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We’re Professionally Rockin’
Hard Rock Hotel Pattaya Hosts PCO and Media Night
Suchada Tupchai
 The
PCOs event at the Hard Rock Hotel Pattaya included many fun, and funny,
games.
Hard Rock Hotel Pattaya on October 29 hosted “We’re
Professionally Rockin’!”, an event attended by professional conference
organizers (PCOs) and media professionals, aimed at showcasing this seaside
hotel’s services and facilities.
Following several engaging “ice-breaker” and
team-building games held in the afternoon around the hotel, attendees were
treated to a full evening of wining, dining and excellent entertainment.
The PCO & Media Night’s evening function was held in the Hall of
Fame, Hard Rock Hotel Pattaya’s recently refurbished venue for meetings,
incentives, conventions, and exhibitions (MICE).
Early Diwali celebration for PILC at Indian by Nature Restaurant
Gillian Thom
Pattaya International Ladies Club had their monthly luncheon
recently at the elegant Indian by Nature Restaurant on Thappraya Road. And
although some of the group members were still in Bangkok, getting over the
Melbourne Cup celebrations, there was a good turnout of over 40 members.
Pattaya
International Ladies Club members enjoying their monthly luncheon at the Indian
by Nature Restaurant.
Club Vice-President Avninder (Av) Khanijou owns the
restaurant, and always makes a special effort to entertain the group with a
delicious buffet. Ladies were invited to wear ethnic costumes, which gave those
who had been on the recent trip to India a chance to show off their new outfits!
There were also some vendors with more Indian clothes and goodies available for
sale.
PILC President Sharon Tibbitts thanked the members for
attending, welcomed one new member, Lindsay, and reminded the ladies of
forthcoming events, including the Gala Ball in November, and various activities
in the New Year, including the popular Quiz Night in January. Helle Rants้n,
chair of the Welfare Committee, also spoke about the club’s charitable
projects and reminded members that the shopping trips to Carrefour with the
Street Kids will start at the end of November.
The coffee mornings form one of the club’s bi-monthly get-togethers, and
are a good way of meeting up with new and old friends alike. Anyone wanting to
join the group, or who would like more information about its various activities,
should telephone Sharon Tibbitts, President, on 06 0956928 or Vice-President
Avninder Khanijou on 038-374-303.
Haus München celebrates seventh anniversary
Narisa Nitikarn
Kamolthep
Malhotra, sales and marketing director of Pattaya Mail Media Co., Ltd.,
producers of Pattaya Mail on TV, presents a gift of flowers to Roger Ayyer on
the occasion of Haus München’s seventh anniversary.
Haus München, on the Pattaya-Naklua Road near Soi
Wong-Amat, celebrated its seventh anniversary on October 20. Manager Roger Ayyer
hosted a lavish reception and was on hand to greet guests and old friends.
A buffet was provided, with European and Thai food, and everyone toasted the
future success of the popular restaurant.
Rotary Club of Taksin-Pattaya members take trip to Chantanimit
The vocational service director of the Rotary Club of
Taksin-Pattaya, Marvin Green set up a joint project between the Rotary Club of
Taksin-Pattaya and its sister club in Chantanimit. Members of the RC of Taksin
Pattaya traveled to Chantaburi to join the sister club, at their weekly meeting.
Everyone arrived in the afternoon at the Travelodge Hotel where the RC of
Chantanimit holds their weekly meeting. As always the fellowship and the food in
this club is superb.
PP
Dieter presented President Sanjaote Talard Lang of the Chinese Temple
Association with an envelope containing 3000 baht to be used to feed and clothe
the hungry and poor people in the area.
PP Dieter addressed the club and told the members that the
president and members of Taksin-Pattaya would continue to support their club’s
activities. Then he presented President Sanjaote Talard Lang of the Chinese
Temple Association with an envelope containing 3000 baht to be used to feed and
clothe the hungry and poor people in the area.
The next morning Rotarians Marvin and Bob traveled to the Sureerath Shrimp
Farm, one of the country’s most environmentally friendly and efficient farms.
On arrival at the farm the farm’s president, Prayoon Hongrath, welcomed them
and gave a guided tour of the farm and its facilities. Those present found the
trip very interesting and were amazed at the effort that goes into producing a
type of food they all enjoy regularly.
GM Amorn speaks on Royal Garden Plaza policy as 12th anniversary is celebrated
Understand your customers and fulfill their wishes, he says
Suchada Tupchai
In the 12 years since Royal Garden Plaza opened for business,
Pattaya City has changed to an immense degree. Yet still the plaza remains one
of Pattaya’s favorite shopping and entertainment venues, an attraction for
everyone no matter what nationality or age.
