The Amazing Sriracha Tiger Zoo

The Sriracha Tiger Zoo is only 34.5 kilometers from Pattaya. Set on 250 rai of land, it is an ideal place for relaxing and watching wild animals.

The crocodile area of the zoo has over 70,000 crocodiles but only 500 are on view.

Some of the interesting animals at the zoo are:

Arabian camels, which are technically ‘Dromedaries’. These are the ‘one hump’ variety. This differentiates them from the Bactrian or ‘true Camel’ species. Bactrians are ‘two-humpers’.

There are 11 Dromedaries at the zoo. These ‘ships of the desert’ are native to North Africa, the Middle-East, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. There is new ‘baby’ at the zoo, named Yenjit.

Parma Wallabies: Related to Kangaroos, they are the smallest of all the species.

Bengal Tigers: The zoo has 200 of these striped ‘Lords of the Jungle’. These are in the Panthera (solitary hunters) division of the ‘big cat’ family. The Bengal Tiger is one of 9 species of big cat native to Thailand. The tiger’s main food are wild boar. Sixty years ago, Thailand had a tiger population of over 40,000 but development has decimated their numbers and there are and estimated 3,350 - 4,700 left in the wild. The World Wildlife Fund believes this figure is much too high, and puts the population at less than 2,000.

Spotted Deer: There are seven of these delicate and shy creatures at the zoo. There are also ostriches, Peruvian pigs, Iguanas, for visitors to see.

Animals you can ride or photograph include baby tigers, crocodiles, miniature horses, Asiatic elephants and reticulated pythons.

There is also the Amazing Circus in which the wild animals do tricks. This shows the creature’s intelligence, as they do not do this in their natural habitat and must be taught.

There are performing Chimpanzees, bears and tigers and many others. There are ‘Miraculous People’ shows, Dancing, ‘Amazing Children’ and magic. As for the crocodile show, aside from other shows in this manner, spectators may have pictures taken with the crocodiles.

There are also many ‘Elephant Scorpions’ and fried scorpions on which you may feast. Eating these testy relatives of the Arachnid family is supposed to help high blood pressure and lung conditions. Medical research has proven that refined scorpion venom does help these complaints, but does not guarantee eating them will make you any healthier.

However, foreign tourists must be warned that the Sriracha Tiger Zoo has a double pricing policy. For Thai people, the admission fee is 60 baht for adults and 30 baht for children. All non-Thais pay 250 baht for adults and 150 baht for children.

For details call (038)296-556, 296-571 every day.

Dolf Riks: Smite it to gobbits and ramme hem up

Although the above may sound alarming to the uninitiated, reminiscent of brutal torture, in reality it is merely a cooking directive a mediaeval chef would give his apprentice in the kitchen. Cooking in those days was a jolly business it seems. What follows next is a recipe from a fourteenth century cookbook - one of the oldest surviving called: "A Noble Boke of Cookry for a Prynce Householde." Fourteenth century.

"Charlet"
"To mak charlet, tak fresche porke and sethe it and swing eggs then hewe the pork smalle and boile it in sweet milk and serve it."

The two earliest collections of recipes in English of the era date from the beginning of the fourteenth century. The reason that there are so few mediaeval cookbooks left (some of them are frauds, the recipes almost exact copies of the work of predecessors) is because there were very few written until after the invention of the printing press, when more copies could be produced with less effort. Another reason was that only a select few could read and write. As is still customary in many countries in the world. Word of mouth and experience taught the novice to cook the lord’s favourite viands. Restaurants were non existent and when travelling one had to do with the daily pot the inn keeper’s wife had thrown together.

What is available in writing of that era is amusing, but the language is difficult to follow at times and it sounds as if cooking was one big, happy "free for all". The "Char" in "Charlet" comes from the Middle English name for meat and "Let" is related to the French word "Lait" for milk. To "swing" eggs is obviously to beat them and "hewe" is to chop. What puzzles me though are the words "sethe" and "boile" which are basically the same cooking techniques. "Sethe" might mean that the meat is blanched in rapidly boiling water or seared over the fire, and "boile" cooking or stewing it for a long time. It will be difficult to find out and I have no intention to try out the recipe for "Charlet" as it sounds extremely boring. It is also not clear what one is supposed to do with the swinged eggs. No spices or flavourings were mentioned at all, but without doubt used in a "Prynce Houssolde".

