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Family Money: Like
buying a vacuum cleaner
By Leslie
Wright
Most residents of Pattaya at one time or another have
been visited by a vacuum-cleaner sales team: generally an attractive young
lady to do the talking plus a couple of young men dressed in clean white
shirts and ties to hump the machines around the streets and demonstrate
them to interested prospects.
Many of us will have automatically said “No thank
you” to the offer to demonstrate one of their machines, and promptly
closed the door. After all, most of us have maids, wives or concubines to
keep our homes clean, and at relatively modest expense.
Also, the whisk-style brushes sold by street vendors at
around Bt.25 are considerably cheaper than one of these vacuum cleaners,
which typically run to many thousands of baht.
Most of us would find it hard to justify the
comparatively large capital outlay for equipment many of us feel we
don’t really need.
But those of us who have indulged these hapless lads
& lassies in allowing them to demonstrate their machines may have had
a nasty shock at just how much dirt they are able to extract from what we
thought were nice clean carpets, chairs and sofas - not to mention the
mattresses on our beds! It comes as a very nasty surprise to many of us to
find that so much crud could have accumulated where we put our nice clean
bodies to rest.
A recent TV program showed horrific close-ups of the
bugs and pests that inhabit every home, no matter how clean. The volume of
mites and other tiny creepy-crawlies inhabiting the average mattress,
pillow, sofa or armchair is daunting in the extreme.
Seeing a similar program some five years ago, and being
serendipitously visited by a door-to-door vacuum-cleaner sales-team a few
days later, persuaded me to allow them to demonstrate their machine, and I
was truly amazed at how much dirt they were able to extract from my
daily-swept carpets and sofas - some of which may very well have been live
bugs. I felt ashamed to see what they got out of my mattress!
So ashamed, in fact, that I became an easy sale, even
though the price was quite high. But how much value do you put on health
and cleanliness? The effort this machine has saved in easily removing my
Dalmatian’s constant shed of dog-hairs has alone justified the expense.
That machine is still giving me good service, I am glad
to say, and I feel it has been a good & healthy investment.
Realising the need
But this article is not to persuade you to buy a vacuum
cleaner. The story above is simply to demonstrate that until the need for
something is clearly demonstrated, we may believe we can quite well do
without it.
Similarly with your personal financial planning and
investment management.
Until we recognise and accept the need for professional
guidance, we will all tend to say, “No thank you - I can manage quite
well without.”
But can we?
How well is your pension planned, for instance? Do you
know how much you will realistically be able to take out from your pension
or invested capital, after allowing for inflation? Have you allowed for
inflation in your calculations?
If you have young children, have you made provision for
their further education? Established a college fund, for instance? Do you
know how much it costs to educate a child through university nowadays?
(About the same as buying a house, in case you didn’t know.) What effect
will this have on the family budget? Have you planned adequately for it?
Managing capital
Then, if you have a substantial amount of money saved
up, how well is this being managed for you? Or are you doing it yourself?
Are you satisfied with the results you’re getting? Do
you understand the concept of risk management? Of strategic
diversification? Or which markets are most likely to show positive results
in the next quarter, and which are likely not to? The nightly business
news on TV is not going to tell you this, let me assure you! Their job is
to bombard you with instant news and what the flavour-of-the-moment tastes
like, not sage advice about where you should be placing your hard-earned
pot for the next three months.
Some people have access to fund-tracking systems via
the Internet. But how do you go about selecting a sensible selection of,
for instance, asset allocation global neutral funds from the hundreds of
funds available? Do you even understand what these animals are? (What used
to be called ‘Managed’ funds, in case you weren’t sure, which can
invest anywhere in the world and across all asset classes - cash, bonds
& equities - wherein the managers have discretion to adjust the ratio
of each asset class according to changing market conditions.)
Or selecting, say, four of the best European equity
funds from the well-over 300 funds that one of the better such tracking
programs typically monitors within that sector?
By what criteria do you judge “best”? Best
performance over the past 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, 36 months or 60
months? Or all of these? (Few if any funds in any given sector will be top
performers across all these periods. Last year’s winner is very rarely
this year’s too.)
Or by star rating? What does a 4-star fund mean as
compared with a 5-star or 3-star? Or their research rating - frAA for
example.
Then there’s volatility and risk rating. This will
affect short-term performance quite considerably, even when comparing one
fund to another within the same sector. (Comparing Cox apples with Pippin
apples as opposed to oranges, if you like.)
The art of choosing a best-performing fund is to
understand how the fund is managed. If you’re going to monitor and
manage your own portfolio, you’d better be sure you understand all of
these technical aspects before you start. Otherwise, as the sage said, a
little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, and misdirect your efforts.
Tempus fugit
If you’re happy enough with your existing financial
arrangements, and are confident you don’t need any professional help,
then you might as well turn now to the amusing letters in Hillary’s
column.
If, however, you’re not quite sure that your
financial cushion might not have a few mites in it, and could perhaps do
with a good once-over with a powerful vacuum cleaner, then it would make
eminent sense to call a professional financial adviser.