 “Royal
Garden Plaza has four main performance areas: results, customer focus, people
development, and innovation...”
Royal Garden Plaza is part of the Minor International Group,
which is also responsible for many other businesses including the Pattaya
Marriott Resort and Spa.
Pattaya Mail spoke to Royal Garden Plaza’s general
manager Amorn Amornkul on how the plaza maintains its lead in the face of
competition and market changes.
Royal Garden Plaza opened after the Pattaya Marriott Resort
and Spa, said Amorn. Planning began 15 years ago, and the plaza is now
celebrating 12 years of success.
 “Everything
changes and we also have to change.”
At its completion, this was one of the most modern style
buildings in Pattaya, with its glass frontage and its mini theater, its myriad
of boutiques and its stylish restaurants and fast-food outlets. Amorn said that
the building was designed specifically to meet international standards, and work
is undertaken on a continuing basis to ensure that it always remains up to the
minute in terms of design and facilities, and that it always meets the
expectations of overseas visitors.
Because it’s a shopping center and is always in use,
adjustments and upgrading have to be done little by little so as not to disturb
the customers and vendors. This is not easy when major works are undertaken,
such as in the upgrading that was completed last year, when one more floor was
added. There was in total a five-year upgrading program that used a budget of
almost 300 million baht, said Amorn. But it was very necessary, because Pattaya
is moving very fast and Royal Garden Plaza has to stay at the forefront.
 “The
new Bangkok International Airport is going to have an important effect on
Pattaya.”
“My boss asked me why dinosaurs became extinct,” said
Amorn with a smile. “For me I thought it was because they had a big body and
slow movement. But my boss said they died out because they didn’t change,
although their surroundings and the environment were changing.
“We would become extinct like the dinosaurs if we didn’t
adapt to the changes taking place around us. Now I make this point of view
central to our administrative policy. Everything changes and we also have to
change. The future always changes things and we must adapt.”
 “We
would become extinct like the dinosaurs if we didn’t adapt to the changes
taking place around us.”
Vision is, however, a practical skill. Amorn said that at
Royal Garden Plaza they have a structure of four main performance areas, namely
on results, customer focus, people development, and innovation.
He ticked the categories off on his fingers. With a
results-oriented policy you don’t worry about the time and the budget if you
are satisfied with the results. A customer focus strategy is built around
understanding customer needs and fulfilling customer wishes. People development
involves motivating and rewarding your personnel so that they give their utmost
in terms of service. Innovation means that you lead with new ideas.
Competition has emerged in the past four or five years with
big names such as Lotus, Big C and Carrefour moving into Pattaya. But Amorn said
that there is still a lot of potential in the city. Whereas Bangkok has an
enormous number of shopping malls, department stores and hypermarkets, and the
major operators are looking to expand into the provinces, Pattaya is still a
very attractive and growing market.
But he also points out that much of the perceived competition
is from hypermarket operators who are in a different segment of the market.
“We have three distinct sales outlets, namely fashion, food
and entertainment,” he said. “In fashion, we have the most brands in Pattaya
City. We have Food Wave for food service in an area of about 5,000 sq m, and we
have other well-known restaurants. For entertainment we have Ripley’s World of
Entertainment, which is different from our competitors, and many other
activities.”
Amorn said that the opening of the new Bangkok International
Airport is going to have an important effect on Pattaya and its development.
That in turn will present its own challenges to Royal Garden Plaza, but with the
strength of its vision and strategy he is confident this will remain one of the
city’s premier shopping and entertainment venues.
Amorn said there are many activities planned to celebrate the 12th
anniversary. For example, each purchase of 1,200 baht will be rewarded with a
raffle ticket for a 12-karat 12-diamond locket valued at 600,000 baht. This has
already begun and will continue until November 30. The prize draw will take
place on December 1 at 7 p.m. at the fountain area.
A short discourse on Loy Krathong meanings and traditions
According to the history written by King Mongkut in 1863, the
Loy Krathong festival has its roots in ancient Brahmin culture, going back some
700 years. The spirits of the river were given offerings which were sailed in
the river in small boats (krathongs) and in this way the owner of the krathong
would gain absolution. This was a Brahmin belief.
 The
small boats fashioned by the beautiful and talented Nang Noppamas, the daughter
of a Brahmin priest and wife of King Phra Ruang, were notable for their
construction and beauty. It was this king who then dedicated the krathong to the
memory of the Buddha, and decreed that the event would be called Loy Krathong
and that it should become an annual celebration to commemorate the skill and
beauty of his consort. In this way he lifted it out of Brahmin culture and
installed it into the accepted Buddhist way of life. This is the reason that the
krathongs now carry three incense sticks representing the Buddha, the Dharma and
the Sangha.
