|
Well known restaurateurs celebrate 20 years of marriage
 Ron Amero (left) and Lek Carabao
(right) toast the groom on his accomplishment of lasting 20 years in marriage.
Bjarne and Songkran Nielsen of Caf้ Kronborg celebrated 20 years of marital bliss at their renowned restaurant the Caf้ Kronborg. Denying that it
was martial bliss, the happy couple were congratulated by friends and family who brought flowers and gifts for the occasion.
 The happy couple, Bjarne and
Songkran with children Egon and Christina
The evening was filled with laughter and dance, and one of the gifts they received was a framed portrait of the couple at their wedding, with everyone
remarking how little they had changed over the two decades.
 Moe, Matts and Derek help the
family celebrate
Among their guests were Bjarne and Songkran’s children Egon and Christina, who helped their parents celebrate the evening festivities. Lek Carabao, lead
guitarist with the Carabao Band, was also present at the wedding anniversary, sharing with them the high spirits of the evening’s entertainment.
No Rain on this Parade
The first ever Mardi Gras Madness Parade, the brainchild of Derek, Top Class Entertainment’s manager and quiet achiever, took place on Wednesday May 9
and, if the success of the inaugural event is anything to go by, then Pattaya now has a new and innovative addition to the extravaganza calendar.
The parade started near the Nang Nual Seafood restaurant at the bottom end of Walking Street and featured a cast of characters that resembled the ensemble
crew of a Broadway production.
The two MC’s for the evening were David Smith, the Top Class Entertainment webmaster and Dr Iain Corness, well-known scribe of Pattaya Mail.
 Doc Vader, breathing heavily - just
another night out with the boys
The medico was able to blend into the parade by donning a Darth Vader outfit (black robe with hood, black military-style helmet and a black face mask) and
breathing heavily.
David Smith, a former jockey and colourful racing personality back in his Australian homeland, was bedecked in a shirt garish enough to have him mistaken
for a garden gnome. He neglected to come equipped with his riding crop, claiming the whip was in for repairs after recent heavy use.
As well as this pair, there were also three girls made up to look like female Egyptian Pharaohs, and they were armed with long spears. Add to them a girl
in a Cossack outfit, a boy wearing a mask designed to look like the monster in The Predator movie, Bozo the Clown, Zorro (sans sword and Sergeant Garcia) and a flamenco
dancer, and you begin to get some idea of the entertaining makeup of this first Mardi Gras.
As is usual in these sorts of events, the “girls of the second category” stole the costume show with their state of dress, or in some cases almost
undress, and that being apart from the fact that they tended to be two metres taller than anyone else, except for the pair of stilt walkers dressed in clown satins.
The parade had been scheduled to commence at around 11:00 p.m. but was delayed by about 20 minutes while a search was conducted for the band. The musicians
were never found, so others were roped in to fill the void.
The march up Walking Street finally began at 11:20 p.m. and within minutes the roadway was lined with curious onlookers. From locals, tourists and working
girls and boys, cameras were flashing and video recorders were humming, all recording an unusual sight.
At the Beach Road end of Walking Street the local constabulary held up the traffic and allowed the parade to saunter into South Pattaya Road. The traffic
lights on the corner of Second Road and South Pattaya Road remained on green as the parade took a left turn and proceeded down Second Road to Pattayaland Soi 1. At the end of
Pattayaland Soi 1 the assembled multitude, numbers swelled by those who wanted to see just where this was all going to end up, swept once again into Beach Road before halting
briefly at the entrance to Pattayaland Soi 2 and reforming.
Then it was up the street to the front entrance of the Planet Rock where the parade ended. The whole march took around 25 minutes.
The assembled multitude, after posing for the obligatory photos, then made their collective way inside Planet Rock to prepare for the stage shows. By this
time the stilt walkers were legless. That is, in order to get into the nightclub they had their stilts removed.
The ensuing shows included a cabaret, a slightly delayed, yet award-winning Singaporean Zorro magical act, accompanied by probably the best-looking
assistant in the history of magic (the gaps in between each performance were filled by the comedy duo David and Iain), and more cabaret shows, one involving a decidedly hairy
man in a gorilla costume, before the Mardi Gras Madness show came to an end at about 1:00 a.m.
