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  COLUMNS

HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:
 
Family Money: Involuntary Contributions

Successfully Yours: Christian Roeschli
 
Snap Shots: Depth of Field
   
Modern Medicine: How do you cope?

Heart to Heart with Hillary
 
Grapevine

Dining Out: Thank Ah Loy - A taste of ‘Old’ Naklua
  
Down The Iron Road: The Compound Locomotive - 2, De Glehn
 
Animal Crackers: A Badger, no less!
 
Coins of the Realm: Old Dutch business family sells off

Family Money: Involuntary Contributions

By Leslie Wright

Governments everywhere are grateful for our being productive members of society. They express this by taxing our productivity, both as individuals in the form of income tax, and the companies we work for in corporate tax.

In general, the more productive we are - both as individuals and corporations - the more we contribute to society in the form of the taxes we have to pay.

Governments then encourage us to save a portion of what they allow us to keep after they’ve taken their slice - and they do this by two age-old methods: the carrot and the stick.

First, in many regimes (including Thailand) we are taxed again on our spending with Value Added Tax, or VAT. (Although where the added value comes in is a debatable question which we’ll leave for another day.)

Second, in many regimes (such as UK & USA) we are allowed to save a certain amount into “approved” savings schemes which either carry tax relief or are not taxed on (in certain cases) the growth, or (in certain other cases) the income when it’s eventually drawn down (usually later than a certain stipulated minimum age).

However, in many countries, our invested savings may be taxed again when we draw them down. In some countries - New Zealand being one - lifelong contributions into State Pension schemes may be taxable when withdrawn, if the pensioner has managed to accumulate more than a modest private income from his personal savings.

Australia is currently debating whether to introduce a similar means test, while the UK Government is considering raising the retirement age from 65 to 70.

In many countries, our savings are taxed again when we earn interest - as in Thailand where 15% withholding tax is levied on the pathetically low interest your savings now earn in bank deposits.

The Cost of Freedom

Of course, many governments only tax you on the money you earn whilst resident in that regime.

The UK is one such, whereby provided you remain outside the UK for an average of more than 90 days a year aggregated over four years, you are only taxable in the UK on income generated in UK - such as rent derived from investment properties.

However, at least one country taxes its citizens on their worldwide income, no matter where they may be resident, and howsoever that income is derived - and that is the bastion of freedom, the United States of America.

American citizens and Green Card holders are required to file an income tax return each year to the IRS, and declare all offshore bank accounts with more than $10,000 in them; all income from investments (whether taken or not); all income from earnings (howsoever gained); all dividends, interest, capital gains, etc., etc., etc. And failing to file a complete and accurate return is a federal offence. In other words, conviction of filing a false or incomplete return potentially carries a jail sentence. Gotcha!

Where it goes nobody knows

Most people say they don’t mind paying a reasonable rate of tax provided they can see where their money is going.

But many people from developed nations seem to resent the amounts of aid being distributed to less-developed countries or to help those who have been fighting each other rebuild their shattered economies, on the premise that this aid comes from their taxes and is of no benefit to the tax-payer.

Actually, that argument is not entirely true, inasmuch as aid is often given on condition that the money is used to buy goods or services from the donating country. This not only stimulates speedier growth or recovery of a poor nation while forging trade links, but puts money back into the donor’s own economy, by creating jobs and increasing its own productivity (on which of course it will levy taxes).

“Round and round the money goes, and where it stops, nobody knows...”

Those who like to see where their money is going often cite roads, schools, airports and other public infrastructure projects as visible examples of good use of tax spending.

Again, this argument is not entirely true. Many infrastructure projects are simply too big to be paid for from a government’s revenue purse - its current account; they have to be financed from the capital account. This generally entails floating a bond issue, which in effect means borrowing money from the investing public on the strength of the government’s own credibility and promise to pay an attractive rate of interest until maturity of the bond, which in some cases can be 10, 15 or even 20 years off into the future.

While this increases the overall national debt, the government’s tax collection efforts are not affected, nor is its annual budget - at least not in the short term.

Bonds or taxes?

And now finally we come to the heated and somewhat confusing debate that has been going on between the Thai government’s Finance Ministry and the Bank of Thailand as to how the huge levels of indebtedness involved in the Financial Institutions Development Fund’s having taken over the losses of more than fifty failed banks and finance companies, and the non-performing loans with various banks which it has underwritten are going to be absorbed.

Part of the controversial debate rages around the government’s proposal to convert the “excess” foreign reserves that have been built up since the economy crashed three years ago, and use these to reduce the FIDF’s indebtedness. The central bank says it needs those reserves for other purposes, and the government has disagreed with the Bank of Thailand’s figures - as has the central bank with the government’s.

Since the people responsible for creating the indebtedness - whether these be the bank managers who inappropriately granted non-performing loans without sufficient (or in many cases any) collateral, the managers who mismanaged their failed companies’ finances, or the borrowers who are too important to be bothered with little things like repaying loans - cannot be persuaded for various convoluted reasons to fulfil their responsibilities, the government somehow has to fill the hole. And it is a very large hole indeed.

