The Post Crown Road 50th
Anniversary Celebration April 2018
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Monday April 02/04/2018 and a reception committee of three await the OCA group's arrival at Ubon Ratchathani Airport from Bangkok. Jim Curtis, and John Hamnett are hoping to kickstart the Post Crown Road 50th Annversary trip off, with the appearance of an Operation Crown celebrity. RSM Harry 'Yakker' Yates or at least his doppelganger, waits for his charges as he did many times before during the 1960's. The rollover shows he caused the same trepidation this time as he did then. |
I'm condensing this report to briefly recording the itinerary with the odd picture. The in depth coverage will be on the actual Post Crown Road 50 th Celebration. As with the 2015 Crown Airfield 50th, we proceeded north calling in for a break at the Amnat Charoen Big C. Then it was a ninety kilometre cruise all the way to Mukdahan. After settling in the hotel, the experienced traveller's found themselves a new food court where decent european food was on offer. Pizza's and other goodies were available so they got stuck in with gusto. |
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Tuesday the third and Aek who'd planned our itinerary again, had us visiting a Temple not too far north up the Mekong. Wat Phra Si Maha Po has some very interesting features and artifacts, including some very old wall paintings. From the temple we motored nine kilometers to The Catholic Shrine to The Martyrs of Song Khon. The story of this shrine is told in the Airfield 50th Celebration. After a solemn visit to the shrine we moved on three klms to Kaeng Kabao. Kaeng Kabao is a food venu beside the Mekong where people can dine Al Fresco. |
The speciality of this venue is the gastronomic delight of suckling pig. Beside the dishes of cowpat, warm vegetable salad, sweet and sour chicken and fish, a succulent piglet, that was a couple of hours previously running around with his sibling's, is served up roasted and sliced for consumption. Delicious! The coaches have to park about a hundred feet up the hill. Consequently Shank's Pony is used to and from the venue. However, VIP personal transport was arranged for Alan Myers to get back up the hill to the coach. |
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Back in Mukdahan as it was Jim Curtis's birthday something special was called for. There's a little gem hidden away behind the River City hotel in Mukdahan. It's called the 'Piano Pub' and when Jim asked me if I knew a place where we could have a party, this place came to mind. Run by the former Musical Director of the Grand Hotel and his wife, food, drink and karaoke were the order of the day. Unfortunately Jim had to purchase his own birthday cake, but the upside was that it all got eaten and none went to waste. |
| The wonders of modern digital technology, enabled Derek Taylor REME to contact us on Facebook. Unable to travel with the group, he'd booked into the River City hotel as the River Front was full. He settled in and within a a short space of time was helping Jim celebrate his birthday by downing his first beer in the Piano Pub. Wednesday was a free day with no trip on the itinerary, however, in true Isaan fashion, Aek made sure we got our money's worth from an already paid for coach, by using it for transport to Robinsons an out of town shopping mall. |
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Dinner Wednesday the 4th was at a restaurant with a good sized lake on the edge of Mukdahan. The lake had lot's of fish in it and a resident Mute Swan. The Jackson family joined us for the first time this trip. The speciality of this restaurant is their Prawn curry served in a coconut, very more-ish. Our special guest's Chris Rose, the son of Major 'Freddie' Rose with his wife and two daughters and ADA Derek Marx with partner Jayne Senior (see rollover), were arriving too late to attend the dinner. They were making big efforts to be with us and we really appreciated it.
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| Thursday April 5th 2018 we left Mukdahan for Nong Phoc. We travelled down the very road we had been involved in constructing. In our company for the first time were our V I P guest's. As we proceeded, our guest's were given a running commentary of how different this road was to the other roads in Thailand at that time. The fact that Chris's father, Major 'Freddie' Rose had learned his craft as a surveyor for Southern Railways, explained the long graceful curves rather than sharp bends where the road changed direction. |
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A couple of kilometers short of Nong Phoc, we stopped to take lunch. The restaurant had a big enough air conditioned room to accommodate our party. The Chef and staff found it difficult to cope with a large group of foreigner's, an unusual occurence for them. To save the day, Somrak and Nut stepped into the role of interpreter/managers and eventually we all were fed. Of course, this made us late so it was a hurried climbing with ancient limbs up into the coach. We then proceeded to our destination and alighted from our transport.
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| The staff of the Obajor's Office in Khok Samlan were waiting to greet us as we stepped down from the coach. We each had a buttonhole pinned on us and a straw hat to protect us from the sun, a thoughtful gesture. There are so many pictures of interest I have put them in the slideshow for viewing. It's here that I have the opportunity to introduce our other special guests. Chris Rose and his family are keen cyclists and on learning a commemorative Cycle ride would be part of our itinerary, they very much wanted to participate. |
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When Chris Rose contacted us to express an interest in attending our 50th Post Crown Road Celebration, we were delighted to have the son of Major Freddie Rose with his family. What Chris didn't tell us and it only emerged after some gentle probing, was that he too is a Sapper. Further probing elicited the information that he, unlike his Dad, was former Squadron Commander. Finally, the information that pleased the Balat and Nyock of Khok Samlan who were negotiating with the Thai Army in Roi Et and the Nyamphur in Nong Phoc, is that Chris retired from the British Army as a Brigadier. Prestige is a major factor in the politics of Thailand. To have the ADA from Bangkok as our official representative and a retired Brigadier son of the Post Crown Road designer, really gave our friend's in the Khok Samlan's Obajor's office a good hand to get agreement and co-operation from the officials and officers at Nong Phoc. |
Slideshow
A slideshow of pictures are shown in chronological order. Place your cursor into the picture window to freeze the motion, remove it allow the slideshow to restart. Depending on your connection, it may take a while for the pictures to download and the slideshow to start |
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