Thursday, September 22, 2005

Karentat Experience



Any of you who have flown in to Bangkok will know the first thing you see is the Golf Course next to the runway. This is the Karentat Golf Course, formally the Royal thai Airforce Golf Course. For a while now i've been trying to play it. The day got off very bizarrely, your taxi cannot not go to the clubhouse because the course is on military land. This was also the first golf course i've played where the sucurity carries an M-16. So after a few minutes waiting, this young girl turns up on a chicken chaser moped to take me and my clubs to the club house. I just closed my eyes, I only opened them once as we actually rode over the runway! Mad!
There I met with my playing partner Kim, this was my birthday present. We were very suprised how cheap the round was, two people, two caddies and a buggy, only £19. On the first tee I took the above photo as this Malaysia Airline took off. You know how you get put off by cars at Breadsall Priory, imagine this thing taking off about 100M away, Mega!
You then look round and a 747 Jumbo will be landing, very insane. Never the less, we had a pretty good rounds, although like every time you play golf in Thailand, sunburn was a menace.


Then came the the 10th, a nice 112 yard par 3 over water, however the backdrop was a Turkish Airways Airbus, so I just used it as target, amazingly, I parred the hole. From the 10th you then have to wait for planes crossing the runway, on the way back we had to wait for this Cathay Pacific 767 to cross in front of us, as we crossed the runway we got the full force of the jetwash as it taxied to its gate.
I'm glad I finally played the course, and anyone who comes to Thailand and plays golf, they should try it, if you want a good score, then this is not the course to come too.


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