The Pattaya International Ladies Club arranged a Family Fun Beach Party at the Sea Village. With beautiful, private grounds leading up to the beach, the Sea Village was, this time, the location for the PILC’s fun party organized by Ms. Arlette Cykman.

Beach party! The PILC had a fun day out at Sea Village.

Many members of the PILC came to join this outing, bringing their husbands, children and friends along. Everyone enjoyed the BBQ buffet and enjoyed even more the surroundings and the cozy atmosphere of this private area.

While the adults were relaxing, some of the ladies had organized games for the children. The youngsters were busy hopping and running around, eager to win one of the many prizes. The happy faces of the children and their parents proved one more time that the PILC is doing a great job for all their members.

Rotarians from ten clubs in the Province Chonburi gathered at the home of Prempreecha Dibbayawan’s for a fellowship party. There were two reasons for this party. The first was to say farewell to the Group Study Exchange Team from Brazil, which had spent several weeks in Thailand, also visiting Pattaya. Prem, Ms. Susiree Chanchailert and Peter Thorand presented presents to the five members of the team on behalf of both Rotary Clubs in Pattaya.

The jovial GSE team (from left to right): Rotarian Nilza Onheiro Chaim, the team-leader, Juliana Clemente, Fulvia Maria Brancaglione Villela, Alexandre Rossi and Dr. Paulo Alexandre Amorim.

The second reason for the party was to celebrate Prem’s installation as the incoming Rotary District Governor for District 3340. As usual in Prem’s house, the party was a big success and enjoyed by everyone. After the buffet, many of the guests were seen dancing to the sounds of Brazilian music, assisted by the lovely female members of the GSE team.

The French act out their stone age rituals

The International School of the Regents’ International Day on Saturday 18 March was a feast for the senses. There was a wonderful range of delicious and exotic foods available to taste, fascinating displays to visit and a fabulous concert featuring songs, dance and dramatic performances by students, staff and parents.

The Japanese team performed a lively dance on stage

Armed with the special International Day Passport, you could travel around the globe during the afternoon, visiting 32 countries as far flung as Australia, Egypt, Sweden and Estonia. Each country’s display presented a different experience - you could have your palm painted with ‘mendhi’ in the Indian room, sample smoked salmon from Norway, or take a break in a real English ‘Tea Room’. The French room presented a stunning view of life in France in pre-historic times, with a real ‘stone-age’ family in residence!

(Left to Right) ISR Headmaster Simon Leslie, Sally Poulton and special guest for the day Mr Richard Poulton, founding Headmaster of ISR.

The school choirs and orchestra provided delightful entertainment throughout the afternoon and the audience was then treated to presentations by groups from more than 10 different countries. Performances included traditional Korean dancing, a Native American Indian presentation, toe-tapping Irish dancing and an Olympic Games presentation by the Australian team.

Colorful dancers kept the audience entertained

Everyone enjoyed marching in the Grand Parade of Nations, a colourful sight with so many people in national costume.

Special guest for the day was Mr Richard Poulton, founding Headmaster of ISR, who officially opened International Day. Mr Poulton, together with his wife Sally, enjoyed their return visit to ISR and were particularly delighted to meet with students who they knew from their early days at ISR. Mr Poulton, during his opening remarks, spoke of how it was almost impossible to believe that only 49 months had passed since 160 people walked across bare, rough ground to witness the opening of the school swimming pool! He commended Dr Virachai, Founder and Chairman of ISR, on his vision and energy in establishing a school which could be so proud of its achievements in such a short time.

As the Sydney Olympics fast approach, last weekend saw an opportunity for the world’s younger athletes to strive “faster, higher” at the FOBISSEA games in Phuket. After weeks of intensive training the excited squad from Garden International School departed through the cheering crowds with a rousing speech from Head of Secondary, Mr. Ken Sullivan, ringing in their ears.

The GIS FOBISSEA Team

As the team proudly entered the stadium at Dulwich International College, to the sound of Chariots of Fire, they were accompanied by eight hundred other athletes from International Schools from all over South East Asia. After paying respect to the National Anthem, the Games began and got off to a fantastic start when Nary Putsorn won gold in the very first race of the day, the U13 boys 1500m. This was followed only minutes later by another gold, this time in the U15 boys 1500m, for Michael Markovich.