Derek and his team deserve a pat on the back for producing something completely different and innovative. With the benefit of the lessons learned in this
first event, next year’s Mardi Gras should be even bigger and better and, who knows, given time it may rival the likes of San Francisco’s Hookers Ball or Rio de
Janeiro’s Carnaval.
Rayong celebrates Fruit Festival and Good Things in Rayong
Veerachai Somchart and Vichan Pladplueng
 Deputy Minister of Interior Sora-at
Klinprathum opened the “Good Things in Rayong and Fruit Festival” on May 5.
Rayong’s Annual Fruit Festival is a popular tourist attraction during the height of the fruit season when a number of different exotic fruits are made
available. Durian, mango, rambutan, mangosteens, pineapple and other fruits are displayed along with a large selection of seafood in the market.
 The prettiest fruit maidens in
the east
Deputy Minister of Interior Sora-at Klinprathum opened this year’s festival on May 5. The festival ran until Sunday, May 13. A festive parade of
beautiful floats decorated with various fruits and flowers opened the week long festival.
Thousands of tourists flocked to the central market area, buying up the exotic fresh fruits and other merchandise all week long. This year the price of
fruit was unusually cheaper, with the tasty “monthong durian” selling for 18-25 baht per kilo, and the “chanee durian” selling from 8-10 baht per kilo. Other fruits
also sold for less this year, and the good buys are continuing following the festival.
 Our foreign friends drew large
crowds during the fruit eating contests |
 Intricate floats made of fruit
highlighted the opening of the festival |
Nong Nooch - one of the many splendours Pattaya has to offer
by Lesley Warner
I thought that it was time that I paid a visit to one of my favourite places again, Nong Nooch. I rang Khun Aree who I knew previously from the Pattaya
office last year, when Nong Nooch was kind enough to give a home to Jo Jo a homeless monkey PAWS had acquired. I asked if I could go over to the gardens and pester everyone
for a story again and they were very obliging and gave me freedom of the park.
 Show off!
To take in the whole of Nong Nooch would take a lot more time than I had and although I have been many times before I’m quite sure I have missed a lot of
the wonderful sights there are to see in the gardens. The collections of palms, trees, cycads, shrubs and rare species of plants have brought the ‘Garden’s worldwide
recognition as a unique tropical garden in Asia. This has created an interest in horticultural and academic circles, as well as attracting many tourists and the general public
to visit. The gardens are superb and you could spend hours just wandering around admiring the amazing displays of exotic plants and flowers before you even start on the
animals. Although set among 520 acres don’t panic, there is the bus to show you around or a swan boat ride or just take a stroll along the lake, then take refreshment in one
of the restaurants.
 This isn’t a cuddly little
stuffed toy, it’s the real thing!
Originally, in 1954, Mr. Pisit and Mrs. Nongnooch bought the land and developed it into a fruit garden with mangoes, oranges, coconuts and many others. I
wonder if Mrs. Nongnooch with her love of flowers had any idea of how popular her garden would become when she decided to turn the orchard into a garden of tropical flowers
and ornamental plants.
Thai style houses, cottages and villas were then built for tourists, with facilities such as a restaurant, swimming pool and meeting rooms. Then in 1980 the
garden was opened to the public with elephant shows in a theatre within the gardens compound. The garden is now one of Asia’s leading botanic gardens owned and managed by a
private company.
 Thai style villas are absorbed
peacefully into the tropical gardens
There is nowhere else in the world where so many species of palms can be seen growing together in one place. There are estimated 2600-2800 species of palms
residing in the world and of those Nong Nooch has approximately 1100 species and hopes to reach 2000 in the future. The orchids on display in the greenhouse are out of this
world and they are available to buy. Can you imagine Butterfly Hill is created out of fifty thousand flowers and ornamental plants? In the butterfly house you can see many
varieties including the small yellow wings or the world’s largest butterfly, the Attacus Atlas. Witness their whole lifecycle, which takes four steps and about one to nine
months for the butterflies to complete and become the beautiful creatures that they are.
 The beautiful tropical gardens at
Nong Nooch
The Cycads are amazing they represent an ancient group of plants that flourished during the dinosaur age, but now are only holding on in the tropical zones
of the world. Fossil records show that this group of plants was widespread throughout the world even in the Arctic during the Cretaceous Era. Many species are now threatened
by extinction and some species are so rare that only a few individuals survive.