The amounts in question are so huge as to be beyond the comprehension of most ordinary folk. The figure bandied about before some of the insolvent financial institutions were sold and some of the non-performing loans were ‘restructured’ was in the order of 5.4 trillion baht.

To put this into some semblance of perspective, if that were converted to 1000 baht notes strung end to end, these would stretch 901,800 kilometres or 22 1/2 times around the earth.

Another way of appreciating the enormity of that indebtedness is to consider it as roughly equivalent to Bt.90,000 for each and every citizen in the Kingdom.

Or, to put it in golden terms, 13,564 tonnes of gold at current prices - tonnes, mind you, not ounces. This would be roughly 800 cubic metres of solid gold - a block about the size of a nice two-storey house.

Or, in terms Pattaya residents may relate to better, enough gold to make about fifteen 1-baht weight gold chains for every person in Thailand. (Although some readers’ lady-friends will have assiduously acquired this number already...even if they’re being temporarily stored in the pawnshop.)

Up or down from ’97?

After the restructuring that has taken place over the past eighteen months, the figures now being cited are rather more modest.

A recent report quotes the current public debt as being only three trillion baht. This nonetheless represents about 64% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), whereas in 1997 public debt was only 15% of GDP.

At its recent meeting to discuss debt restructuring, a committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Supachai Panichpakdi expressed concern over these figures.

Earlier, the Senate Committee on Finance, Banking and Financial Institutions called on the government to address the problem with urgency.

If left to grow, the problem will impede the country’s ability to compete in the world market and put a bigger burden on the national budget allocation.

The government set aside 3.6% of its 1997 fiscal year budget and 8.2% of its 2000 fiscal year budget to repay these public debts. A bigger amount will have to be sliced off the national budget in the future if the debt restructuring process cannot proceed as planned.

The biggest headache for the government is a 1.2 trillion baht debt incurred by the Financial Institution Development Fund.

In addition, the Legal Execution Department is currently carrying over 550 billion baht worth of debt, seized from more than 130,000 foreclosure cases nationwide. The Deputy Justice Permanent Secretary, Manit Suthapor was quoted as saying these figures were the “highest in history”.

Even with beneficial terms being offered to prospective buyers, sales of these assets have been slow. Last year the Department sold off only 60 billion baht worth of assets.

In order to bring these potentially crippling figures down to more acceptable norms, the government either has to absorb the losses from its current account - principally its tax revenues - or from its capital account by floating a bond issue.

In the former case, we taxpayers will have a significant part of our taxes diverted for many years to come to write off the government’s beneficent underwriting of failed finance companies, failed banks, and failure by managers to manage failure effectively. (Some of these worthies have already fled the scene, as we know all too well, while others are still waltzing around wearing happy smiles instead of rather more appropriate prison garb. But as Bernard Trink is so fond of reminding us: “TIT - This is Thailand”...)

The alternative to having these debts gradually reduced over the next quarter century from our taxes (whether we like it or not) is to borrow the capital from the general public and pay us interest on the loan, probably for a similar period. And that means floating a bond issue.

The fact that the government will have to pay interest on that money - the bond dividend - and (hopefully) repay the principal when the bonds eventually mature, raises yet another question: Where will the money come from to pay the interest, and eventually the principal?

You guessed it already, didn’t you? Our taxes.

In the inimitable Thai way of non-confrontational compromise, it’s a fair bet that the government’s Finance Ministry and the central bank will eventually reach a mutually-satisfactory agreement (after exhaustive discussion, debate and studies by numerous committees) whereby a limited medium-term bond issue will be floated, and the remainder of the indebtedness (possibly somewhere between 49%-51% of the total) will be paid from the people’s taxes over the next umpteen years.

And the culprits who brought about the disastrous situation in the first place will praise the wisdom of both sides, and smile beneficently as they plot their next financial misadventures.

Amazing, Thailand, isn’t it?

Leslie Wright is Managing Director of Westminster Portfolio Services (Thailand) Ltd., a firm of independent financial advisors providing advice to expatriate residents of the Eastern Seaboard on personal financial planning and international investments. If you have any comments or queries on this article, or about other topics concerning investment matters, contact Leslie directly by fax on (038) 232522 or e-mail [email protected]. Further details and back articles can be accessed on his firm’s website on www.westminsterthailand.com.

Editor’s note: Leslie sometimes receives e-mails to which he is unable to respond due to the sender’s automatic return address being incorrect. If you have sent him an e-mail to which you have not received a reply, this may be why. To ensure his prompt response to your enquiry, please include your complete return e-mail address, or a contact phone/fax number.

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Successfully Yours: Christian Roeschli

by Mirin MacCarthy

One of the greatest exports from Switzerland appears to be hospitality personnel. Quietly spoken and bespectacled Christian Roeschli is one of those. Only 30 years old he has uprooted himself from his native Zurich to the Eastern Seaboard, in a development called Kanary Bay.