Other flamboyant cooking terms were: "Flourish" for garnish, "Smite it to gobbets" to cut it in little pieces and "Ramme hem up" was to bruise and press together. Fresh meat was often very tough and that in an age when hardly anybody had a proper set of teeth. The result was that much of the food was cooked for a long time and as the well known food historian Barbara Norman says in her book, "Tales of the Table": "The few recipes that begin by roasting meat usually go on to smite it to gobbets or to ramme hem up or both."

Of course only the lords and nobles could afford to eat meat every day. In the winter, the poor ate mostly sauerkraut, beans and bread with an occasional piece of smoked pork. In the summer this was enriched with leeks, cabbage, an occasional rabbit or hare, or some poached birds from the lands of their lord. No fruit of any kind as they were considered unhealthy.

During lent and on meatless days, people who could afford it ate fish, or animals that were conveniently considered fish, with among them frogs, turtles, seabirds and beavers. In the autumn the large domestic animals like hogs were slaughtered, as it would have taken too much to feed them all through the cold and dark winter months. The meat was cured by salting and smoking, in the early days by just hanging it in the smoke filled room where the family lived - the result must have been that everybody smelled of smoke - and later, when the chimney was invented, the meat was suspended in the fireplace or in the chimney. Sheep were mainly kept for their wool, as the meat was considered inferior for food, too stringy and tough to be cured, and as the expression goes, "not worth its salt".

Those early European cookbooks were written for a rich man’s household and one does not easily find a recipe for stock fish or dried cod in them, although it was a very common dish as it still is in, for instance, Portugal. Dried fish can be kept for a long time but recipes for salted, dried and smoked meat were rare, even though this was what the common man ate in the winter, as well as lots of beans. Most of these foods were salty and the antidote was to serve them with bread crumbs, beans and dried peas. Potatoes, of American origin, were unknown, as well as a vast assortment of other vegetables and beans, later introduced from the New World. Pureed fava beans - one of the few edible beans native to Europe - with bacon - seem to have been popular among the commoners.

Thick soups or ragouts were popular fare at the Lord’ table. The meat was cut in small pieces, cooked for a long time to tenderise it and the thick sauces were eaten with a spoon or with pieces of trenchers (square or round pieces of stale bread functioning as a plate, which was often eaten as well, soaked, as it was, with the juices of the ragouts. They were also part of the pay of the servants and sometimes given to the destitute, outside the gates or doors of the banquet room.

One of these "stew" dishes was a thick soup made from boiling hulled wheat in milk, adding meat chunks, venison, or fish, as well as a variety of spices and flavourings such as sugar and herbs. It was called "Frumenty".

Also popular was a thinner kind of soup that was drunk out of cups or porringers, a low flat bowl with a single handle. The name "soup" is according to my "Mirriam Webster’s" of Germanic origin, but in French it was adopted as "soupe" and it meant anything that was cooked in a liquid. The old English "sop" (from the Norwegian "soppe") is a piece of something, like meat or bread, cooked, steeped or dipped in a liquid. "To sop" in English still means to dip, soak or drench something like bread in a liquid. So it could be that in the old days one could ask one’s neighbour at the table: "My beloveth hast thou ample sops in thy soup?" Of course only a few sops indicated either poverty or stinginess of the host.

The name "ragoût" comes from the French for "revive the taste". It is often mispronounced by some well meaning English or American speaking people as some sort of arthritic condition or gout. It must have been an ancient preparation and at some times included practically all stews, thick soups and sauces.

Boulanger, in 1765, was the reason for a "Cause Célèbre" between the guild of "traiteurs" and himself when he served sheep’s trotters in a white sauce in his Paris food shop. He was actually only allowed to serve "restaurants" or "restorers", "pick me ups" so to say, which was fortified bouillon for pregnant women, the feeble and frail and perhaps for those with a hangover. The guild sued Boulanger but he won his case as the judge ruled that the sheep’s trotters were not cooked in the sauce and, consequently, it was not a "ragoût". Boulanger’s is supposed to have been the first "Restaurant" in Europe.

