various parties have noticed the hiatus in monthly golf reports and associated birdie photos.

When I travel to Japan I eat wasabi every day. On a recent trip I spent some time on the Izu Peninsula, where a lot of wasabi is grown, and there the restaurants provide one with a piece of wasabi and a grater.

{.asset-media-link} I take this opportunity to recommend a UV filter for camera lenses. Fortunately this was just a shattered filter, and not a broken lens. {.asset-media-link} And that is good, because I’ve been using an unbroken lens to document the insects and waterfowl, the birds and the bees, so to speak, of golf courses in Thailand.

{.asset-media-link} The floating restaurants off the eastern part of Phuket Island serve excellent seafood in an incomparable environment. When the sun is out, and the wind is blowing, the ambience is inimitable.

This isn’t very coherent, but my activities at the start of this month haven’t been coherent either. Let’s pick a few of the highlights. How about ice cream at 7 a.