Christian was born in the Zurich area, being the middle child in a family of three boys born to a Swiss engineer, who has a successful engineering business there.

He completed the usual primary and secondary schooling in Zurich. He additionally studied piano for eleven years and saxophone for five. He then looked to furthering his education at university level. However, medicine and the humanities appeared more attractive to the young Christian, rather than engineering, despite his heritage, and he enrolled in courses covering Psychology and Neuro-physiology.

Like many university students all over the world, he supplemented his income by working part-time in restaurants and hotels.

It was also around that time that he scrimped and saved and went on a round the world trip. This was to change his life, much more than he realised at that time. One of the ports of call was Thailand.

Back in Switzerland it was return to the books and study, but as Christian said in his own words, after two years, “I got fed up!” He looked critically at his life and decided that since he enjoyed his part-time work in the hospitality field more than his university course, he should transfer his studies before he wasted more time.

He then enrolled in the Hospitality Management College in Zurich and graduated after two and a half years. His first position was as the Chef de Service in a Fine Dining restaurant in Zurich and then went on to manage a very busy Italian restaurant.

It was then that some other facts began to dawn on the young graduate. The first was that Swiss hotels were too small, “They are the size of Youth Hostels,” and secondly, “I hate wintertime in Europe.” Considering that Switzerland spends a goodly span of time every year under snow, Christian Roeschli began to think of warmer climes in which to continue his life.

Remembering his world trip, while still a student, and the fact that he liked the people in Thailand, the food and the climate it all seemed fortuitous that a position became available with the Kasenkij group in Bangkok, and he grabbed it with both hands.

He was at the Cape House residential apartments at Langsuan for a short while and then was sent to Phuket for the opening of the Cape Panwa Hotel where he assumed the job of Assistant Manager.

It was a very busy time for the young Christian, but was all part of the “on the job” training that professional hospitality people have to do. Life in this industry really is an ongoing education. In fact, Christian says, “Every hour you have to cope with different situations.” It is obvious too, that he thrives on it.

Eight months ago, the Kanary Bay serviced apartments was opened in Rayong, and Christian Roeschli transferred to the Eastern Seaboard to become Resident Manager - at age 30. Not bad for someone who was going to be a psychologist only a few years previously.

The relocation to Thailand has meant a very different way of life for this young Swiss. “The Swiss way is very structured, while over here it is much easier and comfortable. Living here has opened my mind. I have had to become more tolerant and change some of my habits. The things you study in Europe very often do not relate to the Thai lifestyle.”

He enjoys the transition and when asked where he would be in five years, he stated very firmly, “I will still be in Thailand.” Being Swiss, he does have long range plans, too, which include commencing his own business ventures some time in the future.

Success for this young man is when he reaches the targets and goals he sets for himself in life. Setting up his own companies in the future will be a measure of that success for him, but right now, he is happy to be learning.

He says that the best advice he could give to any young person setting out on a career in the hospitality industry would be for them to choose the right company to work for - one that will allow career development and on the job training, such as he has had himself.

With his busy schedule as Resident Manager, his previous hobbies such as music have had to take a back seat and his hobby now is fine dining. “I live my life in an epicurean style,” he smiled, over a plate of sea-bass and a white wine!

The very calm and reserved Christian Roeschli definitely seems to have found his niche in this country. “I could not accept the Swiss way, any longer. I like the way the Thais live by the motto ‘Carpe Diem’ (seize the day) and these days, I do the same.”

He is indeed lucky to have found his correct career choice - and the correct country to practice it in.

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Snap Shots: Depth of Field

by Harry Flashman

The Depth of Field in any picture can often make or break the entire photograph. Knowledge of how to manipulate Depth of Field therefore improves your chances of getting good shots and only requires mastery of a few very easy principles and procedures.

The term Depth of Field is really an optical one and depends solely on the lens being used and the aperture selected, for the particular photograph. For once, the other variable - shutter speed, has no bearing on this, the Depth of Field parameter.

Depth of Field really refers to the zone of “sharpness” (or being in acceptable focus) from foreground to background in the picture.

The first concept to remember is called “One Third forwards and Two Thirds back.” Again this is a law of optical physics, but can be roughly understood to mean that the Depth of Field, from foreground to background in your photograph can be measured, and from your focus point extends towards you by one third and extends away from the focus point by two thirds.

For those of you with SLR’s, especially the older manual focus SLR’s you will even find a series of marks on the focussing ring of the lens to indicate the Depth of Field that is possible with that lens. (And you probably wondered why there were all those extra marks on it!)

You see, for each lens, the Depth of Field possible is altered by the Aperture. The rule here is simple - the higher the Aperture number, the greater the Depth of Field possible and the lower the Aperture number, the shorter the Depth of Field. In simple terms, for any given lens, you get greater front to back sharpness with f22 and you get very short front to back sharpness at f4.