 Ornate and serene
I particularly like the statues of mythical characters from Thai literature that decorate the French Garden and the Stone Circle ‘Stonehenge’ of Nong
Nooch.
There’s also the mini zoo where the small animals are kept, which is located near the children’s playground, and there is a miniature railway complete
with tunnel and waterfall for the children and adults to enjoy.
The show is great - a show with a difference. The 60-minute performances feature traditional dances of the four regions, a wedding ceremony, wedding
processions and a sword fight. There is also Thai boxing (Muay Thai), elephants in battle and an outdoor elephant show. These shows are on 3 times a day. For more information
contact 038 429321/709358.
Your Health: Fad Fallacies and other Nutritional Misnomers
They’re quick, they’re easy, and they don’t work
by Katherine Iglinski
Many of us have bought into the notion of quick fix diets. In fact, any aspiring dieter craves to hear “you too can lose ten pounds in just two days!”
Yet the reality remains that fad diets are just not meant to be.
They promise quick and easy weight loss generally without requiring exercise, and while all this seems fine and dandy in the world of fat fantasy, once
reality sets back in we see why each and every one of them are impossible.
Fad diets are often too low in calories and tend to exclude one of the four essential food groups – and we all remember from our elementary school years
how important those are.
“Fad diets are not based on research, but on anecdotes. For example, people always talk of fad diets in terms of, ‘Oh yeah so-and-so lost so much weight
on this new diet,’ but you never hear of hundreds of people losing weight on that particular diet because the information is not based on experimental evidence,” explained
Ginette Blake, Public Health Dietician of the Middlesex-London Health Unit.
Fad diets do not change people’s eating habits, which is generally the problem with those trying to lose weight, according to Blake. The truth is that fad
diets are difficult to maintain and people generally give up on them easily. This places them right back where they started before the diet, or worse - ten pounds heavier.
“When someone is on a diet their metabolism slows down, so when they go back to eating their usual daily intake of food that person’s body does not know
what to do with this excess amount of food, so it turns it into fat,” said Blake.
Spoken like a true second year Nutrition student at Brescia College, Jennifer Cook says she has never tried fad diets. “They don’t provide the proper
nutrients. The no carbs, no meats, or no fats diets are stupid, you need all these things for a healthy diet,” she said. “Besides, they are a waste of your money.”
However, fad diets are not the only fallacies that we adhere to. Everyone should be aware of some of the other myths we, the general public, conjure up about
nutrition.
Myth #1: “Carbohydrates are fattening”
The truth: Unfortunately anything in excess is fattening. According to Lefa Koba, a lecturer in Human Ecology at Brescia College, “Everything has its
place in a balanced diet, especially carbohydrates.”
Myth #2: “Even though I eat well I should take vitamin supplements”
The truth: The typical healthy individual who eats well-balanced meals does not need more vitamins added to their diet. As long as the four essential
food groups have been adequately accounted for, extra vitamins can be wiped off the shopping list. For all those advocates of protein shakes, I’m sorry to report but they do
not act like Popeye’s spinach – they won’t miraculously make you stronger.
Myth #3: “Eating fats is bad for your health”
The truth: We all need a little bit of fat in our diets as they provide the essential fatty acids our bodies need, but cannot themselves produce. “Fats
help to deliver and absorb the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K, which are essential to any healthy body,” Koba explained.
Myth #4: “Eating at night causes you to gain weight”
The truth: It is not actually the eating that is the problem - it is what you eat. Snacking on pizza or good ole Sammy’s fries after a late night out
is where those added pounds come from. Yet a healthy alternative like a classic favorite of peanut butter and jelly sandwich is actually okay.
So what should you do to maintain a healthy lifestyle? Once again, we purport the much-belabored point of a well-balanced diet, combined with some form of
exercise. Amazingly it really is that simple. Blake also advises to watch your calorie intake of liquids. “Most people buy a Fruitopia and think nothing of it, yet the fact
remains they have a lot of calories but do not fill you up.” Another little trick Blake offered is to increase the amount of fiber in your diet – it makes you feel fuller.
Simply put, “Healthy eating is just common sense,” said Blake.
Updated every Friday
Copyright 2001 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]
Updated by
Chinnaporn Sungwanlek, assisted by Boonsiri Suansuk.
E-Mail: [email protected]
|
The Rotary Club
of Jomtien-Pattaya
Skal
International
Pattaya
Fun City
By The Sea
|