“Miss Thailand” goes Dutch

Jerina Helmerhorst does not seem like a Thai name, but Jerina, the Tourism Authority of Thailand representative in Amsterdam, works very hard for the name of Thailand.

With a background in the tourism industry, Jerina approached the TAT five years ago with the concept of being their spokesperson in Holland. Since then she has visited us many times and sent thousands of Dutch holiday makers to Thailand.

On this trip, Jerina was accompanying the Dutch World Masters Soccer Team Tour with the tourists from Holland raising over 100,000 Baht for Thai children’s charities. She is very proud of the fact that her native homeland is actively helping her "adopted" country.

Jerina has very strong ideas on the way tourism must go in Thailand, and believes that tourist destinations such as Pattaya must not rely on just beaches and bars. The Dutch tourist is looking for new ideas and holiday pursuits. Eco-Tourism is much more than just a "buzz word" in Europe and the tourist is looking for destinations where they can experience the unspoiled nature of the country. She feels that Thailand should be looking at bio-degradable packaging, while currently we seem to be the plastic bag capital of the world!

The emphasis for future tourism to Pattaya should then be to open up the family concept and play down the "single male" aspect, which is a negative impression for many people in Europe.

Dutch tourists are looking for "safe" destinations, and Jerina feels that Thailand is regarded as a good holiday country as far as that is concerned. She does feel, however, that Pattaya must pay attention to its reputation, continue to improve its image and encourage new attractions for families if it wishes to continue to attract the tourist dollar.

Personally, she really enjoys her visits here. "The people are friendly and honest" and "...even when I am alone here, I never have to feel afraid." Those are certainly important factors for our TAT representative overseas to take back to her home!

Despite the ability to have a "jet-set" lifestyle, her ambitions are simple - good health and "be happy", but her great love, however, is our sea food. "It really is fantastic. You see all this sea food and it is just so fresh and clean!"

Talking with Jerina Helmerhorst you gain the impression that this is one Tourism Authority of Thailand employee who loves her job and certainly puts the future of this country above her own personal desires. We look forward to your next visit and hope that Pattaya will heed your advice!

Successfully Yours: Hans Frei

by M.E. MacCarthy

What does a Swiss bird fancier/radio operator do when he retires in Thailand? Become a property developer/restaurateur is the answer.

Hans Frei left Ghana, Africa, only a few years ago after 20 odd years there. By profession he was a Mechanical Engineer who also studied electrical and structural engineering to assist him to carry out his demanding position of manager of a brewery. He retired, taking all his portable self-sufficiency skills with him!

He had no intention of working here and just wanted to retire somewhere tropical. His aim was to relax and savour his many pastimes of ham radio, birds, animals, gardening and fishing.

Thailand and Pattaya looked to be the final answer to his dreams, BUT the only suitable rai available was far too big for just the modest house he wished to build. However, he saw a new challenge, became a land owner, and in just two and a half years has built a small hotel, restaurant, and village/housing estate.

The restaurant opened on the auspicious day of April 1 last year with the hotel following last December. However, Hans Frei is certainly no April fool, he knew exactly what he was doing. It had literally been back to the drawing board for him. Single-handedly he had designed, plotted, drawn, plumbed, wired and overseen the building of his Little Hill Project. "I do everything," he says expansively and proudly.

Nothing is left to chance. Where do you get a good chef? He employed his chef for six months prior to the opening, sending him to be trained at Bruno Forrer’s restaurant. How do you get time off, away from the restaurant to finish the project? You import a European (Swiss of course) restaurant manager who starts next month.

The success of this project is no mean feat, so how did Hans accomplish it? It would be facile to say "precision Swiss engineering; a man working continuously like the movement of a Swiss watch". All of which has an element of the truth, but it is not the full picture.

Hans Frei is gregarious, humorous, and passionate about people and leisure, not only his work.

But he works hard! Hans works from 6 a.m. to midnight and claims that work alone is the secret to his success.

Frei’s village property development is moderately large. He has sold thirty-four blocks of land and is still completing the building of twenty-five houses on them. Just like his hotel and restaurant, Hans does everything from the planning up. All have Frei’s European stamp on them, but look totally compatible in the tropical Thai setting around the huge swimming pool.