For example, using a 24 mm focal length lens focussed on an object 2 metres away - if you select f22, the Depth of Field runs from just over 0.5 metre to 5 metres (4.5 metres total), but if you select f11 it only runs from 1 m to 4 m and if you choose f5.6 the Depth of Field is only from 1.5 m to 3 m (1.5 metres total).

On the other hand, using a 135 mm focal length lens focussed at the same point 2 metres away, you get the following Depths of Field - at f22 it runs from 1.9 m to 2.2 m (0.3 metres) and at f5.6 it is 1.95 m to 2.1 m (a total of 0.15 metres).

Analysis of all these, initially confusing, numbers gives you now complete mastery of the Depth of Field in any of your photographs. Simply put another way - the higher the Aperture number, the greater the depth of field; the smaller the Aperture number the smaller the Depth of Field; plus the longer the lens, the shorter the Depth of Field, the shorter the lens, the longer the Depth of Field.

Now to apply this formula - when shooting a landscape for example, where you want great detail from the foreground right the way through to the mountains five kilometres away, then use a short lens (24 mm is ideal) set at f22 and focussed on a point about 2 km away.

On the other hand, when shooting a portrait where you only want to have the eyes and mouth in sharp focus you would use a longer lens (and here the 135 is ideal) and a smaller Aperture number of around f5.6 to f4 and focus directly on the eyes to give that ultra short Depth of Field required.

As said before, while initially confusing, it can soon become second nature. To really reinforce this you should take the same shot with two different lenses and two different Apertures for each lens. Note the order of the shots and compare the final results. You are now in charge! Happy shooting.

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Modern Medicine: How do you cope?

by Dr Iain Corness

Last week I spoke about the effects of “stress” on the outcomes of the individuals who were exposed to “stress”. What had come out of the study was that there were those who coped and strangely the stress did not take a toll, and there were those who did not cope - and these people had a much worse prognosis (outcome) than those who did.

Now this is all very fine. Saying to a patient, “Look, I think you should go home and cope better” is fairly useless advice. After all, the non-coper has got to this stage because they do not know how to cope in the first place!

So what can we (or you) do? Well, like many things in life, the first step is the hardest. Turning a negative thinking person into a positive thinker takes the acknowledgement by that person that they are that way to begin with. It needs the person to stop using the adverse events in life as the “excuse” or the “blame” factor for the way the individual is reacting.

That challenge to the perceptions of the adverse events must be slow, but must be met. So your husband ran off with a twenty four year old. The negative response is, “Woe is me! What do I do now?” The positive (and healthy) response is, “The poor girl! I wonder how soon he’ll leave her for a seventeen year old?”

Can you see, there is the same event - but it can be looked at from very different points of view. Of course, it is easy to say, “But I love my husband. How could he do this to me?” (The “blame” response.) The opposite side of the coin would be, “Unfortunately I still love the rat. I wonder how it all happened?” (The acceptance and “change” response.)

A few methods to develop for increasing our own abilities in coping include improving self awareness. That is really just stepping back and looking at ourselves in the psychological mirror and recognising our strengths and accepting our weaknesses. If you are a lousy organiser, don’t take on the job of being the organiser of the local ladies group, no matter how much you are asked. Rather say you’ll help send out the newsletters. If you are lousy with “people” skills but great with numbers, don’t be a public speaker, but be a book-keeper or treasurer. That is being “real” and putting yourself into a healthy “real life” situation.

The next step is easy to say, but again hard to do, and that is simply to take each step one at a time. Changing attitudes does not happen overnight and it will be necessary to review and look critically at your responses to many things that happen each day and analyse whether your response is positive or negative. For example, in the situation of mud getting splashed on your dress you can either think “Baah! It’ll never come off!” or it could be, “Darn! I’ll have to get the maid give it special treatment when she comes tomorrow.”

This has been so important, I’ll deal with more next week too!

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Dear Hillary,

I was getting along with a Thai girl real famously and then had to go on business in Bangkok. When I came back after a week, she was seeing some German man and not look to me. What can I do to get her back?

Destroyed Dane

Dear Destroyed,

Wait till the German goes on a visa run.

Dear Hillary,

While I am sure many of the questions you get each week are not real, let me assure you that mine is. I am a forty year old divorced (14 years ago) British subject and I have a twenty year old daughter who lives in England with my ex wife. After my experience in the UK I have not had any real relationships with anyone over here, just the odd fling with a couple of girls, and certainly nothing serious. Now I find I am becoming increasingly attracted to a young Thai in our office. We go out some evenings for dinner after work and I enjoy his company very much. This next month my daughter is coming over for a holiday (I have not seen her for four years) and can you see the problem? I want to introduce her to my Thai friend, but do not know how she will react to her father having a male friend?

James

Dear James,

For goodness sake, James, you are 40 years of age, not 14. Your daughter at 20 years old in the UK is probably dating two Pakistanis, a West Indian, the Huddersfield United football team and her hairdresser is living in sin with a gigolo from Golders Green. Wake up! This is the 21st century, not the 18th. Stop worrying and believe that life begins at 40. Or alternatively remember that today is the beginning of the end of your life, and start enjoying it before there isn’t any left!