He, like the doctor who gives you your yearly check-up,
may ask you all sorts of questions. Indeed, if he’s doing his job
properly, he should probe quite deeply into your financial orifices and
check for any bugs that might be lurking there.
He may then give you a completely clean bill of health
- or you might get a nasty shock. Most likely, he will make some
recommendations on how your financial strategy could be better structured
to achieve your goals and aspirations.
It is then entirely up to you whether you act upon
those recommendations or not.
If they make sense to you, and you feel comfortable
with them, and understand how the overall strategy fits together, and the
investment vehicles which he has identified match your needs, then the
sensible choice is obvious.
Shutting the door on financial advice may not be the
wisest way to go. Perhaps your personal financial planning could benefit
from a good vacuum cleaner to get out the bugs you might have accumulated
but weren’t even aware existed...
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.
Successfully Yours: Andrew
Hutchings
By Mirin MacCarthy
Anyone who has ever met Andrew Hutchings, one of the
partners in the Pig and Whistle Pub, would believe he is the consummate host
and absolutely to the manor born. However, it did take a few false starts
before he found his true metier.
Like many others he had been to Thailand years ago; for
Andrew it was in 1982 when he was best man at a wedding. “Pattaya was just a
little village then,” he reminisces, “More elephants on the road than
taxis.”
Andrew was born in London in the late forties, and his
father was an antique dealer. Siblings? Lots! He had one sister, two half
sisters (after his parents remarried), and an adopted Lebanese sister he is
still very close to.
His schooling was at Westcroft Preparatory School, then at
Ealing College, but academia was not calling him then. He left school at
sixteen to pursue racing motorcycles, a short-lived career, which had a large
impact on his life. Andrew had a serious accident in practice for his first
race and was unconscious with head injuries for ten weeks. It took him
eighteen months to fully recover his sight and speech from that large impact!
During his recovery he met a university professor who
encouraged Andrew to go to the USA, as it was easy to get further education
while working there. Andrew arrived at Chapel Hill University in North
Carolina where he took psychology for nine months, but he was not really happy
there and took an exchange to UCLA. “I was something of a novelty there;
they loved the English accent, and I must admit I played on it.” There are
those who would say he still does!
His transition from student to hotelier was dramatic. “I
was staying at the San Clemente Hotel, whose owner, Lee Riste, had won the
hotel in a poker game one week before. It was pretty run down, so I helped him
during the day, getting the hippies to paint and decorate the hotel. He
couldn’t afford to pay me so he offered me a 20% share in the hotel and I
took it. So I was running the hotel and the restaurant and making over $1,000
a week - that was a lot of money 30 years ago.”
Andrew then had a big shock when he was drafted for
Vietnam! He was only 19 and did nine weeks at Camp Pendleton in the U.S.
Marine Corps. “Then fortunately my exit visa came through and I was given 48
hours to leave the country or I would be redrafted.” He left!
He went to Vancouver in Canada and worked there for five
months before returning to the U.K. The rest of his story reads like a fairy
tale. His parents had a welcome party for him and he met his wife Daphne
there. “It was love at first sight. We had a blissful marriage and had four
children, 3 daughters and a son.”
Fate really did seem to be smiling on him. “I was
contacted by the US embassy and I was afraid it would be problems with my
draft, but it was to tell me Lee Riste died and left me his share of the
hotel. It was 30,000 pounds and we bought our first little pub, ‘The Royal
Oak’ in Watford Heath, Hartfordshire.” From there it was a progression of
pubs and small businesses. Andrew was in his element, but like all stories, it
had an ending - his wife died of cancer some three years ago.
After his wife died Andrew moved to Thailand. He went to
the Pig and Whistle and met Robert Adams, “The chap who built the place; it
was his concept. He was looking for a partnership with someone. I jumped at
the opportunity for something I love doing in a place I love doing it.”
Andrews’s favourite pastime is reading. “I have an
extensive library. I collect books. I just love reading old editions with
pencilled notes in the margins. I have three complete sets of the
Encyclopaedia Britannica dating back to 1911, all English and leather bound. I
like fiction, but not cheap fiction. I will read a book on any subject that is
reasonably well written. I will read a book on bee keeping if it is
interesting enough. I have a thirst for knowledge. There is nothing more ideal
than a comfortable chair, the sound of the sea and an endless supply of decent
literature.”
Andrew does not find it difficult to work in Thailand.
“It is just different, you can’t beat the system - you have to adopt it. A
smile goes a long way in this country, as does slapstick humour. Buddhism
appeals to me - I would like to be a monk for three months when I have learned
enough Thai to survive.”
Success to Andrew is: “Feeling comfortable with myself.
Materialist things have no meaning for me. If I won a million pounds I would
probably give it away.”
The personal qualities Andrew values are straightforward.
“Loyalty is very important to me. I am fortunate enough to have several good
friends. I’m a generous person too, I can’t understand people who are very
wealthy who are mean.”
His final words: “I like working in pubs because making
people feel welcome gives me a good feeling. I don’t have any advice for
would be publicans here. I think it is a calling. I happen to like people.”