Hans did not want to advise on how to follow his success, "No, No, I have nothing to tell anyone," he said, then he relented, "Just work hard, that is all. If you are not willing to work, nothing happens."

I suspect the real secret of Hans Frei’s unusually quick success is a well-balanced, hard working, vital man, with the capabilities to meet any challenge presented to him. I am sure he could turn any mountain into a little hill!

Heavy Breathing on both Sides of the Proscenium

by Jay Patterson
If the full house at the Desford Colliery Band’s concert at the Royal Cliff Beach Resort is any barometer, this reviewer must recant. Pattaya does have an interest in culture. Bringing this prize winning band of virtuoso brass players to Pattaya was a real coup for the Bangkok Music Society. Pattaya society was out with a vengeance. Jewels glittered among much cheek-kissing and warm camaraderie among the ‘my diamonds are bigger than your diamonds’ crowd.

Aloix X. Fassbind, with his usual flair, had conceived the performance as a ‘promenade’ concert a la London ‘proms’. Mr. Fassbind, the hotel’s Executive Vice-President, ordered tables arranged to give everyone the best possible view of the stage. This reviewer saw that it was probably an inadvertent inspiration.

The Band was founded in 1898, in the small coal mining town of Leicester. Coal miners, needing a bright spot in their lives, often played band music after a hard day in the mines.

Of course, none of the original members played at Friday evening’s concert.

Conductor Richard Adams is not only a trained and talented musician, but gave droll and informative commentary throughout the program.

The band is now composed of professional musicians. This is evident from their mind-boggling technique and perfect ensemble playing.

There are many misconceptions about Brass instruments. One is that they are only used in ‘loud’ music. The other is that they are not suitable for soulful melody. Classical music gives lie to this myth. Anton Bruckner wrote one of his most beautiful slow melodies for the much maligned tuba.

There is also a certain ‘mystique’ surrounding brass players. During the big band era in the US, the great jazz and ‘swing’ brassmen were almost national heros.

In the world of popular music, it’s ‘cool’ to play the guitar, and ‘hip’ to play the drums. But good trumpeters, trombonists and flugelhorn players are ‘supermen’.

Ah, to be able to make that big golden sound flow out of those gleaming horns and trombones! It must be every kid’s dream at one time.

It was wonderful to see the audience’s eyes glued to the stage. One could imagine the men in the audience were living out a vicarious dream of being up there on stage with the ‘coolest of the cool’.

The attention the women in the audience gave the band by was also very impressive. Transported by the music, not one was busy gossiping or waving jewel covered hands at friends across the room. All feminine eyes were on the stage. The distaff contingent veritably breathed with the band. Then a strange feeling came to this reviewer; the breathing was more like panting and the expression in the ladies’ eyes! It was more like cobras looking at potential prey than polite attention.

Looking back at the stage, the realisation hit. These guys were all approximately mid-twenties to early 40’s. Could it be that the women thought they were as potent as their instruments? I dismissed this and scolded myself for thinking the ladies could be so prurient. Seeing so many fresh-faced western men at one time merely brought back thoughts of sons back home.

This was not the case with the Pattaya Mail’s trashy fashion editor, Teetha Clench. Wearing a cellophane Sarong, Teetha was surveying each member of the band through a huge pair of rhinestone studded opera glasses. She was scribbling on a piece of paper. I peeked and saw she was giving each of the players a 1-10 ‘rating’. Looking closer, it was not surprising that Teetha had not given one member less than a ‘7’. Teetha, with her base instincts, must have felt me looking at her doodling. Without lowering her opera glasses, she pulled a can of Mace out of her purse and pointed it directly in my face. She must have stocked up since her last encounter with Blitzkrieg. I quickly moved to the other side of the table.

Anyway, the first number was a rousing march, de rigeur for opening band concerts. The ‘Champion’s March’ by Wilcox contained snatches of Sir Arthur Sullivan’s ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’. Played with panache, it set the tone of the evening.