Dear Hillary,

I have a favourite pair of shoes that need some work doing. Any suggestions as to where I should take them?

Fran

Dear Fran,

Hillary has been asked this before, but I know there is a little chap who does good work on Pattaya Klang, next to the Leng Kee Restaurant in the laneway there. Cost 220 baht for my boyfriend’s good shoes full soled and heeled. He will often do the work while you wait - have a meal in Leng Kee while he does it. He will even lend you some scuffs to walk to your table! That’s service! There will be others - ask the ladies in the Pattaya International Ladies Club.

Dear Hillary,

My husband suffers from very greasy hair and I have to get the maid to wash the pillowslip every day. Any suggestions?

Marjorie

Dear Marge,

Change husbands or give the maid a raise. Alternatively you could try lining his pillow with grease-proof paper.

Dear Hillary,

With all the publicity recently about animal attacks in Pattaya, should I take my 64 year old mother to the animal park attractions when she comes on holiday later in the year? My husband says I am worrying unnecessarily. What do you think?

Worried daughter

Dear Worried daughter,

I am so pleased to meet someone who thinks so highly of their mother, but I am with your husband, I’m afraid. The likelihood of animal attack is very much less than her chances of falling out of the sky or being run down by a London bus. Relax.

Dear Hillary,

A friend of ours was up on business and stayed with us for a couple of weeks recently and let slip that he had been to a massage parlour one evening. I am sure that it was one of the non-traditional type because he was smirking while he said it. Should I write to his wife and quietly advise her to see her doctor?

Angela

Dear Angela,

You are a little ‘Angel’ aren’t you! Did you have the sheets sterilized after he left as well? Don’t forget to have the towels incinerated and wash down the loo with Lysol. Come on! What is the western world coming to? This is “Neighbourhood Watch” gone nuts. Stay out of other people’s business, or why don’t you go along to a massage parlour and see for yourself? Antiseptic shower of course on the way out.

Dear Hillary,

Is it impossible to get a Thai person to follow the correct time for appointments? I make appointments to meet people and by the time they eventually show up I have a bill for 500 baht for coffees while I was waiting. It is not a random occurrence, but nearly every time. How do you get them to come on time?

Rolex

Dear Rolex,

I’m afraid that punctuality is not part of the territory here. The Thais are not ones to get upset by time constraints and I’m afraid you will have to get used to it. When you know them better, you can say how much it upsets you. How about suggesting you pick them up if you are going shopping or to the pictures? You at least get to wait in the air-conditioned comfort of the car.

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GRAPEVINE
This week Grapevine, Pattaya Mail’s principal contribution to human enlightenment, is printing a selection of readers’ queries which keep cropping up as new visitors and potential expats pour into the resort. Apologies this week to old hands who know it all.

Driving licences again
The documents needed to obtain a Thai driver’s license are your passport and photocopy showing a valid non immigrant visa, two very small photos, a letter from the immigration bureau confirming your address, a certificate from a local doctor revealing you are in good health and a current international driver’s license. If your international permit is out of date, you will have to take a written test which the helpful staff will likely steer you through as it were. The Thai license must be renewed annually in the case of farangs. Second time around you only need the expiring license, new photos (not more than six months’ old) and your passport with photocopy. However, you must still show a current non immigrant visa to obtain the renewal. The office is on Naklua Road opposite the Mercure Hotel. You can drive in Thailand without a local license, but international permits often limit you to three months at a time or have wording which suggests they may not be valid if you are “a resident” whatever that may mean.

Visa extensions
This is an ever changing scenario. Visas on arrival at Bangkok airport are valid for a thirty days holiday and may be extended once for about a week at immigration police offices. Sixty day tourist visas can normally be extended for another thirty days or about double that in the case of people over 55 years old. Non immigrant visas, valid for a ninety days’ stay, are now limited to an extension of fifteen days unless the authorities are satisfied your business here needs longer. That decision may well depend on the documentation you present. Non immigrant visas can sometimes be extended up to twelve months from the date of entry for specific categories such as retirees or investors or farangs married to Thai spouses, subject to checks on substantial funds available and other documentation. Those particular regulations can’t be covered in a brief reply. It is also important to remember that all visas and extensions are awarded on a discretionary basis, as everywhere of course.

Age of consent
There are a number of Thai laws on the statute book covering this sensitive issue. The prostitution suppression act of 1960 makes all paid sex illegal, but the de facto age of consent is 18 under the most recent 1996 legislation. Child sex involving adults, especially below the age of 16, has been the target of under cover police squads for the past three years. An arrest these days is automatically followed by an appearance in court in 48 hours or less with attendant local and international publicity. By then, the substantive damage to the accused is often done. The Thai legal process in dealing with these cases is very slow, often running into many months, before a decision is reached. Bail is sometimes given on a surety basis, probably less so than in the past, but the growing practice is to place the suspect’s passport number on the stop list at airports and ports. Whether eventually convicted or not, the accused will find the whole process extremely and exhaustively expensive.