There sums up the man.
Snap Shots: Photography
is it “Art”?
by Harry Flashman
If anyone ever doubted that photography is one of the
“art” mediums, then they should look at the work of a photographer
named Brassai.
In 1976 in an interview, Brassai, the photographer,
explained that reportage photographs are shown with a caption to explain
what it was about, but for him, “The structure or composition of a
photograph is just as important as its subject. This is not an aesthetic
demand but a practical one. Only images powerfully grasped - streamlined -
have the capacity to penetrate the memory, to remain there, to become, in
a word, unforgettable. It is the sole criterion for a photograph.”
You only have to look at the photographs with this
week’s column to see just what Brassai meant. The portrait of his friend
Picasso is so riveting, as the shot of the two hoodlums. He has made the
photographs unforgettable.
Brassai was a great talent. Born in 1899 in
Transylvania (along with Count Dracula), his name was Gyula Halasz. He
studied painting in Budapest and Berlin, and then, like so many artists in
those days, he made his way to Paris where he soon joined the “arty”
set of the day.
Finding that his surname was too difficult, he changed
his name to Brassai. He then became fascinated with Paris by night, and
the lifestyle of those who inhabited the darkness. However, it was six
years after his arrival before he took up photographing his nocturnal
ramblings. He had previously scorned photography as an art, believing that
painting was the true metier, but after encouragement from the famous
photographer Andre Kertesz he began to photograph the Parisian underworld
in 1930.
 This
self given project was massive. He photographed prostitutes, lovers,
transvestites, hoodlums and cleaners. He went behind the scenes at the
Folies-Bergere and even accompanied sewer cleaners on their nocturnal
rounds. Brassai believed that everyone in the nocturnal society, no matter
how elusive, were fascinating subjects for his new found medium of
photography.
Night photography in the early 1930’s was not a
simple case of some new batteries in the on-camera flash and fire away.
Brassai used a 6.5x9 cm Voigtlander mounted on a tripod, with flashbulbs
for illumination, and this was done with flair and drama. Brassai
considered the taking of the actual shot as an artistic event, and one
which his subjects should fully understand. This was no “shoot from the
hip” blunderbuss approach to getting the correct image. This was not the
situation of using a long lens and “spying” on the subjects to get
them unaware or off guard. Each shot was meticulously set up and he aimed
for the contrast produced by light and shadow. These images were designed
in Brassai’s head, because at that stage, there was no such process as
Polaroid “instant” photographs for him to preview the image.
Though he continued to paint and sculpt (in fact
Picasso called Brassai’s drawings a “gold mine”) he did consider
that photography was his best way of artistic expression and has left
several published works in this medium. One of the most famous being
“Paris by Night” - his collection of night photographs printed in
1933, and another being a collection of graffiti photographed over
twenty-five years.
Brassai had that unique talent of being able to
pre-visualize his photographs and then use the equipment at his disposal
to produce them. He “saw” the artistic worth and produced true
“art”. He certainly did raise photography to new artistic levels.
Brassai always was, and remains, an “artist”.
Modern Medicine: Thinking
your way to good health
by Dr Iain Corness
People laugh at me when I say, “I’m always well,”
because obviously I’m not - but I am well for 95% of the time, and
that’s not a bad average at my age.
The connection between one’s feelings and one’s
health has been the subject of much conjecture over the years - but we are
now getting to a stage where we can begin to measure what is going on.
See, it’s back to the Evidence Based Medicine again! Certainly it has
been the province of “common knowledge”, whereby patients intuitively
know what is going on with them. The people under stress who say they can
feel their blood pressure going up may actually be quite correct. It’s
just that we (the medical mob) haven’t got around to measuring it at
that red hot moment!
However, the back-room medico’s have been working
very diligently to apply EBM to all sorts of conditions, and one that has
received scrutiny has been Coronary Heart Disease (CHD). Amongst those
conditions which have been found to have an effect on CHD have been
anxiety and depression. And this was not just a slight effect - there were
major outcomes that came under scrutiny.
Would you believe that those people with high anxiety
levels had 5 times the rate of complications from CHD? Men with two or
more anxiety symptoms also showed up to have twice the risk of having
fatal CHD and four and a half times more likelihood of sudden death. Even
high levels of “worry” has been found to be associated with two and a
half times the risk of having a heart attack over a measured 20 year span.
Depression following heart attacks is a very common
clinical feature. Personally I believe this comes about by having to
accept the fact that we are merely mortal after all, and that the next
time could be “IT”. However, the bright chaps have also found that
just by being depressed you have seven times more chance of dying in the
18 months following the heart attack than you would otherwise.
All of a sudden, you can see just how beneficial it
might be to say, “I’m always well” - even if it is fooling yourself
a smidgen! The psycho-social pundits are saying that in any CHD situation,
we should be measuring the degrees of anxiety or depression and then
treating it, if we are to give ourselves (and our patients) the best
chances in life - in fact, life itself, in some situations.