During the Loy Krathong Festival, people decorate their
krathong with flowers, joss sticks and candles which will then sail away, taking
with them bad health, bad luck and unhappiness.
Lanterns are well-known symbols in the Loy Krathong Festival, too, being used
to decorate houses and temples in worship of the guardian spirits. There are
four kinds of lantern used in the festival: the hand-held rabbit lantern, the
hot air balloon lantern (kom loy), the hanging lantern for religious worship,
and the spin lantern installed at the temples. The belief in lanterns is that
the lights inside compare with the wisdom the people will gain in the next life.
PSC’S biggest project takes shape
Bernie Tuppin
The construction of the Chonburi Shelter located at Rong Po,
midway between Pattaya and Sriracha, is well on the way to completion. These
buildings will double the capacity of the existing facility. The Shelter is run
by the Welfare Dept and caters to the needs of a variety of unfortunates in our
community. Those that are helped there include abused children, both boys and
girls, aged persons abandoned by their families, homeless pregnant women and
girls, accident victims with no family support and battered wives. Until now all
of these people (up to 50 at times) have been housed in a single dormitory with
meals prepared and eaten on the verandah.
Progress to
October.
This situation was brought to the attention Helle Rants้n,
PILC Community Welfare Chairperson, who contacted Jesters President Woody
Underwood and PSC Charity Chairman Bernie Tuppin. The three groups had
previously worked together at Huay Pong to refurbish dormitories and construct a
shelter for abused children. At subsequent meetings it was decided to pool
resources to increase these facilities that were under extreme pressure. Plans
were drawn up for a new dormitory and caretakers’ accommodation and also a
separate building to serve as a kitchen and canteen.
Pictured
breaking the ground for the new shelter buildings in August are (from L to R)
Gerry Carpenter (PSC president) Sharon Tibbitts (PILC president) Helle Rants้n
and Bernie Tuppin (PSC charity chairman).
At the annual PSC general meeting a proposal was put to the
elective members that the PSC take responsibility for the dormitory at a cost of
B1,200,000. The proposal was passed without objection making it the single
largest donation ever made by the Pattaya Sports Club, (exceeding last year’s
donation of B700,000 to the tsunami victims at Koa Lak and Koh Lanta).
As with the tsunami donation the bulk of the funds will be raised at our
coming Charity Classic Golf Tournament. The Jesters and PILC will be responsible
for funding the kitchen and canteen. Present progress suggests that the complex
will be completed by early November 2005 and we hope to have the opening
advertised so that any interested members may attend the official handover.
Vassula Ryden to speak at Assumption College
 Vassula
Ryden
On Sunday, November 20 from 1.30 - 4 p.m. at Assumption
College Hall in Sriracha, Vassula Ryden will present a talk about True Life In
God; the inspirations she’s been receiving from God since 1985.
Vassula’s experience with God is a lasting and
inexhaustible spring of wisdom, love, enthusiasm for God and the salvation of
the world. For that reason the testimony is convincing, joyful, and stimulating.
Besides conversion and a call that humankind should answer love with love,
there is also concern for the church unity. Where would Vassula’s message lead
if it were put into practice? Come and listen to her messages.
PBTA prepares to hold 19th birthday party
Suchada Tupchai
The Pattaya Business and Tourism Association is to throw a
party celebrating the 19th anniversary of its founding.
 (From
left) PBTA secretary, Deputy Mayor Weerawat Khakhai, PBTA President Thanet
Supornsaharungsri, PBTA Treasurer Premruedee Jittiwutthikarn, and Sinchai
Wattanasartsathorn, PBTA registrar hold a news conference announcing the PBTA
19th anniversary celebrations.
A press briefing was held on October 26 at Green Park Resort,
with PBTA president Thanet Supornsaharungsri, Pattaya deputy mayor and secretary
of the PBTA Weerawat Khakhai, Treasurer Ms Premruedee Jittiwutthikarn and
registrar Sinchai Wattanasartsathorn outlining the plans for the event, which
will take place on November 15, beginning at 6 p.m. at Long Beach Hotel.
Thanet said that the PBTA was established to promote business
and tourism in Pattaya and is the center of information for government officials
and businesspersons both national and international.
This year sees the 19th anniversary of the association and
the committee organizing the celebrations believes that the party will help
cement relationships between business owners and government agencies and provide
an opportunity to exchange opinions and views concerning Pattaya. There will be
activities, games and prizes.
Tickets and further information are available from Flipper Resort Hotel, tel
0 3842 6401-2 and 0 3841 1655-6.
Gay Festival raises more money for AIDS sufferers
Casa Pascal dinner results in collection of 235,000 baht
Elfi Seitz
Organizers of the Gay Festival were once again busy at a club
dinner on October 24 at the gourmet restaurant Casa Pascal.