Starting a nitery business
By and large don’t, but Pattaya is certainly a boom town. The first question to ask is what your business is going to offer which other people aren’t already providing. Beer joints, restaurants and night clubs abound already. The successful ones these days seem to fall into two categories: they are either cheap, working on low overheads with a smiling host on duty round the clock to talk to customers, or decidedly upmarket and catering for the non budget traveler. But Pattaya really is littered with the remains of unsuccessful small businesses whose disappointed backers have long since disappeared from public view. For the green horn, scams abound. Farangs have parted with hundreds of thousands of baht to buy the lease of a beer bar, only to find it locked and shuttered the morning after with stock and staff vanished. Those wanting to invest their life savings in commercial enterprises in Pattaya should do their homework very carefully. Start by talking to twenty owners already doing what you are thinking of starting. Then find a Thai national you can trust.

Bits and pieces
Can you own a mobile phone here in your own name? It’s up to the individual company which will rent you the line, but be prepared for a negative response without a work permit. After all, there’s nothing to stop you leaving the country if you run up a huge bill… Why are Thai banks so reluctant to issue farangs with an international credit card such as Visa? The same story as with mobile phones. But they may want to do a deal a deal with you if you offer to open a special savings account which contains more cash than your agreed spending limit. Maybe… Why does your home based credit card company often refuse to renew your card if they discover you are living in Thailand? It’s simply a statistical decision based on the number of stolen cards or misuse which has caused them a small fortune.

A Woaw, Hammy birthday
Friday May 26th there will be a combined birthday party at Woaw’s Bar Jomtien for owner Woaw and regular patron Hammy from Scotland. All welcome from 6.30 p.m.

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Dining Out: Tank Ah Loy - A taste of ‘Old’ Naklua

by Miss Terry Diner

This week the Dining Out Team paid a visit to a small Thai/Chinese restaurant right in the heart of Naklua. This one requires a little of the ‘Magellan’ in you as there are no English signs to help you find it, but it is about 50 metres past the Numchai Electric traffic lights coming from Pattaya, directly opposite the Bangkok Bank and next to a TV repair shop.

Tang Ah Loy Restaurant has been there for many years, and my Dining Out partner had eaten there some years previous, so it was a nostalgia trip as well as a restaurant critique that evening.

It is a very simple shop-house building, concrete floors and laminex topped tables. The side tables get padded chairs, while the centre aisle gets the traditional wooden Chinese chairs. Most of the cooking is done at the back of the restaurant, but there is a 4 burner stove at the entrance, with many dried ingredients like shrimp, fish and others.

This is also not a restaurant that brings a large and detailed menu to the table - it is a case of asking what is good that evening and going on from there. For that reason alone, it is probably wise to take along a Thai companion, just to help with ordering, though I am sure it would be possible to stumble through without.

The “wine list” is a refrigerated cabinet with large bottles of Kloster or Heineken beer and assorted bottles of Mekhong whiskey, but one would not be dining out at Tang Ah Loy if you were hoping for some Chateau Neuf du Pape! With no Singha Gold, it was sharing Heineken that evening, but the beer was very cold.

With advice that the farang could only take a little chilli, Madame cook first brought out a Chicken with Almonds. This was not your usual lumps of chicken floating on a sea of oyster sauce and a sprinkle of cashews, but had crispy water chestnuts, some pieces of sausage, mushroom and fried chilli as well. It was flavoursome and fabulous. It was also a decent sized serving.

It was around this time that the entertainment started. A blind musician, Boon Rawd (AKA Mr. Coke to the farangs) sat down and got out his flute and harmonica. Listening intently to the ethnic origin of the voices around him, he selects the type of music he should play, generally Thai, Indian or Western. After “Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain” and “Your cheatin’ heart” we felt Mr. Coke had earned his supper and he selected a pork sausage dish, along with, you guessed it, a Coke.

Leaving him to his sausage, we continued on with some prawns, crab and fish in garlic and pepper - very tasty. We then had a “dry” Tom Yum Hang with shrimp, squid, fish balls and plenty of lemongrass, chilli and coriander, and then into some squid stuffed with egg. This last one was a little too rubbery for me and we passed over to the dish of the evening which was crab and deep fried prawn with Chinese mushrooms in a wine sauce, eaten with the obligatory steamed rice. This was an excellent dish and could hold its head up in any up-market Chinese restaurant.

So how much did all this cost? Not much. The six dishes (including Mr. Coke’s sausage and Coke) cost less than 500 baht grand total, so individual plates were around 80 to 90 baht.

If you want a real “ethnic” evening, it is worthwhile finding Tang Ah Loy, and I hope Mr. Coke is there for you too. Just remember to buy him supper.

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Down The Iron Road: The Compound Locomotive - 2, De Glehn

by John D. Blyth

Continuing the de Glehn story...

