Watching sports in Thailand

Fortunately, Charly's life is full of pleasant surprises (unfortunately sometimes also less pleasant ones). For several years now he has lived with his Thai wife Teoy in a resort not far from Udonthani. In his stories, Charly mainly tries to raise awareness of Udon, but he also discusses many other things in Thailand. He also gives a glimpse into his experience in Thailand.

Watching sports in Thailand

As a change from the more serious topics I've dealt with in recent posts, now a lighter topic, watching sports in Thailand.

As the readers, who follow my writings, know by now, I am a passionate sports enthusiast. In my active sports life I have played football, played a lot of badminton, tennis to a lesser extent and played a fair amount of golf. I didn't excel in any of those sports. I was fine, but that was it. In golf, in any case, a reasonable handicap of 26 has been reached. Practicing any sport yourself is now no longer feasible with age and some physical discomfort. Even a round of golf "walking", with the help of an electric golf cart, is unfortunately not possible.

A few times a week we drive to Udon for our groceries. We take this opportunity to sit comfortably on a terrace, enjoy a drink and a meal. Sometimes I also want to play a game of pool billiards with Teoy. I just manage to do that, although I almost always lose. Good Corner, Smiling Frogs, Kavin Buri and daSofia are the terraces we visit regularly. Teoy then often seizes the opportunity to also take a look at the UD night market (Preecha market).

I want to avoid wandering around in soi sampan and the surrounding area every day and becoming a kind of pub tiger. A number of activities to fill the days in a pleasant way and to prevent boredom are a requirement. I have already written that I am a passionate sports enthusiast. If you are no longer able to actively practice sports yourself, then following all kinds of sports on TV is a very good alternative activity. Because you have actively participated in a number of sports yourself, you can empathize with the difficulty factor of a certain sport.

Writing stories for Thailandblog also gives the days a meaningful use. And of course the standard daily affairs such as answering e-mails, reading the latest news and the articles and comments on Elseviers Weekblad, the digital newspaper of the AD, the ups and downs of the football world on Voetbal International and the latest news of the MLB baseball league on the MLB site. Sometimes also via NPO Politics to follow the debates in the House of Representatives.

Watching sports broadcasts via Thai TV is not easy. That's why I took out a subscription to Europe TV or something like that at the time, I don't remember the name exactly. It was a fairly limited event with mainly Dutch and Belgian channels. At some point, Europe TV apparently stopped. Anyway, I couldn't connect anymore. That's why I took out a subscription to True Vision a few years ago.

True Vision offers a whole range of programs. Many TV channels that can also be seen via other dishes, many films and lots of sports. The problem with True Vision is that not all sports programs are broadcast live. Because of the starting time in, for example, Europe and America, many sports are recorded and then broadcasted the following day. That doesn't have to be a problem, as long as you don't know the result of a match. The latter is not so easy if, like me, you are too curious and you want to know the result in advance. If you can contain that curiosity and you start looking at the postponed match report, it's like it's live. The real problem is that True Vision chooses to broadcast a summary of the match report because the broadcast must be able to fit into a pre-planned time frame. No integral match report and that is annoying because you often cannot follow the build-up of a match.

Depending on the type of subscription, True Vision costs vary per month. I myself chose the platinum subscription at the time for a monthly fee of approximately 2.300 baht. There are often offers where you get a reduced rate for the first few months. If you want to know more about the different options at True Vision, check out their website.

Very recently I had the pleasure to celebrate once again surviving another year. Because of the covid-19 event, although there is currently little sign of it in Thailand, went out for dinner with the family. So this time without friends. Because our party, except for me, consists exclusively of Thai, we opted for a Thai restaurant. This restaurant is on the Udon ring road, a bit before Living Index, but on the opposite side of the road. The name of the restaurant, if I remember correctly, is Four Khung House.

We've been here several times before. The ambiance is excellent. You can choose from sitting outside, sitting outside with a roof (useful when it is raining or when rain is imminent) or sitting inside with air conditioning. The entire complex, quite large, has been designed with a sense of style. Like many typical Thai restaurants, they serve different drinks but no wine. Logical, because most Thai people don't drink that. When we eat there I always bring a bottle of white wine. It is neatly kept cool by the staff in a bucket of ice. And they don't charge corkage for that. The food, a number of Thai dishes and lots of shrimps, is excellent by Thai standards. I myself eat a delicious fried glass noodle dish with shrimps, garlic and a sweet and sour sauce served separately, including pineapple. Delicious. Not a single discord about this. And there is even a combo playing live music. What else do you want?

After the usual birthday cake with candles at the end of the session, my wife Teoy comes with a thunderous surprise. She hands me a neatly wrapped gift. I didn't count on that at all, because in general we don't do much with gifts for birthdays. I unwrap the package and am left with an almost square black box. I don't know what the black box represents, so I just asked what it is. Well, says Teoy, with that box you can activate a lot of channels, including a lot of sports channels, on your TV. I bought the cabinet from a friend when we were in Nongkhai. The box is already completely programmed for you, so you can start right away.

Truly a fantastic gift. Teoy knows of course that I love to watch all kinds of sports matches (she does too, but especially football). Bullseye, I can't say anything else. The next day started with the box. After some telephone consultation, I succeed in connecting all the cables correctly and getting the box to work. A world achievement in itself for an a-techie like me. Receiving the Dutch channels succeeds immediately. However, the image is not very sharp. However, the channels that broadcast sports competitions cause real problems. Doesn't work at all.

What's the problem? The internet connection is way too slow. I think I have something like 300 Mbps, so that's not going to be it. So I immediately called 3BB and asked 3BB to install a high speed connection for me as soon as possible. At 3BB they are very busy, so it takes three days before they install a fiber optic connection with a download speed of 1200 Mbps. Look, that makes a world of difference for the quality of the broadcasts. The image is now crystal clear.

The channels are categorized by country. So you first choose the country and then the desired channel within the country. There is also a “catch” function in the program. With this you can still see previously broadcast TV programs. I have yet to try this part. I haven't gotten to it yet.

Now that this works so well, True Vision just canceled. That already results in savings of 2.300 baht per month. Pure win situation therefore. All the programs you could wish for and an annual savings of around 25.000 baht.

I am very happy with this box. Already been able to follow a number of baseball games from the MLB post season life in full, seen the Dutch national football team at work as well as Ajax and Feyenoord and the classic between Barcelona and Real Madrid. Being able to follow the World series baseball the week I write this. With the World series winner, after very exciting games, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Really great matches.

Besides sports, of course, all talk shows, such as Veronica Inside, Rondo and all broadcasts from Dutch and foreign channels. For example, the American elections can also be followed live on USA FOX on November 3. There are so many channels that, especially in the beginning, you have to find out on which channel a certain program can be seen. But of course you get the hang of it over time. To mention one more problem, after all I am Dutch: due to the large time differences, your daily rhythm is quite unstable, to say the least. Actually, I'm running out of time and sleep to be able to follow everything.

That promises something when next year, in addition to the regular sports competitions, we also have the Olympic Games and the European Football Championship. Unless the Chinese disease (sorry, but it seems that that's where all the misery originally comes from) becomes the major spoilsport again, of course.

Charly www.thailandblog.nl/tag/charly/