19 November 9th day libero Hua Hin

November 23, 2017

So we started our visit to Ulf Eriksen with an empty pocket, i.e. without my iPhone in it. After our long and hot -and unsuccesfull- search for my iPhone in the a/c we needed a good swim and that was offered by Ulf. His own swimming pool. Soon after that Ulf started to prepare some hughe Australian steaks on his barbecue next to the swimmingpool.

relaxing moments

A good Thai wine, really good, did the rest.

salute

To explain to some of the blog readers: Ulf has been always a very good friend/supporter in my shipping life, since the moment I met him in my first visit to New York City at Battery place, where he worked at Peraco together with Joe Giancola. At that moment, it must have been in 1970-72, none of our vessels had ever called a USA port so the North America Dept not even exist. Do you, Gerard Bos, remember how we were cheated by the yellow can taxi charging us $80 for our first ever taxi ride into the City? Anyhow Peraco was at that time a strong supporter of FinnLines (Kari Wuorimaa) but we have been able in the following years to attract his interest ánd obtain his sympathy. We stayed good friends for the rest of our lives, during which he moved from New York City to Greenwich CT, to Vancouver BC and not so long ago to Shanghai, whilst I stayed glued in Amsterdam.

Therefore it was interesting to meet him now in his next station, unexpectedly in Hua Hin, Thailand. Fortunately he is not the only foreigner who lives in  Hua Hin and looking at the new buildings there will come many more, to enjoy the nice climate.

He showed us his impressive book shelfs, fully laden with interesting books, partially political like Winston Churchill, shipping books and a large portion in Norwegian, his mother language. They have replaced his famous collection of LP Records, which he sold in 8 truckloads.

it’s beach time at Hua Hin

We spent half of the next day to have another search in the a/c for my iPhone. No luck again so I may be forced to look at a new iPhone-X once back in Holland.

Our last breakfast we took at his favourite golf Club. Beautiful really.