I agree with that principle, especially from my
background as a GP, where we treat the entire person, not just the
cardiovascular system, for example. However, the message is really for us
all to do something about our psycho-social self. Recognize our worries,
fears and anxieties and learn to handle them before they become
significant factors in our own outcomes. You can always start by saying,
“I’m always well.” It does work, you know!
 Dear
Hillary,
I’m a middle-aged Brit living in Pattaya and working
in London. I love Thailand and its people. I enjoy the culture, the
customs, the climate, the food and the beautiful women, though not
necessarily in that order. I’m healthy and fit and enjoying my life. I
don’t seem to have any problems. Where am I going wrong?
Tricky Dicky
Dear Dicky,
You are far too smug. There are several areas that you
are going wrong in, my love. Firstly, nobody writes to Hillary if they
haven’t got any problems - and you have just written to me, haven’t
you, petal? The second thing is your statement of living in Pattaya and
working in London - that’s one helluva lot of commuting! No one in their
right mind does this daily, or weekly (or weakly?) or monthly? On one hand
you say you love everything here (in random order) and yet you waste your
working time in the UK. This shows a certain instability and even
untruthfulness to your own self and desires. Thirdly, anyone who admits to
being middle-aged is trying to excuse their obvious mid-life crisis.
Dicky, my boy, you’ve got lots of problems. Hillary suggests you see an
analyst straight away.
Dear Hillary,
Is there anything such as a ‘dating agency’ in
Pattaya where lonely men can meet nice young Thai ladies who would not
worry about being seen with a foreigner? I am middle aged and would just
like to meet someone without any hassles. Have you any suggestions,
Hillary?
Bob
Dear Bob,
Of course Hillary has some suggestions for you. You
could begin your quest at Soi 7 and come back up Soi 8. If you haven’t
found yourself a companion who doesn’t mind being seen with a foreigner
after that little jaunt, then you have a real problem. Don’t worry about
being middle aged, just make sure you’ve got plenty of well-matured
money in your wallet!
Dear Hillary,
The Visa system in place in Thailand (Pattaya) seems to
be very confusing. I get told that I can get 12 months, then someone else
says 3 months, and then another person says I have to leave the country
and come back in every 90 days. Quite frankly, I am confused. What is the
real situation?
Victor
Dear Victor,
The first thing is that nothing in Pattaya is ever
“real”. The second thing is not to talk to the fellows in the bar.
There are plenty of barroom experts in all facets of Thai life who can
lead anyone astray. The Immigration Department officers speak English and
can explain all the options to you. Of course, if you’re skulking about
with three years overstay on your Tourist Visa then you do have a problem!
There are well-defined rules and categories, just stick within the
guidelines and you’ll be fine.
Dear Hillary,
Why can nobody keep to the correct appointment time in
Pattaya? I made an appointment to see the insurance lady for 1 o’clock -
and she just didn’t turn up? Why is this, Hillary?
Browned Off
Dear Browned Off,
Perhaps she doesn’t have a watch? Or maybe it’s
only a copy watch? Seriously, in situations like this Hillary believes the
only thing to do is insist they ring you when they are actually in their
office. This way you don’t spend (and waste) your time with fruitless
trips to her office.
Dear Hillary,
My maid will be going off for around 2 months in 3
months time and she has arranged for a friend of hers to come in and do
for us. Only problem is that she cannot speak English at all. How am I
going to explain what I need doing?
Margo
Dear Margo,
No problems, just learn Thai in the next 3 months. If
that seems a big ask, don’t worry. I am sure that your own maid will
tell her friend exactly what she has to do, but don’t let that stop you
learning Thai. This is Thailand after all, isn’t it, my poppet.
Dear Hillary,
Now that we are approaching the “high season”, what
can be done to stop shopkeepers overcharging during this time? It really
does annoy me when everything seems to go up in price just because there
are a few tourists around. We are not tourists, so we are being penalised
by this. Have you any suggestions to get over this? What do you think
about the idea of a “Locals” card to show the shopkeepers that we do
live here too?
Local
Dear Local,
While there will be many people who will agree with
you, Hillary doubts if you will get the shopkeepers to agree with it (or
honour it). The only way is to patronise the same shops all year so that
they know you and you’ll be fine after that. If the worst comes to the
worst, get your maid to do the shopping. However, higher prices at Xmas
time is the norm all over the western world.
GRAPEVINE
| A
gulp too far
A 25-year-old Pattaya woman has pleaded not guilty
to murdering her 78-year-old boy friend from Halifax in northern
England. Forensic police were suspicious after the body of wealthy
pensioner Alfred Valence was discovered with twenty Viagra pills in
his stomach. The woman claimed she simply wanted Alfred to enjoy a
deeply sensual relationship but skeptics are pointing to a 4 million
baht bank account which was in joint names. Also missing from the
Jomtien flat are Alfred’s personal belongings, including several
pairs of flip- flops, four shirts, a toothbrush and a new BMW 7 series
car.