The next piece was the very beautiful overture from La Forza del Destino, by Giuseppe Verdi. Considered his finest overture, and of Beethovenian amplitude, this piece was arranged for band competitions. A virtuoso showpiece, the Desford’s played it beautifully.

Darren Pearce’s fast, soft arpeggios on the flugelhorn were quite beautiful. This accompaniment figure was orginally for strings and it was dazzling to hear Darren execute it perfectly on the flugelhorn.

‘What do you think of his arpeggios?’, I asked a woman at the next table.

‘You men! You only think about one thing,’ was the stinging reply.

The next piece was ‘Memory’ by that guy who wrote ‘Cats’. Despite Cornettist Craig Bennett’s excellent tone and legato, it is not my favourite piece. Craig did prove the song does have some merit if not sung by Barbra Streisand.

The next piece was a bit of a mystery. A furious Czardas, the program stated the composer was Richard Strauss. It sounded more like Johann Strauss to me.

Cornettist David Smith gave us some real smooth schmalz with his solo rendition of ‘Zelda’.

The first half of the program ended with the wild and wonderful Lez Ghinka from the ballet Gayneh, by Khatchaturian.

An astute musician friend remarked that this piece really ‘worked’ as a transcription for concert band.

During the interval I saw Teetha Clench trying to get into the green room, where the band was resting. The jade was trying to convince the guys that they needed a truly professional ‘dresser’ and Teetha was volunteering for the job. The fellows were terrified but staff got Somsak, a comely young security guard to lure her away. Apparently, Somsak is receiving a two month salary bonus and free psychiatric care for this act of heroism.

The second half opened with the Liberty Fanfare by John Williams. Although not avante garde, it is the best piece I have heard by Williams since his score for ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’. Williams’ movie music is mostly derivative and often noisy, but this piece, written for the Atlanta Olympic games, shows he can produce some good things when not constrained by Hollywood.

Napoli, known to many as ‘Funiculi, Funicula’, featured a finger twisting solo performance by euphonium player Michael Howard. Italian as it could be, it showed the huge brass instrument is as flexible as the best coloratura soprano.

The next piece ‘Puttin on the Ritz’ showed what brass bands are all about. I have heard the British are ‘kinky’ but now I know they really can ‘swing,’ too! Great work!

‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ was a bit of a disappointment, as the arrangement sounded more like the spiritual ‘Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho’.

The band got in some ‘hot licks’ with the ‘South Rampart Street Parade’.

The next piece was ‘Elsa’s Procession to the Minister’ from Wagner’s Lohengrin. Because of the character of Wagner’s music and the opera’s association with the medieval era, this really ‘worked’ in a brass arrangement.

The last piece was the Brasiliera, from the Scaramouche suite for two pianos by Darius Milhaud. Marked Tempo de Samba in the piano version, it ended the concert with a zap. It also showed the versatility of flugelhorn player Darren Pearce, as he is also a virtuoso on the maracas!

This reviewer would like to offer up endless gratefulness to the band for NOT playing ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’!

This concert was probably the most successful in Pattaya’s history and we should all be grateful to the sponsors for a really wonderful evening.

The proceeds from the concert will also help three Thai brass players continue their studies overseas.

Everyone hopes that the Desford Colliery Band will return to Pattaya as soon as their schedule permits.

We solemnly promise to lock up Teetha two days before you arrive.
Bravo!

Automania: RON, can you hear me?

by Iain Corness

There has been lots of print media space taken up recently with the changes in octane ratings for the fuel we buy. Quite frankly, it’s a storm in a tea cup. "News" it certainly is not (mind you, all journo’s do well to remember that their hot news story today is chip wrappers tomorrow).

Having said all that, let’s try and clear up some of the confusion at the bowser. Petrol, in most of its forms, is given an Octane Number. One system is called RON which stands for Research Octane Number. Just to be confusing there is also Motor Octane Number (MON) and the Americans, just to be different, add RON and MON together and divide by two to come up with yet another system (trust the goddams)!

Here in Thailand the fuel at the pump is classified by the RON method and currently on sale you have fuels labeled 95, 91 and 87. All of this is unleaded. What happened to "Super" I hear you ask? Well, sorry, but after May 1st Super no longer could be sold so you can’t get it any more.