Although de Glehn quickly saw the merit of his system of compounding, the folly of the uncoupled driving wheels on No.701, his first such locomotive was just as plain. Some did not agree, however, as the smoke-tube superheater developed by Schmidt in Germany was seen by many to be just as good and much simpler as an alternative. The beautiful simplicity of early steam locomotives was fast being lost, and the de Glehn compounds as they evolved were as complex in principle as any to be built in quantity, and it was mainly in France that they were to flourish. All but one were four cylinder locomotives with two high pressure (h.p.) outside frames, and two low pressure between them. The complex control allowed five possible driving methods: simple using the h.p. cylinders only; simple using the l.p. cylinders only; simple using all four cylinders; full compound working; and ‘reinforced compound working’ in which live steam from the boiler was admitted to ‘assist’ by direct admission to the l.p. cylinders.

The First Great Western ‘Frenchman’: No. 102, La France’ when new, at Bristol in 1904.

All French main line drivers were given workshop training, and this added much to their understanding of what went on inside such complicated machines; other countries did not provide this advantage, and so the de Glehn system was less popular elsewhere, even where other systems of compounding, simpler but just as useful, could find favour. Germany was an example, where the largely flat territory served by the Prussian State Railways did not seem to give the same advantage as was found in the more mountainous south, where the lines of the Bavarian, Baden and W?rttemburg systems operated ‘Maffei’ compounds with success for a long time. Compounds, it seemed, had an advantage when the going was less easy.

In earlier times the need for a free passage for the steam from the regulator to exhaust was not realised, even by de Glehn, and this resulted in some inferior design work showing up, not only in France but in other countries where his system was tried. Such were Spain, Portugal, India, Egypt and even Britain, which could muster just four de Glehns. One was an oddity which we will forget, but the other three were bought from France by the progressive Great Western Railway at the suggestion of their brilliant engineer, C.J. Churchward. The object was to compare these with their own very advanced simple engines. The de Glehns did good work, but the French detail design was inferior, and whilst the ‘Frenchmen’ were slightly more economical in fuel and water, they were more expensive to maintain and used more lubricants.

Former Eastern Railway big 4-8-2 de Glehn under national ownership, at the depot of La Villete, Paris, in May 1960. The biggest de Glehn express locomotives built in France.

One can sympathise with the Great Western driver, all on his own, and confronted not by the familiar and very simple controls, but by the de Glehn with its two regulator handles, two reversing screws in place of a single lever, a change-over control to go from simple to compound working, and maybe even a ‘cone mobile’- a pear shaped object which could be used to control the effective area of the blast-pipe aperture! Whence came the knowledge, for even Churchward was seeing de Glehn practice for the first time - A delightful legend claimed that a Frenchman accompanied the first locomotive, and had the know-how, and that he was so taken with Britain that he stayed, with a job in the Swindon drawing office for many years! Alas, he is now known to have been well established at Swindon at least ten years before the first de Glehn engine arrived.

It was James Crebbin, a close friend of Churchward, not a professional engineer or railwayman, although a noted builder of live steam locomotive models, who had become also a good friend of the French Northern Railway, and spent many hours riding on their de Glehns, with which he became very familiar. And so the words were passed along, out to the inspectors and staff.

Some who should know better have said the GWR de Glehns were a failure. I disagree; they lasted over 20 years, and moreover, when the famous ‘Cornish Riviera Limited’ made its first non-stop run from London to Plymouth (245 miles by the old route, via Bristol) it was a ‘Frenchman’ that worked the first train from London, on 1st July, 1904. Then the longest non-stop run in the world, it is not the kind of event to entrust to a ‘failure’! A run in 1913 from London to Leamington, 87 miles, was completed in 98 minutes with a very heavy train for the period, of 455 tons. I would have been delighted to see such running in modern times with modern and bigger locomotives! Failures? No so!

‘De Glehn’ for freight as well: one of the numerous and powerful heavy freight locomotives of the French Northern Railway, in Paris about 1938.

In the following years, de Glehn locomotives were developed along modern lines, superheated and the free passage for the steam duly provided; sometimes an improved exhaust called the ‘LeMaitre’ was also fitted. Now right up-to-date, they did notable work especially on the non-stop Paris-Brussels trains, on very fast timings. Had Churchward so modernised his three he might have had a change of heart about compound systems, which he did not adopt.

He did adopt some details of these locomotives, though; the divided drive shared between the two leading coupled axles, the design of the leading carrying truck or ‘bogie’, and some smaller details. No failure, the ‘Frenchmen’ were a source of much valuable knowledge; Churchward, whose locomotive interests were world-wide, was just the man to take due advantage of all this.

Few other overseas users of de Glehn type locomotives did much to improve the breed; for some time the same was true of the French Paris-Orleans Railway, although the Northern and Western systems kept up-to-date in their own way. The ‘ligne imperiale’ the Mediterranean system, eschewed de Glehn totally, developing a simpler compound system under their engineer, A. Henry. But it was the Orleans line which, in the mid-’20s found itself to have one who was to be seen in the passing years as possibly the greatest steam locomotive engineer of all time - Andre Chapelon. It took long enough for others to understand, and believe, in what he did and why.

