Travel

I woke up this morning and ran from Palm Desert to Indian Wells. After that invigorating run through the desert, I drove west, reaching the sea at Carpinteria. Part of my quadracious training program involves vigorous exercise.

I was at Java this week for a visit to a golf course near Bogor and I had a chance to spend a morning at the Bogor Botanical Gardens (or kebun raya in Indonesian).

I could have entitled this A Visit to Bangladesh, but that title is not very rhapsodic, is it? I was at Bangladesh this week to do some work for the Bangladesh Golf Federation.

A few days ago I mentioned my discovery of miang kham and its multifarious flavors. I’ve had miang kham again tonight, and can take you through the dinner and its aftermath in complete, I may even say quadracious, detail.

I’ve had some excellent food this week. I was at Hua Hin for a seafood meal and enjoyed my first Beerlao outside of Laos. The Beerlao Dark Lager is my favorite beer in Southeast Asia, ranking just ahead of San Miguel Corporation’s Cerveza Negra.

You may be aware that my training program for the Hood to Coast is complicated to some extent by my professional obligations. You may therefore be amazed by this week’s athletic adventures.

I have had a busy week, and I am still reading (and carrying around) the new biography of Dickens, who noted at a particularly busy time that he had “an immense arrear of demands on my attention.

I have completed another month of undefeated golf, unless you want to count finishing second as losing. More about that later. In my first round of the month, I won a stableford match at Siam Country Club’s Plantation course.

Night spearfishing at Lanai was a welcome addition to my quadracious training program this month. I ventured into the deep waters of Kaumalapau Bay with a flashlight and spear and mask and snorkel and fins, looked around for some fish and lobsters, and wondered what a shark would sound like in these dark waters.

After the turfgrass science seminar at Shinjuku I went to Hokkaido for a few days of post-seminar exercise and relaxation. Two Hokkaido institutions, the Sapporo Brewery and the Rocye chocolate company have joined forces to make a chocolate bitter brew.