“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: THE ABDUCTION OF RORY DYLAN STEPHEN: FIRST DAY IN BANGKOK AND DINNER WITH HONEY AND BARRY SHERMAN

The Singapore Times Exclusive: THE ABDUCTION OF RORY DYLAN STEPHEN: FIRST DAY IN BANGKOK AND DINNER WITH HONEY AND BARRY SHERMAN

Bobby Jr. took me to Bangkok for a look see and a meeting he had: a very important meeting he emphasized.

We flew on a chartered private jet and upon arrival at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport we hopped on a limo to our suite at the Peninsula Bangkok. A tremendously luxurious suite with a view of the Chao Phraya River. Bobby Jr. was a regular at the hotel and was handing out wads of cash as tips or were they “loyalty payments”? Management had a full bar prepared for Bobby Jr. but as usual he stuck to his durian juice and vodka and me to my Evian straight up.

After freshening up we headed to Icon Siam an enormous vertical shopping mall very high end with two floors of restaurants which Bobby Jr. referred to as “top rate”. The food court below was very low end and Bobby Jr. remarked, “You take your chances eating there!  The word food court in Singapore equates with quality but not here in Bangkok.” We had taken a shuttle boat from Peninsula Bangkok which was but a 7-minute trip. Bobby Jr. said never drive in Bangkok if you can avoid it. The traffic is deadly slow.

All Bobby Jr. wanted was a battery for his Cartier watch and to give me a flavour of Bangkok we walked home on hot and dirty streets filthy by Singaporean standards. Amid luxury dilapidated corrugated metal shacks, poverty, smells, dirty air, unsafe looking food stalls, ramshackle restaurants and stagnant traffic! Fifteen minutes of walking in this cesspool and I began to both appreciate and miss Singapore: clean, proper, organized and orderly.

Upon returning to our suite Bobby Jr. had a couple of durian and vodkas consuming an entire bag of shrimp chips tossing me a couple to enjoy with my Evian water.

We hopped aboard the Peninsula Hotel shuttle to take us across the river to an Italian-Thai fusion restaurant Mazzaro for our dinner and Bobby Jr.’s meeting. We met a lovely couple from Toronto, Honey and Barry Sherman who lived close to the Fong’s in Toronto’s Bridle Path. How nice meeting neighbours so far away! I had several slices of delicious grilled pork chops and a bit of Jasmine rice and carrots. I dozed under the table while Bobby Jr. and the Shermans talked business. They kept mentioning manufacturing the good stuff “cutting the Chinese out as their product was getting too expensive.” Some talk about a plant in Haiphong Barry had just set up.

We said our good-byes and walked back to the shuttle passing numerous massage parlours, tailors and cannabis dispensaries. Boy so many people have stiff muscles here in Bangkok, so they really require massages! Actually, Bobby Jr. stopped in for a massage and I slept on a pile of freshly washed sheets in the back room listening to jazz and the groans of those sore people getting those massages. Hope they feel better.