They arranged the many beautiful prizes, amongst them a
diamond ring worth 40,000 baht, attractive paintings and even furniture, to
encourage all the many guests to buy lots of raffle tickets. Nobody said no, and
after all the tickets were sold the club was 115,000 baht richer, a sum that
will go to help AIDS patients.
That was not all. The assistant manager of Le Cafe Royale and
editor of Guide to the East, who died in September, left the Gay Festival the
amount of 100,000 baht in his will, which was presented to the club at the
dinner. He was a great humanitarian who will be missed by all his friends.
Another humanitarian, who didn’t wish to be named, donated a further 20,000
baht. The total amount of the money raised on this event was 235,000 baht.
Malcolm won the beautiful ring and earned many jealous looks.
All the other winners of the raffle prizes were more than happy as well.
As usual Pascal and Kim Schnyder and their team did a great job preparing a
fantastic meal and making everybody feel at home. From the price of the dinner,
Pascal donated 400 baht from each meal to the Gay Festival.
Nova Mirage is on schedule
Nova Mirage is on schedule for its owners to move into their
new luxury condominiums at Christmas this year. Located in the upscale market of
Wong Amat Beach, all the units have balcony views of the ocean. The quiet white
sand beach is located a mere 200 meters from Nova Mirage. Unlike the noisy and
heavily congested Pattaya and Jomtien beaches, Wong Amat Beach has no traffic
noise, no disco music, no beer bars, and no traffic pollution to ruin your day
while enjoying the tranquility of the beach. A lighted 3 km brick promenade by
the sea has just been completed for relaxing strolls any time of the day.
A
luxuriously laid out bedroom at the new Nova Mirage.
Nova Mirage has eight stories of new luxury condominiums with
78 units. 50 Sq.m studios, 100 Sq.m corners, and 218 Sq.m penthouses are still
available. Prices start at less than 1,500,000 Baht! A few prime retail shops
are also for sale on the ground floor. The Bali style clubhouse and tropical
swimming are now ready for use. Nova Mirage features include Hi-Speed ADSL
internet, maid service, laundry service, an exercise room, covered parking, 24
hour security, and management services to rent out your condo.
The Nova
Mirage is nearly complete.
The building’s distinctive Thai highlights can now be
viewed as the project is nearly ready for transfer to its new condo owners. The
signature Thai roof has been completed and the magnificent exterior painting is
almost finished. The main water and electrical systems have been installed along
with the two lifts. The rooms have the tiles set, walls painted, doors
installed, and bathrooms completed.
Nova Mirage is located near the end of Naklua Soi 16, across from Park Beach
and Silver Beach Condominiums. The office with showroom is open daily from 9
a.m. to 6 p.m. The telephone number for Nova Mirage is 038-225-723 with a
website of www.novamirage.com and email of info@nova mirage.com. The sales
manager, Doug Ballard can always be contacted at 068-862-877. Please visit us
anytime!
British Legion director insists Remembrance is as significant as ever
The director of the Royal British Legion emphasized in a
recent article that Remembrance is as significant as ever and was a debt owed to
the war-time generation. Talking about the new Order of Service for Remembrance
he said, “It was designed to hand the torch of Remembrance to the next
generation.”
A special “Remembrance Day” service will be held on
November 13 at 3 p.m. under the auspices of the St. George’s Congregation at
the Chapel in the Redemptorist Center off Sukhumvit Road opposite Index
Furniture.
The service will be similar to that used at Remembrance
Services around the world and incorporating part of the Order used at the
Cenotaph in Whitehall London. This year the service has been devised by the
Interfaith Group, Churches Together, the Joint Liturgical Group and the Royal
British Legion.
The new service enables people of all faiths and none to
stand together in profound silence and penitence and in commitment to work
together for peace and justice.
The Act of Commitment does not mention God – a deliberate
decision to make the service as inclusive as possible for people of all faiths
and none – Those gathered commit their willingness to strive for all that
makes for peace, seek to heal the wounds of war and work for a just future.
The prayers refer to all who in bereavement, disability and
pain continue to suffer the consequences of fighting and terror, recognizing
that many non-combatants die in modern warfare and conflict. There are prayers
for peace-makers and peace-keepers.
The writing of the Order of Service brought together members
from the Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Reformed and Pentecostal
traditions in liaison with Ecumenical groups at European and World levels.
An open invitation is extended to all who wish to identify
with this act of remembrance and attend this service. The service will be
presided over by the Revd. Allan Sherratt and representatives of different
denominations and faiths are asked to contact him direct or Thor Halland on
[email protected] or 071-287-020 to register that they would like to
participate in the actual service.
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