Hold very tight please
A public-spirited baht bus driver last week decided
to start a Women Only bus service at night from the North Pattaya
coach station. The idea was to reduce petty theft and assaults on the
fair sex which are said to be a growing nuisance on the resort’s
roads after midnight. However, the idea came to an abrupt halt after
only two hours. Two khatoeys, masquerading as ladies, took
advantage of the new rules to board the bus and organized a speedy
stick-up. Genuine passengers lost three handbags, a new floral hat and
an attractive pair of earrings.
Cottage pie anyone?
Here’s an offer you can hardly refuse. The
management of Fawlty Towers Restaurant in Soi 7 is looking for someone
to read the questions at home matches in the Pattaya Wednesday quiz
league. Basically, you have to bark out fifty questions from typed
sheets on a variety of subjects from Pluto and Mickey Mouse to Homer
and the lost tribes of the Amazon Basin. In return, you get a freebie
meal or a few beers. The fine detail is negotiable. Interested guys
and gals should contact Terry direct at the restaurant.
Be warned
An unlucky farang is distraught after renting long
term a condo in a well known block on South Pattaya Road. He has now
received electricity, water and phone bills totaling 14,000 baht as
well as demands for the maintenance charge going back eighteen months.
Cable TV has also been disconnected for non payment of the fees.
Understandably, he takes the view that he should be billed only for
services he has actually used since moving in last month. In reality,
he is involved in angry exchanges with the condo management, various
companies and the absentee landlord. In Pattaya, these are matters you
are well advised to check out before you part with the deposit. If
suspicious, insist on seeing the documentation which proves previous
bills have been paid. Finally, deal only with condo owners you have
met or use the services of a well established real estate agent.
|
Exit problems
Reader GD is intrigued that the police have
returned his passport to him even though he is on bail until his court
appearance next month. He asks what is to stop him leaving the
country. The first point to make here is that GD is already on
overstay so will be challenged at the immigration checkpoint at
airports and other crossing points. Many people on bail will find that
their passport details are on the immigration stop list, which means
that the officer won’t let you through. You could even be arrested
for trying to skip bail. The final point is that the cash originally
put up for bail will be forfeit if you do succeed in absconding. That
said, we all know of people who have slipped out of the country
without anyone trying to stop them. There’s no easy answer to GD’s
problem. If he has funds, we suggest he asks a lawyer to check with
the police why the passport was released in the first place.
Seeing stars
Tourists to Sin City frequently ask what is the
basis of the one to five stars “system” of classifying hotels.
Basically, there isn’t one. The stars usually represent price –
the higher the room rate the more medals a hotel may feel it can award
itself. But there is no link to quality whatever you think that might
mean. The good news is that the Thai Hotels’ Association is putting
the finishing touches to a new classification which, it’s said, will
be introduced next year. Wait and see before getting too excited.
Travel trends
The latest danger in flying is apparently the
violence of those sitting near you. One man on SouthWest airlines, who
tried to break into the cockpit, was bumped off by angry passengers
beating him up. An autopsy showed he had not after all died of a heart
attack. In another incident, a drunken lout on an Asian airline tried
to assault a stewardess and was punched unconscious by passengers
rushing to the rescue. He died later in hospital. No legal action was
taken in either case. It’s apparently safer to kill villains in the
air than if they break into your own home.
Frozen pensions
DW asks whether his Thai wife’s widow’s pension
from UK will be index linked for inflation after his demise. No.
British regulations generally stipulate that overseas state benefits
are frozen at the starting rate. There are exceptions for some
countries, but Thailand is not one of them. It’s best, by the way,
to open negotiations with the Benefits Agency in Britain before you
make that final journey. Entitlement depends on complex paperwork and
is by no means automatic.
|
Dining Out: Eating
Northern Style
by Miss Terry Diner
Lunch for two for under 100 baht!
The 3rd floor of the Royal Garden Plaza has the Seaview
Food Court. This collection of small food outlets has been re-vamped recently,
and has seen the number, diversity and range greatly expanded.
 We
decided this week to go to lunch there, and this was one of those weeks where
the chosen restaurant had no idea they were under scrutiny. Almost all of the
Seaview Court outlets operate on the voucher system, and there are ticketing
booths at both ends of the court. Along with your vouchers you also get
serviettes. Cutlery is available at various stations throughout the court,
including plastic wrapped chopsticks.
The Food Court is very spacious, and the seating
comfortable enough for a quick meal. Some tables have a great view over
Pattaya Bay as well. With a constant stream of diners, there is also a
constant stream of cleaners to make way for the next wave of the hungry
hordes.
The Team decided to concentrate on the Northern style
outlet, which is the last one before the Rice Mill Restaurant. The fare on
offer is on an English language menu board behind the servers, and the action
part of the kitchen is behind that. There is also a whiteboard Thai script
menu, but the very pleasant staff respond well to the time honoured pointed
finger approach to the food. The majority of the menu board items range
between 30 baht and 50 baht. This includes a kao soi, which is
generally very hard to get outside of Chiang Mai.
The majority of the food is pre-cooked and held in Bain
Marie’s under glass including hang-lay curry, gaeng keo waan, larb
(pork), chicken and vegetables and fried eggs. There are also numerous
sausages amongst the displayed items. To use as additional items or garnishes,
there are bamboo leaf covered platters with pickled cabbage and onion, plus a
tray with several types of (mainly chilli) sauces.