Since it was the most expensive brew you could put in the tank and it had a small percentage of lead in it, I suppose we shouldn’t mourn its passing. Mind you, I was never one to point the finger at the motor car exhaust as the bad guy when you talk about lead absorption by humans. The "green" fraternity conveniently forgets that lead is a naturally occurring compound that lives in the ground. Every potato, carrot and onion has lead in it!

Now there were many cars which were designed and built before ULP (ULG) became universal and they all ran on Super. However, the national authorities worked out that the number of vehicles older than ten years was, in reality, very small and consequently the demand for the expensive brew was falling. An end had to come somewhere - and it was May 1.

So what do you do if you have an older vehicle? It is a case of trial and error, I’m afraid. Most will run OK on 91 octane, but if the car "pings" under acceleration (also called "knocking") then move up to 95 octane. You could also try running some Upper Cylinder lubrication every fourth tankful of fuel - but the "Redex" type of additive is difficult to get in this country.

The rather ironic thing in this whole debate is that the petrol you buy at the pump isn’t 95 or 91 RON anyway - it’s 97 and 92! Confused? You will be soon!

Unfortunately for the Regulating Authority, the refineries are all geared up with the hardware to produce petrol at a minimum of 97.3 and 92.3 at the point of manufacture - and that includes the government PTT refinery as well! This hardware is extremely expensive, so the Oil companies aren’t going to change the refining technique.

The other interesting feature in this petrol push is the availability of 87 RON. It’s not! Well, that’s not quite correct, it is if you can find the one brand that produces and sells it, because all the major refineries haven’t got it all.

By law, the servo’s are supposed to display the card that shows which octane fuel your cars can run on. Have a look next time you’re in filling up - I’ll wager the 87 RON has been cut off and only the 95 and 91 are shown!

Now here is another complicating factor. The Oil companies have been having a price war for the past few months and in some cases have been selling below cost. You can then find the crazy situation where you can buy 95 RON fuel cheaper than 91. Should you buy it then? Simple answer - yes!

So, petrol consumers, you are actually the big winners. The 95 you buy at the bowser is actually 97 and the 91 is 92. Top grade fuel can be purchased at bargain basement price and everyone is laughing.

Well, not quite everyone. Those of you with the ancient warriors have got some trials ahead of you. Perhaps now is the time to trade in?

Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I asked you when the MG-B was first produced, and I warned you it was a trick question! The answer was 1930. Yes, 1930 for all you people who said 1963 or 1964! The clue was in the combination of the letters. The car released in the 60’s was actually an "MG-MGB", while the MG-B was the 18/100 Tigress of 1930. So that will teach you the importance of attention to detail, won’t it?

So to this week - which driver broke the world land speed record in 1938, driving the first car to break 350 mph? And for that FREE beer - what fuel did he use? Clue: it gave him horsepower!

As a postscript to the EMW question of a few weeks back, local Bob Howlett has been really doing some research. Bob has found out that the EMW company (Eisenacher Motoren Werke) changed its name in 1956 to AWE (Automobil Werke Eisenach). They actually raced a 1500 Twin Cam sports-racer with Porsche punter Edgar Barth at the wheel. Thanks for that fun bit of Autotrivia, Bob.

Going Go-Karting?
The third round of the KR-Apexis Amazing Club Race will be held this Sunday at the KR Raceway on Thepprasit Road. The series is conducted in six classes (VIP, Komet, 160 KG, Novice, Yamaha & Intercontinental A) and there are six rounds held over the year.

Qualifying for this round starts at 10 a.m. with racing at 12.30. There are two heats and a final for each class, so there should be plenty of non-stop action for the Go-Kart buffs. There’s 20,000 Baht up for grabs for the big boys, so they’re holding out enough carrots! Entry fee for the drivers depends on the class contested and ranges from 3000 Baht to 1500 Baht.

Copyright 1998 Pattaya Mail Publishing Co.Ltd.
370/7-8 Pattaya Second Road, Pattaya City, Chonburi 20260, Thailand 
Tel.66-38 411 240-1, 413 240-1, Fax:66-38 427 596; e-mail: [email protected]
Created by Andy Gombaez, assisted by Chinnaporn Sangwanlek.