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October was a very special month for the Pattaya Otter as in it he celebrated his 60th birthday.
But before that, there were several other events of note, the most spectacular of which was the running of the annual buffalo races at Chonburi, the provincial capital of this region, about 30 miles from Pattaya.
 This event, staged to celebrate the end of Buddhist Lent, has become a a major attraction in the region, and apart from the races themselves, has also mushroomed into a major fair complete with boxing ring, funfair, vendors stalls and various children’s attractions.
But of course, centre of attention is the arena, consisting of a muddy field (and getting muddier as the day progressed) in which contestants strive to ride buffalos from one end to the other in a series of races.
Those that managed to stay astride their mount to the finish line, then had various run-offs to determine the overall winner. Meanwhile many fell by the wayside,  mostly deep into the mud, whist others failed to stay astride their beast long enough for their race to commence and were thus disqualified.
A hot sunny day contributed to the overall entertainment which well justified the journey there.
On the way back, we took a short detour to the seaside resort of Bang Saen and unexpectedly came across a very spectacular Chinese temple that looked like it had just been constructed or recently refurbished. The building consisted of 3 floors all of which were ornately decorated from ceiling to floor, providing an amazing spectacle and a good example of the unexpected that is often just around the corner in this ever surprising country.
 Another unexpected surprise greeted me a few days later when visiting the bowls club, not only did I find Alex Marshall, the number 2 world bowls player in attendance but shortly afterwards found myself playing a short exhibition game against him (he played the game and I made an exhibition of myself - no actually he went easy on me, allowing me to score a few points, but of course he still won). A very friendly likeable person whom we enjoyed having at our club and whom we trust enjoyed being there.
Unfortunately my game has never recovered from this outing and I have continued to play extremely badly ever since.
And so on to my birthday and for this we decided to make use of the two remaining Wine Club free meal for two vouchers and so booked ourselves for a meal at the Grill Room there.
Beforehand however the good friends I have made here who kindly accepted my invitation to be my guests at this momentous event, met for a pre-meal aperitif at my condo, and thence by car to the hotel.
Unfortunately it turned out to be a spectacularly wet evening and this combined with an horrendous amount of traffic due the exodus from Bangkok caused by the APEC summit meeting there, made our progress on this short trip nearly impossible.
 But with the aid of Malcolm and his trusty umbrella waving the oncoming traffic to the side to make room for to pass, we eventually made it to our feast.
There I found that although no mention of birthday had been made when making the booking, someone had kindly let the cat out of the bag so to speak for not only was there a card from the hotel manager but a birthday cake was provided complete with banner round which the staff assembled to wish me a Happy Birthday.
My thanks to all staff and friends who did so much to make this a memorable event for me.
To view any of the above photos in full size, just click on it.
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