A steady stream of medals flowed in throughout the morning including bronzes for Craig Whittater (who had brought along his mum for moral support) in the 400m, Lenny Taylor in the 200m, and Sarinya Narongrittikun, who was particularly surprised to find hurdles in her path. There were dramatic scenes in the U15 girls 1500m when Lara Weston Indrasoot collapsed just short of the line whilst leading and crawled the final meters to take the bronze. Not to be outdone, Yong Yeon Kim staggered across the line to claim the gold in the 800m and also an Oscar nomination for best dramatic performance. Performance of the morning, however, went to Martin Macleod who bagged a full set of gold, silver and bronze for his efforts in his three sprint events. Incredibly, having spent an hour in the sick boy, Lara returned to the arena to earn a bronze in the long jump. She was joined in the sandpit by Kumpol Tangtrakulwongse who also got the bronze in the boys event.

There was yet more gold for G.I.S. in the javelin, fully justifying coach Simon Lee’s inspired decision to have a special javelin flown in from unknown sources in Pattaya. Ajay Nedle got the gold in the U13 boys event despite almost spearing an inattentive track official. Suzanne Bacon did equally well for the girls and then almost repeated the performance when she took silver in the shot.

The only slight disappointment of the morning was when Scotsman Ryan Dunlop just failed to claim a medal in the shot put despite his highland games heritage.

The athletics closed where it had begun with gold for G.I.S. as the staff 4x100 relay team romped home for a decisive victory.

The afternoon saw the start of the team events where the glory was claimed by the U13 boys football team. The team went in to the final league game of the round robin stage knowing that they had to beat Jerudong International School from Brunei by at least two goals to qualify for the final. With only a minute remaining on the clock and the score stuck at 1-0, Bjarke Kure broke through the defiance to slot home the all important goal and spark wild celebrations on the touchline. The team suffered an unexpected blow to the squad rotation system as they lost substitute Dusadee Mahawongse when the score board fell on his head! Happily he will able to return to the pitch later, albeit two inches shorter.

In the final the team faced old foes the British School of Manila. After an agonizing 15 minutes for all concerned, G.I.S. triumphed 2-1, the final goal being scored by Pat Markovich. Captain Martin Macleod received the trophy and won the unofficial award for best celebration of the day as he kissed the cup and raised it aloft in true (Scottish) FA Cup style. As the team celebrated, goalkeeper Ajay made his only handling error of the tournament when he unfortunately dropped the trophy. Special mention should go to the other heroic members of the team - hat trick hero Naru and the “Ban Chang Back Three” of Carlos “The Rock” Galiana, Abi and Ibi.

There were other notable triumphs for the U15 boys who beat local rivals I.S.R. 1-0, whilst the over 15 boys beat considerably larger sister school G.I.S. of Kuala Lumpur by the considerably larger margin of 2-0.

The best team performance in basketball must surely be the U13 girls, led magnificently by Aisha Shaikh, who managed to with their first ever game despite losing Sarin and Maylee in a bizarre double teaming incident. Congratulation should also go to the U15 boys who beat eventual winners, Uplands College Penang.

In the team events, as a whole, G.I.S. managed to defeat teams from Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Japan - not bad for the boys (and girls) from Ban Chang!

The competition moved to the pool for the final events of the tournament where both Brooke Robbins and Ryan Dunlop shared the honors, each winning silver and bronze medals. Ryan’s bronze came in the 4x50m Freestyle relay where he was ably assisted by Michael, Craig and Joe Steele.

There was a further bronze medal for Michael in the individual medals and Jem Putsorn, which will be particularly pleasing for her sponsors Coca-Cola and McDonald.

Unfortunately the staff relay team was unable to repeat the performance of the previous day despite the inclusion of Ken Sly in the team.

The remaining members of the team - Surabhun Puengpetlarp, Aseem Kumar, Dinithi Paranagama, Guillermo Diaz-Guevara Ante, Laura Conlon, Nattapong Kunajirakul, Yotsak Vajasit, Preedee Chieochaichokchai, Rong Marukapitak and Team Watthanavekin all performed with perseverance and sportsmanship bringing credit to themselves, the school and Thailand.

There were many fantastic moments throughout the two days of competition, all captured by team photographer Nico Bennett. Attention now passes to the primary students who are preparing for their own games to be held in Kuala Lumpur in May.