Watch this space - Chapelon next week!

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Animal Crackers: Time running out for Rhino’s?

by Mirin MacCarthy

It is amazing that an animal that has lasted 50 million years is now facing extinction. How could such a great survivor topple? The answer is mankind! With our abilities with firearms and our superstitious nature, where we imagine that rhino horn is an ingredient to counteract impotency, we have hunted and killed these animals to the extent that there are now only 13,000 of these beasts left in the entire world.

There were once many species of the rhino, some even living in North America, but now there are only five. The twin horned African Blacks and Whites, the similarly horned Sumatran Rhino and the single horned Indian and Javan Rhino. The White Rhino has the most numbers, with only 5,000 of all the others combined.

The name “Rhinoceros” means “horn nosed” and they use this incredibly large horn mainly in fighting off others who may have invaded their territory; male rhinos being very territorial. They do not use this horn to “spike” animals for food, as they are plant eating herbivores. White Rhinos eat mainly grass while the others eat leaves and bushes.

Despite its humble diet, the Rhino is the second largest land animal in the world, after the elephant, standing roughly around 1.8 metres at the shoulder and weighing in around 2000 kg. Even at birth, these creatures weigh in at 40 kg, so that’s no small baby! The rhino’s size is also no bar to being a good galloper, with the Indian Rhino being able to get up to an earth shaking 48 kph at full tilt when annoyed.

Despite its short-sightedness (the rhino can only see up to 10 metres in front of itself), these animals have very well developed senses of smell and hearing. They also have a companion animal, in this case a bird, that stays on the back of them and eats small insects that inhabit the rhino’s leathery hide. These birds do have good eyesight and will also warn the rhino of coming dangers.

The rhino spends half of every day just in feeding to keep its enormous bulk nourished and spends around 8 hours every day just resting and wallowing. This is why many people think that the rhino’s are lazy animals.

The male rhino tends to be more solitary, while the females associate in herds of around six animals. The gestation period for a rhino is 16 months and the babies stay with their mother in the herd for around three years; however, they do not reach maturity until 7 years for females and 10-12 years for males.

Rhino’s, if left to their own devices, live to around 40 years. It is such a shame that we are their greatest predators.

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Coins of the Realm: Old Dutch business family sells off

by Jan Olav Aamlid President House of the Golden Coin
http://www.thaicoins.com

Spink & Son Ltd. in London is the oldest coin company in the world, established in 1666 AD. As do all major coin companies, they also arrange auctions. As a member of the Christie’s Group, they were given the honor of auctioning the collection of the Dreesmann family. The first part, the Roman gold collection, was put on the block in their new London premises on April 13th.

Gold medallion of Constantine the Great struck in Trier on the border between Germany and France between 309 and 313 AD. From the collection of Enrico Caruso, it sold in 1923 and was later owned by the financial Minister of King Farouk of Egypt. Sold to an American dealer for 9,500 pounds.

This part of the collection consisted of 385 lots and attracted bidders from all over the world. The top piece of the auction was a gold medallion of 5 aurei minted for Constantius I Chlorus in 295-296 AD. Constantius was the father of the better known Emperor Constantine the Great who established Christianity as state religion in Rome in 337 AD.

Gold medallion of 5 aurei from Constantius I Chlorus which I bought for 170,000 pounds. Previously owned by the American businessman John W. Garrett.

This medallion, which was part of the fabulous Arras hoard that we have told you about before, became the auction’s most expensive coin when I bought it for 170,000 pounds (approximately US$300,000 - including expenses). A lot of minor coins from the same hoard were also sold, for prices between 1,800 and 10,000 pounds.

Many of the coins had old pedigrees including collectors like the famous singer Enrico Caruso.

Gold medallion of 8 aurei from Claudius Gothicus struck in Milan in 268 AD. This medallion was part of a hoard found in an ancient shipwreck outside the coast of Corsica early in the 1970s. A number of these medallions are around, all in bad condition. Little is known about the hoard to which French authorities make legal claims. Sold to an American dealer for 6,500 pounds.

Another top piece was the famous gold medallion of Honorius struck in Ravenna in Italy between 402 and 406 AD. This coin, which was part of the Velp hoard that was found in the Netherlands in 1715, was finally sold home to an Italian collector for 105,000 pounds.

The collection was large from the period after 200 AD but surprisingly small from the earlier emperors. Only two coins from the two first centuries and none from the 12 Caesars, the famous period from Julius Caesar (d. 44 BC) until Domitian 81-96 AD.

The Dreesmann collection was started by the consignor’s great-grandfather at the end of the 19th century and consisted of paintings, drawings, silver and porcelain, besides coins. Included was a collection of art relating to the city of Amsterdam. The whole collection was consigned to Christie’s and will be sold over a number of auctions in the following years.

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