I ordered a chicken with vegetables (30 baht) and a
hang-lay curry (35 baht), while Madame went for the kao soi (30 baht).
My dishes came “lat khao”, which is translated as “on rice” and
the servings on the plates were very generous, while Madame’s was more of a
“soupy” curry and was served in a bowl.
The rice was light and fluffy and not sticky or glutinous
in any way, coming straight from the ever-present rice cooker. The chicken and
vegetables included tomatoes, carrot and Chinese mushrooms, along with the
chicken pieces, while the hang-lay curry had huge cubes of beef on a bed of
finely sliced ginger, almost like an Irish stew in appearance, the meat was so
large.
Kao soi is an interesting dish, being originally a
Burmese curry, and has soft egg noodles and chicken pieces, along with stir
fried crispy noodles and the whole lot topped with onion and squeezed lime.
Madame’s kao soi had a slight “bite” to it,
but it is not by any stretch of the imagination a fiery dish. The taste is
very “more-ish” and the combination of the two types of noodles made it a
fun dish as well. Every bit was eaten!
The chicken with vegetables was well cooked and the
vegetables tender. I personally found it a little bland, but I could have gone
back to sample the chilli sauces to go with it. On the other hand, the
hang-lay was fantastic as it came. The meat just fell apart and the taste was
sensational. The sliced ginger imparts an aromatic taste to the meat and was
definitely my dish of the day, while Madame was happy with her kao soi.
We were totally full by the end, and remember that the total for the three
dishes was less than 100 baht!
If you are looking for quick food, well cooked food and
very tasty food, we can highly recommend the Northern Style Outlet of the food
court. Try it yourself.
Seaview Food Court, 3rd floor Royal Garden Plaza, between
2nd and Beach Roads. Open from 11 a.m.
Animal Crackers:
Cat Tails and other jokes
by Mirin
MacCarthy
A famous art collector is walking through the city when
he notices a mangy cat lapping milk from a saucer in the doorway of a store,
and he does a double take. He knows that the saucer is extremely old and
very valuable, so he walks casually into the store and offers to buy the cat
for two dollars.
 The
store owner replies, “I’m sorry, but the cat isn’t for sale.” The
collector says, “Please, I need a hungry cat around the house to catch
mice. I’ll pay you twenty dollars for that cat.” So the owner says
“Sold,” and hands over the cat.
The collector continues, “Hey, for the twenty bucks I
wonder if you could throw in that old saucer. The cat’s used to it and
it’ll save me from having to get a dish.”
And the owner says, “Sorry buddy, but that’s my lucky
saucer. So far this week I’ve sold sixty-eight cats.”
Wanda & Bill Elder <[email protected]>
Frog Legs
A frog goes to have his fortune told. The swami looks at
his little webbed palm and says, “Aha! You’re about to meet a beautiful
young lady who is going to want to know everything about you.” The frog
says, “Thanks! I’m going to run right back to the pond so I won’t miss
her.” The swami says, “You won’t meet her at the pond. You’re going
to meet her in her freshman biology class.”
Bird Talk
A lady is walking down the street to work and sees a
parrot in a pet store. She stops to admire the bird. The parrot says to her,
“Hey lady, you are really ugly.” Well, the lady is furious! She storms
past the store to her work.
On the way home she saw the same parrot in the window and
the parrot upon seeing her says, “Hey lady, you are really ugly.” She
was incredibly ticked now. The next day on the way to work she saw the same
parrot and once again it said, “Hey lady, you are really ugly.” The lady
was so furious that she stormed into the store and threatened to sue the
store and have the bird killed. The store manager apologized profusely and
promised the bird wouldn’t say it again.
The next day, when the lady walked past the store after
work the parrot said to her, “Hey lady.” She paused, scowled with an icy
and deadly stare, and said with a hoarse voice, “Yes?” The bird,
strutting back and forth on its perch in a cocky manner, said, “You
know.”
Down The Iron Road:
Garratts - The Champion Artics - 5
by John D.
Blyth
The Biggest Garratt User: South Africa
Long before the Garratt arrived, the railways of South
Africa condensed into one system. At the end of the Civil War it was named
“South African Railways”, but with the decline of British influence, it
was called “Spoornet”, and was no stranger to the articulated
locomotive, with Fairlies, Meyers and Mallets all having been tried with
some success. Unusually, two gauges have been used, Garratts on both: these
were the so-called “Cape Gauge” of 1067 mm, and for some local lines,
mainly in Natal, but one long one in the Western Cape and some in the former
German East Africa, now found on the map as “Namibia”, 2 ft. gauge, 600
mm was used.
 Lightweight
Class GCA Garratt No. 2619 stands at Durban’s Greyville locomotive depot
in April 1960.
In excess of 400 Garratts were built for the Cape Gauge,
and another 60 on the narrow gauge, whilst a handful were also built for
industrial use, especially on colliery lines.
The first tentative trial Garratt, ordered about 1914,
arrived and was an instant success; others with improvements and for various
lines followed quickly. They were tried against the earlier artic and found
to be superior to all, but some senior engineers were hard to convince,
notably Col. Collins, who tried all kinds of oddities, and A.G. Watson, in
whose period in office not one artic was built.
Out of all this I have had to make a choice! I have taken
three 1067 mm gauge types of note and one example from their narrow gauge.
The GCAs: 2-6-26-2, 26 built in 1927-28
 One
of the numerous Class GMAM middle-weight Garratts, No. 4089 at Capital Park
Depot, Pretoria, in April 1969.
These modest locomotives had an unusual advantage, that
of “bar frames” instead of the then more common “plate frames”; the
former are more rigid and so reduce wear and tear in such items as axle
boxes. They had tiny wheels, yet they could ruin very fast, and so worked
the passenger trains on the South Natal Coast line for many years; they also
worked many minor but difficult branch lines inland from the Natal Coast and
even later on they could be seen south of Durban on local freight trains.
Some were sold into industry, but did not last long - they had paid for
themselves many times over. My picture, taken as late as 1969, shows a GCA
at the big steam locomotive depot at Greyville, Durban, now the site of the
city’s main passenger station.
The GLs: 4-8-28-4, 8 built in 1928
These magnificent locomotives were actually built as a
“stop-gap”! Electrification from Durban to Pietermaritzberg had been
authorized early on but not progressed due to the first world war; by the
mid-20s something had to be done to clear the traffic from the port of
Durban up the formidable grades of the Maritsburg line, and the GL, designed
by Beyer Peacock to specification by Col. Collins, were the result, a
cautious two only being ordered, instant success resulting in a further
order for six more. Electrification completed in 1938 the GLs were
transferred to Glencoe shed in Northern Natal, where they worked coal trains
from Vryheit over the heavily graded line to Glencoe, where three electric
locomotives took forward the trains for 1,200 tons and sometimes more. I
reached Glencoe in 1965 and the electric catenary was up south of Glencoe,
but just in time to see them at work, and fantastic it was too; for their
final days they were sent to Stanger, on the North Natal Coast line, where
there was little traffic for their huge power, and they were set aside. My
picture shows No. 2352 in the Science Museum of Greater Manchester, the city
where the GLs were built, a permanent salute to the great Beyer Company.
Durrant’s book comments that in 1972 this loco ran to Germiston in the
Transvaal for preservation, and that 8 years later it was rotting away. How
lucky that some unknown person financed its removal to a site 6,000 miles
away and its restoration, so well carried out!
 The
busiest of the Natal arrow gauge lines was centred on Umzinto, in South
Natal. Here is E140, Class NGG16, one of the last Garratts built, and almost
new in December 1966.
Two classes in one: GMA, and GMAM, 4-8-28-4, built in 1952-1958
No less than 120 of these two almost identical classes
were provided and if the 26 slightly smaller and lighter locomotives are
added, a formidable array of power appears. Based on the pre-war GM Class,
designed for light rails of 60 lb per yard, a light design was achieved by
greatly reducing the water carried on the engine to a minimum, and operating
with an additional 8-wheeled water tank wagon. The post-war locomotives have
modern cast-steel bed plates in place of the earlier bar frames, providing a
very strong basis. The additional “M’ denoted those which have had some
baffle plates removed from the coal and water spaces, allowing extra
supplies to be carried, but increasing the weight and restricting the
sections of line on which the engines could work. The alteration could be
effected quite easily and quickly and I suspect that many locomotives did
not carry the right classification on their cap-sides! These were the last
1067 mm gauge Garratts to be supplied to South African Railways, and some
had a short life indeed.
Narrow gauge Garratt, class NGG16; 2-6-26-2: built from 1937-1968
Almost identical to the NGG13 Class built from 1927,
these were the most powerful steam locomotives ever built for this narrow
gauge. They worked on all the narrow gauge lines in Natal and Cape Province,
but not those in Namibia. The 1958 batch were to be the last Garratts built
for a public railway anywhere, and in addition to some being sold to the
restored Welsh Highland Railway, one of them in Texas is the only Garratt in
all the USA! E140 in my picture was one of the last batches.
Next week something totally different
Woman’s World: The
price of beauty
by Lesley Warner
Why are we convinced that having a tan makes us look
better? Is there any truth to it? Why, despite cancer, aging, ozone, and the
choice of safe alternatives do we still insist on lying out under the sun?
For those of us fortunate enough to live in this country of sunshine
(although not this week!) the temptation is great to have a constant suntan,
but be warned! We fight constantly to maintain a youthful appearance and
then we expose ourselves to Mother Nature’s worst tool for ageing the
skin.
Have you ever noticed that when you have a suntan at
least one person will invariably tell you how well and healthy you look?
Let’s face it, we all know what it is that gives us that look of vitality
and makes us glow: it’s the suntan. It’s the feel good factor making you
feel more alive.
Despite everything we know about the negative health
effects of the sun, we continue to worship it. I looked up some statistics
when I decided to write on this subject (and wished I hadn’t). According
to the American Cancer Society, this year one million cases of skin cancer
will be diagnosed - plus an additional 45,000 cases of melanoma. Pretty
shocking, but does this stop us? Well, it may scare us into applying extra
sunscreen and knowledge may be power in the realm of health, but it
doesn’t mean that we’ll actually use it.
A tan is perhaps the greatest beauty contradiction.
Bronzed skin makes us look young and healthy, but that same sun-kissed color
is actually your body’s sign of the damage that’s distressing the
genetic material inside the skin cells. And it’s not only DNA that’s
being damaged - it’s also collagen and elastin, the skin’s youth makers.
So with less and less of them, this equals prematurely old and haggard skin.
A beautiful irony, isn’t it?
There are so many potential reasons (read, excuses) why
we choose to ignore knowledge and progress - and instead opt to lie out and
brown our bodies a la toasted marshmallow. Some worshippers believe that
regardless of the best fake tan formulation in town, nothing beats
nature’s touch. The sun creates that inimitable combination of bronze with
a flush of sun-kiss. And then there’s the simple yet unrivalled pleasure
of lying on the hot sand with the heat of the sun calming your nerves and
bringing on a sense of total relaxation. Especially addictive is the feeling
of the sun beating on your back, thawing your bones the same way a hot
shower does in winter. Add to that the rhythmic swishing of the waves, the
perfect temperature-balancing sea breeze, and most of us are willing to risk
it for a coat of color direct from the source.
Consider the leaps and bounds made technologically in
terms of natural-looking self-tanners. Thanks to the combined efforts of
science and the beauty industry, we need never step into the sun’s rays to
get ‘the look’. There is so much choice in the fake tan industry it’s
amazing. Spray it on, rub it in, or pay a salon to do it for you, there’s
just no excuse to expose. But we humans have never been that entirely
logical. Especially when it comes to vanity. Give us the perfect solution -
and that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to take it.
Whether a tan will remain as constant a beauty asset as
straight white teeth or long lashes, time will tell. But as long as it still
gives us that ‘feel-good’ factor, you can bet beaches will be scattered
with those risking it all for beauty.
Coins of the Realm: Boxes
with coins
by Jan Olav Aamlid -
President - House of the Golden Coin
http://www.thaicoins.com
Last week I received an e-mail from Paul M. asking me
about the value of a box with a coin made for the cremation of King
Chulalongkorn, Rama V (1868-1910). There were actually two different boxes
made for the King Rama V cremation, one with one coin and the other with two
coins. A plaque was also produced for the cremation box with one coin.
When King Chulalongkorn visited Europe in 1907, he paid a
second visit to the French Mint (the King made his first visit in 1897).
King Chulalongkorn was impressed with the French sculptors and on his second
visit he sat as a model for the engraver A. Patey.
The King was very impressed with the work, and an order
for 1,036,691 one baht coins was given to the French Mint. Unfortunately,
the coins did not arrive in Thailand before King Chulalongkorn passed away.
King Vajiravudh, Rama VI (1910-1925) gave his permission
to distribute some of these one baht coins at the cremation of King
Chulalongkorn in 1910. These coins are very popular and cost, in perfect
condition, about 300,000 baht. In not so nice condition I have seen the
coins sold for about 75,000 baht.
The coins in the boxes are damaged; there is a small line
made on the edge so the coins could be fitted into the box. Often the boxes
have been cleaned during the years, and this has resulted in the coins
having been worn on the outside, but inside the box the coins are normally
in very nice condition.
 The
boxes I have seen are normally silver-plated, not in silver, as many
believe. The box with one coin I do believe has a value of about 160,000
baht and with two coins about 300,000 baht. This is for nice boxes with
coins in nice condition. I think the box with one coin is more rare than the
one with two coins. Anyway, the boxes with two coins are more popular as one
can see both sides of the coin.
It is interesting to know that the engraver A. Patey only
made the portrait side of the coin; another artist made the reverse with the
three-headed elephant.
King Vajiravudh continued to use the three-headed
elephant on the reverse of his coins. The King also had his portrait on the
obverse facing right, not left like his father King Chulalongkorn. Boxes
with coins from King Vajiravudh also exist but I think they are made on
private initiative.
From King Mongkut, Rama IV (1851-1861), I have seen a
beautiful silver box with a 4 baht coin, or Tamlung, in silver. The coin
alone weighs slightly more than 60 grams and in nice condition the market
value is about 400,000 baht. It is hard to say if the value of the box is
more, but as I mentioned, sometimes the coin is slightly damaged. This
results the coin having less value. But looked upon as a piece of art, I
think the value for such a box is more.
The plaque seen in the picture was also issued to
commemorate the Royal Cremation of King Chulalongkorn. It has the one baht
coin from the Paris mint set in it, and the plaque shows the funeral pyre.
The reverse of the plaque is blank. I have never seen such an interesting
plaque for sale, so I cannot comment on the value.
If readers have any questions about coins, banknotes or
medals, please email me at [email protected]
and I will try to answer.
Copyright 2